Flames of War

By Ed Sales

If it’s one thing I love about painting and making these models, it’s that I have a range of creativity at my disposal. You can really add a lot of character to your tanks. I like to make each of my tanks different from the others, even if they are the same model.

When Desperate Measures came out, this added a whole new dimension of how I looked at modeling tanks. When I modeled my tanks, prior to that release, I might have the stowage a little different on each tank.

Now I can take a StuG Platoon, and paint each tank with a different camo scheme and say that the platoon was thrown together last minute. Maybe one of the Stugs left the factory in primer red because they were running low on dunkelgelb. I could do up a Tiger, and paint the running gear a different color, saying a T34 hit it to track it. You could really go all out and really have fun with it.

In the last article, we discussed how a player can use the military technique of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) to enhance his chances of winning in Flames of War as the defender. This article continues that discussion by applying those same principles to the mission of an attacking player.

For those who have not read it, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield is a task the planning staff of a unit performs immediately upon receiving a mission from their higher headquarters. It defines the size and scope of the battlefield, how the terrain and weather will affect the unit’s ability to perform their assigned mission, and what the enemy’s most likely and most dangerous courses of action will be.

by Tom Burgess

It always amazed me how many comments I have heard over the last year or so about the “collapse” of the US tournament scene. For sure, Flames of War (FOW) tournament play has declined with Version 4, along with other factors. And though I’m sure FOW has completely dried up in some areas, overall I never felt that the situation was particularly as dire as many have portrayed.

So I did some research to get some actual numbers beyond my own or other’s personal perspectives. Fortunately, US tournament data for the last several years can be easily pulled off of the website, to include its predecessor’s Ranking HQ data. I will share here the data for what its worth. I’ll offer my opinions with it, but I encourage all to make up there own minds on what it all means for the current state and future of the game and our community.

By NDNG Dane

 The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered on December 8^th (the day after the day that will live in infamy) to recreate the German attack on Stalingrad as part of Operation Fall Blau (Case Blue) and the Soviet Heroic Defense.  The Mega game was the Culminating engagement of our Mid-War Eastern Front escalation league using the Flames of War V4 system.

Our three board Mega Game centered combat action on: Board #1: The Univermag Department Store and Barmaley Fountain, Board #2: The Red October – Tractor Works, Board #3: The Grain Elevator and Pavlov’s House.  Additionally, we added a few campaign specific rules such as sewer movement.  Infantry teams were allowed to use sewer movement, based on a skill roll, to enter and navigate throughthe Stalingrad sewer network.

Ed and Austin are back for yet another episode to ring in 2019. They go over how you can tactic better when playing Flames of War

By Tom Gall

This past weekend the Twin Cities crew hosted the first ever Midwest regional tournament for Flames of War at Dreamers Vault in Minneapolis. The goal was to crown the regional champion for the year.  Between D6 Games in Rochester and the two Dreamers Vault locations in the Twin Cities, we’re really blessed to have an active and fun group to spend many a Saturday with pushing lead and rolling dice.

It was a 3-round Flames of War tournament, mid-war at 109pts. We had 18 players in attendance with the Novaks traveling the furthest. The special aspect of the tournament was players were to mark allegiance to a store and the top two scores from that store would result in taking the title of Regional Champion for the year.

The plaque is all ready to be filled in.  Thanks much to Keith Gilmour for all the planning and especially TOing the event.

by Keith Gilmour

On October 3rd, I was super happy to get my second ever invite to . The invite started all sorts of list noodling and planning on what I was going to bring. The Masters tournaments all have some sort of twist to make them interesting. This year, it was an escalation theme where you had to bring three lists of 62, 88 and 104 points that need to be built on different formations and each would be played twice.

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.

I have begun testing various MW Infantry lists and trying to use them as the aggressor/attacker. It is my belief that infantry lists could be played very aggressively and with good effect. To define “infantry list” it means that the majority of the points are put in infantry formations. It is not an “all out infantry list” with no gun teams or vehicles or tanks, nor is it only 1 infantry formation.

I will try to share my knowledge/experiences. Be aware, that it is NOT a “how to”- manual, but simply meant as an inspiration for the readers to develop further, if they are interested in playing infantry lists.

I will use 100 points as my list size. Effects may vary depending on the point size.

By Chris Jackson

When a military staff at any level receives a mission from their higher headquarters, one of the first things they work on is an Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB). This process defines the battlefield in terms of area, effects of the terrain, and how the terrain and the enemy will affect the ability of the unit to accomplish its assigned mission.

It provides the commander and staff a framework to determine how they will accomplish the mission by defining what decisions the commander needs to make about where to allocate his resources and what signs from the enemy to look for that indicate his intentions. Units are then assigned tasks based on these decisions and the process begins at the next lower headquarters.