Secrets of the Third Reich – Germans for Victory Decision

Mech Grenadier Platoon

“Germany’s success on the Eastern Front coupled with the entry of Spain into the war allow Germany to reorganize its land forces and increase industrial output in certain areas. As a Result, by 1949 Mechanized Grenadier formations make up the bulk of the Wermacht’s land forces.”

Secrets of the Third Reich by West Wind Productions

Given the fun that I’m having with Victory Decision I decided it was time to do the stats for my Secrets of the Third Reich Mech Grenadiers for Victory Decision.

Based on how the platoon in the Secrets of the Third Reich is defined I had to do a little bit of work.

First of all, these guys all carry some kind of armor that is prevalent in SoTR, so looking at the Sci Fi ViDe I decided that 5pts per model would increase the armor save of a regular WWII soldier from 6+ to 5+

Then I had to figure out some of the weapons. SoTR happens around 1949, by these times more powerful weapons are available, for example both sides make extensive use of assault rifles and semi automatic rifles.

Representing SoTR weapons

For playability reasons I decided to rationalize that given the familiarity in this setting with semi auto rifles I was not going to give them the “suppression” trait that ViDe gives to semi auto rifles. This would mean that the HMG,LMG and assault rifles would be the weapons bringing in the suppression trait. That way more tactical options play into the game. So for my SOTR all semi auto rifles are treated just as standard rifles, which in any case don’t show up in the setting, as simple 1D6 weapons.  No need to adjust points here since the basic german troops already have this D6 no suppression weapon.

The SoTR germans have these packed LMG ( MG46 ) in their units. This was easy to represent by the ViDe FG42 or the BAR, so 36″ and 3D6, suppression.

Assault rifles, just like ViDe, either late war troops or from the Sci Fi mid tech armies.

Other weapons are easily to match as well: panzerfaust, AT-rifles, flame throwers, the MG-42 from late war ViDe is used as the MG-48 from SoTR, a medium mortar.

Some vehicles like my Marder III are simply available in the German Technical Manual.

The Luther takes a bit of work and still needs a bit of playtesting. I’m basing it around the experimental walkers from ViDe Sci-fi but I’m yet to decide on some of the stats and I’m hoping to get the authors feedback on points. I also have the mechas from Gear Krieg to serve as a template.

And finally, plain old zombies like the ones you find in  ViDe sci fi or from Gear Krieg. Some of the SoTR zombies even have some explosives attached to them and guess what ViDe has rules for that too !!

With all this in mind the weapons for the setting look like this:

KAR-98 – Scoped Bolt Action Rifle -(u/t 2)  36″, 2xD6H  Scoped,Suppression
Gewehr-45 – G-45 semi auto rifle -(u/t 3)  24″,  D6
MP47 – SMG – 12″,(u/t 3)  3xD6
MP48 – Strumgewehr – Assault Rifle(u/t 3)  18″ , 2xD6 suppression
Packed LMG-46  packed LMG,(u/t 3)  36″ , 3xD6 suppression
MG-48 “Kreissaege” Buzzsaw HMG, (u/t 3) 48″, 2XD6+1  Set up/4, suppression
Panzerschreck (u/t 1) 18″  D10+2  blast/1, save/-1
Panzerfaust (u/t 1) 12″ , D10+3  blast/1″ , save/-1
Mechbusch (u/t 1) 48″ D6+2
Flammenwerfer (u/t 2) 12″   D6  Flame , Suppression

Elements of the Mechgrenadier paltoon

Let’s look at the units that you can see on the gallery and point them out. You can do this by taking the Late War Panzergrenadier or Rifle Platoon list as these have been unified in the SoTR setting and adjusting the units as per the options mentioned above for the different weapons. Remove the weapons in the base list that are not present and add the points for armor and new SoTR weapons present. Note that the G-45 does not imply a points change due to what was explained above. Other special rules will be just as per the original Panzergrenadier or Rifle Platoon ViDe list.

Platoon HQ  (192 pts)
Leutnant with Pistol and MP47
Unteroffizier with MP48
Mechgrenadier with G-45
Medic
Radio operator

Mech Grenadier Combat Element ( squad 261 pts)
Fire Support element
Unteroffizier with MP47
Mechgrenadier with LMG-46
3 Mechgrenadiers with G-45
Maneuver element
Obergefreiter with MP48
3 Mechgrenadiers with G-45
1 Mechgrenadier with G-45 and Panzerfaust

Sniper team ( light support 80 pts)
Sniper with scoped KAR-98
Spotter with G-45

HMG Support team ( light support 145 pts)
Gefreiter with MP47
Mechgrenadier with MG-48 HMG
2 Mechgrenadiers with G-45

Medium Mortar team ( light support 105 pts)
Gefreiter with MP47
Mechgrenadier with medium mortar
Mechgrenadiers with G-45

Panzerschreck team (light support team 90 pts)
Mechgrenadier with MKV Panzerschreck
Mechgrenadier with G-45

Mechbusch team (light support team 70 pts)
Mechgrenadier with Mechbusch
Mechgrenadier with G-45

Flamethrower team (light support team 72 pts)
Mechgrenadier with Flammenwerfer
Mechgrenadier with G-45

Flamethrower team (light support team 72 pts)
Mechgrenadier with Flammenwerfer
Mechgrenadier with G-45

Zombie horde (heavy support team 175pts)
10 zombies with the lurker trait
2 of the zombies have attached explosives

Marder III (heavy support team 115pts)
My marder has no pintle machinegun, the model doesn’t have it so let’s assume it has been scavenged by some infantry unit and take the points out!

Luther (heavy support team 150pts)
Loosely based on the Gear Krieg Valkure, mine has:
5cm AT gun  ( 48″, D10+2 ,  blast/1″  taken from the Puma)
Pintle HMG  ( 36″, 3xD6,  suppression)
Front  ( crit 9+ , hit 8+, save 5+)
Side    ( crit 8+, hit7+, save 5+)
Rear   ( crit 8+, hit 7+,5+)
Move Walker 4″    Size: 4
Special: Radio, Recon, Walker
This is a prototype hybrid that I created by looking at the Gear Krieg Valkure, the idea is that this is the walker equivalent of the Puma.

Infantry minis from Secrets of the Third Reich painted by my friend Chris Dingley from Studio Validus
The Mech is a Luther from the prepainted Dust Tactics line