Coming Soon from BattleFront…

By James Copeland

When I first started playing Flames of War (FOW) many years ago I fell in love with the Late War period. It was my favorite because it was the culmination of the advance of technology of the nations involved in the conflict. By 1944 the major armies of 1939-1942 either improved their weapons, tactics, and doctrine drastically from the start of the war or ceased to exist as a credible force.

Since Version 4 came out the focus has been on Mid War, which at the time was the oldest of the three published periods available in FOW. Since that date, many of us have been waiting for the day when Battlefront would tackle the Late War books and bring the period in line with what has been released for Mid-War.

Well, your wait is over. Battlefront has finally released the plan ahead for V4 Late War, and boy is it juicy… and it’s coming soon!

Before I get to the details, you have to stop and think of how big this era was in the game. Without even looking I know I can assert that Late War has the greatest number of books, lists, and probably had more unique weapons that the other two periods combined. So, with this said, you can imagine how big of an undertaking it is to update all of Late War books. I know we are a patient lot, so think of all the work that needs to be done over the next few years before you start to flame us online.

Let me go over what BF has in store for you;

The Late War rollout will begin in May 2019 and is scheduled to end in 2021, so it will take three years to cover all the content available in Late War. Along with the rollout, Battlefront will sponsor a ton of content that will help players for league and organized play. I know this will get you and your local group excited for each new release.

Now for the details:

May of 2019, we will get a solid start, nothing like the slow trickle we saw when v4 dropped for MW. Fortress Europe, a compilation book that looks similar to Armies of Late War (but based on MW’s 100 pt scale, instead of the old V3 pt scale). This book will have lists for Americans, Germans, British, and Soviets, with a heavier leaning towards Brit and Soviets, who will have to wait a little longer to get a book of their own.

Unit card packs to go with these forces will release at this time as well. For the hobbyist, the release of Colours of War, will pique your interest. in this re-release, we will see painting guides for every nation in WWII and also a guide for our favorite WWIII game, Team Yankee.

May will also see a reprint of the FOW Main Rule Book. No new rules or rule changes, just updated graphics to include Late War. (It would be great if they update LFTF into this reprint, but I can understand if they don’t. Two players with printed rulebooks get confusing.)

Then we will have to wait a really long time for the next LW release…

June 2019

Hit the Beach and FURY, two new starter sets. HTB is more comprehensive than FURY and will include Infantry, Guns, and Tanks. These sets are billed as great savings than buying everything separately and will have everything to start playing the game, with one purchase. So, a great deal for old hands, and new players alike.

July 2019

The first army book for LW is going to the Americans and will cover the US forces that landed at Normandy and dropped behind the beach on D-1 in addition to breakout forces. Some formations include Parachute Rifle Co, Ranger Co, Veteran Tank Formations and tons of support options! Add to this 3x D-Day themed missions with updated rules for Airborne landings, Beach landing and the return to V4 of Bocage!

September 2019

Now it’s time for the Germans, and they are getting a PHAT book… 120+ plus pages of:
Fallschimjager, FJ StuG, PZ4, Panther, Recce Co and Tiger formations… if that’s not enough, you still get support units. It would appear that this book will be similar to the EatG and Iron Cross and looks to include 3x more D-Day themed missions. This looks to be a really well-done Army book, well fleshed out and comprehensive.

At this time Battle Front is also releasing a cardboard terrain set. to help transform your table to a beachside fortress. While not a huge fan of the cardboard terrain, no one can argue that its better than nothing, and we can all agree Battle Front makes the best flat terrain.

The rest of 2019 will focus on a tonne of campaigns and player events that we will cover in a follow-on article, there is just so much to mention here. This bring us to 2020,

February 2020

Its now the British turn at D-Day, this Army book will cover Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. This book also details the breakout and includes the ill-fated Market Garden. A very ambitious entry, that Monty would be proud of. The book at 140 pages seems large but at the same time is cramming three campaigns into one book. Forces include Parachute Co, Airlanding, Airborne Armored Recce (Please God let this be Tetrarchs!) Sherman’s, Rifle Co, Churchill co, Cromwell co, and the LW Motor CO.

April 2020

Waffen SS Booklet- (maybe a paper booklet?) A look at SS force options for Normandy will be released to finish German forces in France. It will include, among others, Panzer IV SS Tank Company, Panther SS Tank Company, SS Panzergrenadier Company, SS Reconnaissance Company.

May 2020

It’s time to bring Soviets to the LW game, and Bagration promises to do just that, being so far down the line, details are sparse, but we should expect to see V4 T-34/85 and the deadly IS-2.

August 2020

The German companion book for Bagration, Battle Front points out this is the same time as D-Day but will use differing organization and lists than the D-Day books. Of interest, these books should look to be around the 200-page mark… so the possibility of a really fleshed out work.

The real long-term look is just that, long-term. But here’s what we can look forward to.

– January 2021, Minor Axis: Late-War Finnish, Hungarians, and Romanians.

– April 2021, US Bulge Book: American forces during the Battle of the Bulge.

– 2021, British Rhine Book, Covering later British forces in the drive to Berlin.

– August 2021, German Bulge: German forces during the Battle of the Bulge.

– October 2021, Berlin Campaign: Covering the final days of the War.

All told, I am super excited for the coming years as my favorite period gets the full treatment. BattleFront has taken the lessons they learned during the first few months of V4 and are on track to release an amazing line up for LW. Not only are we getting the above-mentioned books and lists, but BF also mentioned that in between LW releases there will be dedicated Mid War projects to continue support for the MW period. This will include Axis Minors, American Paras/German FJ and so on…

To end this massive post, I wanted to copy over two Q and A that caught my attention.

Q: What are your plastic plans?
A: We have planned to release another twenty odd codes of plastic in 2019 like we did in 2018 and the range will expand in the following years so that you could rightly expect to see all the most commonly used vehicles and infantry in plastic.

-This is great news, the new plastic range has been almost perfect, and I can’t wait for some great new plastic sprues!

Q: Where’s my missing models?

A: With ranges that took us over a decade to release we created a comprehensive range leaving almost nothing out. Although this felt like the right choice in the past, we are not going to make every model we ever created appear in the new books so choices have been made and some models
will no longer be featured in books.

This is… news? I hope we don’t see too much loss of interesting flavor to LW.

Well, I hope you are as tantalized as I am. I hope this blog finds you warm and cozy as you and yours count the days to Christmas. May your holidays be filled with happiness and Joy, and may your 2019 dice rolls be epic!

 

Merry Christmas,
James Copeland