FoW: Mid War Romanian Companie Tancuri

The curse of 'Ohh! Shiny' strikes again! I hadn't been planning on adding to my FoW forces as I already have four armies but the opportunity arose for an interesting deal. Paul, another of the Exiles, doesn't get much chance to play his Germans so had offered them for sale. I wanted to get rid of some of my 40K stuff so offered him a swap for my Necrons. The deal was done and I'll be picking up the following some time this week:

Company HQ of 2 Pz IV's
Panzer Platoon of 5 Pz IV's
Panzer Platoon of 5 Pz IV's
Panzer Platoon of 3 Stug's
Panzer Grenadier platoon 3 squads in trucks
Gepanzerte Panzer grenadier platoon of 3 squads in halftracks
Heavy Platoon of 2 HMG squads
Anti tank platoon of 3 Pak 40's
Anti aircraft platoon of 2 88 Flak 36 with tractors

Paul was intending to use them as an SS Wiking force but I don't want another LW force at the moment. So now that I've got them what am I going to do with them?

Well with Operation Sea Lion coming to an end in a couple of weeks a few of us are starting to look at what we want to do next. The consensus seems to be to move into Mid War (MW) for a while. Ben and I already have DaK forces we can use, I also have my Soviets which I can adjust to use as MW, Mazz has his Soviet Infantry and Adam looks like he is going for Finns. So after some thought I'm going to use my new force as Romanians.

Romanian T-4 tank

I had a look at the options on EasyArmy.com and decided to go for a Companie Tancuri with the following make up:

Companie Tancuri Tank Company

Romanian Mid-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Companie Tancuri HQ p.161	1	T-4 (Panzer IV G)	120
Combat Platoons
Heavy Tancuri Platoon p.161	3	T-4 (Panzer IV G)	355
Heavy Tancuri Platoon p.161	3	T-4 (Panzer IV G)	355
Heavy Tancuri Platoon p.161	3	T-4 (Panzer IV G)	355
Divisional Support
Vanatori Blindata Platoon p.165	1 4 6	Cmd Vanator de Care MG team TB 251 half-track MG team	190
Vanatori Motorizata Platoon p.163	1 6 3	Cmd Vanator de Care Rifle/MG team Rifle/MG team 1.5-ton truck	125
Armoured Car Platoon p.172	1 2	Sd Kfz 223 (radio) Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)	85
Motorised Artillery Battery p.165	1 1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Observer Rifle team Skoda 100mm M14 (100/17) howitzer	165
Company Points:			1750

Although this doesn't include everything I got from Paul I can use the leftovers in other forces to give me more options. I need to buy the Armoured Car Platoon, but this isn't a problem as I've been meaning to get one for a while. The artillery are going to be a pain though as the guns plus staff teams etc are going to cost £33.50 retail which is more than I want to spend. I may just see if I have anything I can proxy instead or I may look at Skytrex guns and a Battlefront Romanian Artillery group for the figures.

I think the force is fairly well balanced. I have the Pz IV's as the main offensive arm with the armoured cars to provide the recon to remove ambushes or GtG. My infantry are capable of moving fast to assault or grab objectives, but they can also stay put and deal out a lot of defensive fire. Finally the artillery can provide support fire or smoke and I can also use them as anti-tank guns if necessary. Plus they are Breakthrough Guns which can help winkle out dug-in infantry.

The only problem is that they will need painting. Luckily Romanian tanks were just plain grey so a quick spray of grey primer and a coat of Army Painter dip should sort them out. The infantry will take a bit longer but there's only a few of them. There's also a nice article on the Battlefront site on painting Romanian forces which I can use for inspiration.

FearNaught - El Alamein

In my 'How to Waste a Day' post last week I wrote about my problems in choosing a force for the upcoming 1500pt 'Fear Naught - El Alamein' campaign weekend in June. I've now narrowed my choice down to two forces, both from the 15th Panzer Division. As the organiser likes to keep Artillery and Air Support controlled by a central command you can't have any in your lists so I've had to comply with that limitation.
The first is a 1490 pt Panzerspähkompanie (15.) Armoured Car Company comprising:

Company HQ
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)

Light Panzerspäh Platoon (15.)
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
4 x Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)

Light Panzerspäh Platoon (15.)
1 x Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
4 x Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)

Heavy Panzerspäh Platoon
6 x Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)

Anti-tank Gun Platoon
1 x Cmd SMG team
3 x 7.5cm PaK40 gun

Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon
3 x Sd Kfz 10/5 (2cm)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

I've gone for this option because I like the idea of an armoured car force as it's something different from the norm. However I do have a plan (of sorts) on how I would use it.
The tactics are a variant on a medium tank swarm approach from WWPD. The aim would be to use the Light Panzerspäh platoons to either advance quickly to grab objectives or to try and flank enemy forces splitting their attention. Maybe even getting into the enemy's support units. These would be backed up by the Heavy Panzerspäh platoon to provide fire support and to exploit openings. The Pz III's would sit back with the PaK 40's to snipe long range targets flushed out by the armoured cars. Hopefully the armoured cars will be able to remove 'Gone to Ground' from some of the targets to aid the long range shooting. The Pz III's would also be able to move up to deliver a coup de gras when needed. The Pak 40's can also provide static defence near any objectives that happen to be in my deployment area.  The AA I have is in addition to that mounted on the vehicles so that should be more than enough. Plus they can also provide some anti infantry fire if no planes appear as well so that's a bonus. The only thing I don't like about the list is the lack of a 2iC now they have become much more useful, but you can't have everything.

The second list is a more standard 1475 pt Panzerkompanie (15.) Armoured Company comprising:

Company HQ
2 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer III G or H or J (early)

Light Panzer Platoon
5 x Panzer II F

Rocket Launcher Battery
Cmd SMG team
Observer Rifle team
Kubelwagen
2 x 15cm NW41

Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon
2 x Sd Kfz 10/5 (2cm)

This is a more straightforward list with all the punch coming from the Pz III's. The Pz II's are classed as a Recon platoon so I would send them forward first to flush out ambushes and remove 'Gone to Ground' where possible. The anti-air support with this list isn't great but they can also provide some anti infantry fire if no planes appear. I'm not sure if the Nebelwerfers are classed as artillery by the organiser so I may have to drop them and go with something else, probably Pak 38's. This list is ok if a little uninspiring. It does have the benefit that the models can be reused in lots of different forces, albeit with the wrong camo.

Sadly the deciding factor in my choice will probably be cost. The armoured car force will cost twice as much as the Pz III force as I can get most of what I need for it from The Plastic Soldier Company. Of course wargamers are not noted for being rational. Who knows I may even end up buying both, plus that Italian Squadrone Esplorante Reconnaissance Squadron looked nice......