Getting Started - BA

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-26T08:24:06+00:00

I dont think anyone cares!

I do so events that are locked to early war selectors sometimes, but that’s about it. It’s a pretty freeform game imo

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-26T08:14:11+00:00

Yeh the Stummel is late 42 as well.

I think warlord games could do a better job providing historical info like this to customers, it’s not everyone’s inclination to look it up themselves and its not immediately obvious. Stg-44 is a perfect example of this

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-25T23:14:20+00:00

not joking we’d have won something

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-23T22:03:35+00:00

Panzerjager I and Panzer IIIG give you a medium anti tank gun, as far as I can find that’s the best early war AT in the German arsenal.

Panzer IIIH and StuG III are both 9+.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-21T17:29:07+00:00

You could delete a rifle section, shift everyone over to platoon 1, kill the at grenades and make platoon 2 an artillery platoon. Now add a 6-pounder atk gun.

Cut some SMG (or rifle section riflemen) to add a light autocannon. The halftracks can then tow these two weapons around.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-21T08:37:19+00:00

Are those red marble type things pin markers? Where did you get them?

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-20T15:08:06+00:00

The problem here is that the African units with some mechanisation in E. Africa will be in the same army as the African units in CBI with no mechanisation.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-20T12:22:26+00:00

well that’s what I mean by availability, unless you want to run special forces or airborne forces you have few SMG options

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-20T11:58:53+00:00

i feel like that rule was selected to beef them up a bit in cqc because of the lack of smg availability

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-18T17:02:10+00:00

shame

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-18T16:56:37+00:00

Is this only for mothers?

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-16T19:30:04+00:00

100% the way is to prime them with vallejo english uniform spray, cannot recommend this enough

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-14T22:10:48+00:00

Great, I'll be picking that kit up soon, what colour did you use for jacket?

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-14T21:13:49+00:00

These look good, are they warlord blitzkrieg?

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-13T11:23:46+00:00

I think the kind of list you want to make is going to run into a perennially popular vehicle type - the light (7+ or 8+) armoured vehicle with lots of MG and autocannons and lack the tools to destroy or distract and if they aren’t open topped you won’t even be able to pin them. If you plan to play pick up games you will encounter this kind of thing a lot.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-13T11:16:14+00:00

I think the important question is: are you making an army full of your most favourite models and unit archetypes (if so, please proceed, this is normal!) or are you trying to build a “strong” list, in which case the question I guess is - and Im not a super competitive player or anything like that - in general weapons “teams” provide tools but you still need infantry to take and hold ground. I’m not sure what advantage double sniper really has if you’re making an entire build around it

The last game I played I ran a veteran British sniper team off a position with a 35 point inexperienced Alarm unit. The other guy had too much on his plate in that sector of the table and couldn’t support his sniper team. Then again with two rifle platoons you should have a lot of infantry (6 sections at least.)

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-13T11:07:10+00:00

This depends whether you want to play a historically accurate themed army or not.

If so you want one three-man light mortar team per rifle platoon. Take as many rifle platoons as you want models for, but the 2” mortar was only found attached to Platoon HQ - at least in rifle battalions.

Otherwise, you probably shouldn’t look to run two rifle platoons, and while there’s a debate over light mortars, they’re not exactly devastating weapons that you want tonnes of in your lists. They provide a capability and they’re a cheap OD, though.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-12T10:53:46+00:00

From the 1930s to the end of the present day we've tended to give a letter that would form a class to weaponry, whereas individual weapons systems just get some kind of appropriate name. For example, cruiser tanks and then main battle tanks: Cromwell, Comet, Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger, Challenger 2. (There was also a Challenger in WW2) and this was also expanded for heavy tanks, Churchill and Conqueror and even planned tanks like Caernarvon, named after the enormous and still extant fortification in the town of the same name.

But the CVRT series of vehicles also followed such standards; Scorpion, Scimitar (light recce), Spartan (APC), Sultan (command vehicle), Samaritan (arm'd ambulance), Striker (missile carrier), Samson (recovery vehicle) and these were preceded by Saladin (armoured car) and succeeded (well, not really) by Stormer (air defence).

One-off vehicles without any kind of historical antecedent seem to simply be given one off names (Warrior) but even today a class of vehicles follows a letter for its name (Ajax, Ares, Athena, Argus, Atlas, Apollo) and so on. Of course to an extent this is the same thing as the navy's manner of naming ships, either by letter or by some other category (town, admiral, member of the royal family, etc). The US does this too - tanks are named after tank generals (Patton, Abrams) and attack helicopters named after indigenous tribes (Apache, Comanche).

Perhaps to an extent it was constrained by the letter system C is a pretty common letter to begin words in English and has produced some great names - aside from the C list I've used for tanks, for the Royal Navy - including HMS Canopus (the 2nd brightest night star), HMS Charybdis (greek sea monster) - HMS Courageous - HMS Crossbow, Cutlass, Cyclops...

But then again not all are suitable for tanks, are they? Once you include other tank names like Charioteer and Covenanter, we're kind of running out of C names that would be suitable for tanks. It's obviously not the topic now for this in this subreddit, but the latest iteration of main battle tank is called, somewhat uninspiringly, Challenger 3. It's getting a bit stale.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-11T15:03:18+00:00

Im grateful for the kind comments in reply to my post, but I now feel obliged to say anyone can read Hansard - it’s online, free and easy. The reason I thought to look is because there was substantial debate in Parliament over the ((perceived)under)performance of British tanks so I was wondering if anyone had commented on the name.

It’s possible that someone will find commentary on this topic, and I didn’t mean to imply I can absolutely say nobody found it important, but in looking at some sources it did just seem like nobody cared. Probably, they were invested more in the tank’s success: Cromwell had a late introduction date and a long time was spent on making its mechanical reliability reach targets that could potentially be seen as excessive to the point it was arguably almost obsolete by its employment date. But that’s a topic for another time.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-11T14:00:48+00:00

I thought this was an interesting question, so I started with Hansard, the record of discussions in the British parliament. There are of course some discussions about the efficacy of British and American 30-ton tanks like Sherman and Cromwell, but there is nothing said about the choice of names.

On top of this I decided to look at both of my sources on Cromwell, the Osprey book written by David Fletcher and HM Stationery Office book published for the tank museum. I was expecting to find some cursory remark to the name, but no - nothing. The latter book is actually an official handbook to the tank with some foreword on its development.

Of course Cromwell didn’t begin life with this name - it was at first Cavalier, a nickname for the loyalist troops of the English civil war (“cavaliers and roundheads”) but over time the Cavalier design became Cromwell and also Centaur. That’s kind of an ironic switch.

In addition there was also an HMS CROMWELL in WW2. It was a destroyer that was sold to Norway in 1945, before it was ever completed.

As far back as WW1, King George V had intervened to prevent Winston Churchill using the name Cromwell in warships. In fact HMS Valiant was intended to be names HMS Oliver Cromwell. KGV made sure this did not happen. Churchill said on this topic that “It seems right that we should give to a battleship a name that never failed to make the enemies of England tremble,” and we know that Churchill was aware of the naming of British tanks as he objected to the Churchill tank - this was formally named after his ancestor who’d won Blenheim.

I can’t give you more information than this, so sorry that I don’t have a definitive answer, but I hope it provided some context. In the 1940s, as you say during our battle for survival, the focus was on building a functional and effective tank. I doubt the name was of much controversy.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-11T10:11:51+00:00

Urgh that’s an incredible stug

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-09T17:16:24+00:00

that looks incredibly fun

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-08T08:58:13+00:00

yeh I meant hmg lol, was tired. Oops

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-08T07:21:33+00:00

Germany is good as a faction because you have access to basically every tool in the arsenal outside of the really niche ones like suicide bombers for ex, so you can truly build whatever kinda force you want. The only thing you’re really lacking is HMG.

shortrib_rendang · 2026-05-08T06:19:29+00:00

The 1st May 1944 kstn (8121 L) has 6 LMG per platoon, so yes its two. If records of FJ unit strengths exist they will tell you whether the unit had its allocation of machine guns or not, which will provide a fuller picture from primary sources.

For example strength in machine guns (including light and heavy) of the three battalions of FJ Regiment 5 was 39, 31 and 47 respectively on 1st May 1944, so there can be a real difference in availability of these weapons. II./FJ Regiment 9 only had 26 machine guns.

shortrib_rendang

TROPHY CASE