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Hello, I have finely broken down and decided to start playing flames of war.

The only army I really want to do is a German panzer grenadier army.  I have taken a fancy to the new German box army coming out in October and have a few questions about it.

1.  The box says it is for late war, what would I need to change to make it mid war? (The people that play in my area play mid war mostly)

2.  I did not see any 88's or really any anti aircraft.  Is that something I will need to add?

3.  Are there any German players (or people who play vs. them) out there that could tell me how effective that box would be?  And what I should add and drop (if anything) to make it more effective.

 

At flatcon I bought the rules book and then new box set of panzer IV's.  I was thinking about switching the 4 tanks that come in the box for 4 of the panzer IV's (was told they are around the same points)

 

Well any tips are appreciated

Glad to hear another player is interested in Flames of War!

I assume you're talking about the new Panzer Lehr box that is coming out?  That box would be a great start for Late War, and pretty good for Mid War.  Obviously for Late War you could use it as is.

For Mid War you would have to drop the Panzerschrek teams and the Jagdpanzer IVs.  You could easily replace the Jagdpanzer IVs with those Panzer IVs that you have (I assume the L's, as that's the newer box).

Basically that would leave you with:
Company HQ
2x Armored Panzergrenadier Platoons
One section (of three) Nebelwerfers - a type of rocket artillery
Light armored anti-aircraft platoon

Plus those Panzer IVs that you have.

Definately a solid start, and you'll always have the Jagdpanzer IVs and Panzerschreks if you want to switch to LW.

The box is very well balanced, with infantry, armored vehicles, artillery, and anti-aircraft.  You could always switch stuff out if you prefer different things.  You could add more infantry (Panzergrenadiers or Pioneers), more Anti-tank assets (like some static PaK40s or even PaK43s or 88s,) StuGs, etc.

The only thing it's really missing is recon, but you can usually add a couple of armored cars for cheap.  In MW, I recommend 8-Rads, and for LW Panzer Lehr you could add Pumas.


Realize though, that German armies in general, while highly skilled and powerful, they are almost always quite small and can't take heavy casualties!

Good luck, and if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!

ok so if i drop the Jagdpanzer IV's i can replace them with my panzer IV's and if i drop the Panzerscherks woud i be able to pick up panzerfausts??? 

and if i do all that, it would be good to go for mid war???

 

if i cant replace the tank hunter teams, would i be able to add in a small anti tank gun in place of them?

i would just buy the afrika korps army box, because i like the way it is built.  but i have such a strong dislike to the transports in the army, and i would want to buy non afrika korps models for the squads... so esentialy, i would be replaceing the whole army.

as for the regular gerendier army,  but for some reason i like the idea of having halftacks to mount my squads in.

i know i could solve  my problem be buying the german army book.  and i will soon.  but for me it is either order it and wait 2 weeks, or find a time when i can drive an hour to the store that sells it, and then an hour back.

No, you will not be able to take Panzerfausts, because both Panzerschreks and Panzerfausts are LW only.  The LW army book will help explain the difference much better, and the MW doesn't have them at all.  What you can do is upgrade your command team (and you should, honestly) to a Panzerknacker team.  This will give you a team that can bust tanks in assault.  It won't make your infantry want to rush into a tank assault, but it will make them a threat.

Also, you shouldn't have any trouble fitting in some light AT guns in MW.  PaK38s are relatively cheap, and you might even be able to squeeze in some PaK40s, depending on how you allocate your points.  Some mortars might also be a good choice, at least for smoke, because you will want your Nebelwerfers "dropping the heat" as much as possible.

Afrika Korps models can be used for other units.  The main difference are the boots and the field caps.  Gebirgsjäger (mountain infantry) units used similar boots and often wore their field caps, so if you want to do a Gebirgsjäger unit, they would be perfect for that.

Army builder helps with a new force and is fun to use to figure out your options ....