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Hello All

For this years Colours Tournament I'm painting up a US 2nd ID army. As it stands right now I have 8 weeks and 2 days and no models are painted.... they are all built though. So with 9 platoons and an AOP I basically have to paint a platoon a week and a bit, I hope this won't be too hard as a few of the platoons are quite small and I do have a week off in the middle with nothing to do. If you'd like to some more on the project you can check out my blog post

The army as it stands



Well hopefully look out for the weekly updates!

Wish me luck

Ben

A lot of work to do! I look forward to seeing what you get done. Good luck!

You are playing a 2ID because you "like the models" ? That army is the netdeck of FOW and you run netdecks for only one reason. When playing to win. There is nothing to be ashamed of bro.

 Papadoc wrote:
You are playing a 2ID because you "like the models" ? That army is the netdeck of FOW and you run netdecks for only one reason. When playing to win. There is nothing to be ashamed of bro.

I honestly do like the models, I will get them to cover MW as well as I'm really enjoying painting them,

Also got the first unit painted up, a platoon of infantry, you can find more pictures on the blog.



M10's up next.

Thanks for looking

Ben

 Papadoc wrote:
You are playing a 2ID because you "like the models" ? That army is the netdeck of FOW and you run netdecks for only one reason. When playing to win. There is nothing to be ashamed of bro.

Net deck? The Glider INfantry from Nuts is alot more tougher.

Look great I really like the bases

 col. krazy kenny wrote:

 Papadoc wrote:
You are playing a 2ID because you "like the models" ? That army is the netdeck of FOW and you run netdecks for only one reason. When playing to win. There is nothing to be ashamed of bro.

Net deck? The Glider INfantry from Nuts is alot more tougher.

The big advantage 2ID get is doubling into woods. They can move 16 and effectively be safe from all fire more than 6inxhes away.

That is alot of AT right there. No German Tank list, bar maybe an Elephant or Tiger II will get across the board unscathed.

That's almost an AT Company.

Would fit well as a support company in Total War rules.

 mwnciboo wrote:
That is alot of AT right there. No German Tank list, bar maybe an Elephant or Tiger II will get across the board unscathed.

That's almost an AT Company.

LOL yeah it is a lot of at, but I'm expecting to face a lot of AT. One of the guys from Bournemouth is going with a Soviet light artillery company, he'll have 16 SU-122's thats 32 breakthrough gun shots a turn! Plus he has 2 full artillery batteries.... Thats a scary force to face so the quicker I can wipe out a few units the better!

Ben

Good Luck!!

Hello All

Update number 2, M10's.

These were quite a lot of fun to paint, which was a nice surprise. You can see more pictures on my blog posts



Next up a Heavy Weapons Platoon.

Thank for looking

Ben

Great stuff, I'm contemplating heading out to Colours (not as a Tournament player) maybe I'll get an opportunity to see it in the flesh when it's all done.

On the M10 / Achilles I particularly liked the Plastic Treads, I'm hoping all future BF Resin vehicles go that way with the track piece units!

 mwnciboo wrote:
On the M10 / Achilles I particularly liked the Plastic Treads, I'm hoping all future BF Resin vehicles go that way with the track piece units!

It does seem to be the way things are going, IIRC T-34s just got a plastic sprue. Not that anyone buys Battlefront T-34s.

mwnciboo wrote:On the M10 / Achilles I particularly liked the Plastic Treads, I'm hoping all future BF Resin vehicles go that way with the track piece units!

I do love the plastic tracks.I just won some cheap BF Panthers off of ebay and I will be getting the plastic tracks from the BF website to replace the metal ones, as I think they look much better.

The only annoying thing about the Sherman/M10 plastic tracks is the model line is down the middle of them.... makes is hard work to remove them all.

George Spiggott wrote:Great stuff, I'm contemplating heading out to Colours (not as a Tournament player) maybe I'll get an opportunity to see it in the flesh when it's all done.

Always nice to meet people from the interweb in the flesh. I shouldn't be too hard to miss at the FOW tournament if you want to say hi, I'll be the one is a London Irish Rugby shirt. Not too many London Irish fans around....

George Spiggott wrote:

 mwnciboo wrote:
On the M10 / Achilles I particularly liked the Plastic Treads, I'm hoping all future BF Resin vehicles go that way with the track piece units!

It does seem to be the way things are going, IIRC T-34s just got a plastic sprue. Not that anyone buys Battlefront T-34s.

Funnily enough BF still sells a lot of T-34's, it is and has been their best selling box for the last 6 or so years. But I hope they up date the box when the new Russian books come out in Oct, the plastic tracks are far nicer than the metal ones.

They have done it now with the older Panther Boxes so lets hope they follow suit.

Ben

So 3 platoon is done, I choose to do the Heavy Weapons Platoon, you can see more pictures on my blog here



Next up 155mm artillery.

Thanks for looking

Ben

Hi all

Platoon number 4 done, some 155mm Artillery. You can see more pictures on the blog



Next you some Towed Tank Destroyers.

Ben

Hi All

Another platoon done, the Towed TD's are done and dusted. More pictures including some close ups can be seen on the blog here



Next up is my platoon of 105mm artillery.

Thanks for looking

Ben

I think your lighting is messing with your picture quality. The colors look saturated and almost sepia. They seem nice, but your greens look brown.

The last two platoons pictures were taken at a friends house and with a camera I'm not use too. But saying that the green doesn't look far off the "real" life look of it.

Ben

So how do you think the army performs so far? I ran a very similar army, it basicly had veteran M10s and shermans instead of the Towed TDs, at a red vs blue even here in sweden. I wanted to share my experience. What I first learnt was that me was that the germans weren't running tanks, but fortified or infantry with tankwise one unit of stugs perhaps.So all those antitank weapons like 57mm, were kind of useless.

Secondly is that that 6 gun combo sure likes awesome on paper but it is really hard to hide all those trained gun teams. So whatever gets left out gets targeted after it fires and the reroll is lost. What I usually did was to try to hide the 155 from line of sight and leave the 105s in concealment. If I lost a 105, I either combine if I to get better firepower or use them separately and the 155 as smoke generators (the penalties for two gun teams on trained guys felt a bit much). In the future I think I am looking at trying to get a veteran 155 battery and rely on the shermans for direct smoke.

The veteran M10s performed great as this unit was pretty high on the other guys target lists, and their veterancy made them really hard to hurt togheter with catious movement. Together with the shermans they took a lot of my opponents focus which mean my infantry could reach his lines pretty unscathed. Also in freeforalls people would sometimes hit two platoons and pull back. There it was kind of good to have the shermans and M10s for pursuit. I do think trained shermans at 1750 are a very frail unit so one has to be careful who can draw LOS to them or perhaps get a Jumbo.

So coming back to your army I feel you have a lot of antitank. Have you tried attacking infantry with it and how did it go?

 Papadoc wrote:
So how do you think the army performs so far?

So far I have only had one practice game and lost 3-4, it didn't help it was hasty attack and all my reserves turned up on the wrong side of the board.... but I made a mistake with my set up. I only had one infantry platoon on the board and that was a mistake as they are the heart of the list on defense. I'm also thinking that in the long turn I might drop the 155mm artillery as putting them in has messed up the balance of the list a little in half on half off missions.

I think that for the next event my list will be:-

HQ
Full Infantry platoon with 4 Bazookas
Full Infantry platoon with 4 Bazookas
Full Infantry platoon with 4 Bazookas
4 Towed TD's (veteran)
4 M10's (veteran)
4 Mortars
4 Recon Jeeps with 50 cals
4 105mm Artillery (vet)
AOP
1750pts

While I think my current list can be better in any mission I have my whole army on the board, I think this list will be better in general and probably easier to use.

Ben


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Platoon number 6 is done, a battery of 105mm and an AOP. As always you can see more pictures on the blog



Thanks for looking

Ben

Seventh platoon down, the 57mm AT Guns.

Sorry about the lack of terrain in the pictures but my terrain is packed and at a friends house for Colours. More pictures can be seen here



Thanks for looking

Ben

Hello All

The penultimate platoon is finished! I have done the Jeep Recon and now just have the second Infantry platoon to do. You can see more pictures on the blog. Again sorry about the lack of terrain in the pictures, it's all packed up ready for Colours.



So keep your eyes peeled for the last platoon.

Ben

Hello All

The last platoon is done, the project is finished (for now as no army is every finished really is it ) and I already want to change the list... Here you go the second infantry platoon. If you'd like to see more pictures and my pre colours thoughts check out my blog post on the topic



So in 8 weeks the army went from this:-

to this


So next up Colours and then on to US 7th Armoured and then EW Soviets.

Thanks for following

Ben

Great work!

Looks very nice, especially the terrain!

Any chance of some full and more detailed shots of it?

If you combat attach the HMGs then the 155s are your 8th platoon. 8 platoons or 9 platoons are the same for half on. You'd have to replace the 155s with 2 platoons to get 5 platoons on the table.