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I have 2 groups of friends that prefer to play two seperate eras. I would like to build a german army that can play well in both time frames while reducing excess purchases. So my question for dakka is what units for germans work well in both mid war (eastern front) and late war (no book preferance)?

Fallschrimjagers!!!! Fearless veteran and alot of the units are used in both.

Agreed with FJ! You can do grenadiers too, or even a Stug/Panzer 4 company - but you won't getmuch in MW

I got the German half of Open Fire!, and that plays well both mid and late war. Add to that some Nebelwerfers, machine guns and mortars, and you have a decent amount of points both mid and late-war. I also recommend getting some 251's or 3 Ton trucks for transports.

251's from PSC would be my vote - they're useful, trucks are meh

Thank you for all the recommendations! A friend practically gave me 2 german halves of the open fire set so im set there. Will I really need all this infantry?

There are a couple of things you could do with extra infantry from Open Fire!

Option #1: Most grenadier lists allow for 3 full squads of infantry, so just make another unit!

Option #2: Another great use would be to make some pioneers... make up a unit and throw on some razor wire and there you go. This one particularly pairs well with option #1, because you rarely see lists with more than 1 unit of pioneers.

Option #3: Building the squads as intended, they are Rifle/MG squads. Many late-war lists have more MG's than rifles (and in some they only rifles), and that can cause problems if the people you play with are really strict as far as WUSIWYG. The extra bases could be used to make all MG or all rifle squads when needed.

Going Grenadiers is a decent enough army that is modular for both periods where you don't have to do a complete overhaul with purchases.

All that you'll change is some support options and maybe some command-modes, although they can use Panzerknackers in both periods.

[quote=Twoshoesvans 555967 6117486 d56fac4fc074379769b86e77e00422dc.jpg Will I really need all this infantry?

I think the important thing is just to stick clear of the later heavies .. King Tigers, things like that.

There is rather a lot of crossover, even things like Tigers/Panthers (which are really popular) can be used in both periods.

I will jump on easy army tonight and look up some armies. Ill post up 2 lists and see how they fare.

So here are the paired lists I came up with:

Mid war
Command w/ Mortars
2 units of Grenadiers
1 unit of pioneers
2 pak40s
3 stuGs
4 10.5 Howitzers
Limited Air support

Added for Late
Add Panzershreck team to command
1 extra unit of grenadiers
1 extra Pak40
1 Tiger

How do these lists behave? I imagine (still a total novice in this game mind you!) this list will just hunker down near an objective, using artillery for smoke and digging out infantry. With stuG/Tiger becoming my mobile elements to achieve objectives and cover holes in the line. Is this list just a static wall? Does this list have enough mobile elements to achieve objectives that are farther off? Do I need scouts to reveal ambushes/dig out infantry?