Flames of War

The new Late War books sparkled lots of interest here in Italy: old players from V3 dusted their armies buried at home and began to play back, while Mid War veterans found a reason to expand their  WW2 legions. on NDNG, the new “balance” with tank costs almost halved creates a more mobile metagame, with lots of armoured vehicles going around on the wargaming table.

As a result, we’re going to have . The first one happened on October 6th and saw almost 20 players coming from all Northern Italy (and one from Switzerland!), while we are already accepting entries for the second one, on December 15th (99 points Late War Tournament).

An army marches on its stomach: Napoleon Bonaparte was right, but speaking of our games, we should misquote to “our armies march on their rectangular bases”. There is nothing more disappointing in seeing a well-painted army on poorly rendered bases – I’ve seen with my eyes tournament armies with their infantry merely stuck to the brown Battefront bases!

Basing your miniatures is not that difficult. First of all, you need a plan. For example, all my Flames of War Mid armies and my Team Yankee lists have two infantry platoons, as I really like to play with massed infantry. For this reason, I try to base the two units with a different “landscape”, so I can tell them apart at a glance, even when they assault the same target and mix up. For example, my US Armoured infantry platoon 1 is mounted on “urban” bases, while Platoon 2 is on “rural” ones.

By Chris Jackson

I think the Italians are one of the most fun nationalities to play in Flames of War. The light tanks, the so-called “medium” M14/41s, and all that glorious, glorious infantry. Awesome artillery, good support options and plenty of hulls, and even more bodies to throw at your enemy or just place in their way.

Paracadutisti are the best the Italians have to offer. There is no check on the 8 Million Bayonets table for these guys. They simply take the best ratings available.

By Tom Burgess

Fallschirmjägers are the second army I did for Flames of War some ten years ago. Since then they have been one of my most played forces. Though I have not been above running them as Grenadiers in Mid-War, now we can officially play them as a Mid-War Version 4 force option.  The new Death From Above books adds Fallschirmjägers to our Africa, Sicily, and even East Front  Mid-War Version 4 battlefield where they certainly are characterful and truly elite units.

By Benny Christiansen

The long wait is over!  Airborne forces in MW has arrived!  Along with it, we get the Rangers formation. I will share my thoughts and considerations with you in this article, as well as making the providing lists with the forces I would like to test.

It surprised me to read that the idea of an airborne force was inspired by Soviet Airborne forces and further focus came from the German Fallschirmstruppens success. I was not aware of any Soviet Airborne forces that had managed anything, so the history in the book once again provided me with new information and insight into the history of airborne envelopment.

By Paolo Paglianti

After years of Mid-War tournaments, finally we have some change.  Thanks to the books Battlefront published this summer we can play Late War with full V4 rules and point system.  Since I like to play with Allied forces, Mid War tournaments have always been on the “stay low” profile: with too many Tigers and Ferdies around (in Italy we saw the infamous list with 5 Ferdinands and the Italian L6 ally), Mid War US and British forces constantly faced tanks they can’t beat head to head, almost invulnerable armour that can only be avoided.  In Late War, as we foresaw, things are going to change.

Thanks to Mitch Reed, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to build and review a box of the new . My German vehicles are all resin and metal to date. This is my first delve into doing any of the new plastic kits. Okay so let’s get going.

We are live from in Leesburg VA for a Flames of War D-Day tournament. We talk with Dane who runs the store and our favorite and yours, Pastor Peetz!

It has been one of the hottest summers ever for WW2 gamers. Battlefront deployed a full array of Late War books: the “transitional” Fortress Europe with all four armies on the Western/Russian front, the US D-Day and the incoming German Normandy focused one. At our club in Milan, we decided to play the D-Day scenarios in US D-Day book to “celebrate” both the 75^th anniversary of that fateful day and the starting of the Late War FOW season.

“This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is not over as a result of the Battle of France. This war is a world war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering, do not alter the fact that there are, in the world, all the means necessary to crush our enemies one day. Vanquished today by mechanical force, in the future we will be able to overcome by a superior mechanical force. The fate of the world depends on it.   I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who might end up here, with their weapons or without their weapons, I invite the engineers and the specialised workers of the armament industries who are located in British territory or who might end up here, to put themselves in contact with me.”
Charles de Gaulles
Extract from BBC broadcast, 18th June 1940

NOTE the history is first, Formations, Units and Cards at the bottom