BattleFront Games

By Paolo Paglianti

Just as it had happened for the Mid period, Battlefront is about to release the first “compendium” of Late War books, starting with D-Day. The hefty tome, comprising more than 320 pages, includes the two German volumes (SS and D-Day German), as well as the British and American ones.

Is there anything new on the Western Front? While the Mid “Compendium” books (Desert and Eastern Front) had added the “Monsters”, the experimental units or those produced in very few numbers, in the case of D-Day the novelties are more limited. The NoDiceNoGlory team of Flames of War enthusiasts (in addition to myself, who read the book along with my favorite sparring partner Claudio Tiso, there are also Michael Rafferty and Richard Steer) combed through the tome and found some sneaky juicy additions. Are they a valid reason to buy the new compendium? Probably yes, but you need to read until the end of the article!

By Richard Steer

Late-War Leviathans are coming to Flames of War. Battlefront is releasing a free PDF on 2nd May that allows the models from their new 1948 alt-history game Clash of Steel to be used in the Late-War era of FOW. These new tanks, the Leviathans, are a mix of vehicles that entered service shortly after WW2, and experimental prototypes that never entered production.

By Richard Steer

A common discussion on various online groups for Flames of War is the unpopularity of Late-War Soviet forces. The Soviet lists do have their weakness, yet players have had success with them here in New Zealand. We have seen tournaments won by Hero Motor Rifle Battalions and Engineer-Sapper Battalions, so there are definitely ways to make them work.

The release of Berlin: Soviet provided me with a good excuse to try them for myself. The challenge I set myself was to build a competitive Soviet force and run it at our club’s 2023 Late-War tournament.

By Richard Steer

The Late-War period of Flames of War was completed last year with the release of the Berlin books. With no new releases over the last 12 months, the meta of the competitive scene is probably the most stable it has ever been.

A meta can be defined as “the game around the game”. In Flames of War this includes all of the things that go on up until you start deployment, such as the options that go into list building and your choice of Battle Plan. There’s always been a meta: those lists that appear, dominate the competitive scene for a while, become super popular, and then fade as players work out how to counter them and new books create new competitive opportunities.

Local metas are often created by the way that the most successful players in a particular region or gaming group approach the game. To find out more about the Late-War meta in our local region of Wellington, New Zealand, I recently spoke with four players who have for many years been among the top FOW players in New Zealand: Bede, Chris, and Simon from Wellington, and Sofia from Auckland, to hear their views of the state of the Late-War game in our corner of the world.

By Morten A.

Before Battlefront decided to include Denmark in Team Yankee with the Nordic Forces book, I was fiddling around modifying the West Germans into the Danish army, by modifying the BF models to resemble units that were available to Denmark during the 1985-1995 timeline that BF is using for TY.

After the release of Nordic Forces, I continued modifying models and adding some 3D printed ones to either better represent the models in the Danish army or proxy units BF did not include in their list.

By Robert Kelly

Visit IWM London – Plan Your Visit | Imperial War Museums

I’ve left the granddaddy of all London museums to the end, the Imperial War Museum (IWM)London. There are actually five Imperial War Museums. This one in London, HMS Belfast and the Churchill War Rooms also in London, Duxford for all things aircraft and IWM North in Manchester.

By Morten 

In Morten’s previous article he showed us how to paint Team Yankee Danish infantry. Now he will show us how to paint their vehicles.

In 1980, the Danish Army decided to paint all their operational vehicles in a two-tone camouflage pattern. Prior to this, all the vehicles was just painted green.

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.