Great War: The French, Americans, and Belgians

The staff here at NDNG is so excited that is updating the Great War book for all of those like me who love all things Great War. As you have seen in our previous articles the new book is bigger and better than the previous version; all the rules are updated to the V4 standard and you have a lot of new forces to play with.

I had the honor of helping the crew at Battlefront put together this book and I want to share some of the amazing forces you can now play on your table. In this article, I will go over the changes to the French and American forces as well as introduce the Belgians to the fight.

The French

As will all of the other forces in the book, factional forces are broken down in different categories. The French have infantry formations which contain the Metropolitan (Fusilier) and Russian Legion infantry lists, assault formations which are the Harlem Hell-fighters and Colonial (Tirailleurs) infantry and the Cavalry which is a breakthrough formation.

You will see a trend here because all of the French and US formations look the same, however, they do not all fight the same. In each list, you can take eight infantry platoons, four trench mortars (either 58mm or 76mm) and two machine gun platoons. The basic platoon for all these forces is also identical with five rifle teams, two rifle grenade teams and two LMG teams.

Heavy machine gun platoons can have two, three or four HMGs and the mortar teams each have one gun. What really makes the French good is that they can take some extra goodies. In the previous version the HQ had the ability to take flamethrowers and 37mm guns, now each platoon can take one of each of these weapons limited to three flame teams and two guns per formation.

Let me revisit the mortars again, unlike the British you get the choice of the two, however, the 58mm hits like a truck and can clear up those pesky HMG nests. With your four mortar slots you can mix up taking both types and that may be a handy thing to do.

All French units have the same special rules that affect their Morale and Assault ratings and they can all take the excellent 75mm quick firing gun.

The main difference in these forces are the ratings and with the Russians and Hell-Fighters the additional special rules.

The Metropolitan infantry is a Reluctant Veteran Formation while the Colonial French infantry are rated as Fearless Veteran and both units are hit on 4+. So, you really have a choice here in how you shape your force with the Colonial troops costing five more points per infantry platoon.

The Russian Legion is rated as Fearless Trained and is hit on a 3+. They also have a great special rule that should remind you of the Japanese from the WW2 version of the game.

The Harlem Hell-Fighters are also Fearless Trained and are hit on a 3+, however, their special rules allow them to have a Last Stand rating of 2+.

Now for the best cavalry in the game, the French. Why do I say this? Well, the fact they can take two armored car platoons is a huge plus, and these armored cars are very good mounting a machine gun and a 37mm gun in their turret.

The cavalry is rated as Confident Veteran and is hit on a 4+, and the fact they are cavalry they can Blitz move on a 2+. The platoon is a bit different consisting of six rifles, two rifle grenade, and one LMG team. You can dismount these guys at any time however they stay on foot for the rest of the game.

The armored cars feature the White/AM 1915/18 armored car and you can take three of these per platoon, so if you wanted to max out on these you can two with your cavalry and another as a formation support platoon, so you have nine of these bad-boys running around the table if you so choose.

If you want to take some armor you have the pick of three types of French that were all in the previous book as well as taking any of the British tanks in the game.

Rounding out the support you can take a unit of a single 75mm gun or take a battery of either two or four of these Reluctant Veteran guns. The Sniper team is also a support unit moving from an HQ option in the previous version of the book.

The French come in so many flavors and have so many options you will have no issue finding a force that fits your playing style.

The Americans

The US has two infantry formations, the 42nd Infantry which is Confident Trained and hit on a 3+ and the 1st Infantry which is Confident Veteran and is hit on a 4+. As I stated above the US units have the same structure in both their lists and platoons as the French. They also get to take the same flame and gun additional units as the French.

The US assault formation is the US Marine Corps Brigade and these guys are a really good unit. They get some great special rules that eliminate the Slow Firing special rule that every other rifle team in the game has and you can disband you HMG platoons and add them to the infantry platoons. The Marines are Fearless Veteran and are hit on a 4+.

For support, they can take US tanks, or any of the French or British tanks available in the game. The other support options such as the 75mm guns are just like the French have (single gun or battery) however they are either Veteran or Trained depending on which infantry formation you are running.

When I wrote the USMC lists which came out as a digital download in V3 I knew this unit would be very popular and it motivated me to actually buy my first US formation in any game.

The Belgians
The tiny army of Belgium held on to a small sliver of their nation thought the war and I was glad to include them in the book.

Belgium only has one unit in the game, the infantry formation and is rated as Reluctant Trained and is hit on a 3+, however their special rules give them a better Counterattack and Rally rating which is 4+. Unlike the previous two nations above they can only have two trench mortars vice the four of the US and French.

For support you also have the same mix of 75mm guns and a sniper, however, you can only take a French FT-17 tank platoon or groups up to four French or British heavy tanks.
Of all the forces I reviewed here the Belgians are a small force that will be tough in defense.
Making the Great War Great Again
I know my buddy Iron Tom covered the Germans and British in a previous article and I wanted to give a plug on the forces I mentioned above. One of the nice things about these forces is how you can really maximize the amount of lists you can play with a single army.

While each nation looks the same you can now see how a mass of French models in brown can be Russian, US, Belgian and even French. Same with the US, since by 1918 they all wore army brown, they can be three different units with really different capabilities.

With the V4 rules that allow additional formations or an additional platoon from another list, you can pair up a defensive Belgian or Metro French unit with an assault formation like US Marines or Colonial French. The options you have are some of the best in the game and I mean all versions of Flames of War and even Team Yankee.

Helping Battlefront with this book was a real labor of love and I hope you love playing with these units as much as I had in shaping them for the new book.