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. 

 

Late French Breakdown Addendum

  I need to make an addition to my breakdown of the Late War French because I left out two things, an upgrade option and an infantry squad.

I'm going to start with the upgrade because it comes from the same source as the Late War French army list, that being the Battle of the Bulge campaign book. That upgrade is rifle grenades, anyone familiar with early war France will be familiar with these as they are the same as VB launchers. For those unfamiliar it is a 6 to 18 inch indirect fire weapon with a 1 inch HE template. The entry for rifle grenades states that French squads may have up to 3 without specifying which squads specifically can take them so that should apply to any French unit so lets take a look each unit with that upgrade.

Regular Infantry Squad: If you give them stubborn and take the max 3 rifle grenades they can support an FFI heavy platoon.

Inexperienced Infantry Squad: If you're gonna take these guys this is a good choice, inexperienced troops, in my opinion, benefit from these weapons the most since their veterancy does not effect their to hit roll with indirect weapons which makes these guys deadlier on the table.

FFI Squad: These are the inexperienced troops you really want to give the rifle grenades to because of the reasons mentioned above and the cost of the rifle grenades, which I forgot to mention is rather hefty, is balanced out by getting a free unit of FFI.

Moroccan Goumiers: The rifle grenades really contradict the purpose of these guys which is to clos in and assault enemy units, I wouldn't recommend putting rifle grenades on these guys.

Tirailluers squad: Refer to my above statement.

Brigade de Choc squad: Rifle grenades on these guys could be useful, I could kind of see a bigger squad of these with an LMG and the rifle grenades to provide an anchor for a platoon that goes heavy on the FFI but you could build an FFI squad to fill that same roll, these guys are just harder to kill.

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs squad: I mentioned in the last post that I loved this unit and now I have another reason why. Their versatility in options for specific missions has now increased by giving a mountain troops unit three rifle grenades and pairing them up with a squad or two of tough fighting mountain troops. Use this squad to lay down a suppression barrage on your target then move in for the kill with your tough fighters.

SAS squad: They can outflank with 3 HE weapons but your expensive squad is now even more points heavy and honestly a howitzer or mortar can probably already be working on whatever target your SAS took 3 turn to try and attack with outflank.

Prevot Militaire sqaud: Maybe paying for the 4 guys to have rifles so that they can now have rifle grenades is worth it but probably not, that's a lot of investment in a really fragile unit with no real benifits.

French Intelligence squad: My thoughts on giving these guys rifle grenades mirrors my thoughts on giving the SAS rifle grenades. Not much point really.

Rifle grenades, they're an interesting piece of kit that can benefit a couple of France's squads but they are points heavy so I never take them and that's why I forgot to mention them in the initial break down.

The second missing entry from the break down comes from the Campaign: Battle for France book and that is French engineers. The author of that book specified that this unit can be taken in the Late War French list which is particularly nice since a lot of campaign book units don't have it specified where they can be taken.

French Engineer squad: Min 5 max 11, can be inexperienced, regular, or veteran. You can tell this was designed primarily as an early war unit because the NCO comes with a pistol and the rest get rifles and the squad is light on upgrades. The big one is the flamethrower, this is why people love and take engineers, they're flamethrower teams with ablative wounds. Other then AT grenades this is the only weapon option they can take. This kind of makes the unit rather disappointing because if they loose their flamethrower they're just another squad of only rifles, which can at least be stubborn. I guess they can have rifle grenades, which could be interesting if each rifle grenade engages a separate target and the flamethrower shoots a fourth unit making for quite the pin generating squad if everything hits. Their last option is the ability to take motorcycles so you can make them fast moving while potentially saving on a transport.  

Late War French Army Rules Breakdown

 In addition to posting up progress on my various units for my French I think I'll also do a few posts dedicated to breaking down the army list itself and some cool things you can do with it. I hear a lot of people say that since the French were rearmed and reequipped with American material that it's better to just play Americans with a bunch of French markings stuck on them and I hate that for a number of reason. The first is that the Americans get the special rule fire and maneuver army wide and the logic for this is because it was their doctrine and they backed it up by arming the entire military with the semi-automatic M1 rifles and while all armies practice fire and maneuver in the field its the ability to really throw lead out that gives the Americans the edge and most of the French forces were given substitute standard bolt action M1903 and M1917 rifles so we're already a step away from standard American troops in that regard. I also dislike the attitude of just play Americans instead because if you do that at a tournament nobody recognizes that you are a French player because everything is submitted as an American army and if I'm going to put the time in to make a force recognizably French I want that reflected elsewhere. Lastly the Late War French list could use some fleshing out to give it some more flavor but it is a deceptively good list so lets begin this breakdown.

We'll start with the army special rules, I'm not going to type them out verbatim just give the gist of what they do and how good or bad I consider them to be.

Sacred Ground: You can give any regular or veteran infantry stubborn for +1 point per man. This is amazing, stubborn is a very good rule, it's cheap and you always have it regardless of the number of men in the squad unlike fanatic which goes away if there is only 1 man left and since this is optional you don't have to put it on everyone but it allows you to make some hearty units that can hold objectives longer then other units.

La Resistance: Buy 2 FFI squads get a 3rd free. Awesome if you want to go for an inexperienced horde or fill out some points since the 2 squads you buy can be the base 5 men and the free squad is always 10 men you just buy their upgrades, which is fine.

Local Area Knowledge: French vehicles do not suffer a -1 for coming in from reserve. Situationally good since you have to bring vehicles and they have to be in reserve but it is a great way to save light armor from prep bombardment or keep a transport full of men in reserve to plug a hole in your lines.

That's the army rules, I think they're pretty good if you plan accordingly but the nuance required means not everyone can pick these forces up and do amazing but these rules combined with some of the special rules some of the units have can make potent combos. That being said I'm going to move on to the units, some of these I may just gloss over since they're more or less the same as other nations just with the bonus of being able to be stubborn.

HQ

Officers from 2nd LT up to major, we all know what they do.

Medics are medics.

Forward Artillery and Air observers nothing special here.

Intelligence officer: Here we have some interesting potential. He is armed as modeled and before the first dice is pulled in a round he can make a dice roll that, based on his veterancy, if passed lets you pick the first order dice that round. It's a nifty rule that's great for those games when you have a turn and you need your dice to come out first because now you have a chance to make it happen. Interestingly the rules don't say he replaces one of the men attached to the officer team so you could add the intel officer and 2 men with the officer and give them all SMGs giving yourself a small SMG squad that could fit comfortably in an M3 scout car with a bazooka team or flamethrower team.

Chaplain: An interesting unit that was added to the game with this book, he can allow a unit to shed 1 pin with his order dice if he remains within 6" but he can't fight unless it is in hand to hand like a medic. Also like a medic he's a cheap dice so there is use for him.

Infantry squads and teams

Regular infantry squad: Min 6 max 12 they can have 1 SMG and 1 LMG or BAR. Nothing too exciting, they can take AT grenades and stubborn which makes them a pretty solid squad.

Inexperienced Infantry: Same loadout as above except they can't be stubborn, no reason to take them over FFI squads unless you're dead set on style points.

FFI squad: Min 5 max 10 they can have 3 SMGs and an LMG and come with green. This squad is good with the national trait for the reasons I listed there.

Moroccan Goumiers: Min 6 max 12 they come with tough fighters and can take 3 SMGs and 1 LMG as well as the special rules mountain troops and stubborn as well as AT grenades. I need to stop here to talk about mountain troops, this rule is a hidden gem that a couple units in this list can take and it allows the unit to ignore rough ground for movement purposes. This means that a squad like this can, for a hefty points cost, be 12 men strong with tough fighters, charge at you out of cover and unless you are behind a wall or other defended obstacle swing after this squad has made it's attacks because they ignored the terrain that would allow you to fight simultaneously, and then be damn hard to shift because they are stubborn. 

Tirailluers squad: Min 6 max 12 this is the only squad where you can take it at any experience level but trust me you won't take them lower then regular. They can have 1 SMG and 1 LMG and the regular/veteran troops can be tough fighter, mountain troops, and stubborn while being armed with AT grenades if you want. This squad can do the same charge through terrain tough fighting shenanigans the goumiers can and can do it cheaper if you take them at regular and that is absolutely wild that there are not one but two units in this book that can do that.

Brigade de Choc squad: Min 5 max 12 this is you catch all veteran unit with stubborn already built in. They can have 5 SMGs and 1 BAR/LMG as well as AT grenades. It's a decent squad that's good for getting veterans with a decent amount of firepower but it's not my favorite and is the part that needs the most work because so many units got lumped under one umbrella that were very unique in there own way but I'm not here to dissect that, I'm just going over the army.

D'Eclaireurs Skieurs squad: Min 6 max 12 this is my preferred veteran squad because they have mountain troops built in and skiis which is actually pretty meh but they have several benefits. They can have 4 SMGs, only 1 less then brigade de choc, 1 BAR/LMG and can take stubborn which allows you to have a veteran squad that can throw out a good amount of dice that moves through terrain with ease.

SAS squad: Min 4 max 8 this is your source of fanatic veterans with tough fighter built in because every man comes with a pistol in addition to his rifle. Any man can have an SMG and 2 men can take LMGs that can be upgraded to shoot 1 extra shot each. They also ignore the penalty for out flanking. It's a good squad that is limited by its size and hefty points cost so I tend to steer clear of them although the one tournament I used them in I gave them stubborn for a laugh and wound up keeping 2 units on objectives because of it so do with that as you will.

Prevot Militaire sqaud: 4 inexperienced men with pistols, any of them can be upgraded to a rifle or SMG. They let friendly units with in 6" reroll a rally order if it is failed which is almost useless in 2nd ed bolt action since rally orders are done on full morale value but this book was intended to be a 1st ed campaign book so I'll cut the author slack here.

French Intelligence squad: Min 4 max 7, the officer gets whatever you build him with and the rest of the squad has rifles. I mentioned above that the Tirailluers were the only squad that can be taken at any experience level but I was wrong, this squad can too, and much like the Tirailluers you probably won't take these guys as anything less then regulars but because they are lead by an intelligence officer you would want to find the points to go veteran if possible. Two guys can take SMGs so the squad can have a total of 3 if you build the intelligence officer that way. The squad can outflank easier if you so choose because they have behind enemy lines. It specifies that to take stubborn the unit has to be veteran and your force must include at least one brigade de choc section but as far as I know the army special trumps this rule and you can give them stubborn at regular or veteran regardless and there hasn't been an FAQ to contradict that yet. 

MMG team: the only nifty thing is that a French platoon can have 2 of them.

Bazooka team: Most of us know what they can do, these can just also be stubborn.

Sniper team: the can be any level of veterancy, both guys have rifles, if you don't take inex then they can be stubborn. The sniper team does not have the sniper special rule so technically they don't always do exceptional damage but I have yet to find an opponent who hasn't looked at that and gone "no they just forgot, play it like a regular sniper" instead of being a dick and making me play with the snipers as they are written.

Flamethrower team: Everyone knows what these are capable of

Mortar team: France is limited to light and medium and since they use the Armies of the US entry the light mortar team is 3 men so no small team bonus there.

Artillery

The French can have light, medium or heavy howitzers, the US 37mm BOFORS, and the 57mm medium AT gun. Pretty solid selection.

Tanks, Tank Destroyers, Self Propelled Artillery, and Armored Cars

I will preface this by noting that with an FAQ addition all French lend lease tanks that have gyro-stabilizers listed now benefit from them if they are veteran.

M3 Stuart: light tank with gyro-stabilized light AT, hull MMG and coax MMG that can take recce

M5 Stuart: light tank with gyro-stabilized light AT, hull MMG and coax MMG that can take an additional pintle MMG and recce and also has 9+ front armor. This is my go to tank choice even before the FAQ gave it gyro-stabilizer or the option to buy recce. 

M4 Sherman 75mm: Medium tank with gyro-stabilized medium AT, hull mounted MMG, coax MMG and the rule easily catches fire which can be taken off as well as having an additional pintle MMG added. My second choice for tank, it's a solid medium tank with the dual purpose 75mm main armament.

M4 Sherman 76mm: Medium tank with gyro-stabilized heavy AT, hull mounted MMG, coax MMG and can take an additional pintle MMG.

M10 Tank destroyer: Light tank with a heavy AT gun, give an HMG for 25 points. This one has been becoming a favorite lately as I painted on up for my French since it's a cheap way to get a heavy AT gun on the table, sucks that its open topped though.

M8 Scott: Light tank with a light howitzer and HMG in an open topped turret. I've been meaning to try this one out because it's a cheap and mobile light howitzer.

M7 Priest: Light tank with a front arc medium howitzer and pintle mounted HMG on an open topped hull. I have no experience with these, but I've seen them used to good effect.

M8 Greyhound: 7+ armor, light AT and coax MMG on an open topped turret. It gets recce and can buy an HMG. Ask 10 people what they think of it and 5 will say it's great while the other 5 say it blows. It has an AT gun tho so if you're lacking in AT then this is a possible solution.

French SAS jeep: a jeep that can have a bunch of MGs, it's the shootier of the armored car choices but it is a jeep. I personally have a problem with the inclusion of SAS units in this list because they didn't rejoin the French army til after the war's end.

Transports and Tows

Jeep: beep beep I'm a jeep, give me an MMG or HMG and move me to the armored car slot

Dodge 3/4 ton truck: A good soft skinned transport for 8 men, it can have a pintle mounted MMG or HMG.

1.5 ton truck: A soft skinned truck for carrying slightly more dudes, I don't ever really use them because it feels like I waste too much transport space with my squad sizes.

2.5 ton truck: A soft skinned truck for carrying a bunch of dudes, I have the same issue with this as I do with the 1.5 ton truck.

M3 scout car: I love this thing, it looks cool, its armored, and it comes with an HMG and can add 2 MMGs. It can either carry 8 guys or be a recce vehicle and get moved to the armored car slot and it is not a bad option for that slot.

M4/M5 artillery tractor: It's supposed to tow guns but we all buy it to use as a cheap MG platform.

M5 halftrack: 7+ with an HMG and carries 12 guys and I love 'em. The US halftrack looks so damn cool and I've been developing a lot of tactics around 2 of them full of mountain troops.

Here is the units available from the Battle of the Bulge campaign book. Not as many units as other nations but as I said there are several hidden gems and interesting unit options tucked away in this list. Some of my future posts I'll cover tactics and how I take these units in games of Bolt Action.

Late War French Pt. 2

Here we go with the next installment of my French and it is quite an update. The troops I've done up so far are predominantly for the Corps Expéditionnaire Français (FEC) which were the troops that deployed in Italy and helped break through the Gustav line before being transfered to France for operation dragoon. The uniforms didn't really change much so these troops work for 1943 on, the predominant reason I went with the Italian campaign was because of how some of the M3 scout cars were painted which I will elaborate on in a minute. 

I'll start with my favorite part of the platoon which are my Moroccan Spahis. The Spahis were horse mounted cavalry in the desert war but with the flow of American equipment they were mechanized with M3 scout cars and M3 or M5 Stuarts and formed the recon element for the FEC. They're my favorite unit visually because most photos show them wearing the French tanker helmet which is my favorite helmet to be developed in WWII.

Even though they were mounted in M3 scout out cars I figured they would sometimes have to do reconnaissance on foot so I put together a platoon of 19, it was supposed to be 20 but one of the miniatures vanished.

I have a 3 man HQ, this was supposed to be where the missing mam goes because they were going to have an attached intelligence officer. All the figures in this platoon are black tree American infantry with heads swaps from ludocortorum, which are excellent sculpts and the customer service is great.

The rest of the platoon is 2 identical squads of 8 men with 5 Thompsons and 3 M1 carbines each. I think technically the most men that would be in an M3 crew is 5 but the practicalities of bolt action mean that I need slightly bulkier squads.

Next up I have the bulk of my regular infantry, these are representative of Algerian or Moroccan Tirailleurs.

I went with warlord USMC as the basis for these so that I could arm them with M1903 Springfields as that was a fairly common weapon issued to French troops and some of the colonial units were issued HBT uniforms. The heads and FM 24/29s are from ludocortorum.

These squads aren't set up in a way I would actually run them, instead I've just distributed the weapons evenly across the three squads pictured. There's 33 men total and each 11 man group has 3 SMGs, 1 LMG/BAR, and 7 rifles. Plenty of versatility in how I can build a couple of squads.

The last of the infantry was the biggest pain in the ass to paint but the most visually striking and those are the Morrocan goumiers.

Nothing crazy as far as loadout goes, it's 24 riflemen with a couple LMGs and SMGs in my to do pile. What they lack in firepower they make up in their ability to be stubborn tough fighting mountain troops and I could run 2 squads of 12 if I wanted to pay the points which is interesting. 

I mentioned earlier I made this an FEC force based on how some of the M3 scout cars were painted and that's because they painted them up in a traditional French camouflage. 

So I just had to do one myself.

The M3 itself came out okay but I don't like the crew much. This is the Rubicon kit but the Rubicon crew were too small for my 3d printed tanker heads from ludocortorum so I went with kepis from empress and my wash went bad on me while i painted so it may get a new crew at some point.

Lastly we have an M10 with crew converted from USMC and 3d printed heads attached. This one isn't quite done yet but it's good enough I've put It on the table a time or two. I still need to paint up more support weapons for the French but for now my infantry needs are well met.