EWGT (BattleCry 2012 ) Prep

Well, the time is rapidly approaching for another Grand Tournament! This one is the Early War GT being held at the 2012 BattleCry convention. For more information on this event check out their site here: BattleCry ....

For this event I tossed around four lists to bring. The first, and perhaps most controversial, was one I made up on the fly for EW Americans based on the Carolina Maneuvers completed only a week before 7 December 1941. It included several M3 Lee tanks, five M3 Stuarts, and a "Rifle" Platoon of dismounted American tankers. As much as I'd love to field this, 2012 isn't the year for experimental stuff! My painting time is a premium these days so I needed to find something that didn't involve so much work.

My second list I considered was the old trusty French Panhard company. A pile of Panhard Armored Cars, backed by S-35s, infantry, and 47mm SP guns. But alas, I wanted something new and unique.

So I thought about Leclerc's Tiralleurs, but once again the painting list required to get them up to 1500 points was pretty steep! But this led me to combine some of my raiding forces together into the fourth and final list that I'm fairly confident will land me in the bottom 25% of the ladder!

Using the siege of Kufra as my guide (granted there wasn't a Vickers VIB there, but hey I had 50 points kicking around!), I've constructed an EW 1500pt LRDG Patrol as follows:

Patrol HQ (with 2x AA MG): 70 pts
LRDG Half Patrol (6x trucks, see notes): 245 pts
LRDG Half Patrol (6x trucks, see notes): 245 pts
LRDG Half Patrol (3x trucks, see notes): 120 pts
Heavy Section (1x Light Mk VI B): 40 pts

Tirailleurs Seneglais: 150 pts
Tirailleurs Seneglais: 150 pts

Tirailleurs Machine-gun Platoon (with trucks): 120 pts
Tirailleurs Artillery Platoon (with trucks): 50 pts


Interdiction Raids (Priority): 300 pts

Total: 1490 pts

Notes:
6-Truck Patrols each:
1x Truck (with .5" Vickers)
4x Trucks (with Boys ATR)
1x Truck (with 37mm Bofors)

3-Truck Patrol:
2x Truck (with .5" Vickers)
1x Truck (with 20mm Breda)

Playing the Force
I seriously doubt it'll rank high, but thats not the point at all. Its all about Who Dares Wins! (even though this is not an SAS force!)

The plan is to let the two halves of the force operate on their own essentially. The French will focus on the heavy lifting, while the LRDG snipes from the flanks and maybe bag a tank or two. Armored platoons are going to wreck my troops, so I'll have to get tricksy with the boys ATRs and portee trucks. But if I can use the Interdiction raids (go Decouverte boys!) to harass my enemy's reserves, I should be on relatively even footing. We'll see!

Painting the Force
The great thing here is that I've got little to actually paint. I've got all of the French done that I'll need and one LRDG Patrol complete. I'll need to do another Patrol and a half (might as well do the whole thing) and two HQ pilot cars. I'll also have to scrounge for a single VI B light tank!

February 17 is coming quick and I had better get cracking on my painting! I hope to see all of you locals there. Its looking like a fun event!