FoW – Expanding from Open Fire

Hi all it’s Coxer from Breakthrough Assault again, one of the common threads I’ve seen on a few people asking where they go with a force after the ‘Open Fire’ starter set.

Firstly for those of you who are unaware ‘Open Fire’ is the starter box for flames of war. It has a decent German sized force of StuG assault guns, grenadiers and Pak40 Anti Tank guns, whilst the allies get British Shermans and US paratroopers. So as a new player and having this where do you go next?
 

Expanding the Germans
You’re lucky with this box as you have the core of a Grenadier/Panzergrenadier force, and in all the major hard back books you’ll find a these companies.

Let’s start, in my opinion the first thing you need is smoke, I think this because you will not always be able to be squirrels away in your foxholes, and when you move you need some cover – and that’s where smoke comes in. The two choices for this are mortars or Nebelwerfers in my opinion, you could consider artillery but that is a lot of points just for smoke… The nice thing for the mortars is that it’s 4 dice to range in, and can direct smoke if needed, whilst the Nebs are cheap as they have no direct fire option.

some grenadiers from my winter collection

What next? Well currently you only have 5 guns which can realistically hurt tanks, and in my experience you need a few more shots. You can’t go wrong with more PaK40’s IMHO, often you can have regimental and divisional Pak40’s so up to 7 guns, but a box of 4 will give you two nice platoons of three. Or possibly you’ll want some more tanks, StuG’s, Panzer 4’s maybe something bigger like Panthers or Tigers, if you go for these always consider then branching out into a tank list like those found in ‘Desperate Measures’ which mix and match tanks – also don’t forget how many other companies make 15mm ww2 models like Plastic Soldier Company or Skytrex. But back on point I think you need a mix of the Pak40’s AT12, and some higher AT14+ to deal with heavier soviet units and US Jumbos. I tend to prefer mobile high end AT over static AT as another nice thing to have in a force is a bit of mobility to chase objectives or alternatively outflank enemy units with high front armour.

my trusty chaff unit

Author: Coxer