I was expecting the French lists to be torn apart from top to bottom, but I'm happy to see the themed list met with much of your approval and that elements of the other list were praised. I do agree that the LMG on the Foreign Legion is a dud. I tried them at the weekend and it's not necessarily bad, but they are too expensive for what you get. Better to just add in the 1 SMG man they can get instead, since it's only 1 shot less for 14pts less to make an even 100pt squad. I will admit the giddiness you had when you saw the Heavy Artillery threw me. I half expected that to be torn apart as a waste of points when the Medium would have been just fine. One bit of context I left out of the email to you was that we are limited to 1 platoon. So using two platoons to get more artillery wasn't an option. I take the Berliet more because my opponents don't really know what to do with it, since they can't really hurt it. And they are a good transport to use when you keep a bunch of units in reserve to avoid Preparatory Bombardments or FAOs. You can race them onto the table and get the squad closer to the action quicker instead of footslogging and having no impact on the game. Engineers are nice, but my luck is so bad that rolling a single dice to hit just has me paranoid to put any faith in them, especially when my opponents will do their best to kill it once I make a move with them. Artillery I am more comfortable with since they sit in the back line and will get another chance to shoot if they fail. Thanks for the review. I'll definitely be trying to merge elements from the two lists.
Missing so many best pieces of the French lists. Dual platoon is essential if you can. Max out your howitzers. Early war motorcycles, engineers 5 man regular in 4 wheel laffly.
Only 1 Platoon allowed in the campaign (though after some shenanigans with myself and the guy playing as Spain in the campaign having at least 4 activations above everyone else, they are thinking of introducing an order dice limit as well), so have to do what I can with what I am allowed. Engineers are fine overall, but I've not ever felt they are auto-includes. The 4 Wheel Laffly transports are the best, but lately I've been having trouble with them staying alive. My opponents always seem to get exactly what they need with every roll, so removing their ability to kill the transports via small-arms shooting became a necessity. The Berliet is just as good, even without taking Engineers to rush them forward (which never appealed to me as to me that's akin to throwing away points when they inevitably fail to have any game impact).
@merlin4084 the berliet is a fine transport, a little expensive tho. The problem with the transports in general is that they don't gel well with gourmier or other assault troops. They do well with troops that unload and then shoot. So the engineers with the FT or the vets with 4 smgs. If you want, try a berliet with 5 engineers and a LT and man. The berliet shoots when it moves up for a pin, next die, the LT and man shoot their smgs and then next die the FT comes out and the unit already has 2 pins on it before you shoot.