Warlord Games D Day Campaign Event 1

Putting Together Panzer Abteilung 100

     We'll it's been a while, quite a while since I blogged due to one reason or another but here I am once again and this time around I'm blogging about the force I have put together for the forth coming D Day campaign event at Warlord Games in a weeks time, the 8th/9th June.

     In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to attend this event with a Fallshirmjager reinforced platoon however in the run up to the event I received an email from Warlord Games (along with all the other folk who have signed up from the event) with an accompanying players pack including an FAQ, errata and new unit lists from the D Day campaign book (which is due for release on the weekend of the event) to allow players to put together and play one of the specific campaign selector forces on the day.

     Among the units listed there was only one German reinforced platoon and that was a reinforced armour platoon from the 100th Replacement and Training Battalion (Panzer Abt 100). The 100th was a training unit that used obsolescent French tanks like the Renault 35, Hotchkiss 39 and Char B1 for training panzer crews and was thrown into the battle in the initial stages of the D Day campaign against the US Airborne especially in the Battle of La Fiere Causeway, which was, by all accounts, a very bloody affair.

     I had, at the time of receiving the email, a fledgling early war French force sitting amongst the lead and plastic pile which included a Renault 35 which got me thinking as the other options for the 100th reinforced armour platoon (these are based on Warlord Games Tank Wars supplement for Bolt Action which allows you to play larger battles based on tanks, lots of tanks) included a Panzer III H (only one of which is allowed and must be the command tank and one of which I have) and the Char B1, as well as Hotchkiss 39s and Renault FT tanks.  I pondered making a platoon based on a Panzer III H, a Panzer 35R (the German designation for the Renault 35) and a Char B1 (another "treasure" I have sitting in the L&P pile) however I fell under the spell of an enchanting image; a painting from the Armies of Germany book showing three panzers from the Panzer Abt 100 advancing towards the invasion front and I decided that's what I want to field. 

     Just for the record, the painting shows two Hotchkiss 39Hs and a Somau S-35 but as I already had an R35 I thought I'll just buy two more of them and be damned. 

    So that's what I have done, I've bought and built a Panzer Abt 100 force for the event and here they are in all their glory. This is my 1000 points worth. All Regulars and consisting of three Panzer 35Rs, a platoon of Grenadiers; platoon commander and three squads, a medium mortar with a spotter, an MMG, two trucks with MMGs and a Kubelwagen with an MMG (I like MMGs; purely from an aesthetic perspective, you understand) 

     Apart from "needing" to make AA tripods for the MG34s in the trucks and a couple of additional crew members for them, the force is ready to go. They'll get their first run out with named platoon and squad commanders tomorrow evening against Rich's Yanks but in the meantime I need to take the dog for a walk,

Thanks for dropping by,

Pip pip, 

Jimbob