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I'm looking at building a Panzerkompanie from Grey Wolf (and maybe the Market Garden compolation when it comes out), and I have some questions on effective unit size.
I have 5 StuG's and I really like them in looks and game terms and want to run them as a combat platoon. I'm also looking at Panthers for my AT punch, but I'm concerned with how many points they take up in the list. Is it ok to run with just 3 panthers? I know many lists have the option of taking as few as a single Tiger tank, but would 3 Panthers get the job done? How would this be for the core of my army?

HQ 2 StuG's

Combat Platoons
3 StuG's
3 Panthers

If you like StuG's there is the stug battery list in 'grey wolf' where they get tank escorts, this means they can roll 2 dice in assault, have assault rifles on board. You also upgrade one to a Stuh42 which is useful. I can't remember if they get panther support.

You may want to wait for 'bridge by bridge' as there is meant to be a list of StuG's and Jagpanthers which looks pretty cool

I've looked at the StuG batterie... they have max unit sizes of 3 StuG's and I'm not sold on the tank riders (I placed magnets inside my plastic StuG's just incase I decide to paint some riders. They can't take Panthers either (Tigers are available, but )

Is a 3 tank squad of Panthers big enough?

Anpu, take a look in Fortress Europe - you'll find that the Panzerkompanie within can act as a StuG battlegroup, with 2 combat platoons of up to 5 StuG, a divisional support platoon of up to 4 StuGs, and another combat platoon of up to 5 Panthers. You'll also be able to field a diverse group of support platoons thanks to FE's generic nature.

Thanks, IA.... I'll be really interested once Fortress Europe gets updated (I believe that Battlefront announced that they were going to get to it this year). Having a look at point costs to bring it inline with Grey Wolf and the Market Garden books (when they come out).

The Panzerkompanie in Grey Wolf also lets me take 5 StuG's in a combat platoon. They also get to have a lot of the fun toys that the StuG Batterie doesn't get in the book.

How do you run Panthers effectively? If you have 2 panthers as HQ, do you have them on their own?

No they can join other platoons

Germans often get the opportunity to field a platoon of 5 tanks, but you don't wanna go above 4. Once you've taken >50% losses you'll start needing to take motivation checks to keep fighting, a platoon of 5 and a platoon of 4 both start taking this test after 3 losses.

Panthers run fine in platoons of 3, as always keep the flanks secure and they'll lay out some serious hurt. If you want Panthers as HQ you need to take a combat platoon of them as well which gets expensive.

How does this look?

Panzerkompanie from Grey Wolf
HQ 2 StuG's (190)

CP 4 StuG's (380)
CP 3 Panthers (560)

DS 4 8-Rad (160)
DS 7 base Walkurie Platoon (Confident Trained rather than Confident Veteran like the rest of the list) (120)
DS Full Panzerpionier Platoon w/3-ton Supply Truck and Goliath (270)
DS 2 Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad) AA Guns (100)