How I choose my list for a tournament, day by day.

By Benny Christiansen

At any time, when I participate in a tournament, I have to choose what to field. Most gamers I know change their list from tournament to tournament. In parts because of points, restrictions or new lists being available, but for me, it’s also to continue trying out new things with old lists and seeing how they work.

In this article, I will try to give you a day-by-day look at how I plan my lists for a tournament that I participate in.

As I write this, I’m two months away from my next tournament. This is a great time to begin thinking about the list I want to bring to the event.

Historicon 2019 Team Yankee tournament

Hey gang, Matt Varnish here, and I drove down from Canada with my buddies Scott and Rob Kelly and we entered the Team Yankee Nationals. I brought the Syrians, Scott brought West Germans and Rob took his Canadians. I ended up playing four great people: Robb Carper, Nick Reid, Frank Paixao and Mason Partak I took a metric ton of pics, here we go, first off with Armies on Parade (before the event started).

FOW D-Day Mega Game

Embarking on a Great Crusade D-Day Mega-Game

The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered on 8 June to recreate the Allied Invasion of Europe. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe. The assault phase of Operation Overlord, was known as Operation Neptune. Operation Neptune began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the River Seine on 19 August 1944.

Ev’rybody’s Heard About The Bird

By Matt MacKenzie

The new(ish) ‘Nam 1965-1972 book is out and consider me excited! It is my absolute honor to bring you Marines in Vietnam, I grew up just after the last troops were pulled out of there. I’ve seen all the movies, documentaries and now it’s time to (re)launch Vietnam in 15mm with a revamped rules set based on V4 for Flames of War. It’s my intention to present the options and lists you are able to put together from a time when Marines were taking the fight to the NVA in the jungle and streets of South East Asia.

You’re an errand boy. Sent by grocery clerks. To collect a bill. -Col. Walter E. Kurtz

D-Day American Special Missions

One of the great sections contained towards the back of the new D-Day American book by Battlefront is the special missions that are thematic to D-Day.  “Shot in the Dark“, “Help’s On Its Way” and “Fubar” model the airborne landings, the daring ranger assault on the coastal defenses and the landing themselves.

Battlefront has structured these such that they can be played individually or as a linked mini-campaign where the outcome of one game influences the next.  It’s not quite a firestorm campaigns of yore, but certainly within the spirit of those past designs.

Tanks for Coming! US Armoured Forces

 

Protection from who Tommy? Ze Shermans?

(Photo Above: This piece of history sits near Juno Beach, M4A4 Sherman with the Duplex Drive propellor add-on)

Right around the corner, we’ve got the two options for running armour in Late War. It’s been a while since the release of the Late War books for V3. In the new book for the American forces in Normandy BattleFront has delivered a collection of lists I think will get people excited about their models that have been collecting dust for a while.

Some chose to wait and see what V4 would bring in the way of options for Late War, book by book and the addition of cards has once again delivered some interesting choices for the US forces. You might have to wait some more to see some of the lists that are part of this era.

It’s all in the Cards – American Command Cards for Normandy

By Tom Burgess
The US forces are getting ready to hit the beach in D-Day American Forces in Normandy 1944. This in itself is a great expansion of the Flames of War Version 4 Late War universe, but the new US Normandy Command Cards truly take the US book options to the next level. I was amazed at the richness and depth that these Command Cards bring to the force offerings in the book. In my opinion, this is the best Command Card deck to date and I really hope this is the model we will see used across future Later War Command Card decks.
So let’s take a look at how the D-Day American Command Cards break down. There are a total of 40 Cards in the deck. I like to break these down into five categories; Generic, Effects, Unit/Equipment Upgrades, Heroes, and Division Cards.

FOW: US Armored Rifles “Cruisin for a Bruisin”

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

Credit: HBO – Band of Brothers miniseries

David Webster (101st Airborne)[at a passing column of German prisoners] Hey, you! That’s right, you stupid Kraut *%&$! That’s right! Say hello to Ford, and General &@#$in’ Motors! You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking?”

For the longest time back in version 3, my least favorite matchup was to be put against an armored rifle company.

Not because the game wasn’t fun, it almost always was.  But because, under V3 rules, I knew it would be an uphill road against a balanced, take all comers kind of force.

The Armored Rifle Company in Fighting First was always a competitive midwar choice in my opinion, but the strength of that list was in the support, not necessarily in the base platoons. It had Green Troops, and poor skill ratings, so many things became difficult. While shifting 14 stands will always present a problem, the Armored Rifles didn’t shine in midwar the way I knew they could. Those days are over here in Late War….