Flames of War

by NDNG_Dane

Let’s take a look at the new Command Cards for the Eastern Front German players.  There are 50 cards in the new Iron Cross command cards deck.  The cards range from soft-skin transports to Warriors and almost everything in-between.

Though I am not normally a command card player, I do plan on picking up this pack. These new Mid War command cards allow you to spend points to buy special rules, special formations, special leaders and special weapons.

There are even two Brandenberger SpecOps cards that allow you to move objectives and squelch your opponents’ artillery radio traffic to remove ranged-in markers.  Though I won’t go through all 50 cards, I would like to share a few with you.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

has released their long-anticipated Eastern Front books detailing the forces of the Soviet Union and expanding the option for the German players from the previously released Afrika Korps.

German players have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on some new lists and forces.  Command cards and items like the 90th light infantry division have been a nice way to tide things over and add some options, but the new Iron Cross book for Flames of War Version 4 gives you a lot more choices and tactical flexibility.

The paint scheme of the armor on the eastern front is not the only difference in the new Iron Cross book. We finally see the return of some old favorites in the German arsenal return in this book.

By Chris Johnson

Chris just took first place at Historicon’s Early War Nationals tournament with his Soviet Tank Force.

Friends, Romans, bears bearing hammers and sickles, lend me your eyes and ears.

The Eastern Front books for are right around the corner and I am here to tell you what to expect from our long lost friends in the Soviet Armored Divisions and how they will drive the fascists back to Berlin faster than you can say URRAH!

This is extremely exciting for me; Soviet armor is my favorite army to play in any Era. Finally being able to field them in Mid War is going to be so much fun. This is where the Soviet war machine cranked out so many tanks in vast numbers (and borrowed) to overwhelm the Germans and reclaim their stolen land!

By Ed Sales

Today we are taking a look at the German Infantry Formations in Iron Cross, as makes the trip to the Eastern Front in Version 4.

Many people were disappointed with how Battlefront treated the Germans in Midwar. One of the most popular topics on the old Flames of War forums, before they were shut down, was the limited size of the DAK Rifle Platoon. Good news! If you like meaty infantry platoons and prefer to play Germans, then Iron Cross has you covered.

by Tom Burgess

Enemy at the Gates at last answers the question that we’ve had for over a year “how will big Soviet infantry units be treated under Version 4 ?”  I like the answer and am eagerly looking forward to getting my “Strelk On” with this new book.

Why am I so excited? Diversity! Even before we get to Command Card options, the “Enemy at the Gates” brings the interesting Version 3 Flames of War Late War Soviet Infantry options into Version 4 Mid War.

There are two glorious Soviet Infantry Formations that allow the faithful Soviet gamer to employ no less than six Soviet Infantry Companies types: Rifle Company, Submachinegun Company, Penal Company, Hero Rifle Company, Hero Submachinegun Company, and Storm Groups.

By Benny Christiansen and Helge Macintyre

A few years ago I attended my first ETC. It was a warm experience and even though I don’t see myself as a competitive player, I signed up for what I had been told was a very competitive event.

Our Danish team began after my friend, Helge, played on the Swedish team as a mercenary (the teams are allowed to have a certain amount of “foreigners”). He returned and began to build a team for the following year.

Playing the ETC was an exciting experience! I still remember the games from the first tournament, but I also remember the mood and the people and the nerves and all the other fantastic things.

We return for part 2 of the three-part series of Kampfgruppes in Flames of War. For this report, I take a Kampfgruppe into combat.

For this game, I played against Brian Sullivan. I was expecting to go against his Soviets, or for him to make a list from my Americans. Instead, he decided to pull out his Hungarians for a run.

We used the More Missions matrix.

I was attacking and Brian was defending for our scenario. We ended up with No Retreat for our mission.

Today we are going over part one of a three-part series of Kampfgruppes (KG) in Flames of War.

The first thing you may be thinking to yourself if you played Flames of War in Version 3, is that the Kampfegruppe rule was taken out in Version 4.

I am actually referring to a little known, but very well written article that Battlefront put out when Desperate Measures was released. In that article, is a Random Kampfgruppe Generator.

The Kampfgruppe Generator is used to simulate what a German Commander might have faced when an operation got underway. He really didn’ know what he had till it was time to go into action.

For example, several of the tanks could have broken down on the way to battle. His company of Panzergrenadiers actually may be only Platoon size, or worse, squad size. Inits that existed in paper only. The Battalion of Panzers that were promised to him from reserve ends up being just too worn down Panthers.

Greetings from Virginia. I wanted to start by introducing myself. I began my journey into tabletop wargaming as many of us do, with a force of plastic warriors from Games Workshop’s, Warhammer Fantasy.

I reveled in the joy of High elves before slowly getting bored with the game. I found a winning strategy ended up with who had spent more USD and not who had built a better force on paper or led his troops better.

I moved from Warhammer to a new game I had seen at my FLGS, Flames of War (FoW). This game seemed to have it all. Tactics, list building, and strong individual models (Yup I thought King Tigers were invincible, how quaint young me was.)

Today we take a look at how Battlefront’s Latest addition the mid-war desert books, Armoured Fist, changes the tournament scene. It’s complicated.

One of the most talked about and biggest changes that come with Armoured Fist is actually something that affects the Desert Rats book. The hotly contest Scout Tanks card has been changed, making the cost two points for each platoon using it, and the card must be applied to every platoon it is viable for. This is a huge, much-needed change.

Battlefront set the point cost for the card too low on the first go around, but, I will give them credit for admitting their mistake and fixing it. This change, however, will kill the Stuarts swarm of 50+ tanks.