Bagration. German forces for late war Eastern front.

[Frank]

This book should have been out by now but it has been delayed by the virus. I had heard that this book covers regular army and SS forces but from the look of a preview video it is just army though there are some interesting new forces including one of my favourites from Grey Wolf, the Sturm Company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tNB...ature=youtu.be



We see the return of some vehicles not in the D Day books like Hornisse and Marders, also the Elephant, though at the price they will cost you will not be able to afford many in your list.

[Whiterook]

...I took the liberty to add in the YouTUBE vid in your post. For those wondering how to do that, copy the YouTUBE link —> click the little film strip icon at top of the post editor —> paste the link in the pop up box and click ok

I love Marders...tough little puppies! I’ve never, ever played the gloriously big Elephant and can only imagine to carnage it could potentially wreak on a hit!

[Frank]

I love Marders myself but I have never played a Ferdinand/Elephant due to their eye watering points cost. From memory in v2 and 3 they were about a 1/4 of a normal size force, 385? points from a 1500 point force. It looks like they have gone down a bit now, roughly 1/6 of an average force.

It turns out I was partly right about SS forces being included in the new book, as, while they are not in the actual book the Command Cards give you the option to turn some normal army formations into SS ones. The command cards are not essential but they do give you a lot of extra options including adding characters to your list.

There are now some good articles on the Battlefront site about the book.

https://www.blitzminis.com/blogs/new...y-group-center

https://www.blitzminis.com/blogs/new...s-formations-1

https://www.blitzminis.com/blogs/new...ng-your-armies

I am looking forward to getting a Sturm Company on the table again, with its options to add mg42`s and anti tank guns to a platoon.

[Whiterook]

Love the updates on this... thanks. That a hefty price for the Elephant, and granted it’s a beast, but the way I look at it is, it’s such a specialty item that you’d not play it often, anyway, so a heavy cost is part of the pain to play the occasional usage.

I’ve not played a lot of SS forces, oddly enough... but they’ve always been a force I wanted to explore more.

[Frank]

I`ve just checked the old books and I did get the Elephant price wrong, looks like it was 300 not 385, so coming in at each one a 1/5 of an average size force. They are very situational though, you need to play them on the steppes of Russia where there is not much LOS blocking terrain so they can stay still and get full ROF with their extended range, 8" more than a standard tank gun. They are also slow and prone to breakdown.

SS forces can be fun to play as, using the old system of morale and training, pretty much most German forces were Confident Veteran which meant they were highly trained but with medium motivation. There were lots more rules and abilities for the SS. For example, Deaths Head were Fearles Veteran making them very tough and very well motivated with a suitable rise in cost, whereas Wiking were Fearless Trained making them easier to hit but they were more likely to stay around. They also had special rules like Dutch Wiking forces were expert artillerymen so got bonus`s to artillery use, while Flemish Wiking were able to specifically target commissars in units potentially taking away the comissar re roll for failed motivation checks.

In the D-day books at least SS are treated the same as the old Trained troops ( to simulate the high losses and consequent replacements ) but if a platoon leader is within , I think, 6" of a company commander then they get a higher leadership rating.

I do now have the Bagration book and command cards on pre order, they are expected to come out March sometime.

[Frank]

The launch was last weekend but I have my book and cards on order from a local dealer so I might have to wait a while but here are the articles from the launch.

https://launch.battlefront.co.nz/

Looking forward to getting the Stug batterie on the table and having a proper look at the 78th Sturm Division, I used to really enjoy playing them.