Warlord Games Char B1 Bis build, paint and play review

The B1 BEAST

Now listen, WWII French tanks have received their fair share of mockery over the years which I firmly believe is unjust. I perpetually, and rabidly, defend the genius, innovation, and absolute lunatic ambition that was French tank design across the span of WWI to WWII. To illustrate my point I will introduce you to one of my favourite heavy tanks – the Char B1 bis, AKA The Beast. I present the tale of how I modelled my very own French icon, and how it kept catching fire in Bolt Action 3rd edition.

Historical context – try to stay awake

The B1 was an oddity that spawned slowly and awkwardly out of the inter war period. This big boy behemoth was fine tuned to dominate in a repeat of WWI’s trench style warfare. It was heavily armoured, had several canons and a machine gun, and was long enough to rumble right over the top of any trench network. It was also slower and required the commander to not only direct the crew but also man the turret. The other problem was Germany had no intention of fighting WWI again and so rather cleverly invented WWII. This included entirely new methods of warfare including tanks that go fast. Long story short, despite a few stand out clashes, the B1 proved too slow and awkward to operate and was outmanoeuvred by those sneaky panzers. Boo!

Luring THE BEAST to the tabletop

Suitably, I guess, this kit from Warlord Games comes in an intimidatingly large box, which is odd as there is a lot of empty space on the sprue. Still, this must be a fairly recent kit as the part numbers are all moulded into the sprue which makes assembly nice and easy.

So here is the controversial reveal, I actually bought this kit to run in my German force as a captured Panzerkampfwagen B-2. Sacré bleu indeed! Why you ask? Well, I already have a B1 in my French force…. plus the Germans converted them as flamethrower tanks and I need a piece of that in my life. The kit includes perfectly serviceable instructions for both French and German variants.

My Flammwagen assembles fairly easily though the final result required some basic filling around the joins of the front hull sections. No drama for those with a smidge of hobby know-how and a pack of greenstuff or similar. All in all I had this little war wagon rolling in 45 minutes or so.

For the paint scheme I anointed my new favourite toy with my usual method for German tanks. Primed in Vallejo Dunklegelb, sponge on some browns and metallics, sepia wash, airbrush on some speedpaint round the bottom half, done. More detail on that here. Yet more controversy next as I base it up with some desert sand to match the rest of my force despite the captured Char’s never seeing action in North Africa under German command. May the keepers of tank trivia strike me down for this heresy, I know, I know. I can’t be bothered to paint an entire second German army for a different theatre so I will just have to risk exile from the enthusiasts. Crimes against war lore complete, she gets a quick squiz of varnish and she’s off to crush it on the tabletop. Here I come lads!

Charring it up with the Char

It died immediately. Now to be fair, my opponent rolled the best possible numbers while I rolled the worst possible in response. Statistically speaking it should not have burst into flames on round 1 but it did.. Moving on to game two…. Cor did she get her vengeance. Just before I spin you that particular tale however let’s back up a bit and talk about the tabletop nitty gritty.

Le Rules

Starting with the not so good the Char B1 has both the One Man Turret and Slow rules. That means you need to make an order check every time you advance (not run) it, and that it moves 6 inches not 9, and 12 inches not 24 on a run. That doesn’t feel great but it is certainly thematic. It is also flipping huge so good luck hiding it behind anything less than a building or hill.

The counterpoint however is its armour 9 and has Armoured All Round so benefits from that substantial armour value at the rear and sides too. Bearing in mind this is an early war tank…. That is … well…. Very tanky. This trundling terror has the potential to shrug A LOT of fire and is tougher than most other tanks you will see on the field in that period. That advantage withers quickly in later periods so best be humble if you are looking to face some late war Germans or Soviets. Also, depending on your opponents anti tank options they might be looking to pin you out with concentrated fire rather than chew through that armour value. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as if your char is soaking fire then the rest of your army is taking far less.

Next we have armaments and this just keeps getting better. The original French variants sport a hull mounted MMG, Light Howitzer, and Light Anti-tank gun with coaxial MMG. That is up to 3 weapons firing a turn which could in theory be killing/pinning 3 separate units. Build the German variants and you swap out the light howitzer for a flamethrower for some flambe action.

Game two – flaming hot boogaloo

So now the freshly painted miniature curse is spent, let’s try this again. Facing down against my buddies Italians we are off to an acceptable start. By that I mean it moved forward slowly and couldn’t get line of sight on anything. Turn two it just about crawls up to an objective currently being claimed by Italian special forces. I introduce them to some classic French cooking methods and melt 5 dudes and observe the rest running away. Meanwhile, I have a tiny captured FT17 tankette and a small squad of lads able to mostly hide behind the Char  as it slowly drags itself forward. This thing is a moving bunker.

After a scrap in the centre field goes my way I’m off to weigh in on the tank battle happening on the left flank. I screech and trawl round a corner and catch fire to a pot shot from the other side of the table. BOOM! A third of my points ignites like the beacons of Gondor which seems to summon the Italian horsemen into my now unprotected flank and I lose rather crushingly. It was brilliant fun.

To B1 or not to B1

Honestly, for 220 points at regular you can afford to have a lot of fun here. I certainly did. For a lot of factions this feels like a suboptimal pick especially in mid and late era games but for the French who have a lot less options it’s a must have. You might not run it every game but you will have fun with it every time you do. Also, running them captured as the Germans is such a left field pick at least you’ll have surprise on your side.

Either way, I hope I have convinced you to get a little weird with it. For all the Panzers and Shermans and Churchills out there it is so refreshing to see something lesser known on the table, especially when brought as part of a thematic force. I’ve been running mine in a German list using all captured French vehicles and while I might not be top of the scoreboard, I always force a smile from my opponents when they see the list. I like to think that’s the joy of seeing something as yet unseen but might just be the dawning realisation of an easy win.

About the author:

Hasvik is as Hasvik does. Hasvik enjoys wargaming, TTRPGS, and board games, as well as Jaffa Cakes, frogs, and rolling my dice on the floor to intimidate my opponent. Hasvik has no socials and cannot be followed for he travels only the hidden paths.