Games by BattleFront
By Paolo Paglianti
In just a few weeks, on March 14–15, the Italian FOW National will take place in Milan. As always, Battlefront Miniatures has been extremely supportive and has already sent us the 2026 Objectives for all 50 expected players. As you can imagine, it’s Early War team-themed.
By Richard Steer
Flames of War has returned to the early period of the Second World War, with the publication of Blitzkrieg, covering the Invasion of France in May and June 1940. A new period is an exciting time for the game, with new nations, new miniatures, and new challenges.
My focus for Early-War in previous editions was the Mediterranean theatre, and I have never played anything from the campaign in France. To get back into playing Early-War while we wait for the North Africa book, I have picked up a copy of the new “Dunkirk” two-player starter set. Over the next few weeks, I’ll use it to assemble, paint, and start playing a new army. First, though, let’s have a look at what’s in the box.
Let’s see a game in action with the Germans attacking a French in No Retreat. We choose 100 points, for our forces.
The French have a Chasseur Company with:
The Germans have a light tank company with:
No Retreat was the mission, with French selecting defend and Germans selecting attack as their stances. French choose to be on the side of the table closest to the camera in this picture.
View from the other direction, note catzilla on the loose. His cuteness was fully effective.
Deployment has the front placing their 4 minefields to close off the left and center as best they can, presenting the Germans with cross checks to get to the nearer objective. The far objective is close to the woods, it’s an S35 Somua on a big base (which was the Charles Degaull special hero from way back when.)
One French infantry platoon is deployed to the left flank all around the objective. The 25mm anti-tank platoon is in front of the church, the 47 mm anti-tank platoon is next to the graveyard, the right flank has another French infantry platoon. The French 105s are on the left flank close to the objective, and the 81mm mortars are roughly in the center around the objective. The 25mm AA platoon is on the hill. The Panhards and S35s are in reserve and the Laffly platoon is in ambush.
The Germans set up their 88 on the hill and they choose the French left flank as the side to press:
The Germans press up the side and the French on turn 2 spring their ambush of Laffly tank hunters. Two French infantry teams and sent out to assault and make contact with a bailed out Panzer I. A Panzer II comes in for the counterattack and after a bit of back and forth the Panzer II fails to counterattack which converts a couple of bails to kills.
With so many bails due to higher firepowers, an ambush and assault combo can be especially effective, but is not easy to pull off.
Another vantage point of the German attack. The 88 up on the far hill in the upper left was shooting down into the town trying to pick off the French anti-tank guns. The French 25mm and 47mm anti-tank guns would often bail out German armor who would then get back in.
The Panzerjager Is crept down the road and the other light panzer platoon came around the other side of the house. Lots of targets for the French guns, but likewise hit on 3 French were having to roll well for saves AND take advantage of the higher German firepowers to hold on just a bit longer.
As expected the Laffly trucks were machine gunned to death. They did try and shoot and scoot but failed. The German point of the spear was annoyed but not out of action yet.
The French guns continued to hold, which allowed the French reinforcements time to arrive. The Panhards first and then the Somuas, the timing was about the same turn that the 25mm French anti-tank guns finally start to crumble.
The light tank company is getting ready to dash across for a daring assault against the 25mm anti-tank gun, with the French formation HQ in the church to assist in the assault. Note just out of frame on the right are where the 47mm anti-tank guns used to be leaving just the 25mm AA guns off on the hill and the Panhards coming up to reinforce.
Another picture before the assault, note that the 81mm mortar teams are in the graveyard. They had moved up to bombard the 88 and were able to eliminate it.
Here you can see just before the assault, which was successful, however what would follow was the breaking of the German formation. The French AA guns, the 5 Panhards, 4 Somuas and some of the 105s doing direct fire would bail out / eliminate enough tanks that all that needed to happen was the French HQ to come out and auto win an assault against the German HQ. Even then the poor German offensive was not likely to be within 8″ of an objective by turn 6 to keep the game going. The French were able to delay the Germans enough such that either way it was going to be a French victory this time.
Given firepower values are generally higher in early war, assaults are even more important to eliminate units either on the attack or the defense. Artillery direct fire guns with a firepower of 3+ are especially valuable.
German 88s with their range and 3+ firepower can be super effective but they are not cheap.
A front armor of 3 as found on the Panzer IIIes, and the Panzer IIs is pretty effective. The French AT9 anti-tank assets are good and post game I would recommend the 75mm French artillery guns over the 105s simply to have their dual role as anti-tank guns and as artillery.
The Laffly tank hunters are laughable. They are glass cannons in the extreme, you’ll get one round of fire and they will get machine gunned to death.
German tankers need artillery to back them up. Infantry that isn’t backed up with anti-tank guns however can be easily assaulted by tanks. Just remember not to rolls 1’s when the infantry hit you and keep the HQ around to give yourself re-rolls to help with counter attacking.
While this game didn’t include German air assets the Stukas are something to consider for an AT3, 2+ Firepower artillery template.
Early war is very fun, you’ll experience bail out results more often with armor. Infantry / Gun teams will be harder to kill with the less effective weapons so when you roll 5’s and 6’s it is all the more sweet to enjoy the moment of success.
By Richard Steer
Every year, our wargaming club in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, runs a one-day tournament for club members at the final meeting of the year. Named Remember December, this event commemorates club member Nick Garden, who passed away in 2015. The 2025 edition of the event was held on 13 December, playing Flames of War.
Remember December often has a themed format or unusual list restrictions, and this year was no exception, The format used was 55-points Late War, with infantry formations only. In addition, your force could not include more than one tank unit, a maximum of four vehicles, and a maximum Front Armor of 7. Three 1.5-hour rounds were to be played using the Extended Battle Plans mission selector, and each player had to use each stance once during the event.
By Tom Gall
We’ve all been patiently waiting for early war to make the return to Flames of War, time to feast your eyes on the French part of release for version 4. Unfortunately when Germany turned their focus west in May of 1940, a brief few weeks and the French would be knocked out of the war, which as a result means this is a faction for early war only.
I first started playing French during the earlier release of Blitzkrieg for Flames of War version 2 back in late 2010. What drew me was the desperate struggle of one of the largest militaries at the start of WWII, on the defensive against the German onslaught, putting up the good fight that would ultimately not go their way due to a whole host of tactical reasons. The French are plucky, unique and offer up unit selections that can work for offensive and defensive stances.
No matter if you’re an old hand or a new to Flames of War, the French as a faction in Early War brings good tanks, reasonable infantry, and good artillery that can win you games. In this article we will crawl through just the French part of the release, note their strengths and point out their weaknesses too. They might be just the force for you.
By Richard Steer
The Early-War era has returned to Flames of War. 2026 and 2027 will see the release of three books covering the period from 1939 to 1941 for the 4th Edition of the rules. The first book in the series is Blitzkrieg, covering the French, German, and British forces involved in the German invasion of France in May and June 1940.
The British list in Blitzkreig represents the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium. It covers those units present from the start of the invasion, through the evacuation from Dunkirk, and those still fighting after Dunkirk.
By Paolo Paglianti
It’s time to invade France – or defend it! For those who are not Flames of War fans, this may sound strange, but when publisher Battlefront launched version 4 of the game around 2017, it started with Mid War, namely the North African campaign and the invasion of the Eastern Front. A few years later came the Late War, from D-Day to Berlin, but until now nothing had been released about the Early period of the war.
By Richard Steer
Just in time for Christmas, Battlefront’s gift to Flames of War players was the finalization of the first round of Dynamic Points for Late-War.
What Is Dynamic Points?
Dynamic Points is a free update that adjusts the cost of units in existing force books for Flames of War 4th Edition. If you are playing a game using Dynamic Points, you treat any units in the update as costing what they are listed there, while any units not in the update continue to use the points given in the published books.
For each round of Dynamic Points, usually published annually, Battlefront focuses on a small number of specific areas where they see problems with the balance of a game. For the Late-War era of Flames of War in 2026, this focus is increasing the price of light armor and reducing the price of medium armor. Other areas that players have been asking to be addressed, such as the cost of Save 4+ Soviet infantry, have not been touched.
Battlefront initially published a draft set of changes in November, seeking feedback from the community. They have now considered that feedback, and the changes have been locked in for 2026, including being added to the Forces of War list building tool.
Let’s take a look through some of the things that have changed, and how they might impact the game over the coming year.
by Tom Gall
November 29th the Screaming Eagles braved the snow and held their first Checkpoint Charlie tournament, 100pts, no limitations otherwise. The weather impacted the number of people that turned out but those that did had fun time and most importantly we started to see how people were approaching list building for competitive matches.
There was a fair amount of table talk centered on the use of missiles and how things may or may not be different then later era Team Yankee. As we learned through the course of the day however, there was far more than missiles to consider.
By Paolo Paglianti
Even though I’ve been playing wargames since way back in 1992 and have travelled across half of Europe, I had never had the chance to visit Romania. When my friend Quentin Taylor — a Canadian but Romanian by adoption — told us he would be organizing the Nationals near Sibiu, we booked our flights almost immediately!
Moreover, the Romanian Nationals are part of the European Series, a circuit of National tournaments which this year — in its second edition — includes Belgium, Germany, the UK, Poland, and also Italy, where I will be organizing the event on March 14–15, 2025. Together with Rob and the others, we wanted to create a network that would encourage players to take part in tournaments across the Old Continent.
