Uparmored Easy 8 Spotlight (US055)

I recently got in an Uparmored M4A3 Easy 8 for review.  In the Bridge at Remagen book, the US player can add in up to three of these guys into a platoon for +50 (RV) or +55 (CV) points - 10 points more than a standard Easy 8.  For those points, you get one more FA and one more SA (8 FA, 5SA), a .50cal Hull coax instead of just a regular MG.  The drawbacks are losing Detroit's Finest and Smooth Ride.  That seems like a LOT to lose for the benefits, but you guys can make up your own mind about that!

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Spotlight: Sherman Crocodiles (US060)

I am slowly building out my American forces for Flames of War and decided to add in the Sherman Crocodile. While this is a very specific tank that cannot be used in a ton of lists, it does fit right in with my 29th Infantry Division theme for my US Infantry. Why the Croc? Well, at 280 points for Confident Trained tanks, I think there is some significant value in this unit. Steven and I are particularly fascinated with units that have significant drawbacks that push their points down, but allow for some really good advantages when played properly.

Advantages

• The Flamethrower - This tank has a flamethrower and a trailer, which mitigates the major drawbacks of having a flame tank - it explodes easily (re-roll FP against). At ROF 5 with a 6" range, this platoon is deadly against infantry and gun teams.
• It's a Sherman - Even though the flamethrower is the focus, this is still a Sherman tank with a full compliment of guns. This includes the .50 cal AA MG, Hull MG and more importantly the M3 75mm gun with Stabilizer and Smoke.

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Streams (BB560) and Tributaries (BB561) Spotlight

To go along with the rivers I stole from Luke about three years ago, I recently got the new Streams (BB560) and Tributaries (BB561) for the table.  You all know how we love the Battlefield in a Box line, so I was pretty excited to get these in.  The original Rivers (BB105) -- which do not seem to be available in the online store -- were quite wide, but provided some really cool twists and turns.  With this set, you can make some neat varieties for your table.  Let's take a look!

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John Sulek's Isreali Tank Force

By John Sulek and Eric Lauterbach

There is nothing cooler than when my friend John Sulek dives into a army, he leaves no stone un-turned.

Well once again he has done it again with his Israeli force for the Flames of War Arab Israeli War supplement Fate of a Nation. After admiring these guys during our battles I thought it would be good to show the WWPD community John's complete force so far.

John realized, like many Israeli players, that a force based on Battlefront's  M51 Isherman is the way to go.  The combination of really good gun, great 2+ Firepower, and points cost is the best value in the Israeli tank arsenal.  The light armor of the Isherman does not really hurt it with its ability to Stormtroop along with the Arab's being hamstrung by hen and chicks.  So lets take a look at his force at 1500 points.

The HQ tank complete with maps.

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Spotlight: Jagdpanthers

by Dirty Jon

At Fall In, I picked up a Jagdpanther Platoon for no other reason than the fact that they look cool as hell and I got a pretty good deal.  When building this Tank Destroyer, the Germans took the King Tiger gun and slapped it on a Panther chassis.  Mobility and Firepower make this vehicle very powerful in Flames of War.

The box set comes with three tanks and decals.  The new-ish Panther plastic sprue is in here, which makes the model very light, with the tracks and the barrel being plastic.  These plastic items are also very crisp and require very little flash removal.

Weighing it at $45 USD, the tanks are a bit expensive at $15 each.  The good news is that you will need very few for your army.

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Spotlight: 4-Ground 15mm Stone Hotel and Damaged Log Village

by Maurice Kent

I recently came into possession of two building sets from 4-Ground ltd., thanks to Scott Simoneau's excellent NovaOpen mid-war tournament.  Below, I'll walk you through both sets and provide some thoughts on them.  Both sets are great for Flames of War, so hopefully you find this introduction to them helpful.

The first set is the 15mm Stone Hotel, which clocks in at 17 GBP retail.  This set is a 3-story building with removal roof.  It comes pre-painted in a beige stone with blue roof.  It also has a set of decals to give you some variety in naming the hotel.  Each level comes off and has a floor, so you can put individual teams at the appropriate windows.

Note: the trees in this article are from Toob/Safari Limited.  You can get them at Michael's with their standard coupon for a good price.  I think they look great with Flames stuff.  3-4 tubes and you've got a nice variety of tree types for your table with 0 prep required.  Sure they're cartoony, but it's a very clean tree solution.

In terms of construction, these kits have what I would call a lot of parts.  They're labeled pretty well to help you through the process, but they definitely take a bit of time to work through.  You need a bit of Elmer's glue, but otherwise they're pretty self-contained.

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P-38 & FW190 Spotlight

by Maurice Kent

For my first WWPD post, I wanted to share some glam shots of a couple of aircraft I really enjoyed painting up for Flames of War: the P-38 Lightning and the Focke-Wulf 190.  Both of these figs are from Battlefront and can be used in mid- and late-war.

First up, the Lightning:

Many gamers may recognize the 'Fork-Tailed Devil' from the classic arcade game 1942.  One of the first overhead plane games, 1942 was definitely the first time I'd seen the cool double-fuselage silhouette.  The Lightning was and remains the coolest WW2 plane.  This is not up for debate.

So cool he gets sidekicks.

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Tigers Marsch Box Set Spotlight

by Dirty Jon

In my continuing efforts to clean out the closet of miniatures, I am re-visiting old Flames of War models that I somehow came to acquire.  I ended up with two Tigers Marsch box sets, so I set upon one of them.

The box set comes with a set of markers and a pile of Tiger Ace dice (not pictured).  The set also has all the decals you will need to do these up just like on the box.  This is a welcome relief, as I have occasionally encountered a box set where you cannot actually make the examples on the box.

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Revell F4 Phantom

Even though Tour of Duty has no official rules for US air support, AND I'm not particularly interested in jet age aviation... for some reason I just had to get an F4 Phantom on the table.  So I nabbed the F4 by Revel off Amazon for a pittance.  

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Battlefield in a Box - Small Pine Wood: Winter (BB145)

We got our hands on the new Small Pine Woods (Winter) recently, and we thought this would fit right in with my winter board that Luke likes so much.  Let's take a look!

Front of Box

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Pumas!

With all of the talk of the USTDs being super-powered in V3, I decided to collect some Pumas for my Late War Flames of War Germans.  It didn't hurt that I snatched up six of these for about 40% off in the flea market at Historicon -- or that I played Bill Dorias with a very awesome Puma list at the Game Vault this year - he totally killed me.

So .. why do I love these?

The platoon is done up clean - Dirty Jon Camo Style!

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Quick Spotlight: Ostwind (GE170)

I got my hands on one of the new Ostwind blisters for Flames of War.  This is one of the many, many uses for the now old Panzer IV hull, providing a familiar model to paint.

This looks of Ork make - weld a hexagon box on top and go!

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NUTS! Reviewed and Spoiled!

Hi guys, Battlefront was good enough to get us an advance copy of Nuts: The Siege of Bastogne.  The book is 80 pages of pure Bulge Battlin' Badassery!  With 3 new companies for the US, and 3 for the Germans, there's plenty of options to recreate the epic battles of this historic battle.  As with our previous spoiler posts, I will use a bullet point format to make navigating key points easier!  Here we go!

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Lt. Col Creighton Abrams and Thunderbolt VI & VII

Here's a quick look at Battlefront's take on Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams for Flames of War!  Included in the box are 2 of Abram's rides: Thunderbolt VI (an M4A3 76mm), and Thunderbolt VII (an M4A3E8 Easy Eight with some custom work done to it).  Abrams can also ride in an M4 Sherman, but that is not included in this box.  Besides, who would put poor Abrams in such crap?

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British Anti-Tank Platoon (6 Pounders)

You all already know from the Podcast and my previous post how I feel about the British 6-pounder AT gun. Well, I sold off some AT Guns from another manufacturer and picked up a Battlefront Tom Stanley Box Set (which seems to be out of print right now) at Cold Wars.

4 of these + Command are only 100 points at the Confident Trained level and 135 at Confident Vet! Version 3 really boosted these guys. Specifically:

- 3+ save when Gone to Ground
- Can fire over Infantry teams at vehicles
- Can fire as Rifle teams when desired
- Can shoot at Tanks in Assault

I needed another platoon of these for Arnhem, having decided to scratch the 17pdrs here, as they never made it into town. These are not Paratroopers, but I think they will be ok to use in the scenario.

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Marder III Ms

By Dirty Jon

Yet another deal from my main man Luke. I think he traded some boccage for these bad boys. Anyway, these Marder III Ms look pretty good - they were already painted - so I just cleaned these guys up a bit. I used some of the techniques in my German Camouflage tutorial. I think that these will be really good to have as an option for Mid and Late War.

In Grey Wolf, these guys run 4 for 255 - that is not too bad for some mobile AT. They are as thin as can be, but with Stormtrooper and being Veteran, I bet they can devastate from Ambush and scoot away. Even if they don't make it, they will still be a 5+ to hit in concealment. I love cheap mobile AT in Flames of War.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

Marder III Ausf.M, Sd.Kfz. 138 The last Marder III variant was based on the Panzer 38(t) Ausf. M (with Ausf. M standing for Mittelmotor (middle engine), again armed with the 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun. In this variant, the engine was moved from the rear to the middle between driver and the rest of the crew. Because there was no engine in the rear, the gun and the crew did not have to sit on top of the engine deck as in previous models. The fighting compartment could be lowered down to the bottom floor level where the engine used to be. This decreased crew exposure, as well as visibility. Unlike the previous two Marder IIIs, the fighting compartment was closed at the rear protecting the crew up to their mid-section. It stayed open-topped. It could only carry 27 rounds of ammunition. The machinegun port at the front was eliminated in the Ausf. M in favor of an MG 34 or MG 42 carried by the crew. In the previous two models, the commander served as a gunner. However, in Ausf. M, the radio man moved to the rear with the commander and gunner, serving as a loader. Combat effectiveness increased because the vehicle commander was freed from manning the gun. The Ausf. M was the variant which was produced in the largest numbers, some 975 vehicles being manufactured in 1943 and early 1944. Its full name was the Panzerjäger 38(t) mit 7.5 cm PaK 40/3 Ausf.M, Sd.Kfz. 138.


You will notice that I have no crew! These guys were obtained without -- anyone got any spare? I bet Scary could 'scare' me up some.... (ha!)


A bit blurry, but these boys still pack a punch!


Only one of these came with the bar across the fighting compartment. I purchased some thick copper wire and made the other three. Can you pick out which one is original? Me either!


I went for a little weathering. It is hard to see in the pics, but I used some ripped blister packing and some Grey to give a bit of a worn effect near areas that would get heavy traffic.

IN FLAMES OF WAR

Name  weapon	Mobility  range	Front  ROF	Side  anti-tank	Top  Firepower	Equipment and Notes
Marder III M  7.5cm PaK40 gun	Standard Tank 32"	0 2	0 12	0 3+	AA MG Hull mounted

From Grey Wolf

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Review: Plastic Soldier Company Panther Box Set

- by Dirty Jon
Steven got me a box of Plastic Soldier Company(PSC) Panthers (WW2V15012) to review. I have had some PSC Halftracks to review, but never any of their tanks. I know Steven loves the T-34s, so I was really looking forward to seeing these guys.

As you see above, the models come on sprues -- 1 tank to a sprue. There is also a complete set of assembly instructions, though they had the D and A Models confused. Easily corrected.

I am pretty ham-handed (6'4" 220lbs), so I was a bit worried about these. The halftracks were pretty fiddly and I had seen entire forum posts on how to put together the T-34 tracks. I was pleasantly surprised when these went together without a hitch. With a little planning and making sure you have the correct parts, it is very easy.
I quickly decided to assemble these guys in 3 groups -- the Track Group, The Hull Group and the Turret Group. The tracks would be primed black with the others painted dunkelgelb. On the second an subsequent models, it took me only about 15 minutes each to cut, trim and glue. Whoever designed these is very smart! The sprue attach points and the join lines are generally in places that are hidden by other parts. This is nice in case you make a trimming mistake.
Oh, and these guys do not need magnets! They turret is fairly loose unpainted, but gets just right as you prime and paint the model.

THE GOOD
Price: The War Store has these for $24.99. $5/tank for Panthers? Um, yeah, I'll take some. I also dropped these a few times and they did not shatter -- yay plastic!
Size: These were very compatible with my other Flames of War tanks.
Improvement: PSC is improving their product big time. These were no where near as fiddly as the halftracks. The tracks were no problem at all. I broke half the MGs on the halftracks -- these are easily twice as thick.
Options: You can make 3 different models of Panther from this kit. It also came with a bunch of stowage. If you model dioramas or objectives, the plastic is easy to cut and shape.
Detail: These have a ton of detail and I didn't lose any of it. I was careful with the layers of paint, so ymmv.

THE BAD
Zimmerit: Most Panthers had this anti-magnetic coating and it is a big deal that these do not come with it. It is really a shame - I suppose one could model it, but it would take quite a bit of time and is beyond the reach of some gamers.
Assembly: These take me about 3X as much time as Battlefront tanks and do not come with decals.

THE UGLY
The crew was not very good. They just look weird. I think that they are a little too detailed and skinny for 15mm.
CONCLUSION:
8 of 10 Stars
These are pretty hard to complain about. They did not take that long to assemble and were easy to paint. Like Steven, I am not much of a modeler, so I do not really enjoy that aspect of it. I have seen some folks who enjoy this type of thing and see that as a plus. For me, if these had Zimmerit, easily a 10 of 10.
I put a spare commander in this tank.

IN FLAMES OF WAR

Name  weapon	Mobility  range	Front  ROF	Side  anti-tank	Top  Firepower	Equipment and Notes
Panther A or G  7.5cm KwK42 gun	Standard Tank 32"	10 2	5 14	1 3+	Co-ax MG, Hull MG, Wide Tracks

From Grey Wolf


Parts needed to make the Hull.
Parts needed to make the tracks.
Parts needed to make the turret.
Closeup of the commander.
Closeup of the thicker MG.
Models supplied by The Plastic Soldier Company.
Want to know how I painted these? See the Camouflage Tutorial!

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British Honey Stuart Swarm!

When Hellfire and Back came out, I ordered a boatload of British Stuarts. Unfortunately, so did a lot of people. Battlefront also decided it was time to update the mold, and so there was a severe Stuart Shortage (The great Stuart Shortage of '11). Finally, I scraped together 16 (I tried to get 18 so I could have some captured German ones, but no dice there), and got painting!

My new lighting rig

Ordinarily at this point in a spotlight we would write a review of the model. But since Max recently posted a very in depth modeling guide using the old sculpt and Battlefront is releasing a new model for the Stuart M3 (Which Max will be reviewing and early reports are very good!), I decided any model review was redundant and a little unfair. Suffice it to say these were old sculpts and needed a bit of love, but nothing too extreme.

Painting them was fairly straight forward.  The basecoat is vallejo Dark Sand with a drybrush of Vallejo Pale Sand.  After that a quick wash on the engine deck and my signature (and divisive!) blackline technique, and I was on to the markings.  The markings are fairly ahistorical.  I used the tank "flash" markings to help me identify platoons and HQ assets just like I did for my Armoured Regiment.  This is totally a game play concession, but I think it looks close enough.

FROM WIKIPEDIA
The British Army was the first to use the Light Tank M3 as the "General Stuart" in combat.^[6] From mid-November 1941 to the end of the year, about 170 Stuarts (in a total force of over 700 tanks) took part in Operation Crusader during the North Africa Campaign, with poor results. Although the high losses suffered by Stuart-equipped units during the operation had more to do with better tactics and training of the Afrika Korps than the apparent superiority of German armoured fighting vehicles used in the North African campaign,^[7] the operation revealed that the M3 had several technical faults. Mentioned in the British complaints were the 37 mm M5 gun and poor internal layout.

The two-man turret crew was a significant weakness, and some British units tried to fight with three-man turret crews. The Stuart also had a limited range, which was a severe problem in the highly mobile desert warfare as units often outpaced their supplies and were stranded when they ran out of fuel. On the positive side, crews liked its relatively high speed and mechanical reliability.^[8][9] The high reliability distinguished the Stuart from cruiser tanks of the period, in particular the Crusader, which composed a large portion of the British tank force in Africa up until 1942.
 M3 Stuart. (2011, December 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:48, January 7, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=M3_Stuart&oldid=467415188

IN FLAMES OF WAR
 

Name  weapon	Mobility  range	Front  ROF	Side  anti-tank	Top  Firepower	Equipment and Notes
M# Stuart  M6 37mm gun	Fully Tracked 24"	3 2	2 7	1 4+	Co-ax MG, Hull MG, Light Tank. No HE.

The Stuart is of course a favorite of the WWPD crew. It's high speed, and low cost make it an attractive buy for the aggressive, horde-masters, and insane. The British version is a lot less attractive than the US' for 3 reasons: 1) No HE. 2) No stabilizers. 3) small platoons. Still, it's a cute little speed demon that no tanker should be without!

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Panzerwerks Studios Pak 40 RSO & Spotlight

These are the RSP Pak 40s sent to us by Dale from Panzerwerks Studio. I am excited about getting them on the board soon!

FROM WIKIPEDIA

By 1943, the complaints of the infantry anti-tank units at the front that it was almost impossible to move their guns using trucks at daylight under enemy fire, leading to enormous losses of equipment when an emergency relocation (at the time more of a euphemism for withdrawal) was necessary found their way to the top. This led OKW to consider an older proposition to fit the 7.5 cm PaK 40/1 anti-tank gun -by then the standard Pak- on top of a RSO chassis and Hitler after seeing the blueprints ordered a limited production run for combat testing even before the test vehicles were completed. The project was carried out by Steyr. The suspension of the RSO remained unchanged, but the front driver's compartment was replaced with a low, lightly armoured superstructure. The result was a lightweight, cheap to produce and highly mobile infantry anti-tank weapon though more exposed compared to the conventional panzerjagers of which construction cost many times an RSO/PaK 40. Despite that the vehicle was intended to be used by the infantry anti-tank units, all pre-production vehicles were finally issued to armoured units (Panzer Jager Abteilungen 743 and 744, and 18th Panzergrenadier Division) due to the urgent need for replacements, where their low speed and light armour inevitably gave problems of cooperation with the other fighting vehicles in use by these units. Although badly used they gave a good account of action and the German Army Group South where the units issued for combat testing declared the vehicle useful and consequently large scale production was authorised. In the event and despite a decision taken for Steyr to shift its entire production line into RSO/Pak 40, no specific order ever reached industry and only the approximately 60 pre-production vehicles were ever manufactured. While the first vehicles were rolled out from the production line, Steyr started testing an improved version incorporating wider chassis and tracks which further improved cross-country performance and lowered the center of gravity, an issue in a vehicle of such a high ground clearance. None of the improved version ever reached the front and in October 1943 Steyr was ordered by the Ministry of Munitions to totally cease production of any type of tracked vehicles. By then a new up-gunned version of the widened chassis had been designed and was planned to enter production in 1944 using its more powerful and less noisy V8 petrol engine to carry the 88mm Pak 43 L70 gun, by far the most powerful anti-tank weapon of its era designated PzJag K43, but it is doubtful if any had been constructed by the end of the war.

IN FLAMES OF WAR

Name  weapon	Mobility  range	Front  ROF	Side  anti-tank	Top  Firepower	Equipment and Notes
PaK 40 Auf RSO  7.5cm PaK 40 gun	Fully-tracked 32"/80cm	0 2	0 12	0 3+	Slow tank Hull mounted

VETERAN TANK HUNTER RULES (see pg 49 of Hammer and Sickle)

MANEUVER AND FIRE
*At the start of the game choose a single piece of Concealing Area Terrain or Linear Obstacle that provides concealment.
*The feature must be at last partially in your deployment zone.
*As long as the whole platoon remains Concealed within or behind the selected terrain feature, they may shoot using their full ROF when they move as if they had not moved. If the platoon elaves the selected terrain feature, or is no longer Concealed from enemy teams other than aircraft, they lose the benefit of the Maneuver and Fire special rule for the remainder of the game.

SHOOT AND SCOOT
*Veteran tnak-hunter Platoons stormtrooper on a roll of 2+

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IS-2 Spotlight and Review

FROM WIKIPEDIA

The IS-2 tank first saw combat in the spring of 1944. IS-2s were assigned to separate heavy tank regiments, normally of 21 tanks each. These regiments were used to reinforce the most important attack sectors during major offensive operations. Tactically, they were employed as breakthrough tanks. Their role was to support infantry in the assault, using their large guns to destroy bunkers, buildings, dug-in crew-served weapons, and other 'soft' targets. They were also capable of taking on any German AFVs if required. Once a breakthrough was achieved, lighter, more mobile T-34s would take over the exploitation.

In Flames of War

Name  weapon	Mobility  range	Front  ROF	Side  anti-tank	Top  Firepower	Equipment and Notes
IS-2 (obr 1943- no stats for later versions yet)  122mm D-25T gun	Fully Tracked 32"/80cm	10 1	8 15	2 2+	Co-ax MG, Turret Rear MG, Slow Tank Heavy Breakthrough Gun

The noble IS-2! Normally, I am not a huge fan of heavy tanks, but these guys seem like a pretty good buy for the price. I have yet to get them on the board, but I've faced them a few times always with disastrous results!

Game Models Review and Thoughts

As you all have come to know by now I am a huge fan of Game Models. For $4 each, Game Models is always a first stop for me. I am usually very happy with them and these models aren't bad- however for the majesty the IS-2s deserve I can't help but feel like I've short changed myself. That really is NOT a knock on the Game Models version at all! But the Battlefront IS-2 is just such an amazing looking miniature. I may seriously consider replacing these guys with some Battlefront ones in the near future- but these will do for now. With a little one on the way I am operating my hobby under severe austerity measures and the $4 price tag sold me!

The models themselves are what you expect from Game Models- very very good for $4 a piece, but they are still $4 models. The hulls themselves are really quite good, but the turrets are fairly pitted and the road wheels are not terribly crisp.

Overall, though, I think they came out pretty good. I absolutely recommend them if you're on a budget, but the Battlefront IS-2s are so good it's difficult to pass them up!

Personally, when making the choice to go with Battlefront or something alternative, it usually comes down to how much money is invested for how many points can be put on the table.  With some other considerations like how versatile the unit is.  The IS-2s are fairly widespread in late war, and they're fairly expensive points wise.  Conversely, a transport rarely sees the table and is worth very very little points.  Anyhow, I am rambling now.

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