Keep Calm and Brit On: Fortress Europe

By Austin Coped

V4 Late War is so close I can almost taste it! And BLUF: While not super in-depth or unique, the British lists are super competitive with the lists that have been shared. List Gold!

***Disclaimer*** Buy Churchills before they go up in value from supply and demand!

Now that you have my initial thoughts, I want to show you a deep dive into the units, the formations and the rundown of National rules and tidbits of info I have run across. First up Special Rules.

Night Attack is back and its better than ever. Now it’s not just a few infantry platoons and the Bagpiper… now any unit from the Formation with night attack can move out under the darkness rules.

This is a huge motivation for an infantry commander to attack and not just sit in his foxholes. Beginning with a base of hit on 4+, with night attack, dudes in an assault in concealment and night are hit on 6s. (Side note, I made an assault once at night in smoke and concealment against over 45 defensive fire shots. long story short, the assault made it in.) The new V4 Night Attack is to die for!

In addition to Night Attack to entice a Brit to assault more, they have the remade Bulldog rule a better counter attack combined with Deadly make Brit Infantry amazing in an attack. For Tanks, there is even more reason to attack. Infantry Tanks gives these tanks a better counterassault rating.

Also, the most underused Brit Rule, Mike Target will probably stay underused. While useful I feel it’s underutilized due to the cost of arty. While useful for ranging in mortars, Brit players often don’t to take full advantage of this rule, unless they bring a force built around this concept.

Moving on to Formations

Shermans, What are they good for? Well, anything. They are the workhorse for the Brit LW armored force. At a low point cost, they fill that niche well.

Clocking in at a measly 4-pts per model you will definitely see Sherman Formations on the table. And Fortress Europe (FE) allows Brits to do something we don’t get in many other sourcebooks. They can now field platoons of four tanks each. That’s right you heard me, you can for on the cheap (points wise) easily fill out the formation diagram. For a single point, replace one Sherman with a Firefly.

At 5-pts per model, the Firefly will cause lasting nightmares for Axis players. They did lose Semi-Indirect fire (holding out for a command card), and that hurt. But I suppose I’ll get over it

The Stuart got a massive whack. Not only are there no formations of them, but they are also so expensive in Late-War it’s almost not worth bringing them.  Two points per model is pricey for spearhead when you can grab the Universal Carrier for the same effect in deployment. To be fair to the Stuart, it’s still an infantry slayer with all the MG dice. Added on is the FA4 and an AA MG… annnnd… overworked.

I may have cried a bit when I read about my beloved Stuarts… A moment of silence for the 64 Honey Stuart Swarm…..

Now that that’s out of the way, let me introduce you to the newest and bestest tank in flames of war.

The CHURCHILL Infantry Tank.

Ok, I know what your thinking, “but the Churchill isn’t new?” And you’re right, it has been around, but not like this. Check out the stat card below, this tank fills every role in the game.

Now, I know what you are saying, nothing has changed from MW, its the exact same tank, Slow, Meh FA… What gives?

At 4 points per model … must have cranked it into high gear. These tanks cost the same as a Sherman. A player is presented with a super easy choice, give up 2″ of movement and direct fire smoke, along with the 3+fp and Gain…
1. +2 FA
2. +3 Side Armor
3. 3+ Counter Attack
4. 3+ Remount
5. 2+ cross-check

This is in addition to any neat command cards that we could see for the tanks, I have already assembled and re-painted my old resin Churchills, as this will be the main tank force I push for Late-War.

With v4s movement orders, the Churchill isn’t as slow as it once was. Pair the Churchill with a Recce unit and you could see these tanks starting games halfway across the field. While the Sherman may eek out a top place for gunfights, the Churchill will shrug off all but the mighty hits of German AT as they lead the charge, followed by murderous Brit Infantry.

As in Mid-War, you can swap out two platoons of these guys to take Sherman’s, to give you some long-range punch with a Firefly. This list, while simple I think is crazy good, and I can’t wait to play a formation of 15x for 60pts. Winston would be proud.

That’s it for the tank formations for the brits, while basic, we got two really amazing options. Now for some bad news, Brits only get two infantry formation options in Fortress Europe. As you can see below, the diagram is identical to the one in Armoured Fist. The only new change is the PIAT is now included into the platoon selector, although as an additional upgrade.

After reading the change to the PANZERFAUST, I was really hoping to see that as a universal change to Infantry AT weapons. Charging tanks with infantry can go from average chances with the single AT weapon to nil as your PIAT team is sniped on its way into the fight. But at 10-pts for the platoon, Brit infantry are solid. Add the updated Night Attack rule and you can see this formation has a lot of stuff to throw at the enemy under the cover of night.

The Other Formation of Infantry for the brits in FE is a Motor Formation (with no Motor Vehicles in it.)

Look at the image. It even has a picture of the White Scout Car. I guess we are waiting for a command card to give the Brits a Motorized formation still.

A big change from Mid-War is that the Motor Company isn’t forced to choose between two small infantry squads or AT guns. They can get all the goodness. Three infantry platoons and two 6PDR options make a Motor Company a strong force to reckon with on the 4’x6′.

Also, the STEN gun is the weapon for your HQ teams. It has a ROF3 when moving. Yes, please!

And to round out Infantry, lets have a quick discussion on the best AT gun in the game!

Gone are the days of everyone and their mother getting this bad boy, it is no longer a “Black Box” choice, and not in the Support Options at all. So, it’s now a British Unique item! No downing of the points for LW, but we see an already healthy AT jump up to those LW Rounds. AT11 baby! Losing the No HE rule makes these a steal at 12 pts!

We are quickly coming to the end of the Brit options, and to be honest, if you have seen Armoured Fist, you will have a great idea of what to expect as far as formation support. Just, imagine the Slim-Fast ® Version of the diagram.

The last key contender, though, is the venerable M-10 Tank Destroyer. It’s just a god now. Leave it to the Brits to take an American Tank and make it better. Because while we couldn’t get a Brit version in Mid-War, by LW, not only is it support from our own diagram, (it’s just better)

Behold! The M-10 Achilles, breaker of German Tanks, Crusher of Axis Dreams, Mother of Drago. Sorry, I’m catching up on GoT while I write this. [edited to avoid a spoiler.]

I will make this comparison, The New M-10 is going to be a Brit Players Drogon, and from its mouth shall freedom, I mean fire be belched.

Hit on 4+… that alone makes them worth 32pts for four models. But we’re just getting started. M10s are 4 points per model, and the M-10c is only 4.5ppm.

Gone are the days of Brits being afraid of the Big Cats, For 18 points you can vaporize Tigers and Panthers. T-34s should tremble, Grants, and Pz4s? Hah! The M-10 laughs at these pretenders, as our molten lead form crowns over the heads of these enemies. [hopefully, that’s not a spoiler for GoT fans].

Overall, I think you will agree with me as my BLUF stated. FE is a basic codex for the Brit Player, but its a solid core of formations. I will be dusting of both my Sherman’s and Churchill’s for the first time in a LONG time and they should see some fairly regular play. And my beloved infantry, are still able to dish it out.

Stay Tuned for a special Tactics Talk, where NDNGs Ian Birdwell and I Sit down and go over some crazy ideas we can’t wait to try on the battlefield!

So, with that Keep Calm and Carry On.