Flames of war VERSION 4 test game 3: Fritz-Move

25lbrs doing what they do best: Scaring away tanks????

Its been a whirlwind weekend, with 3 test games of the new Flames of War (gleaned from cell phone snaps of preview books, WWPD compilation and the Team Yankee book where possible)

Brits vs DAK again, but on a different board, with different lists:

We counted the rocky hill as just Rough Going, anything else is obvious, so lots of trees this time.

As ever, the LONG video is at the bottom.  We discuss throughout.

Flames of War Version 4 Test Game 2

"What's the best World of Warcraft Expansion?" "Burning Crusades!"

Right after our first game, where the Germans won 7-2, we swapped teams and played again, so Matt and I with the DAK and Tristan and Andrew playing British.   Same board, same lists.

Pzr II's 'Spearheaded' into this tree area, allowing the PaK-38s and PzrIVs to be that much closer to the British lines..

As ever, Video is at the end of the post.

VERSION 4 Flames Test Game 1 DAK vs Desert Rats

"What do you say, old boy, shall we go kick the Jerries out of Africa?" Monty

Using the WWPD rules compilation, and stats and such from the preview copy of the rulebook that stores have, plus some from the latest WGI, we apply our Team Yankee prowess to run a Test game of Version 4.  TO make equivalent lists, I used V3 points for both (1340pts) and the DAK force comes out at 82 pts using V4 points.  Video with our opinions at bottom of article.  

Lets see the lists:

Team Yankee Mech USA vs Mech BMP Dust Up, 80pts

Foreshadowing...

DESERT BATTLE Team Yankee TX National Guard vs West Germans, Encounter, 75 points

Scott's incredible desert Leopard IIs

Time for another (11th) Team Yankee battle report.   Scott has finished his gorgeous West Germans, and thus the two desert armies fight, on a desert board (Note, Kevin's Iraqi Republican Guard are still being worked on.. sooo many..T-55)

"Ludwig, vee haf not been to ze Desert since Rommel!"

Here are a few pics, but with multiple games and movies going on, the Video tells the better story.  As ever, video is at the bottom:

Bolt Action Mini Battle Report

This past Sunday I played my first ever game of Bolt Action, Warlord Game's WWII 28mm skirmish wargame. Boutique FDB is home to a slow-grow league open to new players. Having painted a rifle platoon of Canadians many years ago for a different set of rules, miniatures which had never fired a shot in anger, I was looking forward to having a go.

Consequentially I picked up a copy of the rules on Thursday, read them at top speed and prepared my forces. This week we were fielding 500 points which was just about a perfect fit for my three rifle sections. I hoped that my lonely PIAT team would be enough to keep any tanks from savaging my infantry.

The league is a casual affair with players showing up and building their lists to account for their opponent's capabilities. We actually played to a range of points, from 500-650, depending on each player's collection. Since I brought a 500 point list my opponent rebuilt his to match.

I wasn't the only inexperienced player there which made me feel better about my shaky grasp on the rules. My opponent used to play Bolt Action years ago but this was his first game in the new edition. He had read about what had changed but hadn't had a chance to go through the new rulebook which meant the first few activations were halting as we looked up to-hit charts and the effects of difficult terrain. Fortunately there aren't many modifiers to remember and by the second turn we were flying. I'm glad I'm fresh to this edition; it's always hard trying to remember rules changes between editions.

The Battle

The battle was fought between a rifle platoon of Royal Highland Regiment of Canada and some nameless Waffen SS. I had three regular sections with an LMG, my HQ, a free artillery observer and the aforementioned PIAT team. My opponent had a veteran rifle section with two LMGs, a veteran section armed with SMGs mounted in a Hanomag and his HQ mounted in a Kubelwagon.

At this range and with the sandbags counting as heavy cover his Hanomag needed to roll a 6 on a D6, followed by a second roll of a 6 on a D6 and then you can roll to wound.

CCCP v TXNG Team Yankee Counterattack 75pts

Don't Mess with Texas, National Guard!   Tris and I play Counterattack (as always, video below), I always bid attacker, we play on a nice board set-up at Scott's place, see below deployment pic:

The 3 M1s on left are in Ambush, not really there!

Freshly-painted units for me:  Hinds 3 and 4

And my 2nd full company of T-72s (these now all have their decals done)