WAW - Back of Beyond chinese sample army 1000pts

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

With the near completion of Agis new World at War supplement I wanted to show a sample army to give anybody interested in the game an idea what to expect from the game.

A 1000pts game fits quite well on a 4x6 table, for bigger games of 1200pts or more I'd recommend a bigger table. It's a matter of how crowded you like it. This kind of game takes about 90 minutes to play. I’d recommend a good amount of cover because the game can be deadly without it.

1000 pts Chinese army:
This army is going to be an attack force. I like my armies to outnumber and outrun the enemy so I concentrate on big and fast units and don't go for armour. Armour is rather cool but it's also vulnerable it you can't support if with infantry and it's expensive. If you want to move instead of standing back and shoot 1000pts rather limits the number of units you can take so it's hard to use one or two units just to cover an armoured car or a tank.

So here's what the army looks like


The units:
The Warlord
He is accompanied by two guards and forms a small 3 men unit. With 100pts he's rather expensive and you can even leave him out of the army and spend the saved points on more men. But he can motivate his troops to move or shoot even faster and can give you a read advantage especially if you plan to attack somebody. In game terms he can give one of your units an additional action each turn.

Basic Infantry
One unit of Chinese infantry is mandatory and I go for the standard 15 men unit. Big rifle units have the advantage to more easily suppress the smaller 10 men units at the cost of manoeuvrability. It’s simply much more difficult to move and place such big units compared to smaller ones. They can also take quite some casualties before they become problems with morale.

Assault troops
The SMG unit has a very high firepower at short range. They are excellent in holding a position as the enemy can’t approach them without accepting a big volley of shots. They are also excellent at taking out light armour because of the high volume of fire. It’s necessary to keep them out of harms range though because infantry can die very fast.

Dare to Die troops
These are a bit hit and miss. They are very expensive (nearly a quarter of the available points) and if your unlucky they don’t do much damage. But if you get 7-10 of them into close combat they are likely to move cause heavy casualties to the enemy, too. The main difficulty is to move the unit into attack range. This makes the good if lots of cover is available or if you play in a defensive position and place them in an ambush.
I try to move them in the cover of the cavalry.

The cavalry
Cavalry are my favourite troops in the game because they are very fast and they are also tough enough to survive at least some enemy fire (they usually have to accept a lot of fire). With a maximum move range of 24” in a turn they are able to reach a safe position almost anywhere on the tabletop or to charge enemy units that are pretty far away. You just need to take a lot of care for reaction fire because if you charge to deep into enemy territory you’re likely to get shot fast. Ideally you try to draw the enemy reaction fire first and then place the cavalry charge at the end of your turn, possibly with the support of the Warlord’s additional orders.

The mortar support
There’s the choice between cannon, HMG or mortar as support weapon. HMGs can be difficult to position if you have to move your units which often end up if the way of the HMG team. This I prefer artillery that allows for indirect fire. The mortar is not very effective but it’s cheap, can be placed in a secure position and it able to annoy the enemy. If you’re lucky it can also inflict heavy damage. A good hit against the enemy command group or any heavy weapons would be ideal but doesn’t happen every game. Last but not least it’s a great model.

Adding to the army:
This army provides a good basis for bigger armies; the obvious next choice would be a second 15 men rifle unit to boost the firepower. At that size (1200pts) an Executioner is also worth his cost as he can help morale a lot. If you want to raise the army to 1500 pts a FT17 and a plane would be a good addition as well as a unit of white Russians in Chinese service. This would be a pretty big army suitable to 4x8 or 5x8 tables.

[BaronVonJ]

figs look great. Can't wait for these rules to come out.
-J

[Ray Rivers]

 

Wow!

That is one super army!

[Axebreaker]

AS with all your stuff......outstanding!!

Christopher

[Poliorketes]

Good impression. But SMGs good against armor?

[Centaur_Seducer]

Any possibility of a close-up of the horses?

[Doc Twilight]

Good impression. But SMGs good against armor?

Gotta agree. Curious about that, myself. Anti-tank rifles and HMGs, sure.  But SMGs?

-Doc

[Count Winsky]

Great looking army.

[Wolfslord]

Gotta agree. Curious about that, myself. Anti-tank rifles and HMGs, sure.  But SMGs?

I'll give you an example based on the older version (!) of the rules I played:

10 regular soldiers shoot with their rifles. Every 6 is a hit. A normal armored car or even some tanks have a 6+ or 5+ save. If the vehicle fails to save 2 (or sometimes 3) hits, it is destroyed. So except against tanks that need a 7+ with 2 Dice (or 1D+1) to be hit, you don't need anti-tank weapons.

One good turn of shooting by one unit kills a light or medium armored vehicle. Like it or not....

[Agis]

Gotta agree. Curious about that, myself. Anti-tank rifles and HMGs, sure.  But SMGs?

Well SMG troops are NOT tank hunters in BoB. 
However - SMGs are shooting with 3D6 per model, so a dedicated SMG squad can shoot a LOT (at short = 12“ range).
The sheer volume of fire can take out an armoured car or light tank from behind. Which is OK if you take a look at the actual armour penetration and armour thickness of the guns/ vehicles of the time.
But every AC that comes that close to a dedicated SMG squad should be punished anyway…
A tank however is a different story (as Tom also realised in some test games), no way to get him with a rifle or SMG.

Oh and one more thing there are very few SMG squads in the game...

[Agis]

I'll give you an example based on the older version (!) of the rules I played:

10 regular soldiers shoot with their rifles. Every 6 is a hit. A normal armored car or even some tanks have a 6+ or 5+ save. If the vehicle fails to save 2 (or sometimes 3) hits, it is destroyed. So except against tanks that need a 7+ with 2 Dice (or 1D+1) to be hit, you don't need anti-tank weapons.

One good turn of shooting by one unit kills a light or medium armored vehicle. Like it or not....

Can't remember that version...
7+ with 2 dice??? There is or was no such rule in the game.

Tanks are indeed at 7+ or higher to hit/kill.

[Agis]

They are also excellent at taking out armour because of the high volume of fire.

Thanks for the very nice army description Mike!
The controversial sentence should read like this and all is fine, or?
“They are also excellent at taking out light armoured vehicles because of the high volume of fire.”

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

As Agis wrote, the important point is the short range of SMGs. If you drive your armoured car that close to an enemy unit without infantry support you're likely to get hurt. It doesn't happen very often as ACs can easliy stay out of range and use their superior weapon range.

[Wolfslord]

Can't remember that version...
7+ with 2 dice??? There is or was no such rule in the game. Shocked

Tanks are indeed at 7+ or higher to hit/kill. Cool

Of course you are right. I forgot that to get the 7+ you need a D6+1 or D6+2 weapon and you don't add 2D6 up. Shame on me .....

Tanks in general are now 7+ ? How about the Garford Putilov armored truck ? 

It doesn't happen very often as ACs can easliy stay out of range and use their superior weapon range.

In the version I played:
Rifles had the same range as the armored car gun and 10 Rifles are enough to finish the car in one round.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the WaW BoB rules, fast action, deadly, terrain plays a key role, good balancing etc. Still I can't get over the experience of my armored cars exploding after doing next to nothing (except looking good and killing 1 or 2 enemy models). 
Also I have to admit, that they are quite useful as artillery observers.

In order not to iniatiate a debate about the impact vehicles should make in a BoB game: All a matter of taste 

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

You need to cover vehicles with infantry, the game is designed to encourage people using combined arms tactics.  It needs some experience to get most out of your vehicles, they are not invulnerable game winning fighting machines.