Box Contents

The Crossing the Rhine British & Canadian Infantry (Winter) Starter Army is a mix of plastic, metal and resin models containing:

• x7 British & Canadian (Winter) Infantry sprues (42 Infantry) – Plastic
• British & Canadian (Winter) Officer – Resin
• x2 British & Canadian (Winter) MMG Teams – Resin crew with metal gun
• British & Canadian (Winter) Medium Mortar Team – Resin crew with metal gun
• 25pdr Light Howitzer (Winter) – Resin crew with metal gun
• Humber Mk II/IV Armored Car – Plastic
• Sherman Firefly VC Medium Tank – Plastic

The Engineer Company List

Breakdown

(x) denotes a vehicle-mounted weapon.

Notes and Analysis

The objective of this list is two-part – 1) use as much of the Starter Army as possible and 2) make a List that works at a competitive level. Please keep in mind, this List was written using only the contents of the Starter Army.

New Armies of book, new Starter Army! Armies of Great Britain is out and has provided players with a wealth of new unit entries, Army Special Rules and options for their Brits. There is a lot of chatter around For King and Country, special the Guards and their Iron Discipline special rule. I wouldn’t be surprised if Guards become the “default” for many British commanders. But that is not what we are looking at today. No sir. For this Starter Army Box Breakdown I didn’t want to use many of the new British rules, instead we are taking full advantage of the options in the new British Infantry kit; specifically the British & Canadian (Winter) Infantry. In this army list was make use of every single model. All 42 plastic infantry, the resin Platoon Commander, all three weapons teams, both vehicles and the artillery piece. No one is left behind. Does that mean this list is “optimal”? Probably not. But is sure looks like fun to command on the table.

The new British & Canadian (Winter) Infantry sprue contains a weapon option that we have only seen once before in plastic – the Flamethrower. Although no longer as utterly terrifying as they were in 2nd Edition, the Flamethrower is a potent weapon system and it should be considered a serious threat. So what are we going to do? Well, we are going to run five of them. That’s right. This army list includes five infantry Flamethrowers.

We begin with a light Rifle Platoon. It’s only the Platoon Commander and two Rifle Sections. Each Rifle Section is seven men plus an LMG. These units are meant to hang back. To hold any backline objectives and provide support fire to cover the advance of the Engineer Sections and the Flamethrower Teams. The LMGs have an excellent 36″ range but ideally you’ll get to Rifle range (24″) to sling 10 shots per squad. Not enough to cause a ton of damage, but enough to put Pins on the enemy. In direct support of these efforts is the Heavy Weapons Platoon. Two MMG Teams and a Med. Mortar. MMG Teams have come a long way and are looking real tasty in Third Edition. Six shots at 36″, easy to hid, annoying to deal with. Between the two MMGs and the two Rifle Sections you should have no problem laying down a base of small-arms fire. The Med. Mortar is the first of our two indirect-HE weapons. Delpy the Mortar Team completely hidden behind woods, ruins or a building and use the LoS from the Spotter to call in the shots. Go for enemy static targets like MMGs, Snipers and artillery. Anything that will be able to stop your Engineers and Flamethrower Teams from moving up.

The Artillery Platoon only has a single gun, but it’s one of the most versatile artillery pieces in the game. The British 25-pdr is fantastic. You can use it to bring down 2″ HE templates or fire it over open sights as a Light AT Gun with a Pen +4 AT shell (thanks to the 25-pdr AT Shell special rule). You’ve also got a Gun Shield so you can deploy out in the open and will still have Soft Cover (against small-arms, not heavy weapons). You can also fire indirectly using the Spotter from the Med. Mortar if you’d like. All this to say, you’ve got options for how you want to provide fire support.

Now for the core of the army list. The Engineer Platoon. We haven’t seen many Engineer Platoons during our games so we are already off to a unique start. The Platoon Commander has two buddies, and all three are armed with SMGs. You want this PC advancing up with the Engineers. Make sure you have your units covered with the 6″ +3 Morale Boost range. I’d bring another PC, maybe the one from the Artillery Platoon along with to cover more units with Snap To and +3 Morale. If your advance falters, if your Engineers and Flamethrower Teams get bogged down by Pins, you will be in real trouble. Luckily, your basic Platoon Commander provides a +3 Morale bonus thanks to Come on Lads!, just make sure to keep them out of enemy LoS due to their -1 Cover Save.

You have five Flamethrowers. Five. You must close with the enemy. They only have a 6″ range so you need to be as close as possible. You never know how many models you will hit, the single d6 for the number of hits is fickle. But no matter what you have +2 Pen and no Cover Saves allowed. You are also, always firing at Point-blank so Down won’t help the enemy either. Even more importantly, you deal d3+1 Pins. You don’t even have to deal damage – as long as you hit the target – boom; d3+1 Pins. Additionally, the target unit must take a Morale Test after being hit by the Flamethrower. That means that even if you only hit 1 model and you didn’t even deal damage they still must check Morale or flee. Insane. So what’s the downside? Well, when you fire the Flamethrower your own unit takes 1 Pin. Not ideal. Oh, and you also need to roll a d6 and on a 1 or 2 the Flamethrower is out of fuel and cannot be fired again. Bummer. Good thing you have five of them!

Finally we have the Armored Platoon led by a mighty Sherman Firefly VC. The Firefly is your tank hunter. It has one job and one job only, destroy enemy armor. It packs a Super-heavy AT Gun, that is as serious a punch as it gets. Try to use Fire orders whenever possible to make use of that critical +1 To Hit for AT Guns firing at enemy vehicles. If you find yourself in a situation targeting enemy soft targets, you have either already won or something has gone terrible wrong. The Humber is your flanker and harasser. The Light Autocannon is amazing for taking out enemy weapons teams and can even put Pins on Regular Super Heavy Tanks. But anything Vet over Armor 8, the Humber can’t touch them. Protect that Firefly. If you loose it and the enemy has significant armor, you are in trouble. To be fair, the Flamethrowers are effective against armor, but that 6″ range is going to be a very difficult thing to work around.

So there we have it! A very, “non-META” Starter Army Box Breakdown. This is one that I’m really not sure how it’s going to operate. We had an opportunity to do something different with this Starter Army and I jumped on it. Plus with these two Engineer Squads you can add all those fun extra bits like the minesweeper and entrenching gear.

What’s Next?

Thoughts and musings on where to go from here:

• Make them Guards – I resisted the temptation but for about 50pts you could make the entire force Guards and it would make this list, much, much more effective. You need to keep all your FTs moving and what better way that removing two Pins every time you pass an Order Test?
• Transports – With the exception of the Humber, this army list is slow. A couple Transport Trucks or even a White Scout Car and you’ll give some much needed speed to your infantry FTs. A full Engineers Squad plus a PC and Flamethrower Team flying in from Outflank is always a good time.
• More Light Artillery – One 25-pdr is good. Two is great.
• Drop the Engineers – I did kinda go hard on the Flamethrowers. Another very valid way to build this army is standard infantry (Vet or Reg) and give them Guards. Load up on the LMGs and you’ve got yourself a really nice gunline.

– Andrew

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