Chasseurs Ardennais

Cap Badge of the Chasseur Ardennais

After having a good look through the 1940 CoC Blitzkrieg, I felt the most interesting force to game with would be the Belgians. They put up an initial heroic defence especially in the Ardennes, in which the Chasseurs Ardennais played a significant role. The Blitzkrieg source book laid out a fairly simple core platoon with limited supports so I said why not?

In 20mm, there are only 2 suppliers of metal figures that one could use being Early War Miniatures and FAA Miniatures. I decided to go with EWM as they had a slightly better selection with more supports and they are I believe a good supporter of TFL. The order was placed in September 20th, and was mailed out about 3 weeks later. I believe the figures were cast to order. It was pretty expensive coming in under $175, but this gave me a pretty complete core and support force with a few extras. They arrived within a couple of weeks.

I will discuss the miniatures after the photos, but they certainly were a little rough. My painting scheme was as follows:

• Green Tail Light (Vallejo Panzer Aces 308): Chasseur Ardennais beret
• Leather Brown (Vallejo 871): Webbing and ammunition pouches
• Green Brown (Vallejo 879): Uniform
• Black (Vallejo 950): Boots and gaiters
• Khaki (Vallejo 988): Breadsack
• Russian Uniform Green (Vallejo 924): Gasmask container and mess tin

They were primed VMC Panzer Grey using an airbrush and then hand painted. I used Citadel Sepia as a final wash. They came out OK as long as you do not look too closely and certainly on the table they look like a coherent force. I have just recently bought a bunch of metal washers as I wanted to started transporting my CoC troops in magnetised boxes. Up until now I have been using coins. Made a big mistake here though as I not not test the washers to see if they were attracted to magnets. They were NOT! Clearly I do not know much about metals, and of course I never checked until the figures were all based.

My Belgians with the core platoon and supports.

Group de Combat One, this is quite a powerful squad with a Fusil Mitrailleur Team with 2 FM1930 Automatic Rifles and 8 riflemen as well as a Fusilier Grenadier Team equipped with 3 grenades and 1 smoke grenade. They are led a JL with a SMG.

Group de Combat Two, similarly equipped. The FM 1930 AR has a Firepower of 4, so the  total GdC fires with 22d6 .

The DBT Lance Grenadier Section. A JL and 9 riflemen who fire with 10d6 under 18" and use their DBT Launchers at >18" giving 2HE each. They also have 3 smoke grenades each.

The platoon has only 1 SL which is definitely a limitation.

Some ancillary figures: FO, Sniper, Medic and extra JL.

A 5 man Fusil Mitrailleur with a JL and a FM1930 AR mounted on motorcycles

MMG Team here with a Maxim, if equipped with a Hotchkiss M1914 MMG they fire  9d6

47mm FRC M1931 ATG with 5 crew and a JL.

A small 3 man engineering team, no engineering models out there ufortunately, these guys have Adrienne Helmets

T13 B1 Tank

Very nice but very expensive Retrokit Model.

T13 B3 Tank

Armour 3, AP 6, HE 4, Low Profile

I have to admit that I sort of wished that I played CoC in 28mm after painting these figures. Warlord Games has a very nice set of Chasseurs Ardennais which look like they would be nice to paint. I suppose that I should not complain as this is a pretty rare force which can really only be utilized in one very short campaign. The infantry are not bad and do have some variation (5-6 models) but the support troops are a bit of a joke in that I really only think there are 3 basic models which one has to use for the MMG, ATG Team and the DBT teams. There is only one figure with a SMG.

They were very poorly cast, faces a complete mess. I am not sure what the original greens were like but they could do with an improvement. And amazingly enough it appears in early November they re-mastered this line. I am not really happy that I was not told this as I think I made a fairly major purchase but so it goes. I see they have an Off-Table Mortar team now as well as some Belgians tanks so I suppose I will be making another order.