How to maximize your Collection with the Great War Sale

Battlefront is having a great sale on great war and many players want to know how they can best take advantage of it. While I will not spoil what is in the new book, I will give you some advice on how to either start a Great War army or expand the forces you have.
When the first book came out in 2015, I was able to get all four of the box sets and a lot of add-on items, I have also played each of the armies I collected back then.

Let me spoil one thing, all of the forces for sale will be used in the new book.

Starter Set
Even if you want to play at low points to try it out I recommend getting the bare basics, the Company HQ which comes with the attachment and at least two infantry platoons. This basic force gives you all you need to get the feel of the game.

Each nation in the Great War fields elite and regular troops, which all have different skills and morale levels. You use the same models for both in most cases if you are not hung up on having your blue and brown uniformed French troops mixed together. To simplify army construction for my French, I painted one in blue and one in brown, and use them side my side.

I also mixed my US forces, one platoon being in USMC Green and one painted up as the Harlem Hellfighters from the digital PDFs I wrote after the book came out.
The only other unit I would add in a basic list is the German Stoss platoon. Some of the poses are unique and the Stoss did use a different mix of weapons. Even if you wanted to run an all Stoss force, you can substitute the regular German infantry in most cases.

Of course, if you want a completely themed force for skill and morale, you can pick up extra US, French and Stoss platoons so the force you assemble has matching and proper uniforms.
Next Step
So once you get this basic force what should you add next. Heavy machine gun and mortar teams are a must to expand your army. Each HMG blister comes with four guns and based on the price to field them you will not need much more than this. The HMG ruled no-man’s land and they are appropriately priced in the game.

The mortar teams are the antidote for taking out those nasty HMGs. The Allies get the mortars in blisters of three tubes each while the German mortars come in two varieties and includes two 3.7 anti-tank guns. The US and French mortars are either 76mm Stokes or 58mm Type 2 tubes, and the blister allows you to field either. What I did was leave one of the holes blank and putting all eight tubes on the round disc that fills the empty holes so I can switch the guns based on what I needed. Or you can take advantage of the sale and buy two of each and then you are set.
So once you get the basic force with the needed support weapons what is your next step? I think getting a third infantry platoon is a must. You may want to play without the tanks, and if that is path you plan to take you will need more infantry.

Tanks or No Tanks
Here is the first decision you really need to make with your Great War Force, how much you plan to use armor. I have at least one box of every tank produced for the game and in many games I have left them behind and went with an all infantry force. I would suggest, however, getting one unit of every type of tank your force can field. If you play German’s, I would get some British Mark IV tanks since you can use them as captured tanks. This gives you some options. And they are fun to play with.

If you decide not to take tanks, you will still need weapons to combat tanks. For this the Germans have a lot of options. You will need to look at getting the 7.62 Krupp IG gun to back up the 3.7 TaK gun. Also, remember that the German HMGs have an AT 3, since they fired AP rounds. So, the German forces have enough AT assets to take care of tanks. With this said the A7V model is very cool and has a great camo paint scheme so I would pick one up if you plan to play the German forces.
The Allies do not have as many options. British may end up going with the 18-pdr gun, however the French and Americans can try to make do with the 37mm MLE 1916 gun or the old reliable 75mm field gun. Remember some of the tanks you can add to your force are only armed with machine guns, so if you think your opponent is bringing a tank, make sure you have a tank with a cannon.

Final Touches
So, what is left for your force? Artillery perhaps? It is very pricey, however, costing you about 150 points per gun. They cannot smoke (Smoke is not in the GW game) and getting off a bombardment is a tricky thing to do without observation teams. They can kill tanks and if they are positioned with good lines of site, they can possibly take out an HMG team that is holding your attack up. Remember getting pins will be left to your HMGs, so its up to you to take these guns for your force.

If you followed this advice so far and you still have money left I would get units from some of the allied units if you plan to play French, British or American. Since you can pick units with different skill and morale levels having an “assault platoon” in your force may be just what you need during a game.

German players might make your force more robust with more infantry and Stoss platoons. The Stoss are some of the best assault units in the game. But they need longer range support, since they do not have the firepower you need at anything but close range.

Let me re-state a point here, all of the forces you buy are in the new book. Another point to give you here that the new forces in the book use the same models but may have a different paint scheme, so if you plan to field Belgians, you may want to get some French models and paint them with brown uniforms.

The next article will spoil some of the new additions for the updated version of the Great War line. With the release of the Great War book scheduled for February, players have some time to prepare their forces. However, you may want to hit the sale from Battlefront soon, you only have until 30 November to take advantage of this offer.