[GeneralJimbo81]

Yes those are the books. Sealion in paticular. Gigant has some really interesting units too though. Unfortunately the units in both books cant be used in Generic platoons. There is however more Generic Home guard option in the “Armies of great Britain” book.

 

[GeneralJimbo81]

My comments Ideas.
Snipers – The issue with snipers is mainly their ability to one shot teams (Mortar / MG Particularly). As simple solution that could be errata’d would be simply to give team members individual weapons so each man has “rifle or pistol as modelled (assume pistol if none obvious on model)”. Yes now you’ve lost you MG / Mortar but you at least have a small team that can do something. Can only fire personal weapons or the Team weapon (Techically this would allow them to advance and fire a rifle or pistol but I dont think that would unbalance or be a major prob)

Infantry MMGs generally being Meh. Make them inflict a further 1 or D3 pins if they cause a casualty on a unit. This reflects their actual use in supression and area denial.

Transports – Personally dont see much wrong with MGs on transports and how they work. Transports are pretty vulnerable so it can be countered. Would like to see options for more LMGs rather than just MMGs as many / most pics I’ve seen of certainly British Trucks thay have Brens not MMGs. As for the disappearing at end of turn is closest unit is an enemy, I quite like this though think there should be a range (Prob or 18 or 14″) to it. i.e. if nearest unit is enemy by 40″ away thats fine.

@lordnat “I’d make it – If the vehicle doesn’t have a advance or run order then the firing unit applies a +1 to the hit roll”. I like this though think it should / must only apply to main guns not every bleedin MG on the things otherwise you’ve just further buffed the Dakka Stuarts of this game.

 

 

[GeneralJimbo81]

Have to agree with Alan. +1 to hit for Vets is overpowered. When I first got into BA just over a year ago we accidently played this in our first game and it was clear there would be no reason to take anything but Vets. We then read the rulebook a bit closer.

[GeneralJimbo81]

Hi there give it a go.

If you want your guys to look and be armed French. Then Wargames Atlantic do a box or 35 plastic French 1914-40 troops. True a lot of the weapons are older models (no MAS rifles) but colonial troops rarely get the best. Think their more European in appearance but i dont know what the French uniforms in Indo China looked like. Not seen minis up close but look good online. You could also poss fairly easily do arm swaps with US arms & weapons. The box set seems really good value as seems to be £25 for sprues to make 35 (sorry I’m in UK).

Have fun whatever way you decide to go.

[GeneralJimbo81]

Bit of late reply but just resaw this post and only other day noticed this in Easy Army.
Think this must be a new feature recently added but If you use Easy Army you can set it to output Stat Cards. You can then download your army as PDF with Stat Cards for each unit. You you can then print them.

[GeneralJimbo81]

Thanks @bmdnut and @ripley. I was aware of the VBCW and Bad Squiddo (one day ill get their Bofors) but wanted weapons I can fit to my plastic Warlord Brits. Ill check out Great Escape Minatures Gunfighters. Im guessing your both refering to the same set. Modelling one with the gun broken would be cool.

[GeneralJimbo81]

Was looking at the French rules last night and reallised they are potentially even more nuts than Japanese.
As such you could always give him a dose of his own medicine as it were and build a French force. Take 3x Full 12 man (with the extra 4pt man with a pistol) inexperianced infantry and get another 12 man unit for free. Take a further 2 full 12 man units. Thats a total of 72 infantry plays his 75 spear fighters. If you take those last 2 units as Inexperianced as well you’ve only paid 30 more points for them compared to him but even if you take them regularyour only just over 100pts more and (nearly all) your men have rifles. True you’ll prob want to get some LMG or VB upgrades as well.
You can also have a free Med Howitzer and take an additional Howitzer as well and a mortar. All this can still come in at under 500pt (No upgrades and a Med & light How and Inex Mortar). Thats a lot of men and artillery to hit those spear fighters. However lets assume you want some bigger guns and take some upgrades that can still come in at under 700pt which depending on your battle size gives you enough for Command and a few other bits.

I’m not saying this is perhaps “in the spirit” but it could make a point.

 

[GeneralJimbo81]

Thanks for pointing that out I’d missed it on the FAQ.

Is bit odd though as i thought spotters can shoot the weapons they’re armed with so long as their artillery unit doesn’t.

Also does this mean that unarmed troops (i.e. unarmed Home Guard or say Japanese Spear fighters) can’t fire such a weapon on a transport as they can’t shoot (by virue of not having any ranged arms)?

 

[GeneralJimbo81]

SAS jeeps could be useful. Fast so you can zip em round behind preventing the Banzai. Also bedecked with MGs for mowing down infantry. You can even take them as Inexperanced (not sure quite why that is as SAS are generally even in ww2 cosidered to be one of the most elite forces in the world).

You can do similar with transport Uni Carriers too (and can have as many as you can afford). Put a cheap unit, your obs (after he’s or before he drops his 1 shot) in it. It can the benefit from the Pintle LMG upgrade and doesn’t disappear in a puff of smoke the moment an enemy is nearest model. I’ve actually toyed with the idea of using spotters purely as LMG gunners / closest enemy logic eliminators. They can fire the LMG but as its the Carriers activation not their parent artillery pieces don’t prevent that firing. The artillery will need to see though as they can’t spot from the Carrier. This is just an idea I had though as I’ve not actually tried it yet.

[GeneralJimbo81]

Month or more posted this article. Thought I’d post some updated pics now I’ve painted up the AT team and my first small unit of Home Guard.

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[GeneralJimbo81]

Not that there are any official rules for it but there was 1920’s British Birch Gun. The Mk III (only 2 or 3 ever built) had a fully enclosed encasement / turret. Pretty sure it mounted a Light Howitzer (18lb Gun) though.

[GeneralJimbo81]

I’m not an expert on this area by any means but my understanding was that many or most uniforms (though I very very much doubt all) were re-dyed green locally. The “locally” here is key as there was apparently as a result very little (if any) standard and thus quite a variety in colour and quality (It’s thus possible that some redyed uniforms faded considerably or even the dye got “washed out”). From a modelling perspective I actually find this quite cool as pretty much you can paint whatever you feel like.

[GeneralJimbo81]

@lordnat Yes I’d agree that is the place of TLs. I was meerly commenting that many nations used light mortars extensively.

@agiletek I’d disagree the British .303 is a “much worse cartridge”. True it was an older design rimmed cartridge but it was an Accurate, Reliable  and Powerful (perhaps not as powerful as some but some may argue more suited to actual combat ranges of ww1 & 2) round that saw Britain and her Empire through ww1, ww2 and Korea.

[GeneralJimbo81]

As this is thread is about Kit bashing thought I’d upload one of the things I’m currently working on which is a Home Guard force (Sea Lion / Gigant book).
I am not a greatly skilled modeler but this kind of kit bash + I can do.

The first 2 pics are my Volunteer AT squad complete with No68 AT grenade launcher (a SMLE with cup grenade launcher).
All models use the older British Infantry sprues as the base. Originally I was going to use the newer kit with old arms but it didn’t look right so bought another box of the older models (actually I got 30 as it came with an extra sprue and weapons frame).
Weapons are metal and came from Colonel Bills. The SMLEs had the bayonets cut off and filed down.
The Rile Grenade launcher then had the cup discharger cut from another Colonel Bills Rifle Grenade launcher pinned and glued on (this was from a very odd weapon set I bought a while back for another item in it) . Finally some Cu wire from an old set of headphones was wound around the stock as the bracing. The firing arm had to be bent (well straightened technically) and filled with some putty (it was hollow backed and didn’t sit well at the shoulder).
The Molotov is a straight arm swap and a Soviet arm which has the Molotov. I also used a Soviet arm as his other arm as noticed the Soviet arms seemed that bit chunkier than the Brit ones and wanted them to match.
Finally the 2 that don’t have the Grenade launcher had the bayonets on the side of their Gas mask case changed for one from the Commonwealth (or 8th Army) infantry sprue more correct for the SMLE. The Grenade launcher didn’t get this for 2 reasons 1. I figured he cant have a bayonet and the Cup Launcher fitted. 2. Most importantly I’d already stuck it on before I thought about the bayonet being wrong.
This about my skill level so next step is to prime and paint them.

Finally the last model is my first WIP for the rest of the Home Guard. Its a very simply using the Springfield from the US weapons sprue to represent M1917s issued (in 30.06) to Home Guard. At 28mm / 1/56 the difference between the M1917 and Springfield are virtually indistinguishable anyway. When I paint them they’ll have a red stripe around the stock behind the muzzle as was done in the war to stop them being confused with Rifle No3’s (1914 pattern Enfields) which is identical to the M1917 (except the latter was re chambered for 30.06 rather than .303 and as a result could get a 6th round in its mag). I will also use the US infantry spues for BARs as some of the squad support weapons as BARs (Als0 in 30.06) werealso issued to Home Guard.

Anyway hope you like

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[GeneralJimbo81]

@lordnat like your idea of attaching Light Mortars to your officers and understand what your saying about light mortars and removing Japans distinguishing feature (though I’m not sure the Japanese made particularly heavier use of them than many others, in certain theaters and formations the Brits certainly used the things extensively as did the US with their 60mm).

Concerning the BA and SA rifles I don’t see a problem. Outside US forces there were very few SA rifles used in WW2 and the US get their special rules to reflect this alongside US fire and move doctrine. True most nations had them but they were used in very limited numbers. Additionally the firepower advantage depends on what you compare to and on the skill and training of the operator. My understanding is that easy cycling rifles such as K31 and SMLE / No4 give about 1/3 improvement over KAR98 and the M1 gives about 1/3 improvement over K31 and Lee Enfields. Also this advantage is actually less pronounced for experienced shooters. People also forget the down sides which is that in a firefight SA weapons allow your troops to blat off, and thus run out of, their ammo much quicker (Not that BA considers that outside flame throwers).

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