BattleFront Games

By Morten

The Danish army got a new camo pattern for their uniforms, designated M/84 in 1984, to replace the older M/58 uniform. Although it was implemented into the Army in 84’ it didn’t reach the troops until years later. Even in the 90’s some troops had still not received the new uniform and especially reservists would still be issued the older M/58 uniform. 

The webbing used was of British making and had been donated to Denmark by the UK, after the Second World War. Denmark did not replace this webbing, until start to mid 90’s, although some bags and pouches on the webbing would be replaced with newer versions along the way (like new ammo pouches for the M/75(G3) rifle). Most of the webbing would be a tan/khaki color, although color variations did occur, and could range from a light green to dark khaki. 

Here is my take on how to paint a Danish Panserinfantri Deling (PNINF DEL), or Armored Infantry Platoon, for Team Yankee, in the M/84 uniform. 

The mural in the main room of the Soldier’s Home

By Robert Kelly

You may recall that I played a game of Team Yankee this summer against Morten from Kolding, Denmark. Three Team Yankee Games in Denmark With Three Different Danish Mortens – No Dice No Glory  I managed to pull out a win, and now it was time for Morten to seek his revenge.

The local Soldier’s Home in Fredericia, Denmark is located just outside the base (caserne) and is run by the YMCA. YMCA Soldiers’ Home – YMCA Soldiers’ Mission (kfums-soldatermission.dk) Their website says, “The YMCA Soldiers’ Home is a sanctuary for soldiers. In soldier slang, it is called “Kuffen” and serves as the soldiers’ second home. Here they relax, eat good food, watch TV together or play games.

At the YMCA Soldiers’ Home, we make an effort to create a homely setting. This means a good atmosphere, shared activities and space to be yourself”.

YMCA in Danish is KUFM, hence the nickname Kuffen.  After Christmas they usually organize a gaming day which is translates to “Christmas Beatings”.  There would be other games along with our Team Yankee game. I did the hour long drive from Aarhus in my mother in law’s three cylinder Suzuki Celerio to face a determined foe in Morten. It was a toss up as to whether he would use his usual list with some refining or a fun list of 30 tanks and an infantry platoon. We went with the fun list.

By Tom Gall

The folks at Hard Knox Games in Elizabethtown Ky are on to something for Flames of War and you probably want to know about it. With Flames of War (FOW) (and TY) I’m sure you’re more than familiar with the current matrix of missions that dot the competitive and casual landscape.

Part of the fun of FOW is showing up with a list, and not knowing what mission you’re going to play. You and your opponent each pick a stance (Attack, Maneuver, or Defend), reveal which gets you to a table to roll a D6, and decide the mission to play. The mission of course determines where you place objectives, where you deploy your forces, if you have reinforcements and other situational rules that’ll give your game extra flavor.

It’s a great system and thankfully Battlefront has been refreshing it approximately yearly. Sometimes tho, you want a little more variety. This is where the Move to Contact format you’ll find is interesting!

The folks at Hard Knox have run this format of missions 5 times now. Locally we’ve been using the missions for casual play, we’re fans.

By Tom Gall

This past Saturday December 30th the usual suspects in Minnesota gathered to play a 3-round tournament at DreamersVault in Minneapolis Minnesota. This time was a 95pt LW contest with 15 players gathered. A number of the crew are bound for LVO at the end of January so they were eager to try some lists out.

Were I in the same state of mind my list would have been trying to balance between something competitive with what can I fit on the airline. It’s extra hard especially if you’re playing both Team Yankee and Flames of War that week!

I ended up taking my Brigade Armoured Assault Company. It’s one of those lists where almost all the units are hit on 3s, most everything is reluctant 5 motivation and skill tends to be a 4 for most units. Those basics are not a solid set of fundamentals to build around, the list is trash and has all sorts of issues so …. hold my beer.

By Richard Steer

The latest round of “Dynamic Points” for Flames of War has been finalized. If you are not familiar with the term, a Dynamic Points document is an update that Battlefront publishes that adjusts the cost of units in the game without needing to re-release the books. If you are playing a game using Dynamic Points, treat any units in the document as costing what they are listed there, while any units not in the update continue to use the points given in the books.

So far this concept has only been applied to the Mid-War era, with the 2024 version being the second round of adjustments for the era. The update can be downloaded for free from the FOW website, and have also been applied to the Forces of War list builder.

A gift from Morten of Kolding

I’m back in Denmark for the holidays this year and of course, I brought my Team Yankee Canadians in the hope of getting some games in. One of the Mortens (from Kolding) and his friend Denni were in Aarhus to play Star Wars Legion for a couple of days and dropped by the games room in my hotel for some action. I had played against Morten this summer, so this time it was up to Denni and his pesky Finns to take on my Canadians.

I say “pesky” because there was this sportscaster back in the day who used to call them the “Pesky Finns” because of the style of play adopted by their hockey teams.  They always seemed to be difficult for Canada to play against.  I did not doubt that their Team Yankee armies would be any different.

By Tom Gall

Flames of War Great War has recently been re-released by Battlefront. Let’s take a 2023 look at the product line, what it offers, and what it takes to get started.

Great War takes Flames into the WWI period. Tanks are in their early infancy. Due to trench warfare, the mortar was refined and saw a great amount of use. The machine gun and light machine gun as infantry support weapons came into their own.

You might be thinking WWI was all trenches and mud, and certainly there was a whole bunch of that, but in 1918 especially as the front became more fluid, fighting both in and out of the trenches occurred and this game reflects that  Battlefront in my opinion really nailed the feeling of WWI in this variant of Flames of War, but only for 1918.

Nam, Fate of a Nation, and Great War are in many ways close cousins in that they’ve taken the core Flames of War rules and adapted them to each period to give you more fun gaming options.

By Paolo Paglianti

Imagine an airport hangar packed with tin soldiers: tin soldier shops, tin soldiers demo tables, tin soldiers tournaments. Well, that’s literally what happens at Warfare 2023, one of the biggest and most significant wargaming and modeling shows in the Old World, located south of London. Warfare is a heaven for every wargamer: there are lots of shops selling essentially anything you can imagine: books, miniatures from 6mm to 54mm, and terrain for any wargame from ancient to sci-fi.

It is organized by the Wargames Association of Reading and it’s simply excellent – I know how difficult is to organize an event so huge and complex, and David, Steve, and the Reading Team always do a fantastic job. I really recommend you pay a visit, if you’re in the UK next November.

By Tom Gall

If you like to play Flames of War you’re probably aware of what are the two modes of play, casual and competitive play. There is a fairly healthy tournament scene for Flames in the US, it’s been coming back since COVID.

Competitive play isn’t for everyone but it does make for a fun day of getting in a few games,  pitting your skills against other players, and as a result learning how to play better. Often people at tournaments talk about how to play better, make better lists, unit recommendations, painting suggestions, and so on.

Royal Canadian Dragoons photos

In my previous article WWIII Team Yankee – NATO Forces Book – The Canadians – No Dice No Glory  I discussed the new lists for Canadians in Team Yankee. The possibilities for Canadians in Team Yankee are now so exciting that many people are considering doing up a Canadian army. Battlefront has done a good job of showing Canadian camouflage patterns, but not such a good job of getting the colours right and some different ways of painting vehicles.

I realize that Battlefront wanted to come up with a common camouflage pattern for Canadian vehicles, but it’s not that easy. During the Cold War and beyond, Canadian vehicles had different paint schemes depending on the vehicle and when it was in service. The options were German Gelboliv, Canadian three-colour, NATO three-colour, or plain NATO green.  I will discuss my recipes and recommendations for the different colours from the late 1970s onwards. Then I will discuss which colours and patterns to use on each individual vehicle.