V4

By Richard Steer

Every year, our wargaming club in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, runs a one-day tournament for club members at the final meeting of the year. Named Remember December, this event commemorates club member Nick Garden, who passed away in 2015. The 2025 edition of the event was held on 13 December, playing Flames of War.

Remember December often has a themed format or unusual list restrictions, and this year was no exception, The format used was 55-points Late War, with infantry formations only. In addition, your force could not include more than one tank unit, a maximum of four vehicles, and a maximum Front Armor of 7. Three 1.5-hour rounds were to be played using the Extended Battle Plans mission selector, and each player had to use each stance once during the event.

By Tom Gall

We’ve all been patiently waiting for early war to make the return to Flames of War, time to feast your eyes on the French part of release for version 4.  Unfortunately when Germany turned their focus west in May of 1940, a brief few weeks and the French would be knocked out of the war, which as a result means this is a faction for early war only.

Why Play French?

I first started playing French during the earlier release of Blitzkrieg for Flames of War version 2 back in late 2010. What drew me was the desperate struggle of one of the largest militaries at the start of WWII, on the defensive against the German onslaught, putting up the good fight that would ultimately not go their way due to a whole host of tactical reasons. The French are plucky, unique and offer up unit selections that can work for offensive and defensive stances.

No matter if you’re an old hand or a new to Flames of War, the French as a faction in Early War brings good tanks, reasonable infantry, and good artillery that can win you games.  In this article we will crawl through just the French part of the release, note their strengths and point out their weaknesses too. They might be just the force for you.

By Richard Steer

The Early-War era has returned to Flames of War. 2026 and 2027 will see the release of three books covering the period from 1939 to 1941 for the 4th Edition of the rules. The first book in the series is Blitzkrieg, covering the French, German, and British forces involved in the German invasion of France in May and June 1940.

The British list in Blitzkreig represents the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium. It covers those units present from the start of the invasion, through the evacuation from Dunkirk, and those still fighting after Dunkirk.

By Richard Steer

Just in time for Christmas, Battlefront’s gift to Flames of War players was the finalization of the first round of Dynamic Points for Late-War.

What Is Dynamic Points?

Dynamic Points is a free update that adjusts the cost of units in existing force books for Flames of War 4th Edition. If you are playing a game using Dynamic Points, you treat any units in the update as costing what they are listed there, while any units not in the update continue to use the points given in the published books.

For each round of Dynamic Points, usually published annually, Battlefront focuses on a small number of specific areas where they see problems with the balance of a game. For the Late-War era of Flames of War in 2026, this focus is increasing the price of light armor and reducing the price of medium armor. Other areas that players have been asking to be addressed, such as the cost of Save 4+ Soviet infantry, have not been touched.

Battlefront initially published a draft set of changes in November, seeking feedback from the community. They have now considered that feedback, and the changes have been locked in for 2026, including being added to the Forces of War list building tool.

Let’s take a look through some of the things that have changed, and how they might impact the game over the coming year.

By Richard Steer

The next Late-War compilation for Flames of War is about to be released. Operation Bagration consolidates the previous Soviet, German, and Axis-Allies books for 1944 on the Eastern Front into a single volume.

It is now five years since the first of those books, Bagration: Soviet, was published. It’s fair to say that there haven’t been any earth-shattering updates to the Soviet lists. However, Battlefront has taken the opportunity to update the Soviets to include a few products that they have released in the intervening years, and it’s worth taking a closer look at those changes.

By Tom Gall

Battlefront’s The Pacific will soon be in the hands of many a Flames of War player, but before it arrives in your hands NoDiceNoGlory has a series of articles to highlight the many treasures found in this book.  In this first article let’s take a speed through the various bits and circle back in following articles to look at the details.

The Pacific covers the Asian theatre of World War II during 1942-1943 for version 4 of Flames of War. The last time Flames of War players saw source materials for this part of the way was during Version 3 with Gung Ho, and Banzai.

Additionally for Early War there was Rising Sun. Back then the books were organized with usually a single nation in one book, like Japanese in Banzai, and the US Marine Corps (USMC) in Gung Ho.

By Richard Steer

“Why aren’t more people choosing the Manoeuvre stance?”

I asked this question of my friend Bede after a day spent running a Late-War Soviet Forward Detachment at a recent Flames of War tournament. In several games, I had attacked Berlin: German armored forces with combinations of StuGs, Hetzers, Panthers, and Panzer IV/70s. Every player I faced had also chosen to attack, with that combination in the Battle Plans mission selector leading to our games being meeting engagements.

I can see the attraction of the Attack stance. It leads to faster and simpler missions, and you usually don’t have Reserves so you get all your toys on the table. However, I was thinking about the advantages the German forces had over my Soviets: Careful Veteran skill, high front armor, and good anti-tank weapons, and whether the Attack stance was making the most of those.

By choosing to attack, the German players had been forced to advance to take objectives, reducing their Rate of Fire, bringing their tanks towards the anti-tank weapons of my infantry, and allowing my Shermans and SU-76s to get into their side armor.

By Richard Steer

Every year, the Hutt Miniature Wargames Club hosts the ValleyCon wargaming event in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. 2024 was the club’s 25th anniversary, and fittingly, ValleyCon 2024 was its biggest event yet. 170 gamers came together from across New Zealand to spend two days playing in tournaments for eight gaming systems.

I played in the Flames of War tournament, which had 20 players with 98-point Mid-War lists using Dynamic Points in five 2.5-hour rounds. I try to bring a new army to each ValleyCon, and 2024 was the year that I finally built a British ‘Death or Glory’ Armoured Squadron.

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.”