Bolt Action Late War Germans

[Commissar Glenn]

Hi. I have just bought my first Bolt Action 28mm troops: Late war Germans. 30 figures in the box, so 3 sections of 10? Given the different  options in the box can anyone recommend the best way to arm each group of 10?

Thanks,

Glenn

[Armstrong]

It depends on the rules you want to use and how accurate you want to set up your troops.

The normal "historical" setup of a german infantry sqad (around 1943 - 45) was a group of 9 - 10 soldiers.
Normally the group leader and his deputy were armed with mp40.
There were two machine gunners for an MG42 or MG34 (one was carrying the MG the other one had a rifle).
The rest of the unit was equipped with KAR98K rifles.
(Optionally some men later also carried a "Panzerfaust", depending on the enemy troops they were facing.)

But there were a lot of variations in battle.
Mostly depending on the strenght of the infantry regiment and of the weapons that they had at hand.

[Doug E]

Hi. I have just bought my first Bolt Action 28mm troops: Late war Germans. 30 figures in the box, so 3 sections of 10? Given the different  options in the box can anyone recommend the best way to arm each group of 10?

Thanks,

Glenn

What Armstrong described above isn't much different from the early war version - except for the two machine guns.  I think early war, only one light machine gun (LMG) per squad was the norm. 

Just having built my German army force for Barbarosa / Stalingrad, it was just that - one SMG, one LMG, the rest with KAR-98.  On paper, there were 10 men in a squad.  However, I found numerous accounts saying no German veteran infantryman could remember ever having ten men, it was always 9 per squad - if you want to stick to that bit of "historical accuracy", and that leaves you options for the other three figures if you need them.

Anyway, getting on to your question about a late war configuration, there you have a LOT of additional options, additional firepower.  You could have two LMG's per squad as Armstrong said.  You could have a squad with more SMG's.  You could have several Automatic Rifles.  You could have a ton of Panzerfausts. 

For example, in the Armies of Germany book, a Heer Veteran Grenadier squad can have the NCO and up to six men can have SMG's instead of rifles for 3 points each, and the NCO and up to NINE men (that's the whole squad) can have Automatic Rifles for 5 points each.  In addition, up to four men can have a Panzerfaust in addition to his other weapon for 5 points each.

If you know anyone with an Armies of Germany book, you can find useful information there.  However, I would recommend NOT buying one.  Warlord Games recently announced it was coming out with the new 3rd edition rule book, and informed everyone the current "Armies of" books would not be compatible with the new rules.

Since I have the book, I'll be happy to look up any questions you have and get back to you with the information. 

Have fun.

(Edit) -

What was I thinking?  In Bolt Action, your platoon has to have at least one officer - so there's one model.  And if you put one or two more troops with the officer, they can take hits and become casualties leaving the officer unharmed.

Of course you might also consider who you're playing against, what scenarios they want to play, etc.

In addition, you can get a good idea of your options if you go to easyarmy.com and play around with the options for building various platoons.