BattleFront Games

By Benny Christiansen

When you get your hands on not one, but two new books; and you have a chance to get a game squeezed in during the weekend, you have to make a priority list. What is the first thing you want to look at and test!?

For me, and my friends, it was the infantry. I am a big fan of infantry, and I love the way it can move and no longer just lie down and take punishment. They are, to me, a real asset now.

The German DAK book had left the Germans with a somewhat less than optimal infantry. I don’t play the Germans, but if the lists are less than optimal, fewer people will play them in tournaments, nor even in pick up games. So the new German book, Iron Cross, has been expected with great anticipation by players who field German Infantry. I find that the book has provided these players with a good source for good infantry choices.

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Photos by the Author and Chris Fretts

                                    Honest Ahmed (foreground) “Ah yes, come here GI Joe, have best price on allied 6pdr, trade-in on 37mm AT guns, very good, you get Masters shirt fast!”

Hey guys, This will mostly be a big picture dump from Canadian Nationals, and perhaps I will leave the analysis for others.  Firstly, shots of armies before they got deployed, then gaming pics, with Day 1 and Final standing snapshots by Chris Fretts.

By Benny Christiansen

The Italian book introduced a new kind of formation for me. The Bergsalieri Weapons Company was a formation, that I found very interesting.

At first glance, I could not see myself fielding a whole formation, but having read a few pages, the potentially fun and efficient lists became apparent to me. I’m not the best of the best, but I win more games than I lose, and so these suggestions would be for players who are mediocre or similar

In general, I am a big fan of Italian infantry formations. I find it easy to keep them alive. They are hit on 4+ and capable of a 30 cm cross-country dash. Combined with the Follow Me, they are up and in the face of an enemy, within a turn. In missions where there is more than 40 cm between the lines, I recommend using the L6/40 or AB41 platoons to make sure the distance is only 40 cm.

by Tom Burgess

Our local Flames of War gaming group got in a second City Fight game. Last time we fought out “The Square” mission from So this time we turned out attention to Iron Cross with “The Boulevard” mission. “Battle Buddy” Ed would be playing his Soviets while Charles “6by9” would be rolling out the Germans. The point level was 55 points.

We played the game at Hard Knox Games when we could make great use of the in-store terrain collection. We used a 28mm city game mat as the base, which we thought looked much better than the plain black base we used last time. We the two halves of Miniature Building Authority (MBA) “Factory Building” to make the two main objective buildings.  To further subdivide these two buildings into four “rooms” we simply added some Battlefront Desert Walls.  We added some other MBA building halves to add to the boards generic “rubble” look. We also added some building around the perimeter edge of the board which were “off table” but helped with the visual back-drops.

No Dice No Glory is proud to bring you the “Battle for the +5 Points”, a Charity Midwar Flames of War Tournament that will benefit the families of those who’ve fallen during their military service.

When: October 20th. 10 AM Registration. 10:30 Dice Roll.

Where: Your Hobby Place

4264 Plank Road

Fredericksburg, VA 22407

Cost: $10 Dollars, with all of going to TAPS.

Signup: Email  

It’s not all about Flames Of War…

By Benny Christiansen
and Helge MacIntyre

Flames Of War, as well as many other games, are being played and all nationalities can attend with a team. Many countries send the best of the best. In these articles, we follow the Danish Team, lead by Helge MacIntyre.

We managed to get a short interview with Helge and Chris Jackson, the captains from the US and DK teams at the ETC. In these articles, we give you a glimpse into the ETC 2018. The largest Team Tournament in the world.

by Tom Burgess

My good friend, Battle Buddy Ed, and I recently set up a City Fight game from the new Enemy at the Gates book. Ed brought his Soviets and I played Germans in “The Square” mission. The City Fight missions are played on small 3’ by 2’ boards so we decided to experiment with this new mission with 50 point forces. We also decided to keep this as an all infantry fight and agreed to take no tanks.

My Germans were based on a Grenadier Formation with an HQ, two midsize Grenadier platoons, an HMG attached to one of the Grenadier platoons, a full Assault Pioneer platoon, a four-tube 81mm mortar platoon, two 150mm infantry guns and a sniper.

By James Copland

Today, Soviet hordes swept into V4 in my man cave. Pulling together opponents and rubble terrain, my friends Ian and Challice played a game with lists from the new sourcebooks Enemy at the Gate and Iron Cross. The commanders had never seen the books before the game, so were given 20 minutes to put a force together. Both choose to run infantry formations, and both choose to run a single formation.

They played a new mission from the Iron Cross book.,The Factory. It is played on a smaller table, 2’x3′ and with a mixed deployment zone means, just like in Stalingrad, you could find yourself on the other side of a door of your enemies. Another interesting aspect of this mission is all terrain other than the building is rubble.

This means moving infantry is fast, and assaults are required to get anything done.

The Soviets won the dice roll to choose a side to attack from, as well as the first of the smaller rooms in the center. The win condition of the game is not objective based unless you count clearing the center building an objective. The Soviets chose the bottom left corner, leaving the Germans with the top right. After reading the rubble rules and knowing that bulletproof cover was plentiful, the Soviets chose to commit a Hero Infantry formation, with Strelkovy support, (we wanted to test the 4+ save mechanic.) in addition to the small (13-stand strong) Hero Infantry.

By Benny Christiansen

Last time the team was introduced. The Captain, Helge, explained a few things about the event as well as the strategy.

The event has now started, and the status of the event, after 4 games, is as you can see here:

By Jeff Mayo (tournament organizer)

Flames of War
Blasted Landscape II
Version 4 Mid War Tournament

The scorched desert sand cracked under the heavy treads of the Panzers, as they maneuvered into position against the approaching British columns. British infantry, supported by Grant tanks, Honey Stuarts and the new British tank, the Churchill, marched towards the Afrika Korps. Soon, the heat of the day would be upon them all, and the air would be filled with sounds of battle. A hard and bitter fight was ahead for both the Axis & Allied commanders in this Blasted Landscape.