The Best Game You Will Ever Play!

Still unsure about Flames of War Version 4? Shot you bolt in Bolt Action? Not warming up to Star Wars based games? Then I have just the game for you! In a few months we will all playing a great new game and I want to tell you about it before it hits Kickstarter. The folks who developed it provided me with an advanced copy and I have been playing non-stop ever since. The other day they asked me to send it back so another reviewer can play it and I said “no way, it’s mine”. The beauty of this game is how you can use components from other games to augment the core set. So I now have a use for those command and staff teams that will no longer be used in FoW. I may even throw in some unpainted Napoleonic figures I have lying about!

The beauty of the game is how the two players create a lot of the game in real time. The mechanics are very simple; during your turn you can move, take an action, or do nothing at all. The core box that will be offered on Kickstarter features old Dir Cast Metal tanks from Corgi. These were the bomb of toys back in the 1970’s and are now reproduced for this great game. The other playing pieces that come with this set are Yoga-Joe’s, and will offer the most seasoned Grognard a tough time when using or facing these guys. Also included in this box are the rules, which are about 500 pages long (without punctuation) however they explain every situation you can get yourself into when you play. Also included and which is key are the related books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig and The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump, two life changing literary classics.

The Unboxing
The great thing about the game is that it is ready to play right from the box! Well ready to play after you read the rule book. The beauty of the rules is that you retain none of them and if you do not like a rule you can change or ignore it at any time. So after spending a month going over the readings, I was ready for my first game. The models look great and they add so much flavor to the game.

The Key Mechanic
The most important aspect of the game is how the player deals with both the rules and their opponent. It is important to have an opinion on everything, no matter your expertise or sense of importance, and communicate that opinion in the most passive aggressive way possible. This style of play came about during the first turn as my opponent started to move. They went for the tactic to ignore all movement rules and kept looking for me to object. I said “Stop your tank” a few times and they kept going, and crushed my Zen-Lotus Warrior. What I should have said is “don’t you think you have moved far enough?” which would have stopped the tank in its tracks. Same thing happened in the shooting step, but I remembered my lesson from before and said “haven’t you shot up enough stuff?”

For combat, players have the choice of using a dice of any type, a coin flip, pulling cards from a deck, or even rock paper scissors (lizard, Spock for advanced players) with the winner being the player who scores the highest or lowest (as agreed upon) winning. Want a challenge, play this game with D20’s!

Like all other games, it comes down to the tanks. Tanks can shoot any of the opponents pieces, except for a Yoga-Joe, but it can run over the Yoga-Joe by accident thus killing it.  Unused playing pieces brought in from other games cannot attack, but can be attacked at any time. The defender can suggest that a player shoots at a piece like the Mid-Late War German Artillery Staff team by stating “OK fine, how about shooting at this guy?”.
 

What I love about the game is how during the course of play create an experience which is unique and rewarding. Unlike all other games, the rules state upfront that this game was written for you and you only and it will be perfect, just like yourself.
Another great aspect of the game is that during play your opponent takes notes in a note pad and you do the same when they play. These notes have no bearing on the game, however they are slipped into your game box for you to read later. It is best to wait until 3-4 players have dropped notes in your box so you do not know who wrote it.

Special Characters
The game revolves around using your tanks and special characters. The box comes with its own unique set of special characters; the Yoga-Joe’s. Each Yoga-Joe model has a unique pose witch correlates to a special power. Players can use the special powers as stated in the rule book or make them up as they go. Normally a Yoga-Joe can use their power only once, however they can try to use it again and if your opponent does not say “didn’t you use that model already?” then you are free to use it again.
Other special characters can be brought in as long as they are anthropomorphic and retain the qualities they historically had.
So on turn two I played the Giant Gunny which stopped a tank!

Later on I used the Churchill creamer to persuade a Yoga-Joe to surrender. Being from India and staunchly anti-empire it didn’t work at first; until I found out the Yoga-Joe was lactose intolerant.

The game was tight until we had a huge standoff between two major religions, and following the “agree to disagree” rule the game ended. I learned my lesson and for my next game I used the "Peace is our Profession" rule and called in an Arc-Light strike!

I loved this game and so will you. If you win it’s because you are the best and if you lose it’s because of the fact the opponent cheated or that the game was flawed. I also noticed that when I didn’t play the game for a long time, I became a bigger expert at it.

I recommend this game to everyone and I know it will be a huge hit!


Twitter @MitchWWPD
WWPDMitch@gmail.com

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Finishing up Iron Maiden

Don’t you just love that feeling when you put the last touch of paint on a model and you know your work is done? It is a rare feeling since we always seem to be expanding our collections, however with the lower model count in Team Yankee I was able to finish off my forces from Iron Maiden and I think I will be set for the time being. Maybe it is one of the things I like about TY is that once you finish your core 100 point force, you do not have the need to keep adding models, I think between this and ability that you can take more than one formation adds to the games allure. My last article detailed my building and paining my Chieftains, FV 432s, Rapiers, and of course the infantry. I was left with building the Lynx helicopters and the recce vehicles for my force which were the last to be released.

I wanted to cover the Lynx for the article because I do not think these guys were be making it on many lists I plan to make. I think it’s a neat to have the choppers in the game, however AAA is just so good I do not think these guys will not have a long life span.

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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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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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DAK German Infantry vs British Infantry in Tunisia

 By Eric Lauterbach

I met Bob Everson at the Game Vault for a quick Flames of War game. We both whipped up some quick lists from North Africa for a Tunisia battle. I had two fat DAK infantry platoons, two platoons of four Marders, Nebs, and a Tiger.  He had two platoons of Brit Infantry, two platoons of Churchill tanks, 25lb Battery, and a platoon of 17lb/25 AT guns.
 We decided just to play Free-for-all to get the ball rolling quick.

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FoW Great War: Mitchell's Marauders pt II: The Support Platoons

In Part I, we looked at the core rifle platoons in the Mitchell's Marauders box set. Today we'll look at all the support options included.

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