FOW Tactical suggestion: Red Banner Gunline

April 12, 2019 | Benny Christiansen | Flames of War

By Benny Christiansen

Having played a few games with less than 50% win rate, I have decided to try and find a stronger list. One of the things that I have thought about earlier is the “Gun line”. Many of the lists in FOW MW are mobile and flexible. I find MW to be a game of mobility, but I have decided to test that requirement by making this Gun Line list.

In a 109 pts list, it could look something like this:

Hero Moto Rifle HQ (because they are the best infantry at that cost in my honest opinion)

Two Hero Motor Rifle Coy with PTRDs maxed (Guards Motor Rifle Battalion cmd cards both choices)

HMG Coy 9 teams

PTRD Coy 6 teams

120mm Mortars (with Recon By Combat) 6 teams

45mm Anti Tank Coy 4 teams

76mm Anti Tank Coy 4 teams

Heavy Tank-killer Coy 2 57mm teams

BA-10 Armored Car Plt 3 teams

Il-2 Shturmovik 2 planes

2 76mm Artillery Battery with 4 teams each (Recon by Combat cmd cards both choices)

Lucky Command Card

Volley Fire 76mm AT Coy cmd card

 

The thoughts behind the list are as follows:

  • It can attack.  As the attacker, you have, in the More Missions pack, six missions where you field the entire list. A counterattack against this list would be ill-advised no matter what you are fielding as the defender.
    • Having 3 templates every turn can make serious holes in your opponent’s defense.
    • It has enough rifle/HMG fire to stop any infantry list I can think of.
    • It has enough AT 9 or higher shots to terrify any list I can think of.
    • Stay frosty, when you make your attack plan. In most games, except Meeting Engagements, the defender does not win until turn 6.
    • Having a “Gun Line” with approximately 100 cm of gun teams makes it hard to flank it without having to face gun units, infantry and PTRDs.
    • The Shturmoviks can potentially take out any armored artillery, that’s making your life hard on you.
  • It can defend. Most missions in the More Missions pack will make the defender the winner if they can keep the enemy from getting within 20cm of the objectives on turn 6 or after.
    • It has an answer for everything, but to the best of my experience, no serious drawbacks. Lots of shots vs light/recon spam. Lots of MG shots vs infantry. Lots of AT 9+ shots vs tanks. Lots of shots vs mech.
    • The lack of mobility that some would see as a disadvantage can to some extent be removed by using the Spearhead to ensure you are never more than 40cm away from your opponent.
    • Objectives tend to be 60cm or more away from your opponent in the More Missions Pack (except in Breakthrough, Counterattack – where the defender can choose to place it close to the attacker). Your objective is typically to either claim an objective yourself (such as in Meeting Engagements) or you win on turn 6 or after by keeping the attacker more than 20 cm away. Sound tactical advice would be to focus your fire on units that get close to you from turn 3 and on, and take the hammering from anything further away. General advice such as this can, however, never qualify as a piece of real tactical advice, so consider it a suggestion as to how to think about the list.

 

 

The table before mission and deployment.

 

Having a theoretic idea is one thing. To test it and verify your thoughts and ideas is another thing. I decided to field test it vs one of my friends. We both had lists and ideas we needed to test, so it would be an interesting test-battle.

It only took a few turns for me to learn a lot. After the pictures of the game, I’ll make a list of the things I took particular notice from.

My list. I had to field bases only for PTRDs, as I have yet to buy them.
British forces. Bofors is a mix of us and Russian AA guns. The rest should be WYSIWYG.
The mission we ended up playing.
Setup
End of attackers turn 1
Defenders reserves turn 2
End of attackers turn 2
End of attackers turn 3. Important to reach the objective before turn 6
57mm Getting ready to take out the Priests. Valentines expertly avoid being in range.
The Bofors guns (3 originally) popped out from Ambush, but one of them died due to a lot of PTRD shots.
British Silver HMG teams are now almost gone, except one of them, at the end of turn 3.
Russian infantry platoon rushing towards the objective, just outside the photo. HMGs in the church, and the white base next to the church is a PTRD team.
The “gap” in the defense is obvious here at the end of attackers turn 3. But it is a long way to the objective.
A failed assault due to luck-of-the-dice put the final nail in the coffin. 6 shots in defensive fire. 5 hits. CiC, 2iC and one more team died.
A decimated infantry platoon and a mortar platoon is all that is left to defend against the assaulting Hero Motor Rifle Platoon.

Lessons learned

  • Whenever you can, move your guns with 3+ save. I was smoked 2 turns, and I would have been very threatening if I had moved even 1 of those turns, with all of my relevant guns. I know I should have moved them, and yet I was scared of potential loosing teams, but I see now, that it was the wrong tactic. Get close, so you are within assault range of the opponents infantry etc, but keep your flanks covered by HMG/infantry.
  • It is important to remember that the 57mm guns are Fearless and thus they can handle being pinned.
  • Deployment is as important as it was in V3. I had lots of bottleneck problems, that could have been solved by letting my first “wave” be infantry and/or PTRDs and then move all the guns up behind them, while the enemy focuses on the infantry teams
  • My opponent has mentioned a few times, that maybe his best defense would be to not shoot at me, as my amount of shots at him made it hard for him to survive as it often is “the guy who rolls the most dice, that wins the game”… and with this list, you get to roll a LOT of dice!
  • The basic of the list is good, but adjustments are needed. The PTRD platoon were taking up too much space and not doing enough damage.
  • I had 6 mortars in my 120 mm mortar platoon. I’m not sure if I need the last 2.

I find the infantry to be one of the best in the game. Combined with the many shots from the many gunteams, the total firepower of this list is impressive. But is it enough for you? Can you make it work? Do you find it too stationary?

2 thoughts on “FOW Tactical suggestion: Red Banner Gunline”

  1. We tried something like this list here in the Houston area and were a bit disappointed. Because of the size and number of units that the Russians have on the table we found in hard to move forward and engage the enemy. Infantry kept getting in the way of direct fire from the artillery. Also, the enemy’s artillery can be effective because the teams in the units have a tenancy to bunch up AND the units themselves will bunch up as well.
    Why bring the 76mm Anti Tank Coy 4 teams? Regular 76mm artillery units do the same thing plus they can fire bombardments and are cheaper as well. Oh, sure; you only can get 4 of them!
    We like the 6 tube heavy mortars; Re-roll misses are nice. It may take a few turns for the infantry to close so the mortars may have a real chance to do some damage.

    1. Hi Robert and thank you for asking.

      Let me start out by saying that the list can do with some adjustments. Recon is one of them. With Recon = less “blob” problems. The intention of this list is merely for inspiration. I feel it has quite a potential, but I’m not where I’d put it on an ETC list as it is. More testing and adjustment required.
      The discussion about the AT Coy vs Artillery is a VERY interesting one. For ME, the reason why I take them, is very simple. I have “enough” artillery, and the price for artillery is the same as for the AT (10 points including the Recon by combat that I consider given). Second – the AT Coy has a 3+ save, which is phenomenal when dealing with artillery bombardments or – when they move forward – the direct fire shots. They are not hard to hit, but a better save makes a considerable difference in my point of view. In other lists, I have done the same swap, and it is very much to my liking. They dig up a lot of guns also. Thirdly – formation unit. They make the formation less brittle. As I see it, with the HMG, Mortars and AT Coys it is very very hard to break the formation.
      I hope this answers your questions. And thank you for reading and commenting!

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