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So I just traded with a fellow from my usual game store and now I have two boxes of the British Parachute company, a good beginning for the parachute company I've been wanting for a while now.

Unfortunately, besides watching a lot of FoW games, I don't really know much about the game and list construction other than the basics.

I do know that I'm taking the DD Tanks support option, with a firefly, but that's about it.

What options would you recommend for this army?

Airlanding 17lber to target any Jerry tanks hovering at distance and for dealing with any big cats.

Jeep recon units for scouting.

As many 25lbers (or 75mm light guns) as you can lay your hands on.

Thats what I have, although I have Tetrach light tanks and Centaurs because I like the little fellers.

I have some centaurs, shermans, tetrachs and cromwells that I originally bought to rotate as support for my airborne, but I almost never use them now. With everything else in the Parachute company being fearless veterans the tanks can become a weakness.

Two boxes of parachute company are about 1 box more than you really need. Plan to use one for your parachute platoons and the other to set up parachute engineers and the like as support for your main force. You can get three full parachute platoons out of one box, and that is plenty.

Instead of tanks I focus on gun teams instead. They can dig in and are hard to destroy when set in around objectives. I usually go with 2 platoons of 4 6pdrs and 1 platoon of 2 17pdrs. 6 pdrs do a good job on most anything, while th 17pdrs will take out the heavier stuff, and things that are trying to stay far away. HMG platoons are also a good add on for the game.

Unless you are going for a fully fluff airborne list I recommend at least 4 25pdrs for artillery support as well. The 75mm guns were a neat concept, but in the game that 6+ fire power is next to useless on barrages and artillery is kind of pointless without barrages. If you don't add any full artillery be sure to add a parachute mortar platoon for some smoke coverage and to keep your opponent honest.

For me I set up a parachute platoon, a platoon of 6pdrs and an HMG platoon around each objective, often supported by an artillery gun battery of some type. This layered defense is hard to penetrate,especially when your troops and guns are all Fearless veterans. Infantry, light vehicles and lighter tanks will get eaten alive. Heavier tanks will have to get close enough to take the objectives which leaves them vulnerable to side shots and assaults.

Airborne are hard core and tough fighters. They are trained and equipped to not rely on tanks to get the job done. Max out on gun teams and PIATs and you won't miss the tanks at all.

Skriker

If you're not going to use tanks (and I'd use them only for mobility, they're not going to be a core component of an airborne list) I'd strongly suggest you check out the ABTF parachute company list. You lose all of the D-day support options, but you get the option of taking 4 17 pdrs and your 75mm howitzers can have a neat little medium battery support rule.

Let's face it, 25 pdrs don't kill much, they're mostly for pinning or smoke. The 75s do that just was well. However, if you need to kill stuff they can fire as 5.5" when you use AGR.

Interesting, thanks for all the suggestions, you've definitely made me consider some new purchases.

Having a strong infantry only army with lots of guns sounds pretty good.

I may have to just go ahead and get a British tank company to assuage my love of the Firefly. Having an army of Dug In fearless vet infantry backed up by the deadly 17 pounders and arty sounds pretty nice.

Vertrucio wrote:Interesting, thanks for all the suggestions, you've definitely made me consider some new purchases.

Having a strong infantry only army with lots of guns sounds pretty good.

I may have to just go ahead and get a British tank company to assuage my love of the Firefly. Having an army of Dug In fearless vet infantry backed up by the deadly 17 pounders and arty sounds pretty nice.

Nothing wrong with getting multiple armies. Hehehe...

Of course these are only our takes on the whole airborne concept. You are certainly free to do what you will with your own force. I am currently trying to decide if I will sell of my support tanks or bulk them out into a full force of their own. They do provide support for my Guards cavalry force from Highway to Hell, though...

And yes the airborne lists in a Bridge Too Far do allow 4 17pdrs instead of only 2 and that medium artillery link is a pretty wonderful thing!

Skriker

Just had a fun learning game at a full 1750 points against Finnish troops.

I'm starting to see what's effective and what isn't, even though my opponent wasn't playing as best he could.

What I'm now looking for is actually to create a more historical list, one that's not that competitive to use against another friend of mine for casual games. Can anyone help me come up with one?

Historical from what standpoint and what time frame?? What is accurately historical for the initial D-Day landings is not the same as that seen in the weeks after D-Day where airborne forces were primarily elite ground forces and not jumping out of too many planes. Also slightly different from the forces that found themselves trapped in Arnhem as well.

All of the lists discussed here are historically appropriate depending on which part of the war you are taking a snapshot of. If you like some tanks in your force, then focus on those days after the inital D-Day landings happened and use some. I really like my Frost's perimeter force. It really limits what options you have available, because it is pretty much only things that they could drop into Arnhem with the paratroopers themselves. It does annoy some of my opponents that the force is *always* the defender in a defensive battle, but that has its good and bad points too.

If you are just looking for a "fun" list then pick out the units you'd like to use on the table top. There are plenty of neat options you can fit into an airborne force.

Skriker

Thanks for the perspective on that. I guess I just want to play the game more than being historical about it.

Another question I have is in regards to units from the Parachute Company list in Turning Tide.

I have a lot of extra guys from the Parachute company box (I had two and one is all I needed). However, looking at the "Parachute Assault Platoon" and the "Airlanding Platoon, Royal Engineers", it seems like they use pretty much the same miniatures. From what I gather, it should be okay to use the normal Parachute minis as such, right?

I could add extra stuff to the engineers bases, like destroyed barbed wire and such. Then for the assault guys, I can do 3 guys on a base to help differentiate them. I can just use a jeep from the Recce platoon to stand in for the pioneer supply jeep.

Is that okay?

Vertrucio wrote:
I have a lot of extra guys from the Parachute company box (I had two and one is all I needed). However, looking at the "Parachute Assault Platoon" and the "Airlanding Platoon, Royal Engineers", it seems like they use pretty much the same miniatures. From what I gather, it should be okay to use the normal Parachute minis as such, right?

I could add extra stuff to the engineers bases, like destroyed barbed wire and such. Then for the assault guys, I can do 3 guys on a base to help differentiate them. I can just use a jeep from the Recce platoon to stand in for the pioneer supply jeep.

Is that okay?

Sounds good. I especially like the barbed wire on bases idea to show that they are engineers. Not loving the idea of only 3 guys for each base, what is the major difference between assault platoon and a normal platoon?
The jeep should also work just fine, you can load it up with more stuff so it looks engineer-y to make it cooler.

The assault platoon counts as pioneers, but they're smaller, limited to an HQ section with the command stand and PIAT+light morter by default, then 3 more stands of infantry.

It's just a really small platoon, I can add an extra PIAT team and light mortar team for more points, and replace one of them with a flamethrower at the start of the game. Not sure how to use such a small team exactly, but I guess they have a lot of tools for various targets. Two light mortars to smoke or hit MG teams, PIATs to hurt vehicles, and a flamethrower for when they get close, and I'm assuming they'll always want to get close.