Preview

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 Mitch Reed

I was honored to help the team at Battlefront write the initial Polish list for Team Yankee. The new Polish lists in Warsaw Pact forces make the force (that I love to play) even better. While not blessed with tons of new kit, the update is one that fellow Polish players will really enjoy.

By Richard Steer

The North African campaign has always been the theatre of World War II that I have been most interested in, and specifically the British perspective of the conflict. This interest carried over into , with British forces in the Mediterranean has been my primary focus in the game.

To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with the first releases for FOW V4. Desert Rats and felt very lightweight compared to the previous lists for the African Campaign that we had been playing with, being the original North Africa compilation from 2009. That’s not to say that the V4 lists were bad. On the contrary, with the exception of the 17/25pdr anti-tank gun, Desert Rats was a reasonably historical representation of the most common British armored formations in Egypt and Libya in the middle of 1942. The British lists from Desert Rats were later expanded and re-released as Armoured Fist, which filled in many of the gaps, but the fact remained that the army lists had taken a step backward in detail and completeness under V4.

By Tom Burgess

Bagration Axis-Allies, along with the Finns and Hungarians, brings the Romanians to Late War for Flames of War V4. As a wargamer who always prefers Red vs. Blue match-ups, the fact that the Romains fought for then against the Axis in World War 2 makes them very appealing to me.  The Romans lists are solid  with a lot of decent options. The Romanians seem to combine some of the best aspects of axis and allied armies into a force that can fight on either side.

Bagration Axis-Allies gives us three tank and one infantry formation to choose from. These are expanded by command cards options with an additional Pioneer, Cavalry Squadron, Mountain Rifle Company, and T-38 Tank Company formations. We end up with far more options and variations then we ever had from Version 3 for the Romanians.

By Mitch Reed

Hungarians recently were added to the late-war period with the release of the book for Following the Finnish we now have the Hungarians making an appearance for the mid-war period. The new expansion comes in a 36-page booklet and gives you a lot of options if you want to field a Hungarian MW force.

By Mitch Reed

The Germans are no longer going at it alone for late war with the addition of the Bagration Axis-Allies book that brings the Hungarians, Romanians and the Finns into . Many gamers have been eagerly awaiting these forces to come back into the game and now their wait is over with new book that contains three of the most important allies that Germany had in the Second World War.

By Mitch Reed

For those of you who back with me to the WWPD days you should be aware that my first NATO army for was the West German forces from the Leopard book. I dove into building a West German list for a few reasons, I thought it would be a force with a low model count, the Leo 2 was a baller tank and they looked fun to play. Since I collected this force, I have built a lot of other NATO forces and my FRG troops did not get the table time they once did. I wonder if the new units in the new WWIII West German book will change this trend.

by David Garvin

Sometime back in the mid 1980s, I went to my friend Stephen’s house for the weekend. He was one of the first people who had a personal computer. On it he had a game called War in Russia. It covered the Eastern Front in its entirety, and between the two of us, we spent hours on it, using its now quite-dated graphics. We were not strangers to games on this level; however, the designer, Gary Grigsby, found a way to have the battles resolved down to the lowest levels.

By Mitch Reed

When I first heard about this game being ported to a digital format, I was excited and also worried on how some ports from board games turn out. After bugging Dave Thompson for a preview copy, I got the chance to check it out, and it is amazing and will make you salivate to play over and over again.

By Doc Wohlrab

You want to play do you? No, not that one that involves a gamepad or mouse and keyboard, the other one. Yeah, this one! That’s what I and four others did one afternoon.