FOW – Armies of Late War Review!

By Ed Sales

Additional photos courtesy of BattleFront, or as noted.

Today we take a look at Flames of War’s most recent book, Armies of Late War. This book was released as a basic starter book for Late War Version 4, with four major nations, Germany, United States of America, Britain, and the Soviet Union having their standard armies released, with adjusted rules. Repointed units are here to go with the recent Late War rules updates, this includes the removal of redundant teams and properly adjusted aircraft stats.

The book is well written, and the graphics were laid out nicely. All the nations special rules are listed. Also, before you get to each nation’s forces there are brief histories of the nations’ armored forces history in the war, followed by a Know Your Tanks section, which gives brief stats of the tanks and helps those unfamiliar with the different tanks be able to identify them.

In this article, I will break down and highlight several things that I noticed which stood out to me in the lists. For experienced gamers, most of these lists were pulled and modified from other books that we have already seen and owned.

Why is this book needed? For those who started their foray into FOW with Version 4 Mid War, or who have played Team Yankee and want to see what all the fun with FOW Late War is about, this book helps those individuals make a much easier transition.

All the force diagrams in this book have been updated to what we expect to see in Team Yankee and Mid War Version 4, and you build your force in the same manner. There are also unit cards to go with every unit in the book. The cards are sold separately for each nation and are not needed to play. They are a nice addition if you’re already used to using the cards.

Units have had their points and stats updated to the most recent Late War Rules update, so you should see some of the units with different point costs, and you will no longer see Observers and Command Teams within the Unit structure. If you’re a veteran player, such as myself, and you are asking questions like “why did this book come out?” or “Are these the super competitive lists you’d want to take to a tournament?” or, you have noticed “These aren’t new lists!” then this book is probably not for you.

This book was made for new FOW players who want to transition to Late War Version 4 with a force building diagram they are already used to. It also allows people to work with the most recent Late War Rules updates already incorporated into the points and stats of those units in the book.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at the first nation in the book, the Americans.

 

Americans

The Americans have four formation choices in this book, a Sherman Company, Tank Destroyer Company, Armored Rifles, and a Rifle Company.

 

The Americans have the fewest Support options that you are allowed to take in the book compared to the other nations. The Support boxes show we can take two recon units, self-propelled AA, an option for a plane, and an interesting option where we can take three platoons of arty, whether it be the M2A1 105s or Priests. Could this book bring the return of US Arty Parks? We’ll have to see what players opt to bring.

There is also a box for a Wildcard option, so I will be curious what that will end up being in the future.

The Sherman formation’s core units are what we come to expect to see with the Americans, though I’m surprised to see no option to upgrade any of the Shermans to Easy Eights or Jumbos,

Photo by Hyato Tukakosi

which is disappointing to me.

 

The Tank Destroyer formation is also disappointing to me. A platoon of four M10’s at Confident Veteran comes in at 360 Points, but they have lost their security section. The security section has it’s own box in the force diagram and comes in at 45 Points for two M20s and a .50 cal Jeep. What’s disappointing is I can get the four M10s and the security section for 370 Points out of Overlord. If I am missing something, please let me know.

Speaking of Overlord, the Armored Rifles in this book appear to share the same force diagram as the Armored Rifles of the 2nd Division in the Overlord book, so for those who love the Armored Rifles, they are essentially unchanged from V3 to V4 as far as list make up goes. The Rifle Company is interesting to me. I can’t remember seeing an American Rifle Company that could take three Templates as formation units, with a Mortar Platoon, a Chemical Mortar Platoon, and a Cannon Platoon. They still retain the standard makeup that goes with that, up three Rifle Platoons, a Machine Gun Platoon, two Anti Tank Platoons, and you can take Sherman 105s instead of the Cannon Platoon. The Anti Tank Platoons have lost the option to add Bazookas to the Unit.

German

Photo by Hyato Tukakosi

The 2nd Nation to show up is the only Axis nation to make an appearance in the book, the Germans.

We are able to take a Tiger, Stug, Panther, Panzer IV, Grenadier, and Panzergrenadier Companies, all at Confident Veteran. I was looking forward to this book to see if some of the German units would be fixed from V3 to V4, such as Pumas being in Units of 2, or an option to take Units of 1 Tiger I E like you can in Fortress Italy. Spoiler Alert, they are the same as they are in Atlantik Wall, so Units of two Pumas, which is disappointing because not many people want to field Unit of two, have one get popped, and then watch the other run the next turn. The new point level for Late War this year, at 1780, should help those fielding a Tiger or Panther list beef up their Platoons a little more.

The Tiger Company has the HQ and is made up of three Tiger Platoons, one of which you can take King Tigers, which taking one at 345 Points vs two Tiger I Es at 430, could be a good way to save/shave points off your list as you build it. The Tiger Company, like all of the German Tank Companies in this book with the exception of the Stug Formation, comes with armored self-propelled AA in either the 3.7cm or the Quad 2cm.

The Stug Company has the HQ and three Platoons of Stugs. The Panther Company is where things start to get interesting. You can take an HQ and three Platoons of Panthers with the AA already mentioned, or, you can replace a Panther Platoon with either a Panzer IV Platoon or Tiger Platoon, or take both of those and just have 1 Platoon of Panthers. When we get to the Panzer IV Formation, we can swap even more around. HQ plus four Platoons of Panzer IV’s, that we can replace two of those platoons with Stugs, Panthers, or Tigers. This provides a good mix and good list flexibility.

We then come to the Panzergrenadier Formation, which is the list I’m most likely to play out of this entire book. three Platoons of Panzergrenadiers with an HQ, Machine Gun Platoon, Armoured Mortars and Armoured Cannon Platoon, Pak40s, 2cm Self-propelled AA, and Flame Thrower Halftracks. With V4, Flame Throwers have gotten a huge boost from V3. I try to include them in every list I build, so I’m really happy to see the Flame Thrower Halftracks make an appearance as they aren’t in a ton of lists to be used. I hope to field this list in a tournament in 2018.

Rounding out the German Formation wise, we have the Grenadier Formation. HQ, with three MG/Rifle Infantry Platoons, HMG Platoon, standard 8cm Mortars, the option for either the 7.5cm or the 15cm Infantry Guns, Pak40s, a Recon Platoon and a 2cm AA Platoon. The Recon Platoon can be equipped with either Rifles or Assault Rifles.

The Germans come into this book with the most support options. We see a Confident Veteran Jagdtiger for the first time, at 395 Points. Other AT assets include Jagdpanthers, Marder IIIs, Hetzers, Pak40s, and Pak43s, so plenty of options to take for knocking out those pesky Shermans, T34s, and Cromwells. We also see some other recon options in Pumas which can only be taken two to a Unit, and a Unit of 234s, where you take two, swapping 1 for a 7.5cm variant or the Pak version. A unit of 88s with a max of two in a Platoon. For Arty, we see Wespes, Hummels, Nebelwerfers, and a 10.5 Battery. The last box being Aircraft, we can take two Stuka Ds or 2 Stuka Gs.

British

Cromwells! Photo by Troy A. Hill

Next up, the Brits. The British have what appears to be the best variety of units you can take. For formations, there are six choices, Shermans, Comets, Cromwells, Churchills, a Rifle Company, and a Motor Company. All of the British formations come in at Confident Veteran, so Battlefront choose to take the Cromwells from Battle of the Bulge so this book would see a Reluctant Formation.

The Sherman formation can take an HQ and four Sherman Armoured Troops, which is a mix of Sherman 75mms and Fireflies. You can also take a Stuart Platoon as a core platoon. Following them is the Cromwell formation. It has the same force diagram as the Sherman formation, HQ, with four Cromwell Platoons with a mix of 75mm and 95mm tanks, and a Stuart Platoon option as a core platoon.

Next up, the Comet Formation. Again, the Comets share the same force diagram as the Sherman and Cromwell formation. Your Comet Platoons can take a mix of 77mm and 95mm Tanks. The Churchill also runs the same force diagram with the exception of taking five Church Platoons. The HQ is able to take Churchills with the 95mm gun, but the Combat Platoons can not. They can take a mix of 75mm and 6 PDR guns. With plastic Churchills coming next out in 2018, I really think this list is something we’ll see more of soon.

The other two Formations are loaded with options for their core units. The Motor Company comes in with three Motor Platoons, which consists of either four MGs, one PIAT, and one 2 Inch Mortar or, three MGs, one PIAT, and one 2 Inch Mortar. For 5 points, you can add armoured transports for each MG Team, which is well worth it.

You can then add three platoons of Universal Carriers, one HMG Platoon, one Mortar Platoon, and two 6 Pdr Platoons that can have up to four Guns in each platoon.

For the Rifle Company, which is tied with the Churchill formations for my favorite British list, you have an HQ, three Rifle Platoons, Mortars, either an HMG or 4.2 Inch Heavy Mortar Platoon, another option for a HMG Platoon, 6 Pdr Anti-Tank Gun Platoon, and either four Platoons of Universal Carriers, or two Universal Carriers and two Wasp Flame Thrower Platoons. I love Flames Throwers in V4, and at 115 Points for three armoured flame throwers, you should too. I have always said I won’t collect British and Soviets (though I am eyeing a Soviet list in this book to purchase) and the two Platoons of Wasp Flame Throwers could have been in another list that I missed, but I have to feel like this is list combination people should look at, especially with the ability to night attack.

The support options are pretty dense for the British. There are 12 boxes in the support section, with several of the boxes having multiple choices. There are four boxes with artillery, including 25 Pdrs, Priests and Sextons. That’s a lot of artillery. We have two recon boxes with choices of Universal Carriers, a Humber Platoon, or Daimlers. Another Flame Throw option in the Churchill Crocodile Platoon. Two Anti-Tank boxes, both being M10 Tank Destroyers. An AA box for Bofors, and lastly, Typhoons. This completes the British support options.

Soviets

Soviets! Photo by Troy A. Hill

Last, but most certainly not least, are the Soviets!

The Soviets only bring four Formations to the table in this book, which are T-34s, Churchills, IS-2s, and a Rifle Battalion. These formations are also the only ones in the book that are not Confident Veteran, as they come in as Fearless Trained. The Large Unit rule, which went into effect in the latest round of Late War updates, also appears in the book in the Soviet national rules.

The T34 formation, as you would expect, can take a mix of T34 76mms or the T34/85s. You can take up to three Platoons of your choice of T34, or you can take two and add a unit of Valentines. Other core options are a Tank Rider unit, 82mm Mortars, a ZIS Anti-Tank unit, and DSHK AA. The Churchills and IS-2 formations share the same force diagram, which is an HQ, four units of Churchills, or IS-2s if you take that formation, and a Tank Rider unit. That leaves us with the Rifle formation to talk about. With the HQ, you can take three Rifle Units, a SMG unit, a PTRD Anti Tank Unit, a HMG Unit, a Mortar Unit, 120mm Heavy Mortars, 76mm Arty Unit, 45mm Anti-Tank unit, and a Scout unit.

Now off to the support options. One thing that stood out is that the OT-34 Flame Tank Unit can now be taken with the T34 Formation. I haven’t seen that before, and if you haven’t guessed, I love Flame Throwers in V4. Although there is no an OT-34/85 option, the OT-34 will still melt the faces off of those smug infantry in buildings.

The other options are BA-64s, two Anti-Tank boxes with SU-76s, ISU Heavy Assault Guns, and ZIS Anti-Tank Units. Another Anti-Tank box with either ZIS’s or the 100mm Anti-Tank gun. Four Boxes of Arty, with a mix of 76mm ZIS-3’s, 122 Batteries, 152 Batteries, or Guards Rocket Mortars. You can add an Infantry Observers, take the deadly IL-2 Shturmovik, and the 37mm AA to round out the support.

Final Thoughts

Most of this is stuff we’ve seen before. This was not a book that brought out new lists to tickle our fancy. There are some interesting options added to the old lists, however, that we’ve used in the past. I know these will be seen in the near future.

If you’ve played Team Yankee or Mid War Version 4, and want to try out Late War, this book is absolutely for you.

Do you like more streamline lists? Do you want the latest and greatest rules updates so you don’t have to flip to your army book, and then the LW conversion book, and then the latest Lessons From the Front? Well, this book has you covered as well.

This book, with its generic lists, has really simplified V4 so that those new to the sport or those who don’t like flipping between different books to play their army, can have something that makes playing the game easier for them. This book is a good step in the right direction for Battlefront as it tries to seize the success of Team Yankee and MidWar V4 into its other areas of gaming.