The French...actually!

- with Greg

I can hear what you're thinking now. The French, are you serious?! Yeah, well I am. In Flames of War - Great War, the French offer some really good tactical options and also allow you, with what is effectively a single army, to field a variety of different forces that fought on the French side in the conflict.

Like the other guys, I'm starting my force off with one of the new army box deals from Battlefront, in this case Clavery's Chargers. I decided early on that I wanted the basis of my force to be built around French Infantry and the boxed deal gives you 2 full Fusilier sections to build your formation around as well as the support options such as MG's, Trench Mortars (both 76mm and 58mm come in the box) and a field gun. And yes, you get a couple of the bigger French tanks as well....

Now, while you have a number of options with the French in terms of the infantry, such as Metropolitan, Colonial, Russian or Harlem Hellfighters, because they're essentially using the same gear every time, painting them one way and running them in one of the other flavours shouldn't be too much trouble. While the Colonial and Harlem troops favoured a brown uniform instead of the traditional blue, I'm sure you could sneak it past your opponent!

So, building to an initial 60 point list and deciding that I want to start with the Metropolitan Fusiliers, my starting point looks something like this:


Compagnie de Fusilier HQ - 2 x Lebel Pistol Teams                                   2
Fusilier Section with Flamethrower team                                                13
Fusilier Section with 37mm mle 1916 gun                                              14
Machine Gun Platoon with 3 Hotchkiss HMG teams                                  11
76mm Stokes Trench Mortar                                                                   5
76mm Stokes Trench Mortar                                                                   5
75mm Field Gun                                                                                    9

This ends up at 59 points and while it doesn't have tank support to start with, it's still pretty tough. I have a couple of Fusilier sections, one to push forward and flame the trenches before an assault and one to plug gaps if needed.

With the Trench Fighters rule, my guys hit on 2+ in assaults which is awesome! They do counter-attack on a 4+ so we just need to make sure we get in tough! Being hit on 4+ should make them pretty survivable as well.

Trench Mortars and HMG's are a must in my opinion. They give up multiple chances to pin enemy in trenches or mow down the ones coming toward you in short order. If I'm defending I can also put the HMG's in nests or pillboxes for better survivability.

The 75mm gun adds much needed AT if I'm facing tanks, which judging by Pat's lists, I very well could be!

So where to from there? Fleshing the list out to 100 points should be relatively easy. As well as French tanks, I get access to the big British tanks as well...but who needs them!

I'll likely add a Char Saint Chamond. At 21 points, its a massive investment in points but dammit, its a great model and has a mass of firepower that I can bring to bear. That leaves me with 20 points...

And with that, I'm likely to add either a 2 gun battery of 75mm artillery for both impact and AT capability or, and this may surprise you, another unit of infantry, but this time Colonial Tirailleurs instead of the Metropolitan Fusiliers.

My reasoning for this is this... THEY ARE ASSAULT MACHINES!!! I'd arm them with a flamethrower and send them up. They counter attack on a 2+, they hit in assault in a 2+ and they're still hit on a 4+! They're a downright bargain at19 points in my opinion!

So there you have the beginnings of my French WW1 force.  I'v already started painting so keep an eye here for the first article on that in a week or so!

VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!