This Late War German Infantry Battle Group was created using the Army Builder System from Kampfgruppe Commander.

The battle group contains an infantry battalion and two 10.5 cm artillery batteries.

Battle Group Size

• Points: 999
• Total Units: 15
• Strength: 15.6

Battle Group Statistics

• Command Dice: 6
• Staff Orders: 4
• Morale: 15
• Rally Dice: 4

Artillery

• Artillery Response Dice: 4
• Artillery Supply: Poor
• Initial Barrage: -1

Core Units (999 points)

Recon

• 1x Recon Bicycle Platoon (panzerfaust) – Regular 

Infantry Battalion

• 6x Rifle Platoons (panzerfaust) – Regulars
• 2x Rifle Platoons (panzerschreck) – Veterans
• 1x Medium Machine Gun Platoon – Regular
• 2x Medium Machine Gun Platoons – War Weary Veterans
• 1x 12cm Mortar – Regular 

Artillery Battalion

• 2x 10.5 cm leFH 18 Batteries

The Kampfgruppe Commander Army Builder allows players to create battle groups ranging from raw recruits to battle hardened veterans.

The Army Builder uses the Battalion as its basic unit: this can be either an infantry, armour or volksgrenadier battalion.

Panzergrenadier and Panzer Recon battalions will be covered later in the Armoured Infantry supplement.

Game Type

Two types of game are presented in Kampfgruppe Commander: the Battalion Game and the Supported Battalion Game.

Single battalion games are relatively fast affairs, while games with support units can take all evening to play.

Battalion Game

For a quick battalion level game, players have 1,000 points to spend on core units. No support units can be selected, and only one artillery battery is available.

Four ready to play battalion game battle groups are included in Kampgruppe Commander and will be posted on wargamesdesign.com soon.

Supported Battalion Game

Each side fields a battle group of 1,500-2,500 points. Core units and support groups are selected up to a maximum number of points agreed by the players.

Players must select the minimum number of units listed for their Core Units, but are otherwise free to choose additional units from their Core and Support Units.

Multiple Battle Group Games

Rules for how to run games with multiple battle groups per side will be covered in the forthcoming Combat Commander supplement. Playtest rules have been published previously on wargames design and the first post can be found here.

Battle Group Statistics

Battle Group Statistics follow the format presented in Combat HQ and Armour Battles. 

A new statistic has been added: Battle Group Strength.

Battle Group Strength

Battle Group Strength represents the combined training levels of all units in a battle group. Strength is then used to calculate Command Dice, initial Staff Orders and Army Morale. It’s explained fully in Kampfgruppe Commander.

Next Post

German Infantry Battalion

Kampfgruppe Commander is the first rules expansion for Combat HQ.

Kampfgruppe Commander presents the Combat HQ Army Builder System. Using the battalion as the basic building block, the Army Builder lets you create a huge range of customized battle groups.

Kampfgruppe Commander Includes: 

• Extensive Training Levels
• Late War German Army Rosters for infantry, volksgrenadiers and armour
• Ready-to-Play Battle Groups
• Close Support Rules for vehicles and infantry guns
• New Special Unit Rules
• Extensive statistics for late war German units

Conclusion

M18 Hellcat

 For an extra 7 points you get a faster vehicle. A vehicle that can shoot and scoot and also be used for triple moves with only a small chance of it breaking down.

StuG III

Slower, but more capable of taking the fight to the enemy, the StuG III can be pushed forwards to support the infantry, Panzer IVs and Panthers. It can take more fire than the M18, but has to stay in the fight.

Which is Best?

The M18 is more expensive than the StuG III, but only marginally so. It all depends on how you use them tactically. Push your M18 platoon forward and it’s much likely to be Dispersed than a StuG III one. Deploy it as a hidden unit or in a Blind and it can hit and run, then use its fast speed and good reliability to harass the German Battle Group’s flanks.

The StuG III is cheaper and is a good hard hitting tank destroyer. It can advance and take fire with a good chance of surviving which makes it superior to the M18 in an attacking role.

As a German player you have a wide variety of tank destroyers to choose from.

Jadgpanzer IV L43/L48

The Jadgpanzer IV L43/L48 is almost identical to the StuG III. It has the same gun and Reaction Dice, but has the shoot and scoot ability. It costs 110 points (11 more than the StuG III), but like the StuG III it has average speed and reliability. More expensive than an M18, it may or may not be better. It all depends on how you intend to use it.