Bolt Action - AAR: Campaign Road to Victory Game 4

The fourth game in our Bolt Action campaign saw the Soviets rolling into the outskirts of a city in eastern Europe.  The war has moved from Russia and into Europe itself.  As the Soviets advance, the Germans desperately throw resources into slowing the Red Tide.

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Team Yankee West Germans Tips & Tricks #5: Gepard (TGBX07)

'Tis time to look at Battlefront's West German Gepard Flakpanzer Batterie AA (GBX07) kit for Team Yankee.  Where the Roland was nasty...these guys are meanier on several levels.  Rolands are good vs Jets and Helos.  Gepards are like their namesake cheetah and will run down and kill everything short of Main Battle Tanks.  Those twin 57mm autocannons spit death to planes, helicopters, infantry and IFVs.  Anti-Tank of 11 and Firepower 4+ with a ROF of 5. That's a lot of dead BMPs with Armor Values of 2...OUCHIE!!!!

This is a standard resin and metal kit.  The bulk of it was very clean.

The only metal bits are the 2 pieced radar dish and the gun barrels. The only flash and mold lines were on the barrels. As you can see above, these had a good bit of flash; but, it was all easily cleaned up with a little blade and file work.

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WWPD South Operation Market Garden Mega Game BatRep (Day 2)

Hey y'all!  SonBae here posting a Batrep done by WWPD South's very own Dane Tkacs covering a Mega Game we held here in Huntsville, Alabama at the Deep Comics and Games from 17-18 September 2016.

From Dane:

The Huntsville Historical Gamers (HHG) gathered on SEP 17-18 to recreate Operation Market Garden using the Flames of War ruleset.  The HHG Mega-Game stretched over 5 tables.  The Mega-Game pitted 10 Axis players against 7 Allied players.  Each side had approx. 11,500 points for a mega-Game total of 23,000 points. Lists were chosen from the forces in Market Garden for the Allies or Bridge by Bridge for the Germans

Part 1 of this BATREP can be seen HERE 

Turn 7

XXX Corps quote:  “this IS the wide part”

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Team Yankee West Germans Tips & Tricks #4: Jaguar I & Jaguar II (TGBX04)

Now its time for he Jag-u-ar? ... Jag-war? ... Jag-GWU-are?  What ever you call it this time we get to talk about the nasty little missile launcher tank destroyer for the West Germans in Battlefront's Team Yankee!  The Jaguar I & II (TGBX04)

Another metal and resin kit that continues the trend of the West Germans sets...very nice! Battlefront continues to rock on these kits. This was another pre-release version I built and painted for the All Powerful Luke. In this set you have all the items necessary to build either the Jaguar I or the Jaguar II.

 The design of this set is such that you can build both versions with the judicious use of magnets and a little acceptance that the Smoke Dischargers will be "off" for one of the versions.

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Team Yankee West German Tips & Tricks #3 - Rolands (TGBX08)

Roland, Roland, Roland...keeps those Rolands firing...ROLAND!

For those that recognize that terrible riff on the classic Rawhide theme song....you're old.  Like me  ;-)

This time we look at the Roland AA (GBX08) kit from Battlefront supporting the West German forces in Team Yankee.  These bad boys are a Brigade level support for all the lists and you can get up to 1 Batterie of up to 6 launchers of these guys. Look out Soviet Airpower!

Battlefront continues to rock on these kits. The kits I have for prepared are pre-release versions. This is another old-school resin hull and turret with metal bits. Lots of detail everywhere. I know these are from newer molds/castings, but that only accounts from the cleanness of the models.  There appears to be more little "grubbins" molded into the resin and metal than I have seen in older resin kits...this is a common theme so far in the West German kits. It makes be very happy for the future releases.

Build:

- Very simple build.  Glue the tracks to the hull and the missile launchers and radar to the turret.  When you glue the missile launchers make sure the missile pods hang under the launcher.

- You have an option with the side skirts. You can leave them off as in the cover art (and like I did) or you can put them on.  You have the POWER!!!!!!

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Team Yankee West German Tips and Tricks #2: Fuchs (TGBX06)

What does the Fuchs say....

Sorry 'bout that  :-)

Round 2 with the West Germans in Team Yankee from Battlefront.  This time we look at the Fuchs (TGBX06) and this Fuchs say va-va-va-voom!

A hefty little 6 wheeled all terrain troop transport to move those Panzergrenadiers around the battlefield.  Yes please!  You can find these bad boys in the Panzer Aufklarungs Kompanie list and can you can get 2 zugs of them with 3 Fuchs in each.

On to the models!

This is another very sweet kit. The kits I have for prepared are pre-release versions. This is an old-school resin hull with metal bits. These are chock full of detail and are VERY clean. The metal wheels had just a few metal whiskers and no flash or mold lines.

The fit of the wheels here is a very simple peg on the hull and hole in the wheel, but is very well designed. They are a different style than the Luchs wheels, but fit just as snug.

Build:  Since this was a pre-release kit, I didn't have the instructions that are up on Battlefront now. But that didn't matter! The kit is super easy; very intuitive...put all the wheels on one side of the hull.  Let those dry a little so that they don't wiggle any more, then do the other side.

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Firestorm Bastogne - A WWPD Online Flames of War Campaign

Starting this month, WWPD will run a "Firestorm Bastogne" Campaign as a global Flames of War campaign. This campaign will run for about six weeks and will give players a chance to fight out the engagements that revolved around the encirclement of Bastogne from 16 to 21 December, 1944. If you are not familiar with Firestorm campaigns, no problem! Basically the campaign map and movement of units on that map will be used to generate battles that players, from around the world, can fight out and report their results from to determine the campaign flow and eventual winning side.




2nd Panzer moves in on CCR/9th Armored Division at Longvilly



A battle at Longvilly plays out on the table top

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Peiper Down: The New SS lists in the Ardennes Offensive

By Mitch Reed

One of the first articles I wrote for this blog was a piece in my “Lists We Play” series where I talked about some of my favorite Waffen-SS lists.  One of the lists I did mention in that piece was KG Peiper from Battlefront’s Devil’s Charge book, which at the time was relatively new.  The new Ardennes Offensive (AO) book augments the Waffen-SS force that took part in the offensive by adding two new lists which I will detail in this article.

Much like my last article on the Waffen-SS I want to reiterate my distaste of the actual SS, however their inclusion in the game does cause us to remember their history and helps us ensure that we never see another organization like that again.

KG Hansen
In my overview article on AO, the I said that KG Hansen is like KG Peiper without the tanks - however there may be more to this list than what I assumed at first glance.  The biggest reason why players would shy away from a list like this is because it is rated a Fearless/Trained instead of Fearless/Veteran like most other Waffen-SS units.  However, being that these guys are trained means that you are paying less for then as you would vets and in a true Bulge themed tournament, where they use the snow and fog rules these guys may not get shot up so much. 

One thing I didn’t like about this list was the lack of types of tanks you can pick, however I forgot how great the Panzer IV/70 (V) is.  They have a front armor of 9, and a gun which has an AT of 14, which at 390 points for a platoon of three is not too bad. They do have some downsides: they move slow, have glass sides (side armor 3) and are overloaded.  However placing these in ambush would be deadly to any American tank the Battle of the Bulge book.

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FoW Battle Report: HG Assault Gun Battery vs SS Panzerbrigade Westfalen 5/5

Hey there,

Finally, time has come for the last battle report of the HG Assault Gun series. Up until that point of the tournament, I have already had my ups and downs with this company. However, when I saw my opponent's list, I was not so happy:

It seemed a good mix of cheap Panthers, a lot of veteran Pak40s with some backup from the 88s along with SS, panzerfaust-armed infantry (including tank hunters). I really did not look forward to play this company. The only positive was the scenario: Surrounded. It gave me at least some edge over the Panthers and a chance to spread out the defences of the SS Panzerbrigade Westfalen.

I completely took the chance by placing the Objectives as far from one another as possible and once I knew where the defenders were, I cut my forces in half and deployed the StuHs, one platoon of PakPumas with 1iC + 2iC on one side of the table and the rest on the other. With this kind of deployment, I was looking for a way to get some sideshots on the tanks and to force the Pak40s to move.

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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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FoW Battle Report: HG Assault Gun Battery vs Finnish Pioneers 3/5

Hey Everyone,

Report 3 of HG Assault Gun Battery on the frontline is coming up. This time, I played Finnish Pioneer company in Fighting Withdrawal.
When I checked out my opponent's list, I already knew it was going to be a tough game. But when I saw the table on which we were supposed to play, I figured it would be next to impossible to beat them. But nevertheless, I did not travel 200+ kms to give up a game before it even began! :)

Finnish Pioneers:

During deployment, my opponent selected the table edge, where there was most concealing terrain, leaving me in a spot where I would have to cross almost completely open ground to be able to threaten his pioneers with direct confrontation. He placed his objective in the center of the table and I did the reverse, spreading out his forces as much as I possibly could so that I would not have to fight all of them at the same time.

Before the game even started, I was concentrated in an area on the left flank, in which there were only 2 houses to hide behind and a field of crops that I would have to leave anyway. Also, the pioneers somehow managed to install lines of barbed wire in front of my tanks to stop my armored cars from roaming around freely.

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Jagdpanther Platoon (GBX84) Review

Ahhhhh, the Jagdpanther!  This is one of my favorite tanks in Flames of War!  Some time ago, Battlefront released the GBX84 box to provide plastic Panthers and Jagdpanthers.  I finally got around to building these guys, and of course went for more Jagdpanthers!  With the drive to plastic, it makes sense to have a Panther kit out, and I think it is a smart move to make this a multi-option kit, but including the JPs as well.

This box contains FIVE tanks, not three like the old kit.  This is great, as I can get a couple of boxes and mix and match my options as I please.

The back of the box lists all the options you can build and all the things that come in the box.  Though the Panther turret is set up for magnets, none come in the box.  Bummer.

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Battlefront StuG G Platoon (GBX83) Review

by "Dirty" Jon Baber

I have plenty of StuGs available for my German Army, but they were assembled over the years and have a bit of a hodge podge appearance.  I got a hold of the new Battlefront StuG G Platoon to start the process of unifying the look of my models. Thought the art looks the same, this is quite a different box than the old StuG platoon.  Before we get in to the models, let's talk a little about the StuG.

For about 95 Late War points, you can get a Confident Veteran StuG.  FA 7, SA 3, TA 1 with Hull MG, Protected Ammo and Schurzen.  The gun is ROF 2, AT 11, 3+ Firepower and Hull Mounted.  Compared to the Panzer IV H, you get +1 FA, but lose a Machine Gun and your turret.  The StuG is 5 more points, so... is it worth it?  Ahhhh, a great question!  The German Flames of War player confronts this question all the time - you will have to decide for yourself!

I was pleased to see a fairly simple sprue with not very many parts.  Including the StuH 42 and the earlier StuG design was a big upgrade from the previous box.  The diagram is pretty clear and easy to understand.

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Late War Fighting Withdrawal - Germans vs. USSR

by "Dirty" Jon 

Tarzan and I decided to play a Late War game of Flames of War before recording the podcast.  We wanted to do something weird, so we jacked up the points and both picked lists that are not great. I wanted to get the old Panzer IV/70s on the board - which I love.

I went with an entire company of CT PzIV/70s, some Nebs, Ostwinds, a little Infantry, a CV King Tiger and Rudel.

Eric made up a hero IS-2 list and we went at it. His list had three platoons of two IS-2s with the FA 11 upgrade.  He also had a unit of T-34/85s, some arty, two Assault Guns (I think ISU...something) and air.

We rolled up a random mission and got Fighting Withdrawal.  I won the game roll (by rolling low) and got to Defend - yay! 

Zee Germans take the lower half of this board.

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Hero Soviet Tank vs. German Assault Gun Company

 By Eric Lauterbach

So I was over at my buddy Bob Rossi's house and he showed me his brand new Panzer IV/70 A which looked great. So I said these guys look so cool let's play these guys right now! So Bob whipped up some lists and we threw down.

Bob played his new tanks of course and based it of Desperate Measures with a lot of Stugs as the base. I played a Hero Tankovey company based on T-34/85s with some Assault gun Support. Since we wanted action quick we played Free-for-all.

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Preview :Battlefront's Great War Additions: Part 2 The Americans and Germans

By Mitch Reed
In my last article I previewed the new Great War additions that are about to released by Battlefront.  In this article I will preview the new American list, the German Stosskompanie list, and the new missions that are in the new Great War book.

The Americans
For the first three years of the war the US publicly proclaimed neutrality, however behind the scenes the US did fund and supply the British and French in their fight against imperial Germany.  After the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the German courting of Mexico to attack the US, the nation could no longer stand by and the US entered the war in April 1916.  While the Americans had a level of resources and manpower that the nations of Europe envied, they had a very small army that lacked many of the modern weapons and training that were needed to fight in Europe.  While everyone knew this fact, the Allies told the US to send the troops over so they could be trained and equipped in France. While the above statement may seem out of place in a preview, it does explain why the US list looks like it does in the new book.

The US list can be built either as Confident Veteran or Confident Trained.  The rationale for this is that many of the US Army’s regular full time units were made up of professional soldiers who have seen combat in Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba, and Central and South America.  The 1st Infantry Division was the first symbol of the American precipitation in the war and was made up of soldiers who had years of service in the army to they are rated as Confident Veterans.  The other big source of manpower for the US was the extensive National Guard system, in which troops trained part time and could be used by their state in case of an emergency.  A prime example of these men is the 42nd Rainbow Division which was an idea of then Major Douglass MacArthur, to take assorted National Guard units from all over the nation and form them in one division that covered the nation, hence the use of the rainbow nickname.  This new unit was mostly made up of part time soldiers who have the rating of Confident Trained to reflect their level of training.

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Product Review Battlefront's Panzersturm Platoon (GE848)

By Jeff "SonBae" Flint



Finally! My FLGS got the Flames of War Panzersturm Platoon (GE848) in from Battlefront. This is a follow on to the article on on the IR equipped Sdkfz251s. These carry the Infra-red night sights to the infantry and gives you a platoon of 7 Assault Rifle/Panzerfaust stands all with the "Infra-red Equipment" special rule where a German company with troops with Infra-red Equipment may take Night Attack in ANY mission and they get the Always Attack special rule if they do Night Attack. Additionally, platoons with Infra-red Equipment get Spearhead. Whoa!

Night is falling...prepare for action!

If that wasn't enough, these Vampirs get an added advantage of rolling 2 dice to when rolling on the Night Visibility Table... and if the unit they are shooting at is spotlighted by a Uhu (GBX82) (review) they don't have to roll on the table at all!  I know, their range is only 8 inches....bout you don't have to worry about rolling that 1! The target sadly is still concealed.

The night isn't safe for the allies anymore.

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FoW: Late War Italy 26th Panzer vs 3rd Infantry Division

By Eric Lauterbach

When Sean said "hey lets get together and play an Italy battle", I thought "great I all ready have a list!"

I happily dusted off my mid-war Panzer-Grenadier army. The problem was, when Sean said Italy he meant Late War Italy... Doh!!

So, I took my mid-war list and made it a late war.  The only real changes were the Nebs got heavier and PzIIIs became PzIVs.

My list was two Panzer-Grenadier platoons in trucks and a Aufklarungs platoon in halftracks, 4 PzIVs, a Pak 40 platoon, HMGs, Nebs 21cm, and a Tiger. Sean had a assault platoon, infantry platoon, 6 Hellcats, 6 Sherman 105s, two 57mm platoons, and recon.

We randomly rolled the mission Hasty Attack. We rolled again and Sean was the defender. With seven platoons Sean put one infantry on, the Sherman 105s and the assault platoon in immediate ambush.

One objective was in the town which could be problem so I decided to go for the one behind the hill

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Bolt Action - How To Turn An Opel Blitz Into a Maultier Half-Track Truck

By Old Man Morin

Greetings Bolt Action fans, 

Old Man Morin here with a handy dandy guide on how to turn your everyday German truck from a 6 wheeled transport into a half track truck. 

Now, you may think that this is an easy switcheroo or the rear wheel assembly and on a basic level, you would be right but...this process is not as easy as it seems.

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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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