V4

By Tom Burgess

The new Bulge American Book gives us a new take on US Rifles in Version 4 Flames of War.  This new list represent the forces that had been heavily engaged in combat throughout much of 1944. These units had been relocated to the “quiet” Ardennes area for a chance to rest and recuperate. They had no idea that they were about to be at the front facing off against Hitler’s last major offensive to try to turn back the tide in the west.

Expecting easy duty, but ending up in the most intense sector, combined with the higher HQ confusion about what was going on, negatively affected these troops’ enthusiasm for the renewed battle against the German divisions. Thus the 2^nd, 4^th, and 28^th Divisions have been offered in Bulge American as examples of “Battle Weary” units.

By Tom Gall

The tide of Late War books for Flames of War continues with the Bulge American book by Battlefront. This pushes American lists further into 1944-1945 offering American players lots of good options. In this article we’re going to focus on Tank oriented lists contained in the book and command cards. By this I mean lists where the core units (ie black box) are armored.

List wise, the book and command cards introduce the following tank formations.

1. Veteran M4 Sherman (Late)
2. Veteran M24 Chaffee
3. M4 Sherman (Late)
4. M24 Chaffee
5. M18 Tank Destroyer
6. M36 Tank Destroyer
7. M24 Chaffee Cavalry – Command card
8. M5 Stuart Cavalry – Command card
9. Cavalry Recon – Command card

By James Copland

Mid-War Romanians are coming, soon! (October maybe) I will frame this review/preview with this nugget of knowledge. Bring more MGs to all your list building. Did you add and MG Platoon? Ok, now add another one. I have friends who will smile and friends who will shudder at this statement, but Romanians are going to be a terror in MW Flames of War. So sit back, relax, as best you can while I show you how this force is a better elite army than Germany or Brits… a better spam force than the Soviets or Italians/Americans and superior to their fellow MW Axis Minors.

By Richard Steer

provides Late-War German forces in with a wealth of list building options, including a wide variety of artillery units. Following on from last month’s article , it makes sense to subject the other side the same scrutiny.

To recap, the analysis a model that simulates each dice roll in the scenario being tested to find an outcome, then repeats that simulation thousands of times in order to find the likelihood of each particular outcome occurring. The targets are dug in Careful infantry teams, with five teams under the Artillery Template, or nine teams under a Salvo Template. The other assumptions are that the Spotting Team is the Formation Commander, and a +1 penalty is added for Ranging In on terrain.

By Richard Steer

Soviet artillery is quoted as being “the god of war”, so it is no surprise that there is a large array of artillery choices available in the  book for Flames of War. Being so spoiled for choice leaves players with some difficult list-building decisions. Mortars or guns? One big battery or two smaller ones? Which of the 8pt units is the best? Is Soviet artillery even worth spending any points on in the first place?

To test this, I built a model that simulates each dice roll in the scenario being tested to find an outcome, then repeats that simulation thousands of times in order to find the likelihood of each particular outcome occurring. The targets are dug in Careful infantry teams, with five teams under the Artillery Template, or nine teams under a Salvo Template. The other assumptions are that the Spotting Team is the Formation Commander, and a +1 penalty is added for Ranging In on terrain.

It is important to remember that dice can do strange thing, and the numbers may not line up with your experience. There are always going to be patches of good or bad luck, or that one in a thousand chance which could occur in a game, but knowing the most likely outcome does help you have realistic expectations that can assist with your planning for the game.

By Richard Steer

Panzerschreck is an annual Flames of War tournament in New Zealand, hosted by the Manawatu Duellists club in the city of Palmerston North. It has the honor of being the longest-running FOW event on the NZ wargaming calendar, having first been held in 2001 when the game was still in open beta.

The format of the 2021 tournament was 160pt Late War doubles, with 2.5 hour rounds played on 8’x4′ tables. Teams were required to field a valid force with a minimum of one formation per player, with the points able to be split between players however they wanted.

By Richard Steer

It’s been a long wait, but the Finns will soon be returning to  with the release in June of a 26-page booklet that allows them to be played in the Mid War era.

The Finnish Mid War list has three Formations: an Armoured Company, an Infantry Company, and a Light Infantry Company. The troops are all rated as Careful, Fearless Trained. All of the infantry units have the Hunters rule, which allows them to Cross-country Dash through snow, woods, and forests, and units in the Armoured Company and Light Infantry Company have the Crafty rule, giving them Tactics 3+.

By Tom Burgess

Motivation to finish models when you are facing a huge backlog of miniatures can be daunting. It has been for me over the years and I had to come up with a system to keep ahead of all the new stuff I was buying. I do buy a lot of kit from Battlefront each year.

Even before the COVID impact on 2020, I resolved to complete 365 teams from my huge backlog of Flames of War, Team Yankee, and ‘Nam boxes. As a means to motivate myself to chew through that backlog, years ago I started keeping a log and posting it on the WWPD and then the No Dice No Glory forums when I finished models. It always felt good to post pictures of what I had completed and to mark them done on my tracking spreadsheet.

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.