“The Germans Strike Back” Introducing the German Bulge Book and V3 vs V4 Comparison

By Howard West

No Dice No Glory has received advance copies of the next force book for the V4 Flames of War(FOW) Bulge German Book from Battlefront Miniatures.

I was asked to do a comparison of the Flames of War V3 Ardennes Offensive vs the new V4 Bulge German Book. and at the same time introduce the new Bulge German Book to our Flames of War followers on NO Dice No Glory.

This will be the first of several articles that will be done by the NoDiceNoGlory Team. The next article will be about “The Big Cats”

When Battle Front announced the progression of new books for V4 FOW(Flames of War) some in our local gaming group were not happy that we would have to wait several years for the new Bulge Books. The Bulge American book arrived in November 2022 and now the Bulge German Book will soon arrive. In our gaming group, this had been a long-awaited book. But like good wine, sometimes it is worth the wait.

On the first examination, the German Bulge Book is laid out like the rest of the V4 Force books. Historical overview, high-level overall force structure, special rules for that book, formations and more formations, missions, painting guide, and product catalog for the items that you need to play formations in the books. But upon further review, you will find a lot of good stuff for any existing German player or a new German Player.

So for those of you that have been waiting to play V4 FOW because you could not play your German Bulge Army, start dusting off your old models and figures and get those old lists out and re-create them with this new book. If you are a new player this is a great place to start playing Germans in V4 FOW. If you want to have a list with Big Cat Tanks, you got them in this book. If you want to play a German Tank Spam list you got that in this book. If you have been waiting to use your Me-262 or your Sturm Tiger, yep get them dusted off or painted.

And who says it does not snow in June.

The Bulge German Book enables you to create German Army lists from the Normandy Breakout to the battles on the German Border, Market Garden, the Battles of the Bulge, and into February-March of 1945. The new book provides 14 new formations, plus additional formations via command cards. This new book is unique that it provides you with the ability to add models and figures to an existing German FOW Army and also allows you to use a lot of your existing German FOW Late War models and figures.

Bulge German Book Force Chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The approach I took for this review was to use the Table of Contents from the V3 Ardennes Offensive Book as my outline and write a short blurb on each of the formations that came with the V3 book and how you can create them in the V4 Bulge German Book. 

106 Panzer Brigade Feldherrnhalle and Panzer Brigades at Arracourt

During the summer and fall of 1944, the German army hurriedly raised 14 Panzer Brigades. The graphic below shows a high-level organization of one of those brigades.

In the new German Bulge Book, you will be able to create Panther and MKIV Tank companies and Armored and Non-Armored Panzer Grenadier companies that represent units in the new German Panzer Brigades. When you look at the Unit Cards for these formations you will notice the difference in the stats for the various units. Enclosed are two examples of these.

These units are not the Germans from Mid-War or Late War but have their version of quantity vs quality into FOW Late War. If you like playing Trained Americans or Soviets then this may be the German Army for you. Also in the new German Bulge Book, you have multiple command cards that can be used on the new Panzer Brigades, and below are two examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you built or played these new formations in V3, you can recreate them in V4 very easily.

Pipers Charge

In the new German Bulge book, you have 3 base formations that can be used to represent Pipers Charge. Below are the high-level views of those formations. Also via command cards, you can build an MKIV Tank Company and a Panzer Grenadier Company

He’s Back!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, the Piper Command Figure is back, so if you have this model from previous versions of FOW or you can build one with one of the new Plastic Panther G models. Piper is back and ready to lead the charge in the Bulge or any Late War FOW game.

In the V3 Ardennes Offensive Book in addition to the above formation, you could also build SS Kampfgruppen Hansen and Knittel. This is done in the new German Bulge book via the two command cards below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operation Griffen

Was the German plan of taking specially trained German units that lead the assault groups of the Sixth Panzer Army. Some of the units had been equipped with American Equipment. The parent formation of these specially trained troops was the 150th Panzerbrigade and can be built with the following cards:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m glad this formation is back. This is one of the lists that I played in FOW V3 and look forward to getting my Ersatz Panthers and Stugs back.

Also, any Bulge German Formation can use the following cards, that represent the smaller scout units that the 150th Panzerbrigade assigned across the front line before the Bulge Campaign started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions

The 2nd Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions play key roles in the Bulge campaign and are represented in the V4 Bulge German book as Veteran Units. They are similar to the Veteran German units from V4 D-Day German and V4 Bagration German. In the new book, you can build a Panther and an Armored Panzer Grenadier Company. I have enclosed the Force Charts for both of these. You can also build the following via command cards: Panzer MKIV Tank Company, STUG Tank Company, Panzergrenadier Company, and a Reconnaissance Kampfgruppe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuhrerbegleit and Fuhrergrenadier Brigrades

Can be created by using the Veteran Companies from the section above. Also, the Otto-Ernst Remer card is available to influence these companies.

Volksgrenadier Divisions

In the late summer and fall of 1944, the German Army began rebuilding and renaming infantry divisions as Volksgrenadier Divisions. The Volksgrenadier divisions were organized differently than their predecessors and were partially equipped with assault rifles and a large number of Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks. The force chart and unit cards for the Volksgrenadier are shown below.

You can also upgrade your Volksgrenadier’s to Veteran status via the command cards below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also add a Formation Warrior Card to the above formation to keep the newly raised troops motivated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th Fallschirmjager Division

In the V4 Bulge German book, a Fallschirmjager-specific formation is not in the new V4 Bulge German book. This surprises me since the key roles that several Fallschirmjager Units played in both Market Garden and the Bulge Campaigns.

So if you wanted to build a Fallschirmjager formation we can create a one via the 150th Panzerbrigade Command Card and purchase the infantry platoons and HQ unit since 150th Panzerbrigade uses the D-Day German Fearless Veteran Fallschirmjager units.

The 2nd way to build a Fallschirmjager formation would be to bring over a Fallschirmjager formation from the D-DAY German Book. Unfortunately, neither of these solutions gets you a Fallschirmjager formation equipped like the unit card below.

The card below is a Fallschirmjager unit in the command card set that can be purchased in several of the SS Formations.

Operation Nordwind

Operation Nordwind was the last offensive launched by the Germans on the Western Front.

25th and 17SS Panzer Grenadier Divisions were two of the major German units that took part in Operation Nordwind and can be recreated with the Veteran Grenadier Company and the SS Grenadier company previously discussed earlier in the review.

653 Schwere Panzer Jager Abeteilung

Yes, the biggest of the big cats is back with its own formation.

Gebirgsjager In The West

The last formation in the V3 The Ardennes Offensive is the Gebirgsjager Divisions that fought in the West at the end of the war. These can be recreated via command cards from Bagration German.

Support Options

The end of the new Bulge German Book has an extensive support section. I have included two of those options.

 

 

The new Bulge German Book also comes with a Mini-Campaign Game, updated painting guide, Bulge German product catalog, and a new starter set.

Author’s Personal Comment:

In V3 I played multiple formations out of the Ardennes Offensive and Bridge by Bridge books. During the writing of this review, I have come to realize that I will be able to recreate most of the formations that I had played in V3. So I can dig out several of my FOW boxes of Germans and get them ready for the new book.

If you have been waiting for playing your Big Cats they are back, if you want to play a lower quality but much larger German Army you have it now.

The new Bulge German Book brings you 14 new German formations before you start adding in a large number of command cards that enables you to build additional formations. Overall you get a lot of good stuff packed into this book.

Please leave comments below, I normally respond to them in a few days and try to incorporate your suggestions or ideas into future articles.

Stay tuned over the next several weeks as more articles come out on the new Bulge German Book on NoDiceNoGlory.

Mini-Campaign Game

Updated Painting Guide

New Product Catalog