My New Years Resolutions for 2019!

By Ed Sales

With 2019 now upon us, I thought I would write up an article on what my resolutions are. These will focus on my personal goals as well as some I plan to make to grow my local gaming community.

Run Demo Games at my Local Gaming Store

Back when we had a gaming store in Culpeper, Virginia, two of my buds and myself would run demo games of Flames of War using the old V3 Tank Ace rules. It was a simple way to introduce someone into the game with the basic set of rules, and who doesn’t love tank duels?

After a few demo games, we would talk to people who would be interested in buying in and point them in the direction they wanted to go with an army. We would help assemble and paint the army boxes they had purchased and set up a game.

After a game or two, we would sprinkle in the infantry, then arty, and then planes and other units. We were able to grow our numbers and almost hit double digits until the game store closed.

I now belong to the Fredericksburg gaming area, but haven’t been able to get out to game much at all anymore. Version 4 was not well received in our area, and instead of playing at the LGS, we’d go elsewhere to play games. Hard to recruit new members if you’re in a closed-off location. I’ve been a bit down with the fact that we aren’t attracting local players to tournaments, and am going to re-focus my efforts to set up demo games using a modified tank ace rule set for V4 and start running campaigns to get people excited about the game in the local area again.

City Fighting Tournament

I had read an article on the Scottish Nationals, and in round three they did something that was truly inspiring to me. They set up the tables for City Fighting missions to be played on. Lists were set to 50 points with no more than 20 points allowed to be spent on tank teams. I feel this is a great mix of fun local events that stores run in a tournament setting.

I’m not sure the likelihood of me being able to pull this off, as I’m not sure I could draw on eight players for this event, but this is something I’ve been gauging others interest in for the last two months as I scout the calendar for the right opportunity to plan this out.

Accept and build an army off the V4 streamlined lists

I think one of the biggest complaints about Version 4 is that the lists aren’t historical. I think people do get to caught up in the names of the lists though.

With all the options available for Germans now with the recent LFTF, I think it’s best just to strip the name of the formations away and build a list to represent the historical list you are going for at this point.

There is also another way to look at it though. Although not a historical approach, I can’t be the only person who’s looked a list and said to themselves, “Man, this list is missing X. If this list has X, this would be an extremely fun/dominate list to play.” or “If I was a General back then, I would have built my divisions to have X supported by Y. I can’t believe they never thought about doing that back then!”

With Late War being redone this year, I’m hoping I can field something I’ve always wanted to field, Panzer Brigade Norway. They were equipped with Panzer IIIs and supported with Stugs. With Panzer IIIs being a plastic kit, and Battlefront wanting to allow players Mid War units to be playable in Late War, I think I may get my wish. I’ll be able to build a historical list, while also molding it into the way I want to play. The best of both worlds!

Complete a lot of what I have…

You thought you were the only person with a box full of unopened blisters just waiting to be put together and painted? There is a lot I need to put together and paint, and a lot that are half-painted that need to be finished up. Most of what I have left are things I just want to put together for modeling purposes, not because I actually want to field them unless I end up playing a friendly mega game where I have an excuse to field them. Like my German SS on motorcycles. Or my Panzerjager IVs in a Normandy paint scheme with Tank Riders. They’ll look good completed, but that’s about it.

Bringing the Fun and Wild back to Tournaments

This is a two-fold thing. To start, I want to bring army lists that are fun and wild, and not so much competition to tournaments. Think Panzerbrigade Westfallen and Kampfegruppe Swoboda, or even a mix of Beute Stugs and Beute Panzers.

I get so caught up on bringing competitive lists that when they don’t succeed, I get frustrated. It’s more fun to expect to lose while having fun than to expect to win and lose. I’ve honestly had some of my best performances expecting to lose only to find myself winning at the end because I’m less tense and more carefree.

For the hosting tournaments side of things, I want to find ways to make them more fun and less competitive. I’ve thought about the Fog of War cards, but haven’t found a way to use them for that setting. The City Fighting themed event certainly has peaked my interested but not sure if that would draw enough people. A Tank-Team-only tournament has been brought up — to me after I ran a tournament where the last round was only tank teams. Low Points skirmishes have always been fun for me, but I’m in the minority of that. I’m always on the hunt for new ideas!

That covers my goals for 2019. What are yours? I’m curious to know! Let me know in the comments section below and thanks for reading!