Well, I know in my previous article regarding Eureka Miniatures (if your in the US check out the Eureka US site) fantastic Gas Mask German miniatures I said I would hope to put together another article showing off the completed army after the LRDG's 'Field Of Dreams' tournament held in Melbourne earlier this year. Well better late than never!
I have now completed approximatly 1200 points of the Germans and have also converted a number of miniatures that the Eureka range doesn't cover...(come on Nic...more gas masks please) to round out my army. Like 'Old Man' Morin and Lachlan I also attended MOAB this year in Sydney which was fantastically run by Patch and Bryan from boltaction.net and I added those extra units and incorporated the lessons learnt from my experience at Field Of Dreams.
So how did I put my army together? To be honest I didn't really go to hard into 'listing' for this army and given I wasn't doing a 'historical' themed force most of my choices revolved around what miniatures I thought look good and what is available within the range.
As I mentioned earlier the range of miniatures is missing some selections to round out a full list, but luckily I have been a wargamer for a number of years and have had some experience in converting miniatures. Eureka's models are well cast and was easy to snip a bit here and chop a bit there to get the choices I was after. I've converted for the army a Forward Observer, 2 LMG's, mortar crew and my Lieutenant.
Onto MOAB and the army I took:
Veteran 1st Lt (90), SMG, 2 Veteran Soliders (26), 2 Assault Rifles
Regular Artillery Observer (100), SMG, 2 Regular Soliders (20), 2 Assault Rifles 120
8 Regular Heer Grenadiers (83), 2 Assault Rifles, LMG (20), Panzerfaust (5), SMG (3) 118
8 Regular Heer Grenadiers (83), Assault Rifle, LMG (20), 2 Panzerfausts (10), SMG (3) 118
6 Veteran Pioneers (71), Flamthrower (20), 5 SMG (12)
6 Veteran Grenadiers (71), 5 Assault Rifles (25), 2 Panzerfausts (10), SMG (3) 116
Regualr Medium Mortar (50)
Regular Puma Armoured Car (160)
Regular Hanomag (89)
So how did I go? 4 Draws and one loss, I am quite happy with my result but boy did I learn some things. The biggest lesson has to be the number of order dice. Two out of my five games I played against 17 order dice lists and the two to one dice advantage really stings, allowing my opponents to really get a run on being able to put the hurt on my units. To use the phrase from a good friend of mine from Home Guard Radio this really lightfooted the dice bag in their favour.
I also found the Panzerfaust in units were more useful when assaulting tanks rather than shooting them. During the event my panzerfaust units bagged a Panzer IV and a Char D1. They really give German units added flexibility and opponents really need be care full not to get their armoured units to close and my aggressive play with them surprised some opponents.
All in all I have enjoyed completing this army and I would highly recommend this range of miniatures to anyone. I also loved attending MOAB and will be assured to attend next year. Well done again to Patch and Bryan for a well run enjoyable event made all the better by 5 fantastic opponents.
What next you ask, well I am torn between a winter themed US force or Pacific Australians using Wartime Miniatures new range, first world problems I suppose.
For those of you who live in Sydney, the army is on display at the Hall of Heroes in Campelltown if you would like to see them up close. (And I recommend that you do - OMM)
Till next time!
Marc
