Bolt Action Fallschirmjagers in Italy

Last fall we did a Regiments of Renown feature where we each chose to do a special unit from the game we were currently playing. I chose to start my Fallschirmjager force for Bolt Action and finished them for AdeptiCon. I decided to model them as fighting in Italy, where they put up a dogged defense against British, French, American, and other Allied forces. I decided to do a review of everything I painted to put a capstone on this force.

You can see here group shots of the list. I have seven full squads of infantry, multiple artillery pieces, AT pieces, officers, and weapons teams. I painted two vehicles mostly for this force: my Sd.kfz 251/9 'Stummel' and Panzer II Luchs.

The Stummel is pretty sweet as it is a mobile light howitzer. I can direct fire at infantry or light tanks and hope to do some damage. It doesn't have a spotter so it makes it harder to do indirect fire (also because it moves) but it will direct fire like a boss. I also love the look with lots of weathering, highlights, and stowage.

The crew came from Warlord (with the vehicle) and I love the look. I ended up putting a ton of black steel weathering under the gun because I felt like it would naturally get dirty from powder etc. I painted it in a dunkelgelb base so it'll go pretty much on any front as these were very common.

The other vehicle I painted for this force was my Panzer II Luchs. These are pretty popular in other games because they're fast, small, and recon vehicles. They work pretty well in BA being a recce vehicle and having two shots on their light autocannon. I used more black steel weathering on this mode and I also used rub-on decals from Archer. The decals came out bright and really eye-catching - I realize they'd be weathered too but I liked the look =)

Here are my officers and spotters. I painted my lieutenant and adjutant with white caps (summer uniform) as I thought they look cool. Each of them received Fallschirmjager officer bars via decals from Company B. I painted up two spotters for mortars or artillery and a medic and two buddies. I have an extra officer just in case I need an observer or higher officer.

Artillery for this list include a nebelwerfer and heavy mortar from Offensive Miniatures and a medium mortar from Warlord. The Nebel is nice but... it has no gun shield or spotter, so it needs direct line of sight to enemies, which is rough. The heavy mortar is awesome. I love mortars and the heavy one is not many more points for increased effectiveness.

The AT support I painted up includes a PAK36 and PAK40. The PAK40 is beautiful - it is monstrous and takes to a scenic base really well. Neither the 36 or 40 are great in BA, mostly because it is very hard to hit with AT guns. I also painted a Kettenkrad to pull both of them.

I painted my team weapons pretty early on as I like to use them quite a bit. For some reason I painted two panzerschreck teams which was a mistake - schrecks are expensive and just don't usually work well. You might see two kill markings on the one on the right as he has taken down two armored vehicles with lucky shots.

Snipers are usually pretty lucky for me at taking out sergeants etc. I do bring MMGs once in a while even though they are not as good as I'd like.

Each squad has one or two panzerfausts, one LMG, two assault rifles, and an NCO with an SMG. I actually almost didn't paint enough rifles, heh. I got really into assault rifles but I don't want to bring abusive lists, (and I want to stay somewhat historical) and so I only have two ARs per squad. The firepower these guys can put out with the LMG change in the BA.net format and assault rifles is insane.

Some of the NCOs received chevrons from the decal sheet. I read that most of the guys didn't have chevrons on their camo smocks so I just put it on a few because it looks cool.

Thanks for checking out my review of this force. Keep your eyes peeled for more articles about my Slovak Division and a winter cold force coming up :) In the meantime check out these battle reports featuring my Fallschirmjager: