Be the Best: From Mid to Late Desert British forces with Fortress Europe

Finally, the Late War has come! After two years from V4 release, we’re nearing to the most significant and hyped WW2 period, the latter two years of intense fighting towards Berlin. Battlefront is going to launch Late period with Fortress Europe, the first Late War book covering the period between the end of Mid-War period to D-Day.

The focus of this book is to ferry players from the desert and Russian plains to the later stages of war pre-D-Day. So, for British, we’re talking about the invasion of the Italian boot. In Mid, the British generals can count on a single book that is a bit outdated if compared to the last German Ghost Panzer army list. If you played a game between 8th Army vs Ferdinand or Panzer IV spam you’ll surely have that “unbeatable” feeling.  We can still win the day, since FOW scenarios are based on taking and defending objectives, but it’s really hard when you face lots of frontally uncrackable tanks. Well, in late-war this is going to change…

Fortress Europe Germans

By Chris Jackson

The question on everyone’s lips on the interwebs these days, at least in the forums I frequent, is what’s coming for Late War? has given me a sneak peek at the new book Fortress Europe and I think they have done a good job with it.

A lot of thought was put into how to roll out the new era, and it seems to me a lot of the complaints we as a gaming community have made since V4 was released have been addressed. Now I’m not saying the new v4 is perfect, nor that I don’t have some issues with it, but I think, on the whole, BF has done a good job, particularly with the concept behind this book.

Fortress Europe is designed primarily to get existing FOW players into Late War with a minimum of muss and fuss. Almost every unit in the book (and for the Germans, EVERY unit in this book) is already produced. The units are simply repointed to Late War levels.

My focus for this article will be the German Forces in Fortress Europe.

Blood & Guts: US Forces in Fortress Europe LW V4

By Tom Burgess
Bottom line up front (BLUF)…the US lists in the Fortress Europe are exactly what Battlefront said they would be. They let a player use his existing Version 4 Mid-War US collection in Late-War Version 4… and not much beyond that. I had to go back and remind myself of that goal while writing this review because honestly as a US player from Version 3 days, I was a bit disappointed that US options in Fortress Europe were not going to let me run the forces I wanted.

Firestorm Sicily Campaign (by Pasadena California gamers)

By Tom Richards, Scott Grasse and Christian Sorenson

Firestorm – Sicily is a new mid-war Firestorm campaign that allows gamers to recreate Operation Husky as either Axis (Italian or German) or Allied (British or American) forces.

In the traditional format, Firestorm – Sicily is played as a series of linked battles that are resolved by playing Flames of War games.  The outcomes of the battles affect the larger campaign map and allow players to re-determine the outcome of one of the most critically important operations of WWII.  With the material posted here on NDNG Firestorm – Sicily can be run with your local group or can be played as an online campaign.

4th Battle of Kharkov Mega Game

 4th Battle of Kharkov – August 1943

Mega-Game

by NDNG_Dane

The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered in April to recreate the Soviet offensive that aimed to recapture Kharkov and destroy the German 4th Panzer Army.   The 4th Battle of Kharkov was a series of battles between 3 and 23 August 1943, following the Battle of Kursk. After their defeat at Kursk, the Wehrmacht was clearly on the defensive, with the Soviets launching a massive offensive. The 4th Panzer Army conducted a fighting withdrawal to fighting positions around the city of Kharkov.

The Kharkov Mega-Game was the culminating engagement of our spring Ghost Panzer – Red Banner, Eastern Front Campaign.

Team Yankee: Syrian Painting Guide

By Matt Varnish

Hey everyone, as I mentioned in the podcast and on my Syrians article, Battlefront neglected to show off the cool Syrian paint schemes and left newer players high and dry in terms of cool pictures.   I am here to fix that.   We will look at building a killer HQ tank with ERA armour blocks, then general painting of vehicles and the 3 main schemes, then infantry at the end.   All paints are Vallejo unless otherwise noted.   Yalla, let’s go!

Starting with the standard plastic T-55, I added side skirts, the modern HMG and some old Mine plows I had left over from the T-72s. Used the flat front hull, not the up-armoured one.

No Dice No Glory Episode 38 Interview with Battlefront

If you play any games from Battlefront you will want to hear this episode. We have Pete Simunovich with us and he tell us about all the great new stuff coming from Battlefront. Loads of spoilers you cannot miss!
If you are interested in;
Flames of War Late War Release Schedule and what we can expect in them, Team Yankee in the 1960-70 Time-frame, Swedes and S-Tanks, T-80, M1A1, Apache, Bradley’s, Challengers, Chieftains, BMP-3s, Warriors, and some wild stuff from the 9th ID that was tested and never saw the field.
A lot of great stuff you just cannot miss!

The IDF Force You Shouldn’t Passover

By Mitch Reed

When we got the preview copy of the Oil War book from I was very interested in the possibility of playing a small IDF force so I can get the Pereh anti-tank platoon on the table, This unit has the ability to shoot anything on the table without needing line of site and uses a new special rule called NLOS.

Besides trying to get this unit on the table I also wondered what this model would look like, since it is a missile shooting platform that was disguised as a tank. The Pereh was in use secretly for over 25 years and was finally declassified in 2015 before being pulled from service in 2017.

My first attempt to make a small IDF force from Oil War used a small formation of Magach 6 tanks backed up by the Pereh platoon, so when I was sent these boxes to review I was excited to get the chance to try this force out on a table as bring you my review of these two new releases.

FoW Firestorm Stalingrad Campaign day at D6 Games

On April 13th the Screaming Eagle put on a very special Firestorm Stalingrad day at D6 Games in Rochester Mn. Using the Stalingrad kit from Battlefront, players battled for the area around and in Stalingrad. In all, we had seven tables. Three of which were city tables, and four country tables.

Players were pledged to a side (Russian or German) and could bring a 109 point list for battles in the country and/or a 60 point list for battles in the city. I did make one allowance for Italians to be included, though, the Lancia was removed and replaced with another 88-platoon.

FOW LW Battle Rep: It Paras vs US TD

By Benny Christiansen

As FOW V4 was released, I still remember that surprise I felt when I found out just how mobile the game became. Mobile is a word that contains value based on your own point of view. In this case, I am thinking of the infantry and the amount of movement they made. In my V3 games infantry tend to stay stationary and in competitive situations, I would have a certain way I would deploy my infantry platoons to optimize my defensive position. After deployment, they would rarely – if ever – move.

Under V4 rules, my infantry will, in most of my games, be forced to move a lot. Under the V4 system, I see only benefits in moving them (in general). Standing still is an invitation for destruction. But such claims are easy to make and hard to prove. So I will try to make an example via a game I played recently.