Flames of War Pacific Overview

By Tom Gall

Battlefront’s The Pacific will soon be in the hands of many a Flames of War player, but before it arrives in your hands NoDiceNoGlory has a series of articles to highlight the many treasures found in this book.  In this first article let’s take a speed through the various bits and circle back in following articles to look at the details.

The Pacific covers the Asian theatre of World War II during 1942-1943 for version 4 of Flames of War. The last time Flames of War players saw source materials for this part of the way was during Version 3 with Gung Ho, and Banzai.

Additionally for Early War there was Rising Sun. Back then the books were organized with usually a single nation in one book, like Japanese in Banzai, and the US Marine Corps (USMC) in Gung Ho.

This time, Battlefront has included both Japanese and the USMC in one book, further they’ve added some US Army, British, Indian and Australians lists to give much better coverage for fighting in Asia during this time period. Frankly, it’s awesome, as a tournament organizer this treatise is the perfect raw material for a Pacific themed tournaments or even casual day of gaming events. Turns out Wolfkrieg 2026 already is planning to do exactly this.

Besides the lists, there a bunch of supplementary information and rules so that you’ll be ready to game out battles in Asia with Flames of War.

Quick Recce

Japanese

Japan infantry lists are split into their two historical categories, Army and Navy. The Army has an Infantry Company and the Navy has an Infantry Company plus a Type 2 Ka-Mi Naval Tank Company.

Later support units are available to both list categories. Next there are 3 different tank companies, a Type 97 Chi-Ha, a Type 89 Chi-Ro and last a Type 95 Ha-Go to round out the lists. The Japanese are able to field no less than 9 different types of tanks.

Battlefront has a soon to be available Japanese Army box which goes a long way to get you started with these various lists as well as including themed dice, objectives and tokens. Great way to get started or even add to your Japanese holdings.

Our next article will dive into the special Japanese rules, the various units and explore some list building ideas. As you’ll expect the Japanese have rules to reflect their tactical doctrines and unique approaches to warfare.

USA

The US portion of the book includes US Marine Corps lists, both tank and infantry. The infantry lists if a Marine Rifle Company and the tank list is a M3 Stuart and M4 Sherman list. While the Marines share equipment with their US Army compatriots there are new unique units and support options for them. The Marine 75mm SPM Self-propelled Gun deserves a specific mention.

The US Army lists are a Rifle Company and an M3 Stuart Tank Company. While there is overlap with the North Africa midwar book for Americans there are some unique elements and rules we’ll soon examine.

There is a new USMC Army Box as part of the Pacific release. Like the Japanese box, it’s a great way to get into a USMC force, and those tokens and special dice in particular are screaming “Buy Me”. I’ll be taking a closer look at those scalps, I can easily see picking up these box for doing a US Pacific themed force not to mention some great variety to my US holdings.

British and Indian

The British and Indian lists are I believe new for Flames of  War. Perhaps I’ve forgotten some V2, V1 list, but I kinda doubting it. This time they’ve added lists representative of the Asian theatre which the British and Indian armies played an important role.

For the British we’ve a Rifle Company, a Honey Armoured Squadron, a Grant/Lee Armoured Squadron and then for the Indians we’ve an Indian Rifle Company that represents the Black Cat Division.

The British are less skilled than what you’ll find in North Africa as this is the early days when the British were hard pressed across Burma, Borneo, Malaya and so on. The Indians represent those units which were tasked with the tough defense of India during these times.

Again we’ll be looking at army specific rules and new units that make these new lists fun and different as compared to North Africa.

There is a British Army deal, again a great way to get into a British for the Pacific. Additionally there are Indian specific sculpts as well as tokens. While they don’t have their own army deal, Battlefront is releasing what you need to do an Indian themed force, which is awesome!

Australian

Last but not least is the significant Australian addition to the Pacific. Their lists include a Rifle Company, a Militia Rifle Company, a Commando Independent Company, Grant Armoured Squadron, Stuart Armoured Squadron, and Sentinel Armoured Squadron. As you’d expect they have some of their own unique units as include army specific rules to give their forces extra flavor.

The backbone are motivated, veterans, while the militia are as you’d expect less capable and cheaper from a points perspective. The commandos in particular are the best of the best as you’d expect.

We’ll take a close look at the AC1 Sentinel, a new tank, one that I think you’ll see the possibilities in what it is capable of.

Other parts of the book

Weighing in at 176 pages, the Pacific book includes more than just army lists, the usual histories, painting and mounting guides are to be found to make sure that you field your forces correctly.

There are fortifications rules as the Pacific certainly saw significant defensive battles. There are new terrain rules which cover specific terrain in that part of the world. There is a new category of building called “huts/houses” which are not bulletproof cover due to their more modest construction.

Last there are rules for beach landings and jungle attacks as these are both significantly unique to this theatre of the war.

Summary

The Pacific has a lot of material for us to report to you on. It’s not just adding the Japanese and Australian armies, the USMC, Indians and British pick up some pretty exciting lists, unites and rules that we’ll be covering in future articles over the next few days/weeks. We’ll give you some list ideas and a play through or two as well.

This book is a great addition to midwar, get your pre-order ready to go, you’ll be glad you did.