Squad 1
Having started playing Bolt Action with Soviet Russians, I was already familiar with the Green troop rule. You can't get around this as you receive a free Rifle Squad of twelve hapless individuals, but I have more Rifle squads than the compulsory one to represent large waves of untrained Russian irregulars. When I bought the German Army Book, I was interested to see how Green was adapted further to add flavour to the Volksgrenadiers (and Hitler Youth, also...)
I bought a box of Warlord's Winter Germans, with the intention of using them as Volksgrenadiers. I didn't just want squads of greatcoat-wearing dudes standing in stark contrast to my regular grenadiers, so used some spare grenadier figures to add some variation in uniform and equipment to my Volksgrenadier squads. Confused yet?!
We've all seen the pictures of greatcoat and StG44 sporting Volksgrenadiers taking cover behind trees in the Ardennes. These seem to have become the popular image of the Volksgrenadier as they are the first to pop up on Google and feature on Wikipedia too. But, the truth was, not all Volksgrenadier Regiments were as well-equipped as this picture wants us to believe. Huge numbers of StG44s weren't available to create the assault weapon/ firebase units that Volkgrenadier regiments they were envisioned to be. Granted, Bolt Action lets you start with five StG44/ assault rifles in this squad, but I don't feel comfortable with any more than that. Personally, I'd like to be able to reduce that number further, if I wished, by downgrading more men to being rifle-armed.
What I do feel BA got right for Volksgrenadiers was the tweak to the Green rule that makes them even more varied in their potential troop quality. Some Volkgrenadier units were poor and crumbled under minimal opposition, others had a core of experienced and veteran troops to bolster the newer additions and performed extremely well. I like that I don't know what I'll be getting whenever my Volksgrenadiers come under fire. They may just melt away or become extremely shaken. They may hold their ground, but be poor quality. They may bump up to being Regular troops and acquit themselves nicely, but then, they may even show true grit and determination and reveal themselves to be veterans and prove to be a real problem.
I don't have all of my 3 squads painted up yet, only the first. With the Volksgrenadier First Lieutenant I've already painted, I plan on eventually playing an entire platoon of these guys at some point. I look forward to the improbable day that my opponent suddenly finds themselves facing three veteran squads of Volksgrenadiers that they weren't bargaining on. I can only hope...
As I discovered when fielding several units of Green Russian rifle squads, it can become tricky remembering which units scored what on the Green dice roll. Tons of pin markers is an easy indicator for a roll of 1, but what if your squad upgraded to a better quality? Volksgrenadiers have double the bookkeeping, being able to jump from Regular, all the way up to Veteran quality potentially. So, I adapted a little device I created for my Russian Rifle squads to clearly denote what morale level my Volksgrenadiers came out at. If they stayed Inexperienced, they got no extra base (and probably didn't survive for too long, anyway!), but if they upgraded to Regular or Veteran, here was my solution to keep track.
I printed off coloured strips with the troop qualities on them, mounted them on cardboard for depth and them glued them to the sabot bases. These particular ones are from Supreme Littleness Designs and I like them alot. After finding them for my Russian bases, I returned for my German versions. Well worth looking at their website.
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