New Units from D:Day British

By Preston Jacob

“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!” – Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

That speech rings no truer than with all the new units you can find in the new Flames of War D:Day British book. For any British player who felt they may have been cheated with the small list and force selection from Fortress Europe, worry no more. There are over 100 pages in this new book and brings the British fully into late war. Whether you’re an infantry or armored player, you’ll find everything you could want from the Normandy campaign and will be able to drive the Germans back to the Fatherland by Christmas.

Let’s start with some infantry. The infantry you could find from the Mid-War book, Armored Fist or the late war conversion from Fortress Europe was your standard British Infantry; not flashy but durable. Well, get ready to join the elites! The British Commando formation gives you the specialized forces that came ashore in Normandy to bring down the Third Reich. In the Commando formation, you have your mandatory HQ and can take 2-4 units of Commando infantry platoons, one Vickers Machine gun platoon, and one 3-inch mortar platoon.

These guys are the cream of the crop, Being rated as Fearless Veterans, hit on 4+ and are deadly, hitting on a 2+ in assault. With this elite status, they are expensive in points, coming in at 13 points for a max platoon. What makes this flavorful is they have the night attack rule, but also have the special rule of “Mind and Heart” where if they start their movement phase adjacent to a cliff or similar terrain feature, they can take a skill test to move across it at terrain dash speed. So storming the seawall will be a walk in the park for these guys.

With any good infantry unit, you’ll need some armor to spearhead the advance, and none has been more awaited than the Cromwell! The Cromwell makes its appearance in late war and British players will be happy to see the iconic tank back in the game. It retains its armor rating, being a front 6, side 4, and top 1.

The mobility of this tank is unmatched, having a tactical movement of 12″, a terrain dash of 16″, a cross country dash of 28″, and a road dash of 32″ with a 3+ cross-check. This tank is extremely maneuverable and will be able to close the distance very quickly. In your Cromwell formation HQ, you can take the 95mm Cromwell which has the ability to drop an artillery bombardment. The 95mm gun has a bombardment rating of anti-tank 3 with a 3+ firepower, putting it on par with the priest.

The standard 75mm Cromwell still has an anti-tank 10 gun with a 3+ firepower with having the ability to use direct fire smoke, making it a reliable asset. The versatility of the Cromwell comes from the fact you’ll be able to choose between two different formations; you can take a Cromwell Recce formation or a Desert Rats Veteran formation. The Recce formation has a rating of being confident trained and being hit on 4+. So essentially you have trained units hit as if they were veterans in V3 terms. The recce Cromwells also gain the scout rule, allowing them to be gone to ground while moving through concealment.

The Desert Rat formation gives you another option to field your new toys with a rating of Reluctant Trained, but still being hit on a 4+. The Desert Rats still allow you to field the 95mm gun in your HQ while the combat platoons allow you to field a firefly, something the recce formation doesn’t have, giving you the punching power to knock out those pesky German Tigers. The thing British players will have to adjust to is that these tanks no longer having the semi-indirect fire rule from V3, which allowed you to re-roll any failed to hit rolls during the shooting step. But even with this slight change, the Cromwell is a formidable foe.

No British vehicle struck fear into the hearts of the German infantry more than the Churchill. When it first made its appearance in the deserts of North Africa, the Germans were caught off guard and astounded by its mobility, armor, and firepower. The Churchill is still seeing combat in the fields of Normandy with a slight twist. The Churchill Crocodile makes it’s debut here in D:Day. This vehicle will strike fear even to the most combat-tested Fallschirmjagers.

You can take up to two support platoons of these beasts with your formation, giving you the ability to field a maximum of six Churchill crocodiles. With a front armor of 11, side armor 8, and top 1, not much will be able to get through this tank. It retains it’s 75mm cannon, having an anti-tank rating of 10 with a 3+ firepower so it can still fight off armor. It also still retains its machine gun but the real draw of this vehicle is its flame-thrower.

Each Crocodile’s flame-thrower has a rate of fire 6, with an auto firepower, and being a flamethrower forces infantry and gun teams to re-roll saves. That means you’ll be getting 18 flamethrower shots each turn! With that much firepower, not even the strongest entrenchments will hold up! These aren’t your standard Churchills though. Being that they are a flame tank, they lose some motivation. They are still rated as confident trained being hit on 4+, but they have a counter-attack and assault rating of a 6 due to their flamethrower ability, but still remount on a 3+.

The second new Churchill to enter the field is the AVRE assault section. This is an interesting new unit to come into the game. You can take this support unit containing two Churchill AVRE tanks for eight points. They have a confident veteran rating being hit on a 4+, a remount rating of 3+, and being an assault gun have a counter-attack and assault rating of 5+. AVRE’s have an armor rating of front 9, side 8, and top 2 so it’s still a beast.

This is one of the more interesting units in this book, having the Petard rule, which I’ll get to in a little bit. They drop an artillery template with an anti-tank rating 1, but an auto firepower. The range in their cannon is 6″. Now, this is where the petard rule comes into play; it’s not affected by danger close. The petard allows you to be 6″ away from your target, drop the template and hit without having to worry about your own units being too close to assault.

The Petard rule also forces all infantry, gun teams, and bunkers to re-roll their saves as this has the bunker killer special rule. This tank will cause some serious headaches for those defending Pak Nest lists.

The last unit is one that’s going to strike fear into any armored player. The British planes in mid-war were always a solid option, but now in late war they’re almost a must take. Typhoons make their appearance known in the skies over France! For 8 points you get 2 confident trained Typhoons, hit on 5+ due to the airplane rule and saving on a 3+.

The typhoons are equipped with a 20mm gun which has a rate of fire 3, anti-tank 6 with a 5+ firepower. So you’ll be getting 6 total shots which will be able to take on soft targets like gun teams. The planes are also equipped with RP-3 rockets, which drop an artillery template on a 14″ range and has an anti-tank rating of 5 with a 3+ firepower. These planes will absolutely rip armor apart and will be able to take out any armored vehicle from scout cars to heavy tanks like the Tiger! Typhoons will be able to dominate the sky over any opponent.

All these new units should have British players excited to take down the Atlantic Wall and return to the beaches of France. I foresee British lists taking over the majority of lists at large tournaments.

Any player worth their salt will see that this book is one of the most solid British books to come out in some time, and should have everyone excited to see Churchills, Fireflies, and those pesky Typhoons at tournament settings again. For King and Country, the German war machine comes to an end at the might of the British Empire!