Dust Battlefield: Victor (Axis) vs. Chris (SSU)

Victor and I are getting ready for a big face-off...

We have been painting up our 100 point Dust armies over the past few months and now it is time for us to throw down... I am expecting that his Wotan will be declared "man of the match" as it racks up the kills! I have one week left to finish painting my 100 points (Victor is already done) so we can get the Battle Report played next week, and up on the Dust website the following week.

Stay tuned for more developments!

Jagdtigers: the biggest of all the cats!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Jagdtigers over the past few months thanks to the development work on Nuts and Bridge At Remagen and have been quietly putting aside figures to paint up as I play around with some list options. I’ve written an article on the Flames Of War site that talks about some of the various strengths of Carrius’ 512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie as I see it so I won’t revisit too much, other than to talk about some of the options that I am either painting up currently, or have put aside to work on as time permits!

Carrius and the Jagdtigers
I’ve painted up six Jagdtigers and although I still have a little finishing work to do - Carrius’ tank needs to have the extra crew figures added to help him stand out on the table top, and I might add some foliage to the tanks – but they are all ready for the battlefield. My thoughts for doing six were simple…. Flexibility! I can run four tanks as a support platoon, I can play a big game

where I put 1605 points of Jagdtigers, or I can run a smaller company with plenty of support. Carrius will generally be taking to the role of “super cool Company Commander model”, rather than being the Carrius himself, but if I have the points I think he is an easy choice to include.

Weapons Platoons
Whilst I have not gotten around to assembling my Wirbelwinds or Ostwinds, they are definitely on the plan somewhere! After all every Late War list these days has them in some shape or form so painting them just makes sense. Plus I’ve used Sd Kfz 7/1 AA vehicles in the past as aggressive infantry hunters and assuming the enemies AT is busy they are great value. I really like the idea of the Panzer Scout Platoon as that gives you a pile of machine-guns to mow down infantry, then combine a smoke bombardment from some Nebelwerfers and you can probably get off an Assault with their Mounted Assault rules.

Armoured Support 
In the short term I am planning on running my Jagdtigers as the Reluctant Trained 2. Kompanie so I won’t need to paint any StuGs or Panzer IV Js, and I have some Tigers from my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 that I can use, should I feel like adding them.

Infantry Support
I think you are setting yourself up for disaster by not running some infantry with the big cats. At Panzerschreck 2014 (more on this in a later post) I had 3 platoons of infantry supporting and

screening my Jagdtigers and they were great. A single platoon can effectively deny enemy tanks the ability to easily get around your flanks and given that this is the only way they are going to kill you it seems like common sense to stop them. I have my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 infantry that will work nicely as either Panzergrenadiers (just need to paint up some plastic 251s) or Volksgrenadiers. I love the new Volkssturm infantry, I just need to come up with a cunning plan to get a platoon painted (and convince Mike that we need a “Volkssturm Kompanie”).

Artillery Support

I’ve painted up my Nebelwerfer platoon as that was all I could fit in my Panzerschreck army – plus no one ever regretted having a battery of 15cm Nebels. I did run a little short on time so I only have the first 3 launchers finished but I definitely think it is worth making the time to finish the entire Battery. My plan is to also paint up the 30cm Nebelwerfers as well because I think they are just so cool! I was thinking about making them appear as though they are about to fire so not having many crew on the base – it will also make them quick to do! Not sure that the Trained rating makes them worth it in game terms, but I come back to their coolness and the fact that if you fail your save… bye bye!

The other options that I have stashed aside to paint are the PaK40s and 15cm guns. Not sure which to work on first as they are competing with the Nebelwerfers in terms of what you can field in the army. Either way though they are good support options for almost any army and I’ve found that if you are outnumbered by enemy tanks, or if they are Veteran (and you are therefore likely to miss) you can find yourself swarmed and they are both add to your direct fire capabilities.

Anti-Aircraft Support 
Once again I am heading back to my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 to leverage some already painted troops and using the 3.7cm FlaK. I’ve already painted up a battery of three guns and plan to do another three as their extra range and AT wins out over the higher ROF of

the Quad 2cm. I’m not planning on doing any 88s in the near future, but it is on my “must do some time plan” – after all you cannot go wrong with some 88s in Late War! Plus I really want to do a Kampfgruppe von Swoboda at some point and you need many many many 88s for that!

The lists!These are the lists that I am currently playing around with.

945 points – Panzerschreck 2014 (my teams partner "borrowed"the extra 55 points)

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Volks Rocket Launcher Battery
15cm NW41 Launchers	x3	70 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	65 points

1500 points

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Panzer Anti-aircraft Platoon
Wirbelwind	x4	150 points
Volksgrenadier Platoon (Reluctant Trained)
Full strength with Panzerschreck team		180 points
Volks Light Artillery Battery (Reluctant Veteran)
7.5cm FK40 (PaK40) guns	x6	295 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	65 points

1750 points

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x2	535 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Panzer Anti-aircraft Platoon
Wirbelwind	x3	110 points
Volkssturm Platoon
Full strength		105 points
Volksgrenadier Platoon (Reluctant Trained)
Full strength with Panzerschreck team		180 points
Volks Rocket Launcher Battery
15cm NW41 Launchers	x6	135 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	125 points

Hopefully you can see you are not short of options even though your Jagdtigers can take up quite a few points. It really is just a case of picking some lists and giving them a go!

Otto Carrius and his Jagdtiger Company

For a quick update I thought I would post the army that I took to Panzerschreck with Mike Haycock, along with the few extra bits and pieces I've painted up for the 512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie that I have been working on. I'll have a full event report (of sorts) up over the weekend but hopefully this will suffice for now.

The Panzerchreck 2014 Army

Carrius in his Jagdtiger (left) along with the 2iC. I still need to paint up some extra crew for Carrius' vehicle...

First Platoon of Jagdtigers

Second Platoon of Jagdtigers

15cm Nebelwerfer Battery

Nebelwerfer Command and OP team

Close up of one of the Nebelwerfers