Tale of 2 Cities Week 4: Steven's US Rifles

In the last article we looked fairly in depth at the non-Artillery support options, so to conclude this 4 part article we're going to talk briefly about the Artillery in this list.  After that we'll discuss some suggested next purchases.  Fortunately a lot of the Yank stuff works in both mid and late war, so you can be ready for a variety of fronts!

Courtesy of Easy Army- thanks Gregg!

ARTILLERY

The US have very flexible artillery options!  With trained artillery it's hard to rely on it to kill much, but veteran artillery dropping a Time on Target is something to be terrified of!

Remember you can combine your batteries as long as your staff teams are around to coordinate the fire.  With 4 105s and 4 155s (you could actually do this with just 2 giving you points for some other stuff) you get a double wide template with AT 5, FP 3+.  Wow!

On defense if I had a half on/half off situation, I'd probably go with the 155s over the 105s, but would rarely bring both.  Let the 155s harass stuff as it approaches and marry up the 105s when they can arrive from reserve.  On the attack you can combine the batteries to soften an enemy position.  Your 105s can drop smoke when needed while your veteran 155s are reliably scary for the enemy!

If your 155s and Towed TDs can get enemy armor out of the picture your Stuarts can wreak havoc, paving the way for your riflemen.  The US, perhaps more than anyone else, really relies on combined arms.  Think about how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together and that can inform your strategy in different missions.

When choosing what to have on the table in half on/half off scenarios, clearly a lot of it depends on your opponent's list- but some good rule of thumbs are "When in doubt get more points on the board!".  Your top 4 most expensive platoons are: 155s, Towed TDs, Stuarts, Rifle platoon.  I think that's not a bad choice for a lot of situations.  Towed TDs get a recon move, your Stuarts can be placed in ambush (hold on to that ambush- it's an ace in the hole!), your 155s can get firing from the get go and your rifle platoon can receive both HQ bazookas for a very beefy defensive force.

Because this particular list is fairly static, we will relish any mission with mobile reserves!  We only have 2 mobile platoons- the Stuarts and the Cav Recon.  Guess which I'd put as our 1 required platoon in reserve?

So I hope you've enjoyed this look at US Rifles- a very fun force that can be used in a variety of ways!

NEXT PURCHASES

• Air Observation Post.  This list really should have this guy in there to be honest.  The ability to call in fire for 1/3 of your army from anywhere on the board is awesome!  You should be able to find the points easily by dropping the 2 HQ bazookas.  
• HMG Platoon.  The US rifles are just a little light on small arms fire- attaching out some HMGs to them (plus the 2 additional bazookas you can buy in your HMG platoon) is a really great option with the new attachment rules in Version 3.
• Shermans!  Duh, you can't go wrong with Shermans.  M4s or M4A1s will work in mid and late war.  While later model combinations will work in support of these guys if taken from Devil's Charge.
• Tank Destroyers!  M10s are more flexible between mid and late war, though M18s are a good choice in late war as well.  Devil's Charge gives the ability to run the mighty M36 Jackson.  AT-14 is nothing to mess with!
• Self Propelled 155s.  In Late war there's a lot of German lists with bunkers.  Self Propelled 155s make short work of 'em!  They're available to US rifles in most of the late war lists.  Plus you could drop the 155s, and take just 2 of these guys (with a staff team) and get the same awesome combined artillery stats!