Bonjour, mon… friends. In my best efforts to abate my rabid eagerness for the new French army book for Bolt Action 3rd edition coming later this year I wanted to have a quick look at the already released French Weapons Team. Let’s pop the packaging and have a nosey at these special little lads. Using my usual vague template for reviewing these kits I will overview their historical context (thanks Wikipedia), talk over the build process, slap them up with my slightly ahistorical paint job, and then mull over their viability on the battlefield from the perspective of a man who doesn't really know what he is doing and keeps losing. Bon.
Why these lads in particular
So the pack comes with 7 miniatures making 3 separate weapons teams. 2 person sniper team, 2 person light mortar team, 2 person anti tank rifle team, and a spotter. A few of these minis also work interchangeably as forward observers. Let’s have a quick sprint through the history for each unit type:
Snipers were in use by all major factions through WW2 and while the French were no exception they were still experimenting with how snipers, also known as Tireur d’élites, could be advantaged in a theatre much less static than WW1, Truth be told, the French doctrine on snipers was a work in progress by the time the nation was occupied. While their impact on the French defence of 1940 was limited, they were definitely there….
Light Mortars, by contrast, were very popular with the French. They liked some uppy downy explody bombs. Perhaps a hold over from the great war, the French were skilled in indirect fire, both on an operational and tactical level and had vast stores of mortar rounds at the outbreak of the war. They were used to suppress German fire positions and rain down some hurt on concentrated infantry.
Anti Tank (AT) Rifles were also in use during the fall of France but far less popular than the mortar. In short, the French loved their Canon de 25mm Semi-Automatique Modèle 1934 (anti tank gun) and were reliant on this little beastie as their primary tank-go-home option. They did have a few anti tank rifles attached to recon and cavalry forces so their inclusion is hardly ahistorical but again this is more about game balance than historical significance as AT rifles are pretty darn useful on the (early war) tabletop - more on that later.
Spotter/forward [artillery/air] observer also feels very French. As stated, they loved their indirect fire and big guns hunkered on the horizon. There’s that WW1 doctrine lurking around again. While the rules do allow for the French to take an air observer, everything I can find indicates most observers were attached to artillery rather than aircraft but you do you.
Quick side point, the pack also contains 3 white order dice. Good for topping yourself up if that’s your colour.
Getting the team back together
So, construction then. As this is one of Warlords newer small kits we have their resin to deal with rather than metal. That suits me fine. The minis come well packaged with a bit of foam and with no deformities or bends. It’s also nice to see they come as single cast miniatures so no awkward assembly required. Yet again resin proves itself superior to metal. First thing first, I drop these lads in a bowl with some fairy liquid and near boiling water to wash off any mold release, assisted with a gentle brushing from an old toothbrush. If you don’t do this step then you need to learn to love yourself better. Mold remover will negate your primer adhesion and your paint job will slop off sooner or later. Side point, while these minis arrived undamaged, the hot water step does warm up the resin and makes it slightly pliable. This is your opportunity to gently bend out any kinks and boil your fingers like little crayfish - jokes aside, please do not boil your own hands. That would make assembly, painting, and calling 999 difficult. Once cooked to temperature they get a second, and sometimes third rinse to wash off the fairly liquid, and then get left on a paper towel to dry.
To get them based, I file the bottoms of the minis to create some texture and then do the same with the tops of the bases to create a helpful surface for the adhesive, then slap on some two part epoxy and on they go. This is what is called “complete overkill”. You can (and probably should) use superglue instead but I like to model my miniatures with long term survival in mind. I am also extremely heavy handed and aggressively clumsy so I want to give them a fair chance at life. Also, I swap the standard warlord bases out for ones with a recess beneath them so I can sneak in some magnets for storage.
At this point, I do have a sad confession to make. I snapped my sniper. I was pressing down while gluing and the rifle snapped. Could it have been a weakness in the caste? Maybe but I feel that’s unfair. Again, I am heavy handed and probably should have been holding it more carefully but just be mindful with your own kits. Be better than me. It’s too fine a break for epoxy or pinning so I apologetically superglue him back together but as there is base contact on either side of the break (his body and the tree stump) I can still rely on epoxy to do the heavy lifting and help hold the break together longer term.
Painting my new pals
They get a quick brrr with the airbrush as I prime them in white Vallejo polyurethane primer and are left to cure for 24 hours. Next, they get the sacré bleu colour scheme outlined in my previous article. For the sniper’s tree stump rifle rest I base in Speedpaint Dark Wood and dryrbush up in a few lighter AK browns.
I’m happy with how they came out but do wish there had been some more variety in the poses as it’s hard to make out the differences with all the laying down, especially from a few feet away. Still, the sniper is a great stand out mini, even in comparison with other faction equivalents so definitely a worthy addition to my collection.
The ultimate team up - Snipers
So let’s talk tabletop. First up, snipers. I have to say, I am not mad about long range shooty boys in Bolt Action. While infiltrator is always nice, and their negation of cover is handy too, they still only have only one shot which feels like a lot at 52 points regular. Also, in most games they are likely to be sat in one position all game. To me, that makes them a little boring as I like a more mobile and aggressive playstyle. In most games I whiff at least a shot or too, then maybe I don’t have a decent shot on anything for another few rounds, then I score a kill or two and take out one dude for my trouble… or maybe just pin an open top vehicle. At that rate I am probably not making my points back unless I am sniping some very expensive infantry. What also doesn’t help is I often play against Germans who have the Initiative Training army rule - TLDR, they don’t suffer a moral penalty for losing their NCO.
Outside of specific scenarios and match ups, I think the best advantage in taking a sniper is as a distraction. I have been in a game or two where my opponent (or I…) have concentrated a lot of firepower on veteran snipers in heavy cover over a perceived threat when they/I should have been largely ignoring them and putting my bullets into better targets. While I am pleased there is a (pretty cool) model for French sniper this one probably isn’t for me.
The ultimate team up - light mortars
Speaking of things that are for me - light mortars (LM). Let me just say - auto include? Super popular this edition and let me tell you why. Indirect fire means they hit on a 6, and range down 1 for every miss. In addition, there is no penalty for moving and firing so you can move them then still fish for that 6. The best bit - they are ludicrously cheap. 21 points for an inexperienced LM team and you have two LM slots per rifle platoon.
To my mind there are two distinct ways to play them. Cheap and cheerful and try to keep them out of harm’s way as you apply pressure to your opponents units that don’t want to/can’t move, or alternatively take them as vets, stick them in cover, and bait your opponents bullets. Note, if taken at inexperienced then they tend to evaporate if your opponent lines their sights on them so keep them protected if so. I almost always take 1-2 of these at inex, even if it’s just a cheap way of upping my order dice count. I also think they are best in numbers. There have been a few occasions where I have run 4 for larger battles and you start to feel like you’re playing casino games rather than wargames.
The ultimate team up - anti-tank (AT) rifles
Like a sniper, but good. You can take 1 AT rifle per rifle platoon at 25 points regular and for me they are a must for early war platoons, I feel. That said, I drop these hard when we talk about mid and late war games. AT early war most vehicles are light enough they are still vulnerable to AT guns with their +2 Pen. While they don’t have the range or infiltrator of a sniper, they are a genuine threat to lightly armoured vehicles as well as infantry, and that pen makes a kill much more likely. Often my early war list building centres around how to include a second rifle platoon just for the AT rifles. Fair warning, as tanks get bigger in later eras the AT rifle really starts to struggle to penetrate and becomes much less effective. Stil, j'approuve.
The ultimate team up - spotters/observers
I seem to be in a majority here but I think that is due to my playstyle. I don’t usually take spotters. Spotters are at their strongest when accompanied by expensive howitzers and the like as they enhance the sightlines of your big cost, static units when indirect firing. That said, I don’t run expensive howitzers and the like very often. Artillery is a great way to remove hardcore infantry from behind cover, but I am more of the load a berliet transport with SMG wielding veterans and blitzkrieg into point blank range sort of problem solver. Also as discussed above I prefer light mortars for indirect support which can’t take spotters. If you like big guns that can take a spotter then for 10 points the investment seems sound.
Now, artillery observers - this is a toughy. In theory, they can be extremely powerful, and are certainly thematic to the French army of the period. That said, I have two primary concerns. Firstly, I exclusively play in a low competitive, friendly environment and arty observers can cause some bad feels when they land just right. If at the end of turn one you wipe out / make combat ineffective a third of your opponents army that doesn’t feel good to me. Maybe it does to you - in which case, please don’t have children. Yes, there are usually things you can do to mitigate the observer - kill it before the fire order (good luck), spread your army out or flee/dodge the artillery marker if already placed, go down to half hits, get gud, or you can just take your chances with lady luck and ignore it, but to me at least this doesn’t feel like a fun experience, or even that tactical. If you’re psyched up for a long awaited weekend game but you’ve just taken out 300 points worth of your mate’s units and pinned a load more with a lucky arty strike, and now they are seriously considering conceding at the end of turn two but don’t have time for another game then…. That isn’t the experience I am going for.
Secondly, they are swingyer than Tarzan on the jungle vines. Sure, if you roll spot on then muy deadly, but you are just as likely to roll badly and your strike veers off the board, or worse, over your own units, or the patch of ground you were about to advance into…. For 90 points at regular, that is a bit spenny to accidentally nuke yourself. I actually think they are a bit of a trap. The potential is so high and yet the outcome so often falls short. I know they are popular, and I have seen them used to devastating effect (usually on me) but after only running them a few times myself, to extremely mixed results, I don’t quite vibe with them.
Team debrief
So overall, it’s all about playstyle as to how useful these units are for you. I don’t think anything in here is unusable, but my spotter/observer and sniper rarely come out to play on my table. If you haven't tried the light mortar or AT rifle yet then I implore you to get this box. You won’t regret it, especially if you play early war. If I had one criticism it would be “excuse me, where is my flamethrower” which I would have loved to see instead of the sniper but that’s just me and my preference for super spicy lists. I think all in all this is a great price for widening your list building options and should be an early purchase for those building up a French force, or for those like me that just want to squeeze in a few more AT rifles into their list
