D-Day Waffen-SS Command Cards Review

by Tom Burgess

 

Mitch Reed has already provided an excellent of the D-Day Waffen SS Book for NDNG, so it falls on me to review the Command Cards for this new Flames of War Late War book.

This might be the best part, as it is with the command cards that one can really flavor a list. I’ll break the cards down into the following five groups; Standards, Same as D-Day Germans, New Formations, Special Formation Upgrades, and finally Heroes.

Standards

Softskin Transport and Lucky.  You knew these had to be here. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone actually use the Softskin Card, but as with all Command  Card decks it is here.

Taking on the 21st Panzer – A Flames of War Late War AAR

By Tom Burgess

My good friend Ed and I were very excited to acquire last month’s release of the 21st Panzer Division expansion books/cards for the D-Day Germans in Flames of War Version 4. We both have a lot of 21st Panzer Division kit in our collections, but only Ed had any of it done.  So I rolled out my new US Sheman Company so we could get in a game with the new hotness.

Battle Report “D-Day +2” D-Day British vs Germans, Free-For-All, 100pts

by Matt Varnish

Here we go, myself and fellow No Dice No Glory contributor Scott ‘Obsidian23’ Roach, get in a game using the new British D-Day book. As always, the video of the game is linked at the end of the article.

We actually debated using the special D-Day missions in the book but they were either on 4ft by 4ft tables or Airlanding, so we opted to use the normal Battle Planner.. and wound up with Free-For-All. We WERE using the new Bocage rules, however, Bocage Hedgerows are Tall Terrain and provide Bulletproof Cover to gun and infantry teams shot through them. Looking at the above table Scott laid out, you can see that Line of Sight would be an issue for things like Achilles, 88s and Panthers.

D-Day +2, Monty’s forces have pushed past the beachheads and are heading towards Caen.   In their way lies a German Recon Coy sitting in an outskirt called Herouville-St-Clair.

No Dice No Glory Episode 54: BattleVault D-Day British Special Edition

In this special bonus edition of the BattleVault podcast Tom is joined by No Dice No Glory teammates Austin Copeland and Preston Jacob. The boys go all fan-boy and gush incoherently about all the goodness the upcoming D-Day British book and card release for Flames of War.  In case you can’t tell….they are very excited about the release.

No Dice No Glory Episode 52: BattleVault Episode 1

Welcome to the first episode of the BattleVault, a monthly US podcast dedicated to all things by Battlefront Games.

In the first half, Ed and Tom talk about last month’s new release  of the 21st Panzer Division book and card set.

In the second half, they look ahead to the upcoming World War Three (Team Yankee) British book release.

The boys close  episode one out with “Rules that Ed forgot” and a look at Flames of War and WW3 Team Yankee events coming in Feburary and March 2020.

Return of the 21st Panzer

By Tom Burgess
Battlefront has brought the 21st Panzer into Version 4 of Flames of War.  This is tremendous news for those of us who have some of the very unique kit that the 21st Panzer division fielded in 1944.  This also lays out a pathway to add more formation options to what is provided in the army books.  Hopefully Battlefront will use this format to bring other unique formations into Version 4 in the future. But for now, let’s go ahead and get into the new Version 21st Panzer Division book and cards.
In late 1943, the German command identified a need for a mobile force that could move to quickly counter amphibious landings where they might occur on the French cost. So a mobile force, initially designated as “Schnelle Division West,” was created.  However, the German command simply could not supply this organization with German vehicles and equipment. Alternatively, the force was equipped with captured French vehicles like the S307(f) and U304(f) Half-Tracks and Hotchkiss light tanks. Many of these were converted and heavily up-gunned by Major Alfred Becker’s workshop creating one of the most unique German fighting formations of the war. This formation was eventually was redesignated as the 21st Panzer Division, bringing one of Germany’s most famous panzer division names back on the rolls.

The Longest Day – a full afternoon “playing” the D-Day with FOW

It has been one of the hottest summers ever for WW2 gamers. Battlefront deployed a full array of Late War books: the “transitional” Fortress Europe with all four armies on the Western/Russian front, the US D-Day and the incoming German Normandy focused one. At our club in Milan, we decided to play the D-Day scenarios in US D-Day book to “celebrate” both the 75th anniversary of that fateful day and the starting of the Late War FOW season.

The D-Day German book: what an Allied commander needs to fear

The Late War books are a welcomed breath of fresh air after a couple of years of V4 Mid War. , a new balance in the point system with tanks costing a third of what they used to in Desert and Russian 1943 fronts is really changing the “meta” game and the armies we’re going to field.

Traditionally, I play only with Allied armies. I began with the British 8th army and added some US troops to use as an ally in my fight against the Mid war Axis. So I naturally moved on to Late war sticking to Allied, adding some new troops to my existing pool of units.