Amoeba Arena of Death: 5th Gebirgsjäger Division

"Who said that?"

By the time it was sent to Italy in 1943, the 5th Gebirgsjäger Division had already fought in the Balkans campaign and as part of army group north in the push towards Leningrad on the Volkhov front.

The Gebirgsjäger were light infantry and specialists in mountain warfare. Identifiable by the edelweiss insignia on their sleeves and on their distinctive mountain caps, they were (and still are) recognised as one of the elite units in the German army. But the main draw for me has to be the pack mules (which I am reliably informed carry shoulder mounted panzershreks and are also commonly known as 'PAK mules').

Pack mules apparently have some serious balance issues in Bolt Action

As a newbie to the game of Bolt Action I was at a loss as to which force to build for this campaign. I wanted to play axis, as I could tell there were plenty of allied players already, and I quite fancied an elite infantry force. After some reading, the idea of veteran mountain infantry really caught my imagination, and the fantastic models battlefront have released for these troops sealed the deal.

The List

Building a list for a game you don't know is always interesting. To give myself a starting point, and to hopefully be more forgiving of my early mistakes while I learn the game, I decided that my list would focus on versatility, redundancy and resilience. I then had a play on easyarmy.com and came up with the following for my first 500 pts:

German Reinforced Platoon

Order Dice: 5

Officer

Second Lieutenant (page: 20) Veteran 78

Qty Weapons Range Shots Penetration Special Rules

1 Second Lieutenant

with Rifle 24" 1 n/a

with Pistol 6" 1 n/a Assault

with Submachine gun 12" 2 n/a Assault

with Assault rifle 24" 2 n/a Assault

1 Infantry (equipped as modeled)

- -

Infantry Squads

Heer Veteran Grenadier squad (page: 22) Veteran 126

Qty Weapons Range Shots Penetration Special Rules

1 NCO with Submachine gun 12" 2 n/a Assault

4 Infantry with Rifle 24" 1 n/a

3 Infantry with Submachine gun 12" 2 n/a Assault

2 men have Panzerfaust in addition to other weapons 12" 1 +6 One-shot, Shaped Charge

Heer Veteran Grenadier squad (page: 22) Veteran 132

Qty Weapons Range Shots Penetration Special Rules

1 NCO with Submachine gun 12" 2 n/a Assault

1 Infantry with Light Machine gun (requires loader) 30" 4 n/a Team (2 men)

6 Infantry with Rifle 24" 1 n/a

1 men have Panzerfaust in addition to other weapons 12" 1 +6 One-shot, Shaped Charge

Heer Veteran Grenadier squad (page: 22) Veteran 98

Qty Weapons Range Shots Penetration Special Rules

1 NCO with Rifle 24" 1 n/a

1 Infantry with Light Machine gun (requires loader) 30" 4 n/a Team (2 men)

4 Infantry with Rifle 24" 1 n/a

Sniper team (page: 32) Veteran 65

Qty Weapons Range Shots Penetration Special Rules

1 Sniper team (rifle) 36" 1 n/a Team (2 men), Sniper

Platoon Points: 499

The entire force is veteran, so hopefully that should give me some level of resilience. I have also gone for relatively large numbers for such an elite force, with very few weapons teams present. My hope is that the high ROF German LMGs in two of my squads will grant sufficient fire power to compensate for a lack of any MMG teams or vehicle MMGs.

As the entire force is veteran already, I chose the basic second lieutenant leader to save points. I couldn't bring myself to make him anything less than a veteran though, that just wouldn't be right! I also gave him a buddy/bullet sponge for some added protection.

The first squad is meant to be my main forward operating squad, with a total of 4 smgs and 2 panzerfausts to make them a threat to anything up close. From perusing a couple of forums, the total of 8 men seems to be a generally accepted 'good number' for veteran troops (always trust what you read on the internet!)

The second squad is designed to be flexible. One LMG, one SMG and one panzerfaust should make it a moderate threat in quite a few situations, and with 8 members again it should be fairly resilient. I expect this units role to change depending on the situation I am faced with each turn. Early on it might be giving covering fire to the 1st squad, but later on when my brilliant leadership gets 1st sqaud killed to a man, this squad might move up to grab an objective or pop a tank with its panzerfaust.

The last squad is lower strength at only 5 men, so I will probably try to keep them back a little out of harms way. A single LMG will be useful for giving covering fire to 1st or 2nd squad as they advance.

To finish off the list I have added in a sniper. My logic here is that in small 500 pt games most players will not have much redundancy in their plans, and a well placed shot form a sniper could take out that MMG or mortar team which is ruining my day. Whether this translates to the tabletop remains to be seen!

Models

I have used the Gebirgsjäger infantry models from battlefront to represent this force. A single company box was all I needed for this months troops and all the basic infantry, machine guns, command and light mortars I could want for the entire campaign. In fact, I now realise a single platoon box would have been plenty! Plans are however already afoot for some of the spares...

I should really look at the back of the box before concluding this is how many models you get...

In an inspired flurry of painting I managed to get my first 499 points painted this afternoon. I have gone for a fairly straightforward (read 'quick and dirty') dipping method. The minis were all primed grey (Halfords grey primer) then had greatcoats picked out with army painter 'fur brown'. A dry brush of vallejo 'green grey' over the entire model produced a nice German uniform colour before details like skin, weapons and boots were picked out and army painter strong tone was used to shade/do all the hard work. For basing I used a mix of dark grit and some ash colour flock topped with modelling snow, grass tufts and some tiny bits of clump foliage to give a spring thaw mountain theme. I mainly chose this as it can be hard to make drab colours stand out on brown or green bases. The dark grey and white help the models stand out nicely.

Without further ado, I present to you the first instalment of the 5th Gebirgsjäger Division!