BattleFront Games

By Howard West

The  located near Pittsburgh, PA hosted a Flames of War Tournament on December 18th, 2021  The Fabricators Forge is a a hybrid gaming club / store that is funded by members and aspires to be the premium place to play all types of tabletop games in Western PA. They opened in 2021 and this was the fifth Flames of War or Team Yankee tournament that Fabricator’s Forge has hosted since September 2021.

Flames of War Bulge Theme Tournament SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2021

In the greater Pittsburgh area, the local Flames of War community has been having annual Bulge Tournaments for many years. Our original tournaments were based on the Devils Charge and Nuts books from Battle Front Miniatures. We then moved on to The Ardennes Offensive and The Battle of the Bulge books when they became available. When the new Bulge American Book came out, the question was not are we going to have our annual Bulge tournament, but what weekend in December?

Tournament Info:

Books allowed:

Saturday, Dec 18th, 2022 Tournament Weather Report

The weather here in Pittsburgh was very Ardennes-like, we had misty rain and low hanging fog till mid-day. Then we had misty rain and low-hanging clouds the rest of the day preventing any potential air cover for the US players. The temperature ranged from the low 30s to the mid 40s.

The Authors List:

Enclosed is the list that I used for this tournament. Earlier this year I was one of the No Dice No Glory reviewers for the book from Battle Front Miniatures. Enclosed is the link to my comparison of the new V4 American Bulge Book vs its predecessor, I wanted to try out many of the units that I discussed in my review article. One of my normal Flames of War lists that I play is an American D-Day TD list with various support options. I liked how this list played and will try it again in a nonthemed tournament and see how it plays.

Round #1

The German Players attacked on all seven tables. Across the American front lines, the German players laid down well-placed barrages on several of the tables and disrupted the US defenders enabling the German players to advance along their assigned routes deep into the American Lines towards their Round #1 Objectives.

The Germans attained breakthroughs on six of the seven boards. The only American Force to stop the surprise German attack was Task Force Jake’s Dammed Engineers.

The Score after round #1 was Germans 43 Americans 20 a sounding breakthrough for the Germans on 5 out of the 7 boards.

Round#2

Again the German Players attacked on all 7 tables. The German players have lost the effect of the surprise attack and the American players were better prepared in this so-called quiet sector. Depending on the American player some chose to play a more mobile maneuver defense in Round #2 and some chose a more rigid defend option.  The George S Patton and Richard Winters cards were very active this round, and large qualities of HAVP 76mm rounds from American Tank Destroyer units came into play and the 90mm armed M-36 Jacksons left their mark on many German tanks in Round #2. Also, the Battle Weary Infantry did not look so tired this round.

The Score for Round #2 was Germans 26 Americans 35 points a nice comeback round for the Americans. But not all of the German Armored Thrust’s have been stopped. Several now are deep into the American Rear areas. Running total after Round #2 was Germans 69 Americans 55 points.

Round #3

Again the German Players attacked on all 7 tables. The American players had to maneuver for Round #3. The George S Patton Jr. and Richard Winters cards again were very active this round, and large qualities of HAVP 76mm rounds from American Tank Destroyer units continue across the front lines. Several of the American players had close games in Round #3, but could not close the deal and turn them into wins for the Americans.

The Score for Round#3 was Germans 38 vs Americans 25 points, for a final total of Germans 107 vs Americans 80 points for the tournament. The Americans could not close the gap created by the Germans in the Round #1 blowout. Congrats to the German players for a well-played tournament.

Some of the armies that were entered

The Winning List

The highest-scoring player’s list is included below and is a good example of the types of lists that the Germans players built for this tournament. Even though they did not have access to a V4 Bulge German, the German players were able to build lists that would have been similar to lists that you could have created with the V3 The Ardennes Offensive book. 

Summary

So another annual Bulge tournament is in the Flames of War history books here in Western PA. We would like to thank Dom and the Fabricators Forge team for hosting us again and look forward to a busy 2022 of Flames of War and Team Yankee at Fabricators Forge.  One of our goals besides having our annual tournament was to have the tournament different than just a normal 110 point or 90 point blah blah blah tournament. We tried making it a challenge for both sides of the table and still have a great time. And that was accomplished. We also did not let the lack of a V4 German Bulge book stop us from having a good tournament.  Congrats again to our German opponents and remember we have D-Day and Bagration-themed tournaments coming up in 2022. Maybe the allies can return the favor back to the German side.

NDNG BattleVault Episode 23 – 2021 Wrap Up and 2022 Look Ahead

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 was first run in memory of Nick Garden, a valued member of the club and the wider New Zealand wargaming community, who passed away in 2015. The 2021 edition of Remember December was held on 11 December, playing  in a 1100pt Early-War format.

The Early-War era of Flames of War has always been my favorite. The oddball vehicles, the wide range of nations represented, and the generally weaker stat lines, all combine to create a game of huge variety that feels very different from the way that the Mid-War and Late-War eras play, despite using identical rules. While there has been no recent indication of the timeframe for Early-War being re-released for V4, for now, it is still able to be played using a conversion of the V2/V3 lists.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

In Canada, it was decided (during our lockdown this summer) to not have one Canadian Nationals event in Ottawa (since we could no longer book the Marriott we usually go to), but instead have several Regional events. Overall winner would be the person with the highest total points, tie breakers going to number of wins, and then if still tied, going to the person who attended the larger event.

The National Capital Region (NCR) event was put on by Darko Prodanovic and John Edward (Jed) and hosted by a local game store across the river in Quebec called Freres de Bataille (Translation: Battle Brothers, hereafter FdB). Our event in the NCR occurred Nov 20-21 was , Late War 105 points (No Bulge US). Regionals in Winnipeg, Maritimes, and Edmonton also occurred. After compiling the results from the regionals, the winner is…

By Howard West

Photos supplied in this article by Anthony Burger, Rich Baier and Howard West

HMGS Inc. in normal times has three historical gaming conventions a year, Cold Wars in the Winter to Early Spring, Historicon in July, and Fall-Inn in November. Historicon 2021 was moved to the Fall-Inn time slot and took place November 10th -14th, 2021 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort, King of Prussia.

This was the first convention that HMGS was able to have since Cold Wars March 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is located right off the PA turnpike near the King of Prussia Mall and about 30-40 minutes from the Philadelphia Airport.

By Tom Gall

The new Bulge American book by Battlefront offers new exciting armors lists to play. How do they fair on the tabletop against other lists?

In this batrep we’ll look at an amped up Sherman list with Jumbos, Easy 8s, 76s along with a Super Pershing against a German Panzer IV/70 list from the recently released Bagration German List. 100 points, lots of armor, a great match up and tabletop test.

Conventions are back and the NDNG crew attended Historicon 2021 to take it all in. I quickly realized how much I miss the cons, the gamers and members of the NDNG crew. We had a full house of our staff at the event, with Tyler Stone, Thomas Mullane and Glenn Van Meter hosting the Firelock Ironman with appearances from Ben Hudler, Glenn Goddard, Steve Murga-Jones, Dr. Chris Woltz and Howard West playing in many of the games at the event which we will briefly talk about here.

By Tom Burgess,

If you know me…you know I have been very excited about what 3D printing and how it is revolutionizing the wargaming hobby.  If not,  you can check out an article I wrote about it .  One of the things I said in that article that would revolutionize the miniature wargaming hobby would be independent miniature designers being able to offer products through venues like  Patreon and Kickstarter. One such independent designer who has been at it for quite a while with a good bit of success is Henry Turner. Henry, based in the UK, has done very will with is 1:600 sailing ship range, his 6/15mm American Civil War and 6/15mm Napoleonic Wars, and now a 10mm/15mm/28mm Modern “1983” Warsaw Pact line.

By Richard Steer

 is the newest Late-War supplement for , covering the US forces in Europe from September 1944 through to the end of the war. While are the main feature, the book also contains three new missions, a linked campaign themed on the Battle of the Bulge, and a set of optional rules for winter weather that, while not recommended for competitive play, are a welcome addition to the game for use in scenarios.

By Howard West

This is the 5th review that the No Dice No Glory Team has done on the new from . You can find the previous reviews via the following links:

• Tanks for the Memories – American Armor lists in Bulge American for Flames of War

I was asked to do a comparison of the Flames of War V3 vs the new Bulge American Book.

When Battle Front announced the progression of new books for V4 FOW(Flames of War) some in our local gaming group where not happy that we would have to wait several years for the new Bulge Books. Both the American and German books provided many of our members some of their favorite FOW lists. But like good wine, sometimes it is worth the wait.