German D-Day Command Cards – Going Off Book

By Tom Gall

Battlefront’s German D-Day Command cards fall into line with what continues to be a newly established V4 tradition, release a book of new lists for a particular time and theatre of the war and at the same time, release a deck of command cards that complement the book with more force options and bits of flavor to add to your force.

I’ll cover a good number of the cards. My goal is to give you a feel for what is found in the card pack not review each and every card, though I do certainly cover the majority of them. If you have any questions, please reply to the article and I’ll happily answer.

Stats

There are 46 command cards for the German D-Day book.  They span the range of named heroes (6), Tiger ace and accompanying cards, force or unit ability buffs, special modifications tied to a historical unit, new companies (2), and last swap outs (ex: Nebelwerfers in place of 10.5cm artillery).

New Companies

Pumas!  The Puma scout company HQ offers a choice of 5cm wielding Puma or Sd Kfz 234 with a 2cm.  The core units are 2-12 Puma scout troops (which are made up of either 2 5cm Pumas or 2 2cm Sd Kfz 234s), or 0-2  Sd Kfz 234s with 7.5cm guns.  With the Puma and Sd Kfz 234s having a front armor rating of 3, they’ll have a better chance against American .50 cal fire which German armored cars seem to tend to attract. The last optional core unit for this company is a Reconnaissance Platoon which is 7 or 5 stands of MG42 infantry (with optional panzerfausts) and the option of having them in Sd Kfz 250 half-tracks which are new to the German D-Day book. A fully kitted out Reconnaissance platoon with Panzerfausts, 7 teams of infantry, and 7 Sd Kfz 250 half-tracks is 16 points.

The second new company is a half-track scout company. Its HQ is built around the Sd Kfz 250, with core units of 2-8 Sd Kfz 250 scout troops, 0-2 7.5cm Sd Kfz 234 Heavy Scouts, and then an optional Reconnaissance platoon which is the same as the one found in the Puma Scout company.

Flavor

Within the set of command cards, you’ll find a number you’d expect such as tiger ace and all the skills that result from that roll as well as lucky, a perennial favorite. The majority of cards are new and deliver on the promise of giving unique augmentation to your force. Sometimes they grant an ability bump up or down, or allow you to swap out a particular type of unit for another not found in the book.

• There are looted tanks which give the Germans access to a Stuart (3pts), Greyhound (2pts), Sherman (4pts) or Firefly (5pts). The skill rating is trained with a hit on value of 3.
• Screaming Meemies, gives you access to Nebelwerfers in place of 10.5cm artillery. You’re able to field as many as two batteries and their wonderfully huge template.
• There are 3 cards that give you back a point per gun team for 10.5 cm artillery, 8.8cm flak and 8.8 tank hunters. In trade, the unit becomes trained, hit on a 3 and last stand falls to a 5.
• There is an upgrade card for the 8.8cm tank hunter that for the price of 1 point, grants it the ability to conduct artillery bombardments. This is an outstanding value to grant a dual role.

To model specific units from history let’s quickly look at some of those command cards.

• The Night Attacks card models the 2nd panzer division and their tactic of conducting night operations. For a point, presuming you are the attacker, your panzergrenadier company can attack at night, with the limitation that friendly units, support or other formations in your force must stay in your deployment zone until dawn.
• The 116th Greyhound panzer division is a card that for -2 points per unit lose the Third Reich last stand going to a 5+, and a tactics rating of a 4. The quandary of these types of card is always is worth what you are giving up just to gain that many points to spend elsewhere.
• The 30th Fast Brigade Bicycles card gives your beach defense infantry company for 1 point a one-time re-roll for reserves with the prevision that all reinforcements arriving on the turn you use the re-roll must be from the beach defense infantry company.
• The 2nd Fallschirmjäger Defense of Brest card for 2 pts allows you to replace one Fallschirmjäger  platoon with a beach defense infantry platoon.
• The 5th Fallschirmjäger No Jump Training card allows you for -1 pt per unit in the HQ or Rifle platoon change the unit to be fearless trained.
• There are several variations of beach defenders, from the 352nd Eastern Front, 716th Ost Battalion, and 16th Fallschirmjäger which all provide ways to either better beach defenders or make them worse with as you’d expect increase or decrease the costs appropriately. This will make the beach defenders a versatile selection.

Last, the Sd Kfz 250 has an observer variant which allows you to field a 250 in place of a Pz III OP. It’s a no point swap but even then the Pz III Op is just a single point in cost. The skill, motivation and to hit are all the same, but obviously, the armor, movement, and cross check values are different. I do wonder what might be the motivation to field a 250 over a Pz III as an observer besides that you can. The great armor values and cross check certainly point to a Pz III selection, OTOH a 250 fielded next to lots of other 250s might blend in a bit easier.

Heros

There are 6 heroes included. The point costs are between 2 and 8 points. All are tied to some particular type of formation so none are generic. Most specifically upgrade your formation commander, tho Kurt Knispel applies specifically to a Tiger platoon and Friedrich Adrario is a one-use discard for 8.8cm tank hunters.

Wilhelm Bäder for 4 points gives your formation commander the ability to range in on a 3+ as well as a special bonus when successful he may range in another artillery unit from his formation. This pairs well with the card that gives a discount to artillery dropping their skill down to trained and giving back points. He applies to a beach defense infantry company.

Heinz Deutsch for 2 points gives a re-roll for one failed to hit to your STuG formation commander. This is a good value to maximize firepower when every shot has to count.

Friedrich Adrario is a 6 point warrior that is part of an 8.8cm tank hunter platoon. He grants a one-time use ability to re-roll all failed to hits presuming that the unit is currently gone to ground and targeting a unit that is more than 16″ away. For the types of guns which have to ambush at longer distances and incurring a +1 for range, this does help to maximize the opportunity.

Heinz Auert, for 4 points goes with a Reconnaissance Company. As the formation commander, if he is deployed at the start of the game, you can discard the card and on a 3+ gain the ability to go first. If you do and are successful,  you are also subject to the rules for a meeting engagement, further you can’t be dug in or gone to ground for the first turn.  This offers a great trump card with decent likelihood you can pounce to seize an opportunity. For the attack / maneuver / defender battle plans this throws a wrench into your opponent’s plans as while they might be the attacker, they may in fact not be going first and thus have to be more defensive in their stance.

Herman Dropmann is a hero for a beach defense company that for 4 points improves assaults. If the HQ joins in the assault the unit making the assault counterattacks on a 3+.  In assault Herman hits on a 3+ and against tanks has an anti-tank of 4 against the top armor of the target.

Last but not least is Kurt Knispel who for 8 points grants re-rolls for failed to hit rolls for the unit leader of a tiger platoon with his 8.8cm main gun. The unit he is attached to also always passed last stand tests.

Summary

The command card packs offer good value for the price and have been an auto-buy for me when released. They give you more options to consider when building your force. As tournaments or casual gamer having to eek a point here or there,  the ability to turn to a card to modify the unit to fit your envisioned purpose is an important tool to have. Without command cards, you might only be able to dump a unit, take fewer teams or drop a capability. When building to a point value you want to spend every point you can and these cards gives you that flexibility!