Paras, Tigers and Fights, Oh My!

This past week has been pretty busy with everyone scrambling to get a list or two painted for an upcoming tournament in Petawawa, Ontario. I had some down time from work, which is a rarity for me and I took it as an opportunity to paint some US Paratroops. I thought when I got into FoW a little over a year ago, I would be staying away from painting and modelling any type of infantry stands. I think it had something to do with not wanting to paint hundreds of individual boots, camo, weapons and get them all based while trying to make them not look like a rush job.

Lead from the front!

There are tons of blogs dedicated to 1944-45 US 101st and 82nd Airborne schemes and techniques, I found a few that looked half decent and managed to find a few color photos as well. After Band of Brothers was released some time ago, interest grew in the history of the 101st and particularly the 506th. After seeing the US, Canadian, and British cemeteries in the area surrounding Normandy in 2007, I had seen the landscape and even Sainte-Mère-Église. Many different men from many different units and elements of the military gave up their lives for history and ultimately the stories of heroism and sacrifice. All of this gives us an opportunity to play Flames of War with the hardships that they endured during WW2. For me, it was part of the reason to take on building a fighting force using the US Para Coy box I had sitting around. I was going to use these as Rangers of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, but decided not too for now. I'll wait until the new books get revamped a bit and I'm excited about the 'Bastogne' books, Devils Charge, Nuts! and the Market Garden lists for late war.

Painted and inked, just waiting a few more details.

Fresh Air and Natural Light!

Basing has always come first for me, I do not take the time to glue/tack them to nails, or sticks and would rather just have them arranged on the bases. I'll be adding a little more grass to these once they're all complete. I like the train ballast as a base with whatever paint and drybrush. Throw on a few tuffs of GW and mix in some GaleForce9 turf to give it more depth. Sometimes when you base first, it makes it a little harder to get right in there to paint, but all worth it in the end once you get used to it and take your time. Unlike tanks, painting figures on bases should not be something you do a week or two before an event unless you know you can crush them out quickly. With a few stands done so far, I have about 1 more boots to paint and taking my time so they turn out they way I want them to.

As promised, I mentioned Tigers!! Well, here they are and I tabled them against Matt Varnish (Dennis) this past Friday in our weekly Friday Night Fights. I like it when there is more than bragging rights on the line, this week it was Arnhem. Complete with a bridge on an angle through one half of the table and some destroyed buildings and fields in the other. 

I was tasked as the defender as we rolled up Cauldron. It started off simple enough with Varnish assaulting early on and his Marders taking out one of my Tigers and after two rounds of shooting. He whiffed on 8 shots missing them all early in the game and I was able to capitalize and assault his infantry, kill his HQ and then destroy and move through his Marders with my remaining Tiger. You can see him in the distance leaving wreckage in his tracks as he moves to find a new target.

Varnish's infantry ready to assault off the bridge!!

Later in the game, I got my reserve Marders in play but they were no match for the Panzer IV platoon he had on the far side of the table. They tried to take cover but were quickly disposed of, as you see in the picture below.The smoke is blocking the view of the other four Panzers lying in wait.

With my Marders burning, my infantry under constant siege at one objective, I was able to get Dennis below half and as I had killed his HQ early on, there was no way for him to check his Company morale. The victory went to me, but was earned only by the skill and gallantry of a single unit of 7.5cm infantry guns. They consist of two guns, one HQ and an observer. They're able to fire bombardments, smoke and have an AT rating of 9!! All this for 65-75 points I think in my MW list. Mix them into one unit of dug in infantry and you have quite a defensive line. I chose to bring them in reserve and deployed my PAK-40's instead in ambush. I figured because they had transports, I could get the 7.5cm's anywhere I needed in a hurry. They were able to hold off a late assault, passed a few 5-up gun shield saves giving me a turn or two to kill some more stands to put Dennis back on his heels, securing me the victory.