WW2 – Squad Optimisation – Late War Fallschirmjäger

So more number crunching – this time I will be looking at mid war/late war Fallschirmjäger. I have 4 sprues of Fallschirmjäger to turn into squads and enable me to field an improved Mid war/Late war Fallschirmjäger force when added to those I built earlier.

So lets look whats on the sprue and what I can build from what I have available

Ok now lets have a look at the various options for Fallschirmjäger

• Early War (Armies of Germany)
  • Min 5 men – max 10 men
  • Upto 3 SMGs
  • Upto 1 LMG
• Late War (Armies of Germany)
  • Min 5 men – max 10 men
  • Upto 7 SMG
  • Upto 10 Assault Rifles
  • Upto 2 LMG
  • Upto 4 Panzerfaust
• Fallschirmjäger Sicily and Salerno (Campaign Italy Soft Underbelly)
  • Min 6 men – max 12 men
  • upto 12 SMG
  • Upto 2 LMGs
• Fallschirmjäger Italy 1943 (Campaign Italy Soft Underbelly)
  • Min 6 men – max 12 men
  • Upto 2 Assault Rifles
  • Upto 6 SMG
  • Upto 2 LMG
• Fallschirmjäger Ortona (Campaign Italy Soft Underbelly)
  • Min 6 men – Max 12 men
  • Upto 2 Assault Rifles
  • Upto 6 SMG
  • Upto 2 LMGs
  • Upto 2 Panzerfaust 30’s
• Fallschirmjäger Rear Echelon Squad (Campaign Italy Soft Underbelly)
  • Min 6 men – Max 12 men
  • Upto 3 SMG
  • Upto 1 LMG
• Green Fallschirmjäger Squad (Late War) (Campaign Battle of the Bulge)
  • Min 5 men – Max 10 men
  • Upto 7 SMG
  • Upto 5 Assault Rifles
  • Upto 2 LMG
  • Upto 4 Panzerfaust

So the Fallschirmjäger starter army recommends 2 late war squad formations.

The first is 8 Assault Rifles and 1 LMG team – this has an EFFECTIVENESS score of 8.86 static and 10.17 moving.

The Second is 2 SMG, 1 LMG team and 6 Rifles – this has an EFFECTIVENESS score of 9.26 static and 13.28 moving.

So based on the Late War (armies of Germany) list I have run a few potential combinations.

I already have built

• 22 Fallschirmjäger armed with Rifles
  • 3 of these also had Panzerfaust
  • 1 has LMG ammo around neck
  • 3 has a box of LMG ammo
• 7 Fallschirmjäger armed with SMG
  • 2 with an officers hat
  • 1 with LMG ammo around his neck
• 7 Fallschirmjäger with MG 34
• 6 Fallschirmjäger armed with FG42
  • 1 also has a PanzerFaust
  • 1 also has an officers hat
• 4 Fallschirmjäger with Panzer Faust
  • 1 with FG42
  • 3 with Rifle

So the Fallschirmjäger Starter Army has 3 squads worth 210+191+191= 592 of which 50 pts is for Panzerschrecks, to keep the values 1 need to replace them with 3 squads for a total of 542 or 180 points per squad, from the mix of units I believe the best bang for buck is the 2 Rifle, 1 SMG, 2 Assault Rifles and 2 LMGS for 179 points each, to achieve this I will need 12 Rifles, 3 SMG, 6 Assault Rifles and 6 LMGS, which I already have in the above list.

The maximum squads I can have in any Fallschirmjäger force is 6 so if I wished to field 6 of these squads, I would need to create 2 more Riflemen, 6 more Assault riflemen, 5 more LMGs using 13 of the 24 spares I have. I will equip all the Assault Riflemen with Panzerfausts which will give me a total of 10 and the following list worth 2140 pts

Now lets optimise the early war forces. Looking at the mix of options I have previously done – one seems missing- that is 5 Riflemen, 2 SMGs and 1 LMG a classic 9 man team – its EFFECTIVENESS is 9.07 static and 12.94 moving

There is also the option of 4 riflemen, 3 SMGs and 1 LMG team.

So after making the required additional models for the Late War forces – I will have the following models

• 24 Fallschirmjäger armed with Rifles
  • 3 of these also had Panzerfaust
  • 1 has LMG ammo around neck
  • 3 has a box of LMG ammo
• 7 Fallschirmjäger armed with SMG
  • 2 with an officers hat
  • 1 with LMG ammo around his neck
• 12 Fallschirmjäger with MG 34
• 12 Fallschirmjäger armed with FG42
  • 7 also has a PanzerFaust
  • 1 also has an officers hat
• 10 Fallschirmjäger with Panzer Faust
  • 7 with FG42
  • 3 with Rifle

I have 11 models spare, if I wished to build 6 squads of the most EFFECTIVE squad – I would have to Build 9 more Riflemen with out Panzerfausts and 11 more SMG, now I only have 11 spare models so this is not feasible, instead if I go for the next most effective and look to only have 5 squads I will need 9 Riflemen with out Panzserfausts and 3 more SMG’s – now that is 1 more figures than I have – so what I will build is 8 riflemen and 3 more SMGs and then get the list below 1,141.

Total models to be built – 3 SMG, 10 Rifles, 6 Assault Rifles and 5 LMG’s.