1500 Point American Tank Company
The Sherman tank is the backbone of the American tank company in Flames of War. It is a jack of all trades tank with decent armour, a decent main gun and lots of machine guns. This last point makes it just as versatile engaging infantry as it is at taking out enemy armour. This is a sample 1500 point army list from Afrika for the mid war period.
Command HQ 230 points
- 2 shermans
Tank Platoon I 345
- 3 shermans
Tank Platoon II 345
- 3 shermans
Tank Platoon III 245
- 4 m5 Stewarts
Artillery Section 170 points (should be replaced by mobile artillery + recon unit)
- 105mm howitzer section
Tank Destroyer Section 160 points
- m3 75mm section
This list will hit hard and fast. The 2 Sherman tank platoons are the main attack force, backed up by the tank destroyers. The Shermans will push through the enemy lines while the tank destroyers with their reach can take out dug in anti tank weapons. Should your opponent be fielding some heavily armoured tanks, the tank destroyers are more than up to the task of taking these guys out.
The artillery is there to make your opponent think twice about sitting in one place for too long. If they do, hit them with your guns hard. This is also useful for smoke bombardments to give a screen for your tanks. It might be a better choice to field some mobile mortars for smoke and a recon unit as suggested below. This gives you the ability to remove gone to the ground from infantry as well as providing smoke. A much better use of the 170 points taken up by the artillery.
The M5 stewart platoon is there for flanking purposes. If your opponent has some long range weaponry that you need to deal with or there is a secondary target you want to go after, the M5 Stewarts have the speed to get there. You can even use them to support your main tanks, bringing them up a flank for the all important side shots.
As suggested the artillery may not be the greatest selection for this list as they are fairly immobile and having a recon unit is very beneficial vs ambushes and removing gone to the ground. In this case some mobile mortars + a recon unit might be a better selection over the artillery piece.
Scrap the artillery, it adds little to the force. Recon for 50 points removes gone-to-ground fom those pesty dug-in infantry, armoured mortars <100 points gives you a smoke template to take out enemy anti-tank guns.
Artillery takes to long – the rest of the force is hard and fast – you cannot afford to slug it out with veteran infantry / at guns / tanks.
This is really good advice I’ve tried this out and had a much more success against all types of opponents. The recon unit is invaluable and the mortars provide the smoke needed to take AT guns out of the fight. Great suggestion I’ve updated the post to reflect it.
Actually you should use the artillery to take out enemy armor and you can use your stuarts to weed out the dug in infantry by running them over. Also add a tank recover vehicle to get an extra roll against bail outs and bog downs.