Preview

by Tom Burgess

As Battlefront expands its Version 4 rules back to the battlefields of the Great War, Germany still remains the only representative of the Central Powers in the new lists. Though not as well equipped with tanks and armored cars as many of the Allies in the book, the German lists offer some interesting options for both previous and new German players.

The two lists options in Version 3’s Great War for the Germans has now been expanded to four list types in Version 4. These are the Infanteriekompanie, the Stosskompanie, the Jägerkompanie, and the Siegfriedstellung. The fist two of these will be familiar to previous German Great War players.  The Jägerkompanie is an elite “light” infantry unit while Siegfriedstellung is more of an economy of force unit used to hold defensive positions.

By Mitch Reed

Photos by Author and Image Studios

Note: The author is reviewing an early beta-test of the game and works on the development team for Heart of Leviathan.

You have seen the teases on Facebook and have wondered what this new game is all about. I was lucky enough to have Image Studios send me a beta copy of the game to playtest for the next few weeks. Walter Vail who runs was gracious enough to let me spoil some of the game for you.

I have been working with Walter on the rules for a while now, I love playing with Dreadnoughts, I have a ton of ships in the 1/2400 scale and have worked on some homebrew rules to play with my massive fleets.

We are live at Fall-In in Lancaster PA. In this episode Ed, Matt Varnish and Mitch take a break from the Iron Man event to talk about the two new books that expand German and Soviet forces in the east.

The folks from have yet another new release that many of us have been waiting for. A few years ago, we saw the first venture into the Arab-Israeli conflict with the original Fate of a Nation book which focused on the 1967 war, now in 2018 we revisit the strife-torn region and expand the conflict beyond the Six-Day War.

While I know many folks who loved the models with the original release, I knew few gamers who seriously played it. A lot of people wanted to see the 1973 conflict, or felt the game was limited to great Israeli tanks against hordes of Arab tanks.

No matter what the rationale for avoiding the game before, the second iteration of Fate of a Nation has a lot of things that you will enjoy and it may be worth a second look. This article will not delve into each list and nation in the book. My more talented compatriots will do that over the next week or two. So, consider this a quick look at this book.

While the membership NATO has grown since 1985 (15 members to 29 today) the mission and role of the alliance is just as relevant today as it was when first formed in 1949. So far has given us the forces of the major nations of the alliance and now it is time for the smaller nations to enter in the game. While these nation’s may have smaller and less well-equipped armies than the major players, their commitment to NATO should not be overlooked. They do play a major role supporting NATO’s mission.

Next month Battlefront will release the book ‘Nam, which covers the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1972. This book is a significant release for many reasons; it not only covers previous titles that covered the conflict; it also ushers in what will be a standard rules set for all Battlefront games and expands the forces that you can play with. While the Vietnam period may not be your thing (this will change) it shows us the way ahead for future releases and how they will link with one another. This book was released in a partnership with Osprey Press and this collaboration will also be behind the upcoming re-releases of Fate of a Nation and The Great War.

In this episode, Mitch and Sean speak with Jon Russel who is the US events coordinator for Warlord Games. We talk about what is in store for us for Bolt Action, Black Power, Konflikt ’47, Gates of Antares, Blood Red Skies Pike and Shotte, and Doctor Who. Jon spoils a new WWII game they are working on and talks with the guys about all things Warlord.

Great spoilers like Bolt Action for Korea and the Great War,  and a new game that covers WWII naval action in the Solomon Islands.

In our second podcast we review and spoil the new Flames of War book Avanti which brings the Italians into the Mid-War fold.