Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie
with Chris Townley

With my Canadian Force almost finished I’ve started thinking about all the projects that are unfinished and close to completion that I could finish off so it seems like a perfect time to pivot and instead start thinking about a completely new force!

Vive La France!
The obvious choice was of course the French Army. Unlike my Canadians where I’ve never build a Canadian force I have a little more experience with the French. Of course it is in Flames Of War where my Early War force has been the source of not only some really fun games, but also been a interesting modelling project. Like all my armies I still have some platoons still to finish to round it out (a company of Lorraine 38L carriers to mechanise my army and some Somua tanks) but I am sure it will get completed “soon”.

Chris' French WW2 Army

Chris has a blog that he updates occassionally (well very occassionally since the birth of his kids) but you can find some images of his French Army there, with its distinctive Early War camo scheme.

Check out Chris’ French Army here…

Looking through the French forces in Free Nations one stood out to be as being a little different, the Escadrons de Cavalerie, or as I like to think of it, “Wheels of Steel!” With the AMX-10 RC, VAB and Mephisto this force has access to so many wheeled vehicles it feels like a great chance to not paint tank tracks for once! I would have been tempted to build an AMX-30 Escadron Blinde using the new plastic AMX-30 tank / AMX AuF self-propelled gun but having (almost) finished my Canadians with a small horde of Leopard 1 tanks I didn’t want to paint medium armour / 105mm tank force so soon.

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

So turning back to the 1980s the force I have been thinking about looks a little like this.

Option 1: Two Formations
Escadron De Cavalerie  
Escadron De Cavalerie HQ 1 Points

VAB (x 1)

 

AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
VAB Section d'Infanterie 10 Points
FAMAS team with AC-58 anti-tank grenade (x 7)   
LRAC 89mm anti-tank team (x 1)  
APILAS team (x 1)  
Milan missile team (x 1)  
VAB(x 4)  
Escadron De Cavalerie  
Escadron De Cavalerie HQ 1 Points

VAB (x 1)

 

AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
VAB Section d'Infanterie 10 Points
FAMAS team with AC-58 anti-tank grenade (x 7)   
LRAC 89mm anti-tank team (x 1)  
APILAS team (x 1)  
Milan missile team (x 1)  
VAB (x 4)  
Total 58 Points

I am still very much in the Theory-Yankee (is that the term for it?) phase of the list building. My thoughts are that since the Formations can only have 3 platoons, and since the AMX-10 RC vehicles are such glass-cannons I need something to buff the Formations, hence the addition of the infantry platoons. These offer something a little harder to shift and thanks to their integral AT weapons they should be able to deter tanks from coming too close. This list also has plenty of space for Force Support options.

Option 2: Three Formations

Escadron De Cavalerie #1
 
Escadron De Cavalerie HQ 1 Points

VAB (x 1)

 

AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
Escadron De Cavalerie #2
 
Escadron De Cavalerie HQ 1 Points

VAB (x 1)

 

AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
AMX-10 RC Peloton de Cavalerie 9 Points
AMX-10 RC (x 4)   
VAB Compagnie d'Infanterie  
VAB Compagnie d'Infanterie HQ 1 Points

FAMAS assault rifle team (x 1)

 

VAB (x 1)

 

VAB Section d'Infantrie 10 Points
FAMAS team with AC-58 anti-tank grenade (x 7)   
LRAC 89mm anti-tank team (x 1)  
APILAS team (x 1)  
VAB Section d'Infantrie 10 Points
FAMAS team with AC-58 anti-tank grenade (x 7)   
LRAC 89mm anti-tank team (x 1)  
APILAS team (x 1)  
Milan Section Antichar 11 Points
Milan missile team (x 8)   
VAB (x4)  
Total 90 Points

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

This list has an even more solid base with 3 Formations, more AMX-10 RC (which is a great thing in my books) but only requires a relatively small amount of extra painting over the first list. I’ll probably need to play around with the two versions some more before I finalise anything though.

Force Support 
The French Army in Team Yankee has so many great options to choose from that it is difficult to pin them down, especially with my second list where I only have 10 points to spare! Rather than trying to add in units to round out either of these two forces to 100 points I thought I’d share some of my favourites.

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

VAB Mephisto Peloton Antichar
HOT missile with AT23 + Wheels + Scout + Hammerhead = more fun than you can handle! For 8 points they are not cheap, but my goodness I know I would find space somewhere to add them into an army.

Left picture: The VAB Mephisto Peloton Antichar

Gazelle HOT/20mm Patrouille d’Helicopters d'Attaque
Can barely pronounce it, nor spell it without help from Google, but did I mention Helicopters with HOT missiles capable of slicing through anything that the Warsaw Pact can throw at us and 20mm cannons that can shoot up the enemy before they fire at us. Turning the clock back 25 years I never thought much of the Gazelle but with the model in hand I changed my mind and now I love it.

Right picture: The Gazelle HOT Patrouille d’Helicopters d'Attaque attacking T-64 tanks

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie

Air Defence
French players get two excellent choices for their air defence. It all comes down to whether you want Gepard lite with the AMX-13 DCA or if you prefer the reliability and range of missiles with the AMX Roland. Or you could just trust in the Gazelle 20mm if you just want to hunt enemy choppers.

Left picture: The AMX Roland on watch for enemy air attacks

Painting...
Although it seems a little premature given that I haven’t even assembled a single model yet I have been thinking about a colour scheme. In the 80’s the French army was painted in a single army green colour that is essentially a variation of Olive Drab. The second option is the tri colour camo scheme that Aaron painted the Battlefront models. This scheme was introduced after the Team Yankee WWIII timeline but looks really great, hence why he chose it. 

Option three is a little more out of the box with a Division Daguet camo style, a sand and brown two colour scheme from Desert Storm.

All three options have their pros and cons, luckily I have plenty of time to ponder over the next few weeks whilst we wait for the release of the French.
~Chris

Right Picture: An AMX 30 painted up in the scheme from Desert Storm

Chris’ French Escadrons de Cavalerie