With the new edition of Great War, I have been inspired to start a new army and as a New Zealander, the moment I saw that an ANZAC Rifle Company was a new option, my mind was made up.
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and in World War One, they are probably best known for their participation in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915, where they earned a formidable reputation despite the failure to defeat the Ottomans. Later in the war, the surviving troops, bolstered by reinforcements would be redeployed to the Western Front, where they would once again earn a reputation as excellent assault troops, being rotated into the front line for important offensives.
In Great War, the ANZAC and Canadian list has a variety of special rules which help to distinguish it from the other options available to the British in the book. The Assault Divisions rule gives ANZAC and Canadian infantry a better rally value, enabling them to unpin more easily to carry on assault or return fire if on the defensive. The Trench Fighters rule and their status as veteran infantry makes them truly formidable in assaults, as they will hit enemy teams on a 2+, while the Night Attack rule provides the ability to negate some of the effectiveness of enemy fire by attacking under the cover of darkness. Finally, a Canadian Rifle Company has the option of taking an autocar, an early armoured car which carries a pair of Vickers machine guns, which can be dismounted and dug in if necessary.
For my ANZAC force, I decided to build the following as a initial 60 points force:
ANZAC Rifle Company:
Rifle Company HQ: 2 Webley pistol teams: 2 points
Rifle Platoon: 5 SMLE rifle team, 2 Hales rifle grenade teams, 2 Lewis MG teams 15 points
Rifle Platoon: 5 SMLE rifle team, 2 Hales rifle grenade teams, 2 Lewis MG teams 15 points
Machine-Gun Platoon: 2 Vickers HMG teams 9 points
Trench Mortar: 1 3” Stokes mortar team 6 points
Support Units:
Green Field Gun: 1 QQF 18 pdr gun 9 Points
Sniper: 1 sniper team 4 Points
Total: 60 points
When building this list, I started by filling out my compulsory platoons, in this case the two compulsory rifle platoons and the HQ, which came to 32 points. This left me with 28 points to fill out the rest of my force, which I decided to spend on more core and support units to protect and support my infantry. Firstly, I decided that my force needed some HMGs to provide additional firepower with their high rate of fire, which I can switch out for bunkers or nests while defending or use to pin down the enemy when I am attacking.
Next, I thought that a trench mortar would be useful for picking off enemy HMGs and gun teams, using its excellent firepower and ability to fire over my advancing infantry. Initially, I had decided to add another HMG and mortar to my force, to further beef up my firepower but after some thinking, I figured that someone in our local group is definitely crazy enough to take a tank in 60 points list, so I figured that an 18 pdr gun was a must to offer me some protection against armour whilst also offering the ability to pin down enemy units with an artillery template. Finally, as I had four points left, I decided to include a sniper, as this was the only unit that costs 4 points and snipers are ideal for picking off dangerous enemy teams like MGs or Mortars.
Later, when I expand the force to 100 points, I envision it looking like the following
ANZAC Rifle Company:
Rifle Company HQ: 2 Webley pistol teams: 2 points
Rifle Platoon: 5 SMLE rifle team, 2 Hales rifle grenade teams, 2 Lewis MG teams 15 points
Rifle Platoon: 5 SMLE rifle team, 2 Hales rifle grenade teams, 2 Lewis MG teams 15 points
Rifle Platoon: 5 SMLE rifle team, 2 Hales rifle grenade teams, 2 Lewis MG teams 15 points
Machine-Gun Platoon: 3 Vickers HMG teams 14 points
Trench Mortar: 1 3” Stokes mortar team 6 points
Trench Mortar: 1 3” Stokes mortar team 6 points
Support Units:
Green Field Gun: 1 QQF 18 pdr gun 9 Points
Green Mark IV Male Tank: 1 Mark IV Male 17 Points
Total of 99 Points
Moving up to 100 points, I decided to add an extra infantry platoon to strengthen the core of my force, enabling me to throw more men at an enemy position when attacking or to concentrate more infantry around the objectives whilst on the defence. At this point, I felt like I just had to add a tank to the force as they are such an iconic part of WW1, and in this case, I chose a Green Mark IV Male. I chose a Green Mark IV as I didn’t have too many points left to play with, whilst the decision to make it a Male tank was because I wanted to add a tank which was still capable of fighting other tanks. I also added another mortar and HMG to buff up my firepower and to strengthen my formation, but as these units took me to 103 points in total I had to remove the sniper from my list in order to make room.
As an alternative to this force, I’d consider dropping the tank to add another 18 pdr gun, another HMG and a sniper, which would make the force much more defensive and capable of fending off multiple tanks at once with its 18 pdrs, as I feel that the earlier list has a distinct lack of anti-tank firepower.
So, once the troops are in country, I can begin the slow process of painting all that English Uniform! Wish me luck and watch this space!
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