Preview

By Richard Steer

Late-War Leviathans first came to Flames of War in May 2024 via a free “Early Release” PDF of tanks from Gale Force 9’s alt-history game Clash of Steel. This stretched Flames of War’s timeline into the early years of the Cold War, while also adding tanks that were only prototypes, or in some cases never made it off the drawing board. That early release has now been expanded into a full book, with additional units and new formations.

I liked the Soviet Early Release Leviathans. The ability to add the IS-3, T-44, T-54-1, and ISU-130 as Wildcard units to other Soviet Late-War lists provided some nice options for upgrading existing FOW forces. The new Leviathans book provides even more options, so let’s take a look at what the Soviets get from it.

By Michael Rafferty

Late War Leviathans could be summarized as, “somehow, World War II continued.” Use one of provided scenarios or make up your own, like mine where Kaiser Wilhelm II comes back and overthrow the funny moustache man and then crusades against communism. Let your imagination run wild.

The vast majority of the vehicles in this book were in limited production, prototyping, or having their designs finalized. The reasons they didn’t see the field could be simplified to “the war ended.”

By Richard Steer

Late-War Leviathans are coming to Flames of War. Battlefront is releasing a free PDF on 2nd May that allows the models from their new 1948 alt-history game Clash of Steel to be used in the Late-War era of FOW. These new tanks, the Leviathans, are a mix of vehicles that entered service shortly after WW2, and experimental prototypes that never entered production.

Huge treat for you today in this long (but interesting) episode. We have Hermann Luttmann (A Most Fearful Sacrifice and many others) and Ryan Heilman (Brave Little Belgium and many others) and we talk about their new design “Into the Whirlpool” coming out from Blue Panther Games. We talk about so much more, such as game design and the gaming industry.

By Mitch Reed

I wish that my love of history was more well-rounded.

Blood & Crowns is a new skirmish game that covered the Hundred Years War. The kickstarter campaign is still waiting on production of the initial project, and should ship this spring (northern hemisphere).

My journey from never having an interest in this period to becoming excited about it is a wild story.

When it comes to certain periods of history I have little more than a rudimentary knowledge of what occurred and may be able to recognize a few battles, dates, and historical figures. When it comes to the history of the Hundred Years War, I know it lasted more than a century, and other than reading Shakespeare’s Henry V and John Keegan’s Illustrated Face of Battle, both of which I read back in High School, I know little about the conflict.

When I heard that Firelock Games was working on a new game called Blood & Crowns that covered this period, I did not list it as a “must buy”, however after seeing a draft of the rules and especially after my NoDiceNoGlory.com interview with Eric Hansen, the designer, I was hooked and now I have painted over 100 models to play this great game.

By Matty MacKenzie

It’s the dawn of a new era in warfare, weapon development, tactics, and clandestine operations are all the rage in the 1980’s. The Cold War is in full swing, the Russians have pushed into Europe.

Their first step is moving deeper into Europe via Eastern Germany. Encountering heavy resistance and Canadian forces, who are ready to push back against the onslaught of T-72 tanks, this is where the new NATO book from Battlefront’s Team Yankee picks up.

The book opens with a nicely laid-out index, that I believe has gotten better over the years and through the course of several games produced by Battlefront. Team Yankee NATO Forces gives each country an equal shake in this publication.

What you will find inside is a little over 150 pages of NATO formations from Canada, France, Netherlands, ANZAC forces, and finally, Belgians. Each one of them receives about thirty pages apiece for you to go through and pick from should you wish to field formations from the new NATO countries available.

by Mitch Reed

Like many of you, I am willing to try any historical game, whether it be a board game, miniatures, or video game. However, one type of gaming I have never tried is role-playing games.

The new game from Firelock Games called War Stories has gotten me to change my mind and take the plunge.  Lead designer Gabriel Garcia really got my attention for this World War Two-based RPG when we chatted in my interview with him on our podcast. Prior that that discussion, I did not believe that a topic as WWII would translate well in the RPG format.

However, the depth and breadth of War Stories really had me wondering why this has not been done before.

By Mitch Reed

I have been a fan of the COIN (Counter Insurgency) games for some time now and I was excited to be able to meet Steve Rangazas and play one of the games from his upcoming 4-pack, The British Way from GMT and should be shipping sometime later this year.

The game harkens back to the days of the old SPI Quad-Games series where you get four games in a single box. The British Way covers the insurgencies as the sunset of the British Empire and covers the conflicts in Malaya, Cyprus, Kenya, and Palestine.

By Mike Rafferty

The British Bulge book is finally out, which covers the British from post-Normandy Market Garden up to the end of the war. The book adds a lot of new features and army lists for the British and has a special significance for me. Welsh Guards Cromwells were the first army I actually built and painted fully. I still have this force and the Cromwell is my favourite-looking tank of the war, despite the obvious superiority of the Sherman. The new book adds Challengers, so I can finally play my Welsh Guards as intended with Cromwells and Challengers.

By Richard Steer

Bulge: British is the latest release for the Late-War era of Flames of War. This book covers the British, Canadian, and Polish forces in Western Europe from August 1944 through to the end of the war in Europe.

It’s a book that many of us have been looking forward to for a long time. The arrival of the Comet is a large part of that anticipation, but there are several infantry formations in the book that also deserve a close look.

Kangaroo Rifle Company

Bulge: British takes the standard Rifle Company from the previous books and upgrades it. The overall structure of the formation is identical to those earlier iterations, but the Company HQ and Rifle Platoons now have the option of including Ram Kangaroo transports.