Playing the late war French army

I meant to make a post about the 2021 Bugeater tournament I attended last year but things happened and now here we are with me only able to half remember certain things. I did take pictures though and I remember some of the key points and things I learned about playing the French that I think I will discuss here. the Bolt Action tournament at Bugeater was 1250pts, 5 rounds over 2 days and I had 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw, I was right in the middle of placings. Were I to be more of a win at all costs guy I might have done better but I know I made some mistakes in my list too so lets look at the late French from a more competitive standpoint. 

Before I put my list down to virtual paper let me mention the restriction on list building. Players could have up to two platoons, generic or theater, from any source. Generic tank platoons were not allowed but theater tank lists were, which was weird, and their was an order dice cap of 15 if I remember right but free units didn't count so you could have 15+ dice lists for certain armies.

My list was consisted of 2 platoons that came in at 1250 with 13 order dice.

Platoon 1

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 3 men with SMGs, 7 men with rifles - 9pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Platoon 2

Inexperienced 2nd Lt - 35pts

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs, 4 men with SMGs, 1 man with BAR, 5 men with rifles, stubborn - 167pts

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs, 3 men with SMGs, 5 men with rifles, stubborn - 129pts

Regular light mortar, stubborn - 43pts

Regular sniper team, stubborn - 54pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Regular M5 half track - 99pts

Regular M5 half track - 99pts

total 1250

This was my first tournament after all the COVID lockdowns so I was trying to keep my strategy simple while I eased back into bolt action. The idea was simple, split my force in two elements hammer and anvil. The hammer element consisted of both tanks and both half tracks in which I mounted the D'Eclaireurs Skieurs and I could either us all 6 dice together for a concentrated thrust or break it into 2 smaller elements of 1 tank and 1 mounted squad each. The anvil element was my 3 FFI squads supported by the 1st Lt, which I've found to be a decent enough leadership bump to keep the inexperienced troops moving, and the light mortar and sniper. The random extra Lt was meant to maybe ride in a half track from time to time but this didn't wind up working out.

I'll start with the problem with this list that nagged me the most, and that is the 2nd Lt. At inexperienced he was useless for shooting and throwing out pins and died rather easily. Many will know of this is the Lt tax but in a 13 dice list at this points level I can't really afford one of my dice to be so useless. Most of the games half your order dice rounding down had to be left in reserve and since 2 tanks, 2 transports, and 2 squads was half my dice rounding down I could never put him in a halftrack and there was only one instance in all 5 games where I had a unit board a transport which did wind up working out well for me.

The major issue with this list was my anvil element, the 3 FFI squads can be a solid foundation for a platoon dedicated to holding ground but they have to be supported properly and a light mortar and sniper team don't do that well enough and without the tanks from the hammer element they suffer a crippling lack of AT so they should be stripped out and replaced. My game 4 opponent ran Greeks with two 7+ armored vehicles and cavalry, I kept my hammer elements together and overran his back field but my FFI squads couldn't hold against cavalry and armor. That game was either my draw or one of my losses but the draw and the losses really demonstrated that if your inex troops aren't properly supported it's tough.

I took half tracks because my force was based on a photo I saw of French 5th armored units in Operation Dragoon and, even though they weren't in the photo, the supporting infantry would have been mounted in half tracks. I took a 10 man unit and an 8 man unit and honestly the 10 man unit was probably overkill because the 8 man unit did well and survived most games so I could have gotten away with 2 squads of 8 and as another points saving measure swapped the half tracks with M3 scout cars. Lets start reworking my list with some of these changes and start seeing where this goes.

Platoon 1

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 3 men with SMGs, 7 men with rifles - 9pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Platoon 2

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs, 4 men with SMGs, 4 men with rifles, stubborn - 132pts

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs, 4 men with SMGs, 4 men with rifles, stubborn - 132pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

total 1060

I've now stripped out what didn't work, and I know I'll need to put an Lt in there but bear with me a moment, and my list is now 1060 points. Given the size and roll of the ski troops this might be a time to take brigade de choc instead. I like the ski troops for their mountain troops rule but it was only situationally useful in my games because the transports got them close enough anyway. The only downside to my proposed changes currently is that M3 scout cars are wheeled and so will have to navigate around rough ground. I'm thinking of going on ahead and seeing what 2 squads of brigade de choc look like in this list with 5 SMGs each and the Lt who will go back in the list will be a 1st Lt with an extra guy for some redundancy.

Platoon 1

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 3 men with SMGs, 7 men with rifles - 9pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Platoon 2

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

Brigade de Choc, 5 men with SMGs, 3 men with rifles, stubborn - 127pts

Brigade de Choc, 5 men with SMGs, 3 men with rifles, stubborn - 127pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

total 1135

For a smidge less points we get a smidge more firepower on those vet squads and with the redundant Lt built in we are sitting at 1135 so we can spend 115 points on some stuff to support those FFI troops a little better. The first thing they need is integral AT in the form of a bazooka or medium AT gun, a stubborn regular bazooka is 62 points and it gives you a move and shoot option with 24" range while the medium AT gun is 75 points and is static but gives you a 60" threat range but since we are taking the mortar out of the platoon we need some HE and I think a light howitzer would do the job nicely.

Platoon 1

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 10 men with rifles - 70pts

FFI squad, 3 men with SMGs, 7 men with rifles - 9pts

Regular bazooka, stubborn - 62pts

Regular light howitzer - 45pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Platoon 2

Regular 1st Lt with extra man - 85pts

Brigade de Choc, 5 men with SMGs, 3 men with rifles, stubborn - 127pts

Brigade de Choc, 5 men with SMGs, 3 men with rifles, stubborn - 127pts

Regular M4 75mm - 195pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

Regular M3 scout car - 86pts

total 1247

For the same dice count as the list I brought to brought to Bugeater we now have a similar list with some better options and you could even go further swapping out the M4s for M5 Stuarts or you could do something else entirely relying more on the mountain troops instead of mechanized infantry but I wanted a 5th armored themed list for this event. Now I'll go over the games as best I can remember.

Game 1 against Japanese

This games was a huge loss and this right here is why. Like I pointed out, the FFI did not have strong enough support against a Japanese horde and even when the cavalry arrived they too were overrun.

Game 2 Also against Japanese

Can't remember if this was a loss or draw but it was fun, my forces pushed hard and actually overran the Japanese a few times. This was the game where I remounted a unit and moved them into a better position later.

Game 3 against Americans

I won this one, I know that. I pushed everything forward and outflanked some of my vets to roll up one flank. My opponents one tank succumbed to my tank after a few rounds so I was able to start pounding enemy marines with 75mm HE shells.

Game 4 against Greeks

Can't remember if this was a loss or the draw because his offensive elements overran my deployment while mine overran his, this game was another prime example of the FFI needing heavy weapons support.

Game 5 against Americans

This one was a win, it was point defense and I deployed the anvil elements in one corner while all of hammer was put on outflank. my opponent deployed the bulk of his forces to oppose where he thought my troops were going but I had a half of hammer hit both flanks and brought anvil up to add weight. 

 

Bugeater 2017

I went to the Bugeater Bolt Action tournament in Omaha earlier this month and had a great time meeting the local players and gaming the weekend away. One of the first things I noticed upon approaching the Bolt Action area of the room was how nice the tables were. I think a huge portion of Bolt Action/wargaming in general is the terrain you play on. Several people expressed interest in Bolt Action after seeing it played on these really nice tables.

The table I really wanted to play on at least once and never got too. The destroyed Panzer IV was not part of the terrain for this table but for that of the one behind it that was being set up when this picture was taken.

Game 3 Table. Its hard to see from my pictures but hills were placed on the table first than the cloth was draped over giving it a more fluid feel. This was my favorite table to play on.

 Game 5 table.

 Game 2 table.

 Game 1 table. As you will see a little later a road was added running from the bottom right corner to the top left corner bisecting the table.

 Game 4 table. What ever they used to make this table absolutely sucked to roll dice on.

Now I'll move on to the armies. The event required fully painted and based miniatures so all the armies were quite well done and impressive.

 My army, a French platoon for Indochina using the British book to build the list

National trait - Vengeance

Regular 2nd Lt - 50pts

Regular Artillery observer - Free

Paratroops, 5 men with SMGs - 85

Paratroops, 5 men with SMGs - 85

Regular mid/late war squad, 1 SMG, 1 LMG, 4 rifles - 83 

Regular mid/late war squad, 1 LMG, 5 rifles - 80

Regular mid/late war squad, 1 LMG, 5 rifles - 80

Regular medium mortar with spotter - 60

Regular sniper team - 50

Regular M8 Greyhound with pintle HMG - 135

Regular M24 Chaffee - 150

Regular Bren carrier with extra LMG - 70

Regular Bren carrier with extra LMG - 70

13 order dice, 998 points total

 My friend who accompanied me. He told me he would only come if I painted his army for him so paint it I did.

 This was probably my favorite army that wasn't my own. The TO allowed the use of the Australian supplement that WWPD put out a while back and the board and miniatures were just amazing.

 My round 1 opponent Mike Haydon who prior to this event had never played against another person. I would win this game but he knew his rules and was able to put up a good fight for it.

Regular 2nd Lt with adjutant - 60

Regular IJA squad, 1 SMG, 1 LMG, 13 rifles - 173

Regular IJA squad, 1 SMG, 1 LMG, 13 rifles - 173

Bamboo squad, 15 sticks - 75

Bamboo squad, 15 sticks - 75

Veteran IJN scout team, 3 SMG - 54

Veteran IJN scout team, 2 SMG, rifle - 51

Regular Anti-tank rifle - 30

Regular Anti-tank rifle - 30

Regular medium mortar with spotter - 60

Regular sniper team - 50

Regular sniper team - 50

Regular suicide AT - 20

Regular suicide AT - 20

Regular suicide AT - 20

Inexperienced suicide AT - 14

Regular Type 98 20mm AA gun - 45

17 order dice, total 1000pts

 My round 5 opponent Patrick Moling of the SNAFU podcast.

National Trait - Up and at 'em

Veteran 1st Lt with adjutant - 103

Regular Artillery observer with adjutant - 10

Paratroops, 4 SMG, 1 LMG. 5 rifles - 172

Paratroops, 3 SMG, 1 LMG, 6 rifles - 169

Paratroops, 1 SMG, 9 rifles, AT grenades - 163

Veteran medium mortar with spotter - 75

Veteran medium mortar with spotter - 75

Veteran PIAT team - 52

Veteran light howitzer with spotter - 76

Veteran recce jeep - 52

Veteran recce jeep - 52

11 order dice, total 999pts

My round 3 opponent Dan Buman with his excellently themed army.

Regular 2nd Lieutenant - 60

Regular Infantry squad, 1 BAR, 7 rifles - 105

Regular Infantry squad, 1 BAR, 7 rifles - 105

Regular Engineers, 2 SMG, 2 BAR, flamethrower, 3 rifles - 116

Veteran Infantry squad, 2 BAR, 8 rifles - 150

Regular medium mortar with spotter - 60

Regular Bazooka team - 60

Regular Bazooka team - 60

Regular Sniper team with 1 SMG - 54

Regular Medium howitzer with spotter - 85

Regular M3 Half track - 99

Regular 3/4 ton truck with MMG - 46

12 order dice, 1000pts total

My game 1 against Mike, the mission was objectives of which there were 6. Once you claim an objective it's yours til someone else claims it so you don't have to keep guys on it all game. He left his big squads in reserve and I deployed my whole force. I used my armored car to control the road while the tank and a bren carrier pushed up my left flank. The second bren carrier became a machine gun bunker on the right to help bolster the week side. The game started off with me laying down casualties and pins but as the game progressed and I moved up to take some of his objectives his reinforcements came in and Banzai started to help bring the game back in his favor a bit. He wound up taking my right flank but my tank was able to hold some of his stuff so he only took one of the objectives I previously claimed while I took 2 of his. The objectives were worth 3 points each and each unit was worth a 1/2 point and he was able to kill several of my units and claim 2 objectives. I would win by holding 4 objectives and killing a ton of his stuff but he kept me from scoring the full 20 points possible for the game with his impressive comeback.

Round 2 against Tim Lonas who brought the list as follows.

Regular Juniro LT - 60

Regular LMG squad, 1 LMG, 8 rifles - 83

Regular LMG squad, 1 LMG, 8 rifles - 83

Regular LMG squad, 1 LMG, 8 rifles - 83

Inexperienced rifle squad, 12 rifles - FREE

Regular MMG - 55

Regular Mortar with spotter - 60

Veteran sniper team - 65

Regular tank hunter squad, 4 rifles - 61

Regular tank hunter squad, 4 rifles - 61

Inexperienced BA-10 - 96

Regular T-34/85 - 235

Regular truck with MMG - 54

13 order dice, 996pts total

This mission was attacker/defender with the defender holding 3 objectives and the attacker gets a preparatory bombardment. With his tank sitting on my left I pushed my armored force up the right side and claimed that objective early on. My artillery observer would wind up being the MVP who suppressed a bunch of stuff with artillery than made an epic run across the battlefield to claim the middle objective while vicious fighting occurred all game on my right flank.

Game 3 with Dan, my favorite game, opponent, and table of the tournament. This game I remember rather well so hopefully I can give more detail about it. The mission was to get units to your opponents deployment and keep his units out of yours. 

My artillery would roll a 6 to hit both the medium howitzer and the infantry squad in my opponents deployment zone eliminating the infantry and allowing the howitzer to be finished off easily later.

I split my armored force in two agian and had the armored car and a carrier push his deployment zone but he would bring in his engineers and torch the squad later. I thought he would use the truck to move at break neck speeds into my deployment zone to wreak havoc which is probably what he should have done because between the armored car and the bren carrier with artillery observer inside was able to kill the engineers than dismount the observer again and run close to his truck in the last turn to kill it because it was empty making my observer the MVP again. 

He sent the vets to try and take my deployment zone which may have worked if he had used the other squad to support them. Instead I made my squad in the building a target to draw fire and they just kept going down. My tank would later kill that regular squad and the half track while my mortar, bren carrier turned bunker, and dug in infantry squad whittled the vets to nothing without ever setting foot in my deployment.

Day 2, game 4 against Paul Stewart's Russians. The mission was simple, capture the objective in the center. He could deploy 1 infantry squad and 1 other unit of his choice so long as it was damage 7+ or less as well as his snipers, spotters, and observers. I could deploy all my infantry so long as they were 18 inches away from his units and the objective as well as 6 inches from his edge. I lost my copy of his list but he had the obligatory Lt, 2 MMg squads, 2 tough fighter vet squads, the free squad, a flamethrower, medium mortar, heavy howitzer, gaz AA truck and a bunch of transports.

This game was my only loss. Every turn his dice came up predominantly even though we were about equal, he had me by 2 I  think. This table also sucked to roll dice on. Below is a picture of the 20 shots fired by the gaz and not a single one was a hit so it wasn't just my dice that had bad moments.

My last game against against Patrick Moling of the SNAFU podcast. This mission was maximum attrition with an odd L shaped deployment. This is where it kind of sucked bringing a bunch of smallish units of regulars because it does not take much to wipe them out. First turn went well, my sniper and greyhound wiped out both his mortars and my medium mortar hit the light howitzer.

Just about everything was rough ground but the roads which I was able to own most of the game. Unfortunately be for my mortar hit the howitzer the howitzer immobilized my Chaffee and jammed it's turret.

My artillery strike scattered back onto myself and pinned a bunch of stuff and killed most of a paratroop squad. I rallied the pins off only to have his artillery come in and re-pin my stuff as well as killing my Chaffee. I had moved a carrier away from the point the artillery was called on but unfortunately it moved me within 12 inches of a paratroop section I had been pinning down pretty well but they auto pass checks to charge. That squad would kill one of my paratroop squads and carrier while his outflanked paratroop squad would kill some stuff with his officer. With some really lucky dice I was able to come back but wound up being 1 point away from a major victory. It was a fun game and I rolled a lot of lucky 6's to hit things but I also rolled a lot of unlucky 6's and FUBARed at least 5 times but a couple of those saved me when squads ran away out of assault range.

It was a great tournament and I plan on going back next year. The carriers and armor combo really did work as well as my artillery observer. I wish I had taken more pictures but it's really easy to get caught up in the games. Maybe I'll buy a video camera and start video recording my games instead.

In the meantime I've got a new army to build and test, my goal is to really capitalize on mobility and small unit tactics. My list has something like 30+ machine guns of various types spread over 17 order dice to spread the pins around and get me where I need to go.