Flames of War

One of the great sections contained towards the back of the new D-Day American book by Battlefront is the special missions that are thematic to D-Day.  “Shot in the Dark“, “Help’s On Its Way” and “Fubar” model the airborne landings, the daring ranger assault on the coastal defenses and the landing themselves.

Battlefront has structured these such that they can be played individually or as a linked mini-campaign where the outcome of one game influences the next.  It’s not quite a firestorm campaigns of yore, but certainly within the spirit of those past designs.

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.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

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….

By Benny Christiansen

Hi, Ho Silver! Currahee! Rangers – lead the way!

One of the most (in)famous moments of the second world war seems to me to be D-Day. The landing on Omaha Beach was particularly hard but it was a huge undertaking and it must have been hard not to be awestruck at the sight of all the boats and airplanes.

With D-Day the Soviets finally had their second front opened. As I understand the history behind this, Stalin had been quite impatiently waiting for the Allies to put this operation into action to relieve some of the pressure on the Red Army.

In this article I’ll have a look at the Assault Company (also the veteran version) as well as Rifle Company (also the veteran version). I’ll try to make it like a tactical suggestion article, instead of the page-by-page version.

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.

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!

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.

By Scott Grasse

I am very excited to be talking about Firestorm Sicily which launches this weekend on May 25th. The notion of creating a Firestorm Italy campaign has always been a burning desire but when Tom Richards approached me with his vision of a Mega Firestorm Italy Campaign – one that would cover three phases of operations in Italy and spanning from mid-war into late war – I immediately became energized to join the team and get to the fun.

Themed campaigns are a great way to delve deeper into the historical elements of WWII battles and tactics. The Battle for Sicily represents an interesting, dynamic and unique time period in the war that makes for a particularly great campaign. Many things were changing at the time. Everything from – the terrain the battles would be fought on to troops and equipment that would participate. Political and military leadership strife was occurring on both sides. The fight for Italy would be a very different experience than the battles fought in the open deserts and rugged terrain of North Africa just months before. Sicily was to be the flashpoint for a new phase of the war.

By Austin Coped

V4 Late War is so close I can almost taste it! And BLUF: While not super in-depth or unique, the British lists are super competitive with the lists that have been shared. List Gold!

***Disclaimer*** Buy Churchills before they go up in value from supply and demand!

Now that you have my initial thoughts, I want to show you a deep dive into the units, the formations and the rundown of National rules and tidbits of info I have run across. First up Special Rules.

By Benny Christiansen

Soviet players, rejoice! Even if the prospects of another Soviet book is a long time into the future, there is plenty of “good stuff” in the Fortress Europe to keep you busy painting and gluing and playing till then.

In this article, I will try to describe a few of the things I have found most interesting and most promising about the content of the Soviet part of Fortress Europe. It will not be a page-by-page walkthrough, but more like a tactical suggestion article. My aim is to let you get a feeling of the things that I have found most likely to be in my first LW battles.