Box Contents

The Stars and Stripes – US Starter Army is an all-plastic Starter Army containing:

• x6 US Army Infantry sprues (36 Infantry)
• x2 US Heavy Weapons sprues (x4 HMGs, x2 MMGs, x2 Med. Mortars)
• x1 57mm Medium AT Gun
• x4 Crew sprues (16 Infantry)
• M4A1 Sherman Medium Tank
• M8 Greyhound Armored Car or M20 Scout Car

The Dogface Infantry 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.

Hot on the heels of Cross of Iron, an all-plastic US Starter Army has arrived. Stars and Stripes builds on the plastic US Heavy Weapons Platoon and 57mm AT Gun to breath new life into the always dependable plastic US Army Infantry, M4 Sherman and Greyhound/M20 dual kit. Just like the German and British releases, this Starter Army is fully plastic. No metal. No Warlord resin. No fiddling about. Just wonderful hard plastic. Although plastic kits are far easier to work with, customize, and convert than metal or resin, this army list keeps things simple. No dramatic or complex list building here, just a full Rifle Platoon and Heavy Weapons Platoon backed up by an ATG and two AFVs. Nothing fancy. Just the US Army going to work.

With that approach in mind, we have arrived with an army list that all 36 infantry and all 16 of the new plastic crew. Make sure to mix and match the crew and the infantry to build your Platoon Commanders and weapons teams. The photo on the box shows a repeated Platoon Commander, no need to build yours the same, get creative with it. The list has 15 Order Dice and except for the Vet Sherman, is 100% Reg.

Starting with the Rifle Platoon, the core of this force is three US Army Rifle Squads, each with eight men – seven Rifles, one BAR. In direct support is a single Armored Infantry Machine Gun Squad of six men with two LMGs with a Reg Platoon Commander with a single buddy leading the way. Keep the double-LMG Squad back and put out some Pins using that 36″ range. Two LMGs are not the most deadly combo, but you will get shots on target. This unit is great for keeping pesky Support Teams behind cover and can be used to suppress larger squads as well. Your three Rifle Squads? Well, do what US Rifle Squads do – Fire & Maneuver. Each squad puts out 11 shots at 24″ (7 shots from the Rifles + 2 from the BAR + 2 from F&M) even if you take a casualty. Don’t be reckless with them, it’s only 8 Regs per squad. But get them up and into scoring position. This list has a lot of fire support. Under the cover of your Heavy Weapons Platoon, you should be able to get these boys where you need them to be. Keep the PC close and make sure one or two squads are always within 6″ to get that +2 Morale bonus. And we cannot forget the pair of Bazooka Teams! Because the Light AT Gun and two Medium AT Guns was not enough, I also added in two Bazooka Teams (the Selection rule lets us add a second one). Move them up with your Rifle Squads to keep any enemy vehicles at bay. The Bazookas are for close-up, sneaky attacks. The Greyhound, Sherman, and AT Gun are for long-range engagements.

Speaking of fire support, the Heavy Weapons Platoon brings the heat. Not one, but two HMG Teams can deal serious damage. With 6 shots each and a 48″ range, there is little they cannot reach. Soft-skins will evaporate and even Vet infantry don’t want to get caught in the open. With four crew you are more survivable than most Support Teams, but you need to be very careful with deployment. Get into Hard Cover wherever possible (but avoid buildings) and keep your lanes of fire clear. Now for something I don’t normally do or recommend, a Medium Mortar without a Spotter. I don’t think I’ve ever brought a Med. Mortar without a Spotter, but I ran out of models and I didn’t want to reduce the Infantry Squads. So our Med. Mortar will need to get into cover as well and keep the enemy within LoS. Luckily, it’s got a range advantage on pretty much everything. Try to find an enemy Artillery unit to range in on and hope you land a shot early.

Can it be? Plastic Artillery? Yes! At long last the US has access to a plastic AT Gun. It’s not my first pick (I prefer Light Howitzers to ATGs) but I am not going to complain about plastic arty. The Artillery Platoon is just the single Med. AT Gun. It’s got a Gun Shield, but only three crew, so I’d be very careful about deploying in the open. As mentioned before, this force requires careful deployment to make sure you don’t block yourself. You have the Medium ATG, two HMG Teams, the Mortar, and the Armored Infantry Machine Gun Squad that all need a nice spot to setup. Deployment will be key. Use the ATG to lock down a lane of fire and funnel enemy vehicles into the waiting jaws of your Sherman and/or Greyhound.

For the Armored Platoon we went with a Vet Sherman M4A1 and a Reg M8 Greyhound. You have the option to build an M20 Scout Car instead, but I wanted the additional Light AT Gun on the Greyhound. Put the Greyhound in Outflank and arrives on the table with anything but an 11 or 12 as you are Reg Command Vehicle with Modern Communications. Sneak in behind an enemy Tank and blast them in the Rear Armor with +5 Pen (you get +1 Pen for Point-blank). You are wheeled and have Recce so once you dust that AFV you will have no trouble getting out of dodge. Oh, and there is a pintle HMG that you will always be firing because the Greyhound is already Open-topped. The Sherman is Vet, use those Gyro-stabilizers and pop the hatch to let that HMG rip. We’ve paid the extra points to remove Easily Catches Fire and added a pintle-HMG to turn this Medium Tank into a highly effective unit. Combined with the two Bazooka Teams and the Medium AT Gun, you have plenty of AT assets in this list. If you can box in the enemy vehicles with just your Bazookas and ATG, that opens up the Sherman and Greyhound to zip around and bully enemy infantry. They each have HMGs and the Improved HE on the Sherman is legit terrifying against Artillery.

Although this Starter Army is a tad bland – the core, Reg US options are not super exciting when compared to say, the Ayo Gorkhali! – Gurkha Starter Army, but that may be a tad unfair. There is something classic about the bog-standard US GI. And that will never go out of style. Who needs fancy unit special rules when you have an M1 with Fire & Maneuver?

To sum it up, this list is designed to punish the enemy at range with all those HMGs and LMGs. Fix the enemy, blast away and then sweep in with the Rifle Squads for cleanup. The more I looked at this list, the more fun I think it’ll be on the table. You have no shortage of tools in the toolbox and should be able to deal with just about anything across the table.

What’s Next?

Thoughts and musings on where to go from here:

• Go Vets – Towards the end of the list building process I was running out of models and struggling to hit the 1250 mark. Upping a few units to Vets or changing the Rifle Platoon to Rangers would give you additional models to play with (like adding a Spotter to the Med. Mortar). You’d loose out in the number of troops on the table, but multiple squads of Vets is always worth considering.
• Change up the Heavy Weapons – There are a lot of choices with these Heavy Weapons sprues. I went with double HMGs but you certainly don’t have to. You have a total of four tripods (HMG and MMG) and two bipods (Mortar) to play around with. You could go wild with all four HMGs or maybe a tad more restrained with a pair of Med. Mortars? There are also 16 plastic crew but don’t let that limit you. You can use bodies and bits from the US Army Infantry sprues if you are short of crew.
• Add HE – What this list is lacking is HE. All we’ve got is the 2″ HE from the Med. Mortar at the Improved HE on the Sherman. Considering you will most often be firing AT shells from the Sherman, that’s not much in terms of high explosive options. Right off the bat I’d take a look at swapping the Medium AT Gun for a Light Howitzer. I know, I know. That means this force will no longer be all plastic but sometimes sacrifices must be made.

– Andrew

Return to the Starter Army Box Breakdowns.