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Hi everyone,

FoW is starting up at my gaming club with Germany, the US and russia being played. I myself fancy using the British - specifically I like the idea of airborne regiments behind enemy lines. I'm not keen on a 100% tank army. I think I want some elite infantry, with a little bit of armour, I quite like the idea of having a couple of sharpshooters/snipers in there too.
However I find the whole organisiation of army lists confusing. At the moment I have nothing except access to the core rulebook (club-mate's until I get my own!)
Looking around I see that there is a parachute infantry box, there's also 6th airborne company. Can parachute/airborne companies have tanks (IIRC there were light tanks that could be air dropped)

What I need to know is : What is/are the most suitable armylist(s) to accompany this? Are the 'red devils' 6th airborne a specific army list?

Is there any 'Royal Irish' regiments? Just for racial posterity!

Also can you mix regiments - so could I have say my para company assisted by an armored company or similar?

I know that in the Market Garden book US Paratroopers had access to British Shermans. I don't remember specficially if there was a British paratrooper list in the book, but my inclination is no.

As far as I'm aware though, just about every list type has access to armor. Check Turning Tide out, according to EasyArmy there is a British Paratroop Company in there.

No British Airborne list in 'Market-Garden'? WTF?


As for Irish units, the Royal Ulster Rifles had a battalion that went to 6th Airborne as one of the airlanding units I seem to remember.

Though alot of Irish volunteers ended up in both 1st and 6th Airborne. Corporal Kileen who despatched the sniper at Le Port Church with a PIAT was from ireland.

At Arnhem, one of the houses defended at Oosterbeek became known as 'Irish House' as the defenders were all irish volunteers.

book for Britush and Polish para lists is A Bridge Too Far but soon there will be new , big Market Garden compilation. As for British paras and tanks, yes you have access to tetrarchs.

Big P wrote:
No British Airborne list in 'Market-Garden'? WTF?

Calm down dear!

There are two Market Garden books 'A Bridge Too Far' (Brit Airborne and Germans) and 'Hell's Highway' (Brit Armour, Yank Airborne and Germans) which are due to be revised and republished as a single volume in January IIRC. There are three British Airborne lists in 'A Bridge Too far', though I'd use easy army or something in the mean time and wait until January if I were you. There are also some Brit Airborne lists in Turning Tide.

My bad, I should have specified I was thinking of Hell's Highway.

There are three books currently with British Para's

Mid war - North Africa (iirc) this is a very bare bones para list and covers the landings in Italy and sicily, I've not used a force from this, but you have limited options here.

Late War

Turning Tide
This has the 1st Airborne as they land in normandy, there are some good lists here - both Para and Airlanding. The books is newer so a lot of the units have a reduced point cost, and you get some very interesting support choices for your Para's such as Tetrachs, DD shermans, Cromwells and Centaurs - if you want some armour. On the downside you have access to less 17pdrs - but can take some Medium artillery support.

A Bridge too far
This is the 6th! They have all the fun para options, such as glider pilots, recce jeeps (which have no recce rules...) and more 17pdrs. But you don't get access to any tanks, unless you take the Polish para list (which doesn't have a lot of the more interesting para support) but does get shermans and armoured cars. It is important to note that in Jan there will be a new book replacing this.

6th Airbourne Recon
This is a PDF they've just updated, I've no real idea how good it is (glancing through it i notice it lacks a lot of heavy anti-tank) but you get a nice mix of british para's and armour.

If you don't know, I'd start by getting the British para company box - and paint it up and hold fire on any other purchases for a month or so - by then the new Market Garden book will almost be out so go from there.

In a shameless plug this is a blog article i wrote on the subject
http://breakthroughassault.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/british-parachute-companys.html

Hm, thanks guys - I was literally going to buy "Hell's Highway" tomorrow. You've just saved me from some nerdrage. I won't be getting any games in until January anyway, so I'll just hlde my horses and pick up the book then.

Spyral wrote:
Hi everyone,

FoW is starting up at my gaming club with Germany, the US and russia being played. I myself fancy using the British - specifically I like the idea of airborne regiments behind enemy lines. I'm not keen on a 100% tank army. I think I want some elite infantry, with a little bit of armour, I quite like the idea of having a couple of sharpshooters/snipers in there too.
However I find the whole organisiation of army lists confusing. At the moment I have nothing except access to the core rulebook (club-mate's until I get my own!)
Looking around I see that there is a parachute infantry box, there's also 6th airborne company. Can parachute/airborne companies have tanks (IIRC there were light tanks that could be air dropped)

What I need to know is : What is/are the most suitable armylist(s) to accompany this? Are the 'red devils' 6th airborne a specific army list?

Is there any 'Royal Irish' regiments? Just for racial posterity!

Also can you mix regiments - so could I have say my para company assisted by an armored company or similar?

For those airborne forces used during the invasion of Normandy you will need the Turning Tide hardback. It has lists for the british airborne parachute and glider assault companies. It also includes armored support ranging from tetrarchs, which are next to useless with poor armor and lousy armor penetration of their weak 7pdr guns, through shermans, centaurs or even cromwells. Best option is the airlanding armored recce platoon with cromwells. A decent tank, but also still fearless veteran.

You can also find other list options int he A Bridge too Far Supplement. Very limited armored support for the british airborne there, though, as they just didn't have it. If you choose you can use one of the british lists as polish paras who did not drop as far east as Arhham so have access to stronger armored support options. The points for identical units in the Brdige too Far book are more expensive than most of their counterparts in the Turning Tide book, though the Frost's perimeter list is a nice option that let's you be certain to be the defender in more battles, which is always good when your strength is digging in and holding tough.

Facing more armor heavy late war lists, though, the best british airborne tactic is to ignore armor of their own all together. Lots of dug in infantry stands with HMG platoons for dealing with the limited enemy infantry and then as many guns as you can get a hold of. 8 dug in 6pdrs are a nightmare for most armored opponents. Add in some 17pdrs and it just gets worse. Dug in Fearless Veteran infantry that are gone to ground when the enemy is too far away to shoot at are near impossible to remove from their positions. Enemy artillery will be nearly useless against you, needing 7s to range in most of the time. Make the armor come to you and into the overlapping arcs of fire from all your guns and watch the enemy generals cry as their tanks eat 3 shots from each 6pdr a turn. Sure to wipe out all but the heaviest enemy armor. Keep your defense deep so that to get to your guns enemy armor needs to leave its flanks vulnerable to all of your fearless vets with gammon bombs.

As for combining lists it all depends no your group. Some don't mind forces from multiple lists in a game, while most play with a single force org chart available to you. As a British player don't bother trying to play the tank game against german or russian players in LW as you will lose horribly. The most advanced the british armor gets is the firefly, which is still only armored like a sherman despite being armed with a 17pdr, or the challanger which supports the armoured recce forces and is also not very heavily armored. Most german and russian guns will easily pierce your armor while the majority of the tanks you have will need to focus on flank shots and mobility.

The dug in fearless vet airborne gunline is the best option that the brits have in late war, though the games can get somewhat boring as you wait for your opponent to close in with you. I also have an Irish Guards Armoured company as well which has more fireflies than standard british armoured companies, but they definitely get out gunned against heavier german and russian armor.

Skriker

 Skriker wrote:



8 dug in 6pdrs are a nightmare for most armored opponents. Add in some 17pdrs and it just gets worse.

But you can only get that with airlanding companies not para companies, so you lose a little flexibility by having the fixed light mortar

 Skriker wrote:

Enemy artillery will be nearly useless against you, needing 7s to range in most of the time.

Actually you should double check the rule book, 6's always range in for artillery.

Facing more armor heavy late war lists, though, the best british airborne tactic is to ignore armor of their own all together. Lots of dug in infantry stands with HMG platoons for dealing with the limited enemy infantry and then as many guns as you can get a hold of. 8 dug in 6pdrs are a nightmare for most armored opponents. Add in some 17pdrs and it just gets worse. Dug in Fearless Veteran infantry that are gone to ground when the enemy is too far away to shoot at are near impossible to remove from their positions. Enemy artillery will be nearly useless against you, needing 7s to range in most of the time. Make the armor come to you and into the overlapping arcs of fire from all your guns and watch the enemy generals cry as their tanks eat 3 shots from each 6pdr a turn. Sure to wipe out all but the heaviest enemy armor. Keep your defense deep so that to get to your guns enemy armor needs to leave its flanks vulnerable to all of your fearless vets with gammon bombs.

As for combining lists it all depends no your group. Some don't mind forces from multiple lists in a game, while most play with a single force org chart available to you. As a British player don't bother trying to play the tank game against german or russian players in LW as you will lose horribly. The most advanced the british armor gets is the firefly, which is still only armored like a sherman despite being armed with a 17pdr, or the challanger which supports the armoured recce forces and is also not very heavily armored. Most german and russian guns will easily pierce your armor while the majority of the tanks you have will need to focus on flank shots and mobility.

The dug in fearless vet airborne gunline is the best option that the brits have in late war, though the games can get somewhat boring as you wait for your opponent to close in with you. I also have an Irish Guards Armoured company as well which has more fireflies than standard british armoured companies, but they definitely get out gunned against heavier german and russian armor.

Skriker

Thanks dude! I ordered me the para company, some snipers, para HMG teams (forged in battle but they look similar scale and design wise) and 4 para 6pdrs before I read your post - glad to know my choices are decent!
The playstyle you describe is appealing to me so I hope I'll have fun with them :-)

Spyral wrote:
Thanks dude! I ordered me the para company, some snipers, para HMG teams (forged in battle but they look similar scale and design wise) and 4 para 6pdrs before I read your post - glad to know my choices are decent!
The playstyle you describe is appealing to me so I hope I'll have fun with them :-)

Glad it appeals to you. Drives me nuts at times, though. I have a very hard time just sitting back and waiting for the enemy to come into gun range. Have also faced off against some opponents who just sit at extreme range and shoot with their tanks for turn, after turn, after turn,after turn...what mind numbingly boring games those are! Oh look I fired with all my tanks and hit once and didn't kill anything. Oh look I fired with all my tanks AGAIN and hit twice and didn't kill anything...ad infinitum...ad nauseum. I do like how much my paras have been able to survive being thrown at them, though. Always a good bragging point.

Good luck!

Skriker

You should have a look into the firestorm campaign for those british paras.

I am building *slowly* the forces needed for both Germans and British forces required.

While playing the campaign you get some support troops, that help out in your battles, Medium artillery and Shermans, Aircover and US para allies etc.

That in itself can make your Paras get hold of some tanks, good artillery, Para allies from the US, AA guns and more.

The campaign is pretty much based around your choice of army, so certainly worth getting.

The campaign does not really suffer from problems with changing army books either, You could use any armies you had available.

I've been collecting British Para's on the quiet, I bought a Company Boxed set for £22 at a bring and buy.

I then bought the Weapons/ Support platoons from Forged in Battle (6 pds etc).

People get twitchy about mixing different ranges of models, but in my opinion soldiers are all cut from different cloth, different heights weights and builds (even being super fit Para's some were tall, some were shorter some were built like oxen others thin and wiry). The are a few "Stinking models" in the battlefront range of British Para's one has a rifle near his face and I've got 8 examples of him and not one is a nice clean cast, neither is the pose particularly good.

One thing to bare in mind with British Para lists is you get the option to use "Airlanding Companies" which have a few advantages like larger gun platoon sizes as the Glider allowed them to drop more Kit rather than what you could push out of a C-47.

They look the same but it's a case of moving platoon members around as Platoon sizes were different. I am also going to proxy them as Commando's for Dieppe Mid War stuff, Dropping out all the Beret models to make Commando platoons and I will buy some BF Commando's and build a Mid War force, I like to have forces I can use in multiple different ways as it stretches your Pounds / Dollars / Gold further.

You Brit para players make a American PAra player like me jealous. With the Glider Assaults.
But atleast i got something you guys do not have NUTS!