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….

D-Day American – Forces in Normandy 1944 + US Cards Review

By Paolo Paglianti

The Battlefront plan is simple and bright.

Deploy the Fortress Europe book to start off the Late Period Flames of War V4, with all four principal armies in short form – good lists, but focused on the “general” armies after 1943 – and after that explore the various Late War theaters of war and their specific armies.

So, we’ve just finished drooling on Fortress Europe it’s already time to dive into a new, more specific book: ladies and gentlemen, time to get on our brand new Sherman 76mm and storm the D-Day beaches with your Late US army.

FOW D-Day at D6 Games AAR

With June once again upon us that’s the time of the year to do a set of D-Day battles and with the Screaming Eagles at D6 Games in Rochester Mn on June 1st that’s exactly what we did!

Omaha Beach

Fortress Europe Bat Rep LW Soviets vs Germans

By Benny Christiansen

After reading through the new LW book, Fortress Europe, I decided to challenge a friend of mine for a quick match. We decided on 71 points, and I would play the role of the Germans, while he would play the Soviets.

I decided on a list that would let me try some of the well-known things from MW and see how it would pan out in the LW era.

A Magical New Age for Saga

By Ian Birdwell

Having been a relatively recent convert to , getting into it at the start of Version 2, I was ecstatic for the publication of Saga’s Age of Magic Universe. Essentially, Age of Magic opens the doors for players to explore any fantasy universe they’d like with any forces they’d like using the already existing Saga rulebook (which already has two existing historical universes for Viking and Crusades periods).

To me, a refugee of the Old World and not thrilled with Age of Sigmar as a warband sized game, Age of Magic was almost exactly a dream came true.

I know I’m terribly excited about this new Saga Universe, but I’ll contain myself for now to an overview of the main rulebook.

The main Age of Magic rulebook is divided into three sections, the introduction of new rules specific to this Saga Universe, descriptions of the various factions, and the grimoire of magic.  So we’ll take a look along those lines.

Black Powder: Napoleonics

By Dennis “Matt Varnish” Campbell

Napoleon.   Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:   “Man takes over country, then takes over Europe, and has grand ideas of marching to Moscow, but is then thwarted by logistics and winter”

Scott’s place on a Saturday, with some Sharpe’s Rifles on the tele

Napoleonics? Why? Well, for me with my gaming background starting mainly with sci-fi and fantasy (Games Workshop) I had never really looked at historicals, and certainly not Napoleonics. I knew who Napoleon was, and the era, mainly from watching Sharpe’s Rifles, a series where A: Sean Bean’s character doesn’t die, and B: Has Elizabeth Hurley in it (see header pic)

Blood and Valor: A Great War Skirmish Game From Firelock Games

By Mitch Reed

As many of you know I am all about anything dealing with the Great War. I have always felt that the Great War is underrepresented in the gaming community so I am quick to promote any new game that truly captures the war on my gaming table.

Blood and Valor is a new game that will be out later in 2019 that gives the Great War an amazing skirmish level game and since it by the guys from you know it is going to be an amazing game that will be a must for your collection.

Here is my truth in advertising statement, as soon as I heard about the game I begged the developers my services as a playtester. While my statements in this article are based in fact, they are also from helping out the developers. Another caveat to this article I want to bring up is that this article is based on a version of the game that is still in the draft/playtest phase of production, so things may change.

BatRep: FOW V4 MW

By Tom Mullane

As a teacher, my gaming time is limited due. Spring Break is a time where I try to get games in and catch up with friends in the hobby. This spring, I got to connect with a friend I haven’t had a chance to play a game within a long while and made the most of the opportunity.

Joe and I played four games over the course of the afternoon and evening consisting of one Flames of War MW at 109 pts, and three Team Yankee West Germans Vs West Germans.