Flames of War

By Paolo Paglianti

ETC is probably the biggest and most important Flames of War tournament in the World – I already reported about it here. It was an amazing experience, and I hope to come back in following years. After the above article about the tournament, time to talk about my games with a full report of my six battles with the Iceland Team.

Playing ETC is deeply different than playing a normal, single-player FOW tournament. You are part of a team of six players, and the Captains of the two opposing teams try to find the best pairing for their players. For example, if the opposing team has a US Tank destroyer army, the opposing Captain will try to counter it with Recce Company full of nimble scouts relying on being hidden and to hit the weak side armor of the M10s. The Captains also need to choose which of their players will attack, maneuver, and defend, as they have two “cards” for each stance – ie, you can’t attack with all six players. A lot of strategy even before the game starts!

By Jim Naughton

Four years and forty days ago (approximately) Battlefront continued its Mid-War Journey by introducing Enemy at the Gates and Iron Cross, bringing the Eastern Front to life in Version Four.  A few short months later these books were complemented by Red Banner and Ghost Panzers.  It would take two further years to see Finns, Rumanians, and Hungarians as BF focused on its Late War Journey.

Accompanying those four books were two Firestorm Campaigns.  Our group played both campaigns and continued to play East Front Flames of War up to the release of Fortress Europe.  It was a good run.

The newest release from Battlefront combines eight smaller books – four for the primary antagonists, 3 allies, and one for German paratroopers.  The German paratroopers’ separate book is consolidated into the Ghost Panzers chapter, giving the new book seven chapters.  Others will give you an overview of the big volume or focus on the Axis forces.  My task is to highlight the Soviets – what’s changed, and what stayed the same.  One thing absent from the compilation is the rules on City Fighting and Airborne Assault found in the originals.

By Tom Gall

Now that the Bulge German book, command cards, and unit cards are starting to flow out across the planet, I’m sure you’re like me, plotting what to buy and wondering in general how things will play. This article is about a 100 pt game featuring Volksgrenadiers vs American Airborne with tank destroyers and Pershings.

I like the Volksgrenadier formation as it offers fairly cheap German Infantry that can be improved partially depending on what Command Cards you may or may not choose to field.

Some feel yes you can just upgrade a portion of the formation, others feel that no you can’t and must have the 12 Volksgrenidier cards for all unit types you field. Phil Yates from Battlefront did take some time out of his busy day and make a ruling on this which was that you can’t mix the units.

By Richard Steer

Flames of War began its Late-War Journey in June 2019 with the publication of Fortress Europe, bringing V4 into the 1944-45 era. Subsequent releases have seen Late-War develop with books covering the Normandy and Bagration campaigns, and most recently the Ardennes.

Throughout the last three years, however, there has been something missing. You can argue about their historical significance. You can make jokes about them breaking down, running out of fuel, and being unable to cross bridges. But one thing is certain: in the Tiger II, Jagdtiger, and Jagdpanther, Bulge: German contains some of the most anticipated additions to V4.

Do they live up to expectations? Let’s take a closer look at how these vehicles have been represented in the game.

By Richard Steer

Tokens play an important role in Flames of War by marking the status of your units. The tokens in the Battlefront Gaming Sets are nice, but they do detract from the visual appeal of the game, particularly after the lengths we go to painting our miniatures in historical colors and creating realistic terrain for them to fight over.

The FOW token sets include four Foxholes markers, with the intention being that one marker is used per dug in unit. At times it is beneficial to have foxhole markers for each team, particularly when teams consolidate during the Assault step, so I am making myself a bunch of them.

By Mike Rafferty

This past March, Adepticon returned after a two-year hiatus (caused by “nothing in particular).

The convention once again returned to Schaumburg, IL. This was a different convention from years past, and not just because of the wait between conventions.

While Keyforge was held offsite in 2019, this year historical games were at the Hyatt giving Adepticon its first true offsite venue.

I volunteered to run this offsite venue and historicals to ensure that historical players, of which I am one, received a great convention experience. My long-term goal is that we can use this space to grow historicals at Adepticon and establish our own identity to stand along with the Games Workshop and Star Wars players at Adepticon.

By Chris Masucci

Having been out of the Flames of War scene for about ten years now, I was disappointed to find that many of the figures that I remember from years past have long disappeared from Battlefront’s catalog. Being a big fan of the Dieselpunk, alternate WW2, and “Weird War” styles, one of the biggest casualties for me was Battlefront’s collection of what were dubbed “Mid War Monsters”.

This series introduced several experimental or obscure vehicles to Flames of War in its mid-war theaters. The mid-war monsters included everything from little-used but produced vehicles such as the Boarhound and Italian P40, to things that never left the drawing board.

By Richard Steer

The Flames of War army boxes are a great value. They are big boxes packed full of plastic sprues and are the ideal way to either start a new army or reinforce an existing one, at a significant price discount. The new British Crusader Armoured Squadron boxed set for North Africa is no exception. Containing 21 sprues and retailing for US$110, it compares very well to the usual price for a normal unit box.

While the Crusader Armoured Squadron box contains a lot of plastic for your money and a wide variety of models, a closer look at its contents reveals that it is an awkward combination of units. The default army list that is provided with the box is a legal force totaling 93 points, but game-wise it is not a great list.

by Tom Gall

Over the past few years, Battlefront has released several Ace campaign packs. These cover Bloody Omaha, Race for Minsk, and Battle of the Bulge. Each campaign pack retails for approximately $20 and includes a set of playing card sized decks which gives you all you need to run a ladder campaign with missions, rewards, side missions, and a collection of Ace Ability cards.

Recently at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota, we hosted a Flames of War Late War tournament built around the Battle of the Bulge Aces campaign. This article is going to cover how it worked and served to make the tournament one that will be remembered and talked about for a long time.

For each round of the tournament (there were 3 rounds) we made use of the episodes of the campaign. This set the tone as well as picked the mission and who was attacking. The first episode in the Bulge Aces campaign has the Axis on the attack with Breakthrough as the mission. Further each episode sets forth a set of rewards depending on the outcome. For round one, both players receive a Tier 1 reward.

by Paolo Paglianti

Well, I’m really happy. I began to set up this tournament in early January, but the situation was not that good. In the end, despite the COVID and all limitations, we managed to gather 43 players (28 FOW, 14 Saga, and 1 reserve) under the same roof.

A full Sunday playing wargames, throwing dice, and blaming luck, and a lot of fun. This was probably the biggest FOW tournament in Italy since before the Pandemic. The Flames of War tourney was set in the Late War period, and a Saga tournament in the Age of Crusades. By the way, if you want to know how Saga works, you can check this article!

(A note: the Cornaredo Tournament was opened only to three-dose vaccinated people, and we wore masks all time. We just pulled them down for some photos).