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I am in the process of building a Commando (Beaches) army, and this will be my first experience with FOW. I have already purchased a few platoon blisters, and I bought a heavy weapons blister, so I have the better part of my infantry needs met. I am pre-ordering two of the Open Fire sets, so I will have a surplus of shermans. I am partially purchasing two because I would like to eventually expand my Brits to include an armoured company, and I would like to have a good start to a German force. Here is the first list that I have put together:

Co HQ: +2 PIAT teams, +1 Sniper team – 110
Commando Company: 1 section, 2x PIAT – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 4x SMG – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 2x Light Mortars – 195
Commando Company: 2 Sections, 2x Flamethrower, 2x SMG, 2x PIAT – 390
Commando Machine Gun Platoon: 3 Sections – 115
Commando 3” Mortar Platoon: 3 Sections - 105
Independent Armoured Company: 3 Sherman V, 1 Firefly VC (Confident Veteran) – 365
Assault Field Battery, Royal Artillery: 1 Troop, 4 QQF 25 pdr (Confident Veteran) – 185
Assault Light Anti-Aircraft Platoon: 3 Sections (Confident Veteran) - 130
TOTAL: 1985

I would need to add 15 pts to bring it up to 2k, or drop 235 to be at 1750. I was thinking about replacing the artillery observer team with an OPS Sherman, as I will have some extra Shermans, but I could not find the entry for the OPS Sherman. Is it a Sherman V?
I thought about getting trucks for the artillery or the AA, but I am not sure how oftern they are actually used in-game. Are they worth the points?
What do you more experienced players think of the loadout/structure of the Commando Companies? Are flame-throwers worth it? Are there enough PIATs and Light Mortars? I will have some extra Light Mortar team models that I could include, but I thought that with 3 sections of 3" mortars, I would have my mortar needs met.
Thank you for any input! As I said, I am just getting into this, and I am very excited to get some games in.

The Sherman OP rules/ stats are under (I think.) the SP arty entires.

I'd have to take a look at the Commando lists to give a better overview.

Mat

Twinkle Starchild wrote:
I am in the process of building a Commando (Beaches) army, and this will be my first experience with FOW. I have already purchased a few platoon blisters, and I bought a heavy weapons blister, so I have the better part of my infantry needs met. I am pre-ordering two of the Open Fire sets, so I will have a surplus of shermans. I am partially purchasing two because I would like to eventually expand my Brits to include an armoured company, and I would like to have a good start to a German force. Here is the first list that I have put together:

Co HQ: +2 PIAT teams, +1 Sniper team – 110
Commando Company: 1 section, 2x PIAT – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 4x SMG – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 2x Light Mortars – 195
Commando Company: 2 Sections, 2x Flamethrower, 2x SMG, 2x PIAT – 390
Commando Machine Gun Platoon: 3 Sections – 115
Commando 3” Mortar Platoon: 3 Sections - 105
Independent Armoured Company: 3 Sherman V, 1 Firefly VC (Reluctant Veteran) – 365
Assault Field Battery, Royal Artillery: 1 Troop, 4 QQF 25 pdr (Reluctant Veteran) – 185
Assault Light Anti-Aircraft Platoon: 3 Sections (Reluctant Veteran) - 130
TOTAL: 1985

I would need to add 15 pts to bring it up to 2k, or drop 235 to be at 1750. I was thinking about replacing the artillery observer team with an OPS Sherman, as I will have some extra Shermans, but I could not find the entry for the OPS Sherman. Is it a Sherman V?
I thought about getting trucks for the artillery or the AA, but I am not sure how oftern they are actually used in-game. Are they worth the points?
What do you more experienced players think of the loadout/structure of the Commando Companies? Are flame-throwers worth it? Are there enough PIATs and Light Mortars? I will have some extra Light Mortar team models that I could include, but I thought that with 3 sections of 3" mortars, I would have my mortar needs met.
Thank you for any input! As I said, I am just getting into this, and I am very excited to get some games in.

Commandos are a tough first army. They are hard hitting, but their baseline forces end up very small because of their capabilities and stats. This makes them less forgiving The OP Sherman is listed in the Self-Propelled guns section on page 126. Only concern is keeping track of which tank is the OP since the main gun on the OP is fake so doesn't get to fire.

Light mortars are not that big a deal in my book, though occasionally giving some smoke cover is helpful. Can never have enough PIATs. Flame throwers are worth it if you can get them into range. Couple things about your support platoons. Firstly the 50th division you are getting your support from are *Confident* veteran, not Reluctant veteran. That is a BIG difference in usability. Secondly, the Commando Beaches list doesn't have an option for 25pdr support. It only has access to the Assault field battery (SP), Royal artillery which provides M7 priests and not 25pdr QQF cannon and is on page 53. You pulled your artillery support from the listing on page 54 which is not an option for the list you are using. For 160 points you could get 2 M7 priests in support. For future expansion I recommend looking at the Corps anti-tank platoon (SP) if you know you will be facing heavier armor as 4 M10s with 17pdrs can really make things ugly for your opponent in place of the shermans. That would also leave you with an extra 100 points to spend on another support option or unit if you like too.

Otherwise this looks like a balanced list and should work fine for you as you learn the game. Just realize that commandos do very well when dug in and gone to ground, especially when no objectives.

Skriker

Cool, thanks for the feedback! I have corrected the Confident Veteran status. Wow, looks like I have less stuff to buy than I thought. I think that I may just invest in the M10's from the start, then come back and buy the Open Fire Set for Shermans later. The M7's are a cheaper buy than the artillery anyway, and I like the idea of a more mobile force.

I echo Skriker's sentiments here, I wouldn't recommend Commando's as a 1st Army, it's a specialist build for a more experienced player much like a Recce list.

If you want to do it, then feel free, but starting with a Tank / vehicle force is a much easier learning curve. I would just hang in there, and don't get disheartened but learn as much as possible from every game and the Rule book, because you will need to wring out every advantage you can.

Yeah, the owner of my local FLGS cued me into the Commandos being kind of a difficult army to start off with. Unfortunately, I did not really get the memo until I had already invested about $80 in commando models. That being said, I have gotten the impression that the Commando (Orne) list has a couple of options that would make for a more balanced force. As was pointed out on the FoW forum, I was also off in how I set up the special weapons in the commando squads in my original list. I was thinking something like the following:

Co HQ: +2 PIAT teams – 60
Commando Company: 1 section, 1x PIAT, 1x Light Mortar – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 1x PIAT, 2x SMG, 1x Light Mortar – 195
Commando Company: 1 Section, 1x PIAT, 1x Light Mortar – 195
Commando Company: 2 Sections, 2x Flamethrower, 4x SMG, 2x PIAT – 390
Commando Machine Gun Platoon: 3 Sections – 115
Commando 3” Mortar Platoon: 3 Sections - 105
Parachute Platoon: 2 Rifle Squads - 170
Independent Armoured Company: 3 Sherman V, 1 Firefly VC (Confident Veteran) – 365
4x M10 17 pdr. - 260
TOTAL: 1990

This would give a total of 8 AFV's with 5 of them capable of handling heavy armor (Firefly and 4 M10's). The Shermans would act as a first wave. The parachute platoon would be a dedicated forward operating tank hunting unit. The commandos themselves would hold and capture objectives, and handle infantry. Between their light mortars and the 3" platoon, I imagine smoke should be pretty well covered. The HMG's would do their thing, probably more toward the back.
I think that this would also be a good way to also start a parachute company, as they can utilize the commandos and Shermans (DD Platoon) in their list.
What do you all think of the adjustments?

Holding an Objective, Dug in Commando's are insanely good.

My honest advice is just play as many games as possible with whatever you've got (like 500 points 1000 points etc). You'll find how it works, what works and what doesn't, and also more importantly how you like to play / use them. Like are you an all out aggressive player, a calculated one, a cautious one, will go "All in" at a critical point in the game to win, or will you husband your forces.

Once you've got all that under your belt, you will easily be able to see the trade offs, advantages and disadvantages to all the different elements and units. There is nothing that beats experience.

 mwnciboo wrote:
Holding an Objective, Dug in Commando's are insanely good.

My honest advice is just play as many games as possible with whatever you've got (like 500 points 1000 points etc). You'll find how it works, what works and what doesn't, and also more importantly how you like to play / use them. Like are you an all out aggressive player, a calculated one, a cautious one, will go "All in" at a critical point in the game to win, or will you husband your forces.

Once you've got all that under your belt, you will easily be able to see the trade offs, advantages and disadvantages to all the different elements and units. There is nothing that beats experience.

Most definitely this. Experience is the best way to go at this stage. Pick up what you want in your army, get some based and ready to go and get playing games. It is possible that after playing a number of games your expectations for the game and your desires for playing may end up completely changing your list direction into something else. It happens all the time. It is easy to pick what you consider the "perfect" army until you start using them on the table and discover that the army you thought was perfect really isn't. Nothing wrong with that and you really won't know until you get some games under your belt.

Skriker