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So it looks like a buddy of mine is picking up the Open Fire set and I will take the Germans off his hands. That means that I will have some Pak 40's to use in my Gebirgsjaeger army. I've been having good luck with mixing the Open Fire plastic Grenadiers with the actual Gebirgsjaeger models, so the plan is to buy the GJ version of either the PaK 36 or a PaK 38 and mix the models up.

So that brings the question of which one is the better option. Right now I am building the army for Late War, but I like that I can also field the models in Early War if I want to. So if I had to pick one of the two, which one would be better for potential use in both time periods.

For Late War the costs are:

3 PaK 36: 80 points.
3 Pak 38: 90 points.

Not much difference in points, just the difference in power. ROF3 AT6 / ROF1 AT12 vs. ROF3 AT6. The 38's have more shots at 9 and will be good against light/medium tanks, but probably strugle against heavies. The 36's will probably still do against mech, but struggle against mediums/heavies although it has the one AT12 shot (at very close range). With 10 points in cost difference both might be an option as a secondary AT gun.

The Early War costs are:

3 PaK 36: 110 points
3 PaK 28: 255 points

The 36's also don't have the single AT 12 shot.

So for versability between the LW and EW lists, which one would you go with?

The 36 is fine in Mid/Early war, but can see it struggling in late war. Especially if you find yourself facing those Soviet behemoths.

PaK 36s all the way. They are light guns so they can (almost) keep pace with infantry should you need to, they are cheap and they have a good chance of at least bailing any tank in the game in mid and late war.

The key to using light and medium AT guns is to use them defensively. I very rarely fire my light AT guns in the shooting step, they are there purely for defensive fire in key areas.

In late war I tend to favour PaK 40s but PaK 36s are more efficent than PaK 38s IMO (depending on your opposition)