Battlefront

By Richard Steer

Every year, our wargaming club in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, runs a one-day tournament for club members at the final meeting of the year. Named Remember December, this event commemorates club member Nick Garden, who passed away in 2015. The 2025 edition of the event was held on 13 December, playing Flames of War.

Remember December often has a themed format or unusual list restrictions, and this year was no exception, The format used was 55-points Late War, with infantry formations only. In addition, your force could not include more than one tank unit, a maximum of four vehicles, and a maximum Front Armor of 7. Three 1.5-hour rounds were to be played using the Extended Battle Plans mission selector, and each player had to use each stance once during the event.

By Tom Gall

We’ve all been patiently waiting for early war to make the return to Flames of War, time to feast your eyes on the French part of release for version 4.  Unfortunately when Germany turned their focus west in May of 1940, a brief few weeks and the French would be knocked out of the war, which as a result means this is a faction for early war only.

Why Play French?

I first started playing French during the earlier release of Blitzkrieg for Flames of War version 2 back in late 2010. What drew me was the desperate struggle of one of the largest militaries at the start of WWII, on the defensive against the German onslaught, putting up the good fight that would ultimately not go their way due to a whole host of tactical reasons. The French are plucky, unique and offer up unit selections that can work for offensive and defensive stances.

No matter if you’re an old hand or a new to Flames of War, the French as a faction in Early War brings good tanks, reasonable infantry, and good artillery that can win you games.  In this article we will crawl through just the French part of the release, note their strengths and point out their weaknesses too. They might be just the force for you.

By Richard Steer

The Early-War era has returned to Flames of War. 2026 and 2027 will see the release of three books covering the period from 1939 to 1941 for the 4th Edition of the rules. The first book in the series is Blitzkrieg, covering the French, German, and British forces involved in the German invasion of France in May and June 1940.

The British list in Blitzkreig represents the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium. It covers those units present from the start of the invasion, through the evacuation from Dunkirk, and those still fighting after Dunkirk.

By Richard Steer

Just in time for Christmas, Battlefront’s gift to Flames of War players was the finalization of the first round of Dynamic Points for Late-War.

What Is Dynamic Points?

Dynamic Points is a free update that adjusts the cost of units in existing force books for Flames of War 4th Edition. If you are playing a game using Dynamic Points, you treat any units in the update as costing what they are listed there, while any units not in the update continue to use the points given in the published books.

For each round of Dynamic Points, usually published annually, Battlefront focuses on a small number of specific areas where they see problems with the balance of a game. For the Late-War era of Flames of War in 2026, this focus is increasing the price of light armor and reducing the price of medium armor. Other areas that players have been asking to be addressed, such as the cost of Save 4+ Soviet infantry, have not been touched.

Battlefront initially published a draft set of changes in November, seeking feedback from the community. They have now considered that feedback, and the changes have been locked in for 2026, including being added to the Forces of War list building tool.

Let’s take a look through some of the things that have changed, and how they might impact the game over the coming year.

by Tom Gall

November 29th the Screaming Eagles braved the snow and held their first Checkpoint Charlie tournament, 100pts, no limitations otherwise. The weather impacted the number of people that turned out but those that did had fun time and most importantly we started to see how people were approaching list building for competitive matches.

There was a fair amount of table talk centered on the use of missiles and how things may or may not be different then later era Team Yankee. As we learned through the course of the day however, there was far more than missiles to consider.

By Paolo Paglianti

Even though I’ve been playing wargames since way back in 1992 and have travelled across half of Europe, I had never had the chance to visit Romania. When my friend Quentin Taylor — a Canadian but Romanian by adoption — told us he would be organizing the Nationals near Sibiu, we booked our flights almost immediately!

Moreover, the Romanian Nationals are part of the European Series, a circuit of National tournaments which this year — in its second edition — includes Belgium, Germany, the UK, Poland, and also Italy, where I will be organizing the event on March 14–15, 2025. Together with Rob and the others, we wanted to create a network that would encourage players to take part in tournaments across the Old Continent.

By Richard Steer

The next Late-War compilation for Flames of War is about to be released. Operation Bagration consolidates the previous Soviet, German, and Axis-Allies books for 1944 on the Eastern Front into a single volume.

It is now five years since the first of those books, Bagration: Soviet, was published. It’s fair to say that there haven’t been any earth-shattering updates to the Soviet lists. However, Battlefront has taken the opportunity to update the Soviets to include a few products that they have released in the intervening years, and it’s worth taking a closer look at those changes.

By Paolo Paglianti

Our friends at Battlefront sent us one of the Limited Editions from the new Pacific range — and it’s packed with Japanese troops! What do you think, shall we do a nice unboxing together?

By Richard Steer

“Why aren’t more people choosing the Manoeuvre stance?”

I asked this question of my friend Bede after a day spent running a Late-War Soviet Forward Detachment at a recent Flames of War tournament. In several games, I had attacked Berlin: German armored forces with combinations of StuGs, Hetzers, Panthers, and Panzer IV/70s. Every player I faced had also chosen to attack, with that combination in the Battle Plans mission selector leading to our games being meeting engagements.

I can see the attraction of the Attack stance. It leads to faster and simpler missions, and you usually don’t have Reserves so you get all your toys on the table. However, I was thinking about the advantages the German forces had over my Soviets: Careful Veteran skill, high front armor, and good anti-tank weapons, and whether the Attack stance was making the most of those.

By choosing to attack, the German players had been forced to advance to take objectives, reducing their Rate of Fire, bringing their tanks towards the anti-tank weapons of my infantry, and allowing my Shermans and SU-76s to get into their side armor.

By Paolo Paglianti

Tomorrow marks the first FOW Nationals of the year! Near Milan, 40 players from all over Europe (plus an American and a Canadian!) will clash in battle to claim the title of 2025 Italian Nationals Champion.

The event is organized by the Milan FOW club, which is participating in full force—with four new players joining in (we’re growing!). They have also been a tremendous help in setting up the 20 tables for the Flames of War MID tournament.