Building the British Airborne - Part 1

Chapter 1 - July 2016

"I'm awfully sorry, but I'm afraid we will need to occupy your house" - Col John Frost - A Bridge too Far

"This is....Everything, 2 .30 cal machine guns, 11 Hawkins Mines, 17 grenades, two bazookas but we only got 8 rounds left, and assorted small arms.  We had a 60mm mortar, but an arty round took it out.  Might as well be spit wads if we run into some tanks." - Saving Private Ryan

I've always been fascinated by the British Airborne's campaign during Operation Market Garden.  The ambition of it, the audacity, the courageousness it took to hang on that long.  All the books I've read, documentaries I've watched, have made it a life's goal to visit the sites in Holland and see it some day.  And I know it is a relatively competitive force in Flames of War. So I went about collecting it all. But I didn't want to start assembling it or painting it before I was ready to do it justice.

So to paraphrase the quote above....here is everything....

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Team Yankee British vs Soviet Dust-Up

The first test of my new British Team Yankee forces against the Soviet menace was a blood bath. My force consisted of 3 formations and 14 platoons! This wacky force had 7 Chieftains, Swingfire, Mech Platoons, Mortar platoon, Scimitars, Scorpions, Milans all over the place. The Soviets had two large BMP companies, T-72s, Artillery, ZSU, and Recon BMPs.

The Brits held off the Tanks and deployed all the Mech, Mortar, Milan, and Guided Weapons platoon in the defense. The Soviets kept a BMP/ Mech Company, Arty and T-72s in defense. Their attacking force was Recon, ZSU, and a BMP mech company. Neither side took air I think both of use realize its so easily counted by much cheaper AAA vehicles and missiles.

This is the British Objective marker burnt out house.

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Iron Maiden the Last Wave and a Freebie!

In this article - the last of three that are focused on the new releases coming out for Iron Maiden - we have a bit of surprise for you.  The folks at Battlefront are releasing a new mini version of the Team Yankee rules in the new Charlie’s Chieftain boxset deal.   The mini rules are 90 pages and cover everything except the data on the forces of the game.  I like this move since you will get the info on the forces either from the books or the cards when you buy the models.   I am guessing here, but Battlefront sent me a picture of the sticker that announces that a particular box has the mini rules, so maybe we will see the mini book in other releases and maybe re-releases of the three previous box sets.  I have some snaps of the new mini rules at the end of this article.

I also said in my second article of this series that I will provide you pictures of the sprues for some of the plastic models.  I finally got my hands on the Scorpion/Scimitar and Spartan/Striker. It looks like unless you find a smart way to make it work with magic or magnets, you will not be able to do swap outs between the two different versions for either model.  Maybe the gun on Scorpion/Scimitar can be magnetized, however the Spartan/Striker looks like it will take more creativity since the rear of the model is so different.  I will be doing the unboxing articles in the future and I will see what can be done to give you some flexibility.

Scorpion-Scimitar-sprue

Spartan-Striker-sprue

On to the new stuff.   This article will detail the resin and metal releases that are coming out with Iron Maiden. Much like the metal and resin of Leopard, we are looking at infantry and support vehicles.

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Preview: The Forces of Iron Maiden: Tommy’s Not Tanks

Now that you have seen the spoiler and the cards for Iron Maiden, the next step is to give you an idea of the formations the book offers you. Let me go back to my first impression of Iron Maiden: “Wow”. Yes, the book shocked me. I saw right away how different the British would be as compared to the other three nationalities in the game. I got the advanced copy of the book before Throck, and I left for the Guns of August Tournament in Williamsburg VA. I told him I saw the book and he asked for my thoughts. I can recall saying “it’s different” and “if you like infantry, this book is for you”. I loved the fact the first lists - and especially Leopard  -featured the tank as the main weapon. Who doesn’t like tank fights? However, with the release of IM, I see how the developers expanded the scope of the game and put a tool in the game's tool box that you will love to play or hate to play against.

On to the Book
While Leopard had 3 formations to choose from, Iron Maiden has 4 types of formations: Tank, Mechanized Infantry, Air Mobile, and Recce. After reading the book a few times, I would say it would be hard to argue against the fact that the strength of the British in Team Yankee is their infantry.  This article will detail the infantry-based lists from Iron Maiden.

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Iron Maiden, Release Preview Two

Last week we gave you a look at the Chieftain, Lynx and the Charlie's Chieftain army deal, This week, we will look at the plastic models that will come out in the second batch of releases. We have some vehicles that you will just love and use quite a bit since they will carry around your infantry, shoot missiles at planes and tanks, or scout. So far, I have been very impressed with the quality of the plastic models for Team Yankee, especially the Leopard IIs and the Marders from the Leopard release. I have a feeling I will have a stack of these boxes on my painting table since each box set can be built into two different types of types. We are lucky that the British used some of the same chassis and hulls on different vehicles or we would be looking at a ton of different box sets coming out. Since I have yet to see the sprues for these models, I do not know if you can do some magnet magic and swap out the tops of the vehicles as you can do with the BMP box set. Once I get those pictures, I promise to tell you if that is possible. No matter what, the models look great and they look relatively easy to paint which is nice.

The first box set is the Spartan or Striker troop.  The Spartan makes an appearance in the Mechanized Company armed with the Milan missile, or they can bought from Divisional support where they cover your forces as mobile Blowpipe teams.  The Spartan is in your Recce Company, you have a slick version which acts as your command vehicle or can carry around some infantry.

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Team Yankee: The British Army of the Rhine in Iron Maiden

The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) has its roots in the British forces that occupied Germany at the end of World War Two. Initially made up  of the units from Field Marshall Montgomery’s 21st Army Group, these units found themselves busy in rebuilding post war Germany and preventing the westward expansion of the Soviet army.  When the occupation of Germany changed to the front line of the new Cold War, Great Britain, a founding member of the NATO alliance pledged forces for the defense of Western Europe and the BAOR was stood up as the administrative command for these forces.

The BAOR commander was dual hatted, and not only served as Royal Army’s senior officer in Germany, but also as commander of NORTHAG, or the Northern Army Group which consisted of the 1st British Corps, III US Corps, Dutch and Belgium Corps, 1st German Corps, and depending on the year some French forces as well. The territory that NORTHAG was responsible for was the area north of the Harz Mountains to the Elbe River near Hamburg. This area is well known as the North German Plain and factored in many battle plans drawn up by both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Many felt that the flat farmland in this part of Germany would be a great axis of advance for an army.  While this fact is true, it is also the widest part of what was West Germany and it is dotted with rivers and towns that also form natural defensive barriers. No matter the suitability of the terrain, the British and the Warsaw Pact forces would have had a bloody fight if WWIII ever kicked off.
The BAOR was made up of forces that were stationed in Germany permanently such as the 1st, 3rd and 4th Armored Divisions, and the 2nd Infantry Division that was based back in the United Kingdom. In the event of a conflict, the 1st and 4th ADs would meet the Soviet attack at the frontier, with the 3rdAD held in reserve. Once the 2nd ID arrived from the UK it would be used as a reserve force and to provide rear area security.  The other major British force in Germany was the “Berlin Brigade” which was not a part of the BAOR and was based in West Berlin.

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Going Deep; Building a Commonwealth Lists from the Bulge

By Mitch Reed

With the addition of the Commonwealth in Battlefront's upcoming Battle of the Bulge  I wanted to take a deeper look at the lists provided in the book and select two that I may play in a Bulge themed tournament.  My first army in Flames of War was the Canadians, I even painted them with the “greener” battledress and when I expanded my collection to play other commonwealth lists I made the choice to but new figures and paint their battledress brown, so I guess you can say I am dedicated.  This expanded even further when I collected an entire airborne army, and even more when built and painted an entire force just for the Mediterranean in Mid-War.  I must have about 15 Churchill tanks, and even more Cromwell’s and I always look for great lists in which to get these forces on the table.
For this article I plan to use a 1500 point total, and only select forces in which I have models.  I will try to pick a list that is both fun to play and somewhat competitive.  I know a lot of folks feel there is a “science” into picking a list, perhaps there is, however I am going to pick something I would bring to the table, not necessarily for a tournament.

7th Armoured Division: The Desert Rats

I have played the Desert Rats in the past; I liked the Reluctant/Veteran list from the Overlord book.  In this list you can put a ton of Cromwell’s on the table and with the “Cautions not Stupid” rule I was able to overcome the low motivation rating at certain times.
This is a pricey list, especially with what I plan to take.

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Preview: Commonwealth forces in the Battle of the Bulge Book

By Mitch Reed

History is usually biased by the nationality of the writer, which is why many Americans do not realize that the British participated in the Battle of the Bulge. After the Allies recovered from the shock of the attack, General Eisenhower gave Field Marshall Montgomery temporary command of all forces north of the German thrust.   To be fair Monty did not do a bad job and held the Germans on his end of the salient.  Problems did arise after the battle where Monty, true to form, took credit for winning the battle.  These claims did not endear the Field Marshall with his American boss and made their relationship deteriorate further.

The developers of Battlefront did their research when creating the new Battle of the Bulge book and much to my pleasure included the forces under Monty that took part in the battle.  I have been playing with Commonwealth lists since I first started playing this game and I am always looking for new lists in which I can use my huge collection of Cromwell tanks in.

The Lucky 7th
I was not disappointed in what the Battle of the Bulge (BoB) had in store for me; the Desert Rats yet again make an appearance in the game.  The last time we saw these guys was in the Overlord book and they were Reluctant/Veteran; however a few months later in the war BoB lets us play them as Confident Veterans.  I like the fact that you can have two Cromwell’s and two Firefly’s in a platoon for 435 points.  You can even upgrade the Firefly’s to Challengers for 20 points each.  Yes it’s pricey, but at 475 points you have a very strong platoon.  Personally I would go for the 3 Cromwell with one Challenger option at 425 points.  It takes some getting used to playing with fast tanks, however a lists that can field a lot Crowell’s is always fun. This list also lets you field Commandos which are sometimes a great option to have.  Other than the commando platoon the list is the standard British lists we have seen before.

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Battle Report - 11th Armored Division Vs. German Grenadiers (Market Garden Campaign Game)

Up here in Danbury Connecticut, where my local club is located, we are in the midst of a Firestorm Market Garden Campaign.  So Far, the Germans are kicking butt and taking names...and as the overall Allied Commander, I'm doing my best to reverse our flagging fortunes.

Through 2 Campaign Turns, our situation is becoming desperate.  Eindhoven isn't taken yet, and this map below shows the battles marking the end of the 2nd Full Campaign Turn.

My Friend Shane was good enough to come over to my place and give me a game. We rolled off for attacker and defender, and he won, electing to attack the Fabled Groesbeek heights.  Not having any american airborne, there was some proxying going on.  I am also, embarrassingly low on Jagdpanthers so when you see a stuG...that's what those are.

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Well Isn’t that Special; Examining the Special Rules in Flames of War pt 1

By Mitch Reed

*Mitch and I were discussing this article and he asked that I look over it and add my "two cents" since this is also something I feel strongly about.  Anywhere you see italics is where I have entered my thoughts and please be aware that they do not always agree with Mitch.  Thanks - Luke

The fallout of my recent article on “Meta” got me re-thinking about some of the special rules in Flames of War.  Do these rules fit the nationality they represent and are they balanced?   So here we go, once more into the breach and stirring up a possible hornet's nest.  Since I have only been playing the game for the last four years my knowledge is limited to what has been published within the context of the 3rd Edition of the rules, so I do not have a lot of the historical context of how these rules evolved as the game grew.  What I have seen during my period with the game is how each new book seems to expand these special rules and it seems almost every major unique unit has its own special rules in addition to the special rules afforded to them due to their nationality.

I will not break down the merits of every single special rule since the game has so many, however I will say that the special rules  and the fact there are so many of them does impact the game a great deal, perhaps even more than actual weapons values and platoon point cost.

The reasons we get into this game are much different than why we keep playing so I will start off with how we pick that first army.  In my case I wanted to field a Canadian force because of my pure interest in Canadian history during the two world wars.  Being a lover of history I had a basic knowledge of the arms and force composition of the Canucks in WWII; so I knew my force would have Shermans, 25-Pdr guns, and of course infantry.  When collecting and painting this force if someone said “hey they get the Woodsman special rule” I would not have known what they were talking about.  So I think we all can agree that selecting that first force is based more on interest and passion more than anything else. 

My First Force, the Canucks

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Flames of War- Game Vault 1500 Mid-War Tournament Recap

by Eric "Tarzan" Lauterbach

Some days you just get lucky as a tournament organizer - this was one of those days. First we had an even amount of players, then we had equal amounts of Axis and Allied armies with no effort at all. So with those two things happening before we got started it was shaping up to be a easy day for me.

The tournament was a local Virginia, DC, and Maryland player affair at the Game Vault in Fredericksburg.  The store owner had set the theme as open mid-war armies 1500 points. Missions played were one each of the three basic randomly selected by the players at the table. We had Soviets, Brits, US, Germans, and a Hungarian player so the mix of armies was pretty good.

The allies started out strong but the Germans were on the offensive this day!

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Cold Wars Doubles Mid War 1942 Tournament

 By Eric Lauterbach

Cold Wars has come and gone and it was another great one. Once again I ran the I95 Flames of War Doubles Tournament on Friday, and this years Cold Wars theme was 1942 armies. The rules were you could use any equipment in the Mid-War lists but if you wanted 3 extra points to your finial battle score you must have equipment that was in the field in 1942, no 1943 equipment at all. So a little research had to be done to make sure your army was compliant to get the points and three points is a big deal. For my part as the TO, it was pretty obvious if the army was 1942 compliant but I did have to check a few things.  I learned StuH42s did see the field in 42' as 11 of the earlier versions were retrofitted and sent to the front as a test. So hey - I even gained some knowledge! The rest of the doubles rules were 1000 points swing 200 to either play and you may not have two of the same type companies. Tank/Tank or Infantry/Infantry would be illegal.

 I could tell it was going to be one of those days when the players were coming up with these team names.

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Williamsburg Muster....Always a good time!

 By Eric Lauterbach

Muster! and so should you! If you're not going to the Williamsburg conventions and you live within a couple hours drive you are wrong. The gaming is non-stop late into the night and the tournaments are always a good friendly affair.  So if you are new to the tournament scene this is the place to get your feet wet. This year we did a Mid-War 1500 point tournament.

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Hiding In Plain Sight: Camouflage and Color in WWII

Since the beginning of time, man has tried to disguise himself and his intentions on the battlefield. Whether it be a Trojan Horse or covering vehicles and installations to hide from aerial reconnaissance, other armies and it's troops; camouflage has played an important part of warfare.

This Tiger may need a little more to help hide it......what do you think?

As with everything else, the art of hiding a tank while also trying to use it as a tool of war is a careful balance of planning and color. We take for granted that many of the period pictures from WW2 are in black & white. It's easy to forget or even difficult to discover what colors were actually used during this period to cover the bare metal and primer that was used during this time.

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Preview :Battlefront's Great War Additions: Part 1 The French and British

 By Mitch Reed

It is no secret to many that the Great War is a subject I am fascinated with.  I have written a few articles in the past not only about gaming the Great War in general, but also about Battlefront’s summer 2014 release of their new Great War line.  In the months since this release I was able to get on Battlefront’s development team for the next wave that that will expand the Great War line. I was excited to work on this project with Wayne Turner and feel the final product will appeal to not only Great War fans, but other Flames of War players who have yet to discover how great this period is play.

I want to first explain that the upcoming release is not so much of an expansion as much it is a re-boot of the game.  The new booklet which is about 77 pages not only introduces the French and Americans into the fight; it also contains all of the rules and lists that came out in 2014.  The new book also has a full painting guide for all the forces found in the game as well as a new mission and adaptations of current missions used in the WWII version of the game.  So this one volume will cover all of the Great War line that has been released by Battlefront.

What is new?
The two new nations that are being introduced is something I am sure most people are excited about.  The French and the Americans make their appearance in the game and complete the list of the major combatants found in France during 1918.  Both of these nations, much like the British and Germans before, has a distinctive flair that makes playing them a unique experience.

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Chain of Command: Russian Civil War Allied Intervention.

 By Eric Lauterbach

When you belong to group of gamers that have been around a while there is not much you can't do.

So when the call went out for who has stuff that would work for Russian Civil War a surprising amount of crap was available in the I95 Gamers inventory.

To make it even more silly we went with the Allied Intervention into Northern Russia around Arkhangelsk.

If you are not familiar with that fiasco here you go. We adapted the recent Too fat Lardies release of a WWI variant for Chain of Command.  

We had a combined French and British force holding a village from a Red Russian force.

 Reds on table! I forgot to take pics of the patrol phase..doh!

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Patton's Dream, Independence Day Tank Fest

By Mitch Reed, With Jay Mischo 
Photos By Greg Cilia

A while back I wrote an article about playing historical based scenarios with a gaming group here in Northern Virginia.  While work has kept me away from playing on Friday afternoons, I was able to take advantage of the day off prior to July 4th and join these guys for yet another great game.

In my absence I did read the many emails prior to each weeks game; battlefields such as the snowy steppes of Russia to the arid desert of North Africa were some of the many scenarios that were recreated for the group that assembles at the Game Parlor in Chantilly VA at noon every Friday.  While I am sorry I missed these great games, the holiday weekend had a great topic ready for me to play; a "what-if" scenario between the victorious Allies vs. the Soviets in the months following the end of the war in Europe.

The players were instructed to bring 2000 points from any late war American, British, or Soviet briefing. With the Berlin book not yet out, the Soviet forces were taken from Desperate Measures and Red Bear, while the Remagen and Nachtjager books made up the bulk of the allied lists.  The allied players were allowed to use a limited number of German units that would represent the Germans who would carry on the fight with the Soviets after the surrender of Germany.

Having picked up way to many Comet's over the last few months, my list was the Armoured Squadron from Nachtjager.

From Forces at War

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Attack of the Cavalry Brigade! Sword and the Flame Battle in the Sudan.

 By Eric Lauterbach

Sword and the Flame Colonial Battles in the Sudan! One of my all time favorites and something we hardly play any more. Bob Rossi has so much Cavalry its ridiculous, so we designed a scenario around it.  The Cavalry Brigade has been sent forward to secure a vital village with water for the advancing army. Time is of the essence it must be seized before the Mahdist can destroy the wells. In true charge of the Light Brigade fashion the Commander moved out front and prepared to charge the position. The Mahdi's warriors not fearing death were ready for the infidels. They had a cannon hidden ready to give them a surprise!

The Brigade forms up for the attack.

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Review of Nachjager (Digital)

By Mitch Reed

When I did my first article on Nachtjager I promised you a review of the digital only content after it was released. In two’s and three’s over a six week period, the digital only lists for Nachtjager appeared on Forces of War (Forces) and Flames of War Digital (FOW-D) and I checked them out as the dropped.

Billed as a release of 14 lists, the total really comes to 16, since you can field two types (veteran or ersatz) Fallshirmjäger or (British or Canadian) Parachute companies.

The lists:

• German Grenadierkompanie
• German Ausbuldungskompanie
• German Fallshirmjägerkompanie (Veteran and Ersatz)
• British Commando
• British SAS Squadron
• British Motor Company
• British Lorried Rifle Company
• U.S. Parachute Rifle Company
• U.S. Glider Rifle Company
• British Airborne Armoured Recce Squadron
• British Parachute Company (British and Canadian)
• British Airlanding Company
• British Armoured Car Squadron
• British Guards Tank Squadron

 This is an impressive list, even more so when you realize that the Nachtjager book only had six lists.

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Operation EPSOM, Codename HANGOVER Mega Scenario Game! Pt I

Eric and I had the good fortune to play an amazing scenario setup by Tony in his wonderful game room! In Part one of the battle report, I will post Tony's writeup of the scenariom while part two will be my battle report!

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by Tony Jacoby
My friend Dan and I hosted Steve and his bud Eric to the kind of large scale scenario game that we like to play, usually based on a historic battle.  Games like this take much more planning and preparation (and collecting!) than ordinary pickup or tournament style games, but I think the extra effort and the team play make for a better experience and take FoW to another level.  The lack of a ground scale in the game design requires some telescoping of the terrain features; nevertheless, the goal is to model the key themes of the actual battle so the scenario feels right while producing a game that is challenging and fun for all players...

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