with Andrew Haught
V4 Late War is here with loads of ways to get into playing Flames Of War— so where do you start? Well, if you want to just get a feel for the rules the FURY is an amazing box set for you, or if you want to get into the game with a friend, Hit the Beach gives you two awesome armies to play against each other. If you have some idea of what force you want to run, then picking up the corresponding Starter Force box set is what you want to do. This article covers the American Force but if you want to learn about the other three Starter Forces, there will be more info to come.
This Starter Force gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, and like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The British Starter Force has a total 17 armoured vehicles, a full 4-gun artillery battery, and an infantry platoon, with the whole army adding up to 82 points using the Fortress Europe book, the box can also be used for the upcoming D-Day: British book so it’s a great core set to pick up for players who want to play the British throughout the V4 journey. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook. A Start Here booklet, and your Unit cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.
This American Box gives you a lot of stuff to play around with right away, like all the V4 boxsets you get a lot for your money. The American Starter Force has a total of 20 vehicles, and a full Amoured Rifle platoon, with the whole army adding up to 78 points using the US-D-day book. On top of models you will get a complete A5 rulebook, a Start Here booklet, and your Unit Cards, so you can start playing games as soon as you’re done building your force.
In The Box
M4 Sherman Tank Company HQ with 2x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (9 Points)
M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 3x M4 Sherman (76mm) Tanks (17 Points)
M5 Stuart Tank Platoon with 3x M5 Stuart (37mm) Tanks (7 Points)
Armoured Rifle Platoon at Full Strength (19 points)
M10 3-inch Tank Destroyer Platoon with 4x M10 (3-inch) Tanks (18 Points)
Priest Battery with 3x M7 Priest (105mm) Tanks (8 Points)
Total 78 Points
Creating a 100 point list
This box gives you your core force, so there are only a few more things you need to add to make it a full 100 point list. I think after playing around with your Starter Force you may get a good feel for what you want to add, but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would add another Sherman platoon, this time 4 Sherman (75mm) and some Recon with the Greyhound unit, this only gets us to 99 points, so adding a 1 point Command Card (D-Day: American) gets us to a total of 100 points . So to get to 100 points you just need to add the following,
M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 4x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (16 Points)
M8 Greyhound Cavalry Patrol with 2x Greyhounds and 2x Jeeps Tanks (5 Points)
Lucky Command Card (1 Point)
Total 22 Points
Army Tactics
The Sherman tanks will form the core of the list, putting down fire and threatening your opponent’s defences. The M10s are your tank-hunters, used to hunt down heavy tanks. The Stuarts make a perfect screening unit, they are fast and have just enough anti-tank to threaten other light tanks and armoured transports while having enough machine gun fire to keep infantry in their foxholes. Tanks are great at pushing the attack, but when it comes to defending an objective or holding a recently cleared objective, infantry are key. The Armoured Rifle Platoon is an army unto itself, and once dug in on an objective it becomes one hard nut to crack.
For support you have a Cavalry Recon Patrol, a great recon unit that will give the force some forward momentum at the start of the game, then shifting into a support role helping the Stuarts to keep enemy infantry units pinned down. The Priests are infantry and gun team killers and if zeroed in on an objective at the start of the game will wreak havoc on enemy forces defending that objective.
Hobby League
If you are looking to get in on the Hobby League at your local store or club the Starter Forces are ideal starting armies for the league. If you add the units I talked about before in the Creating a 100 Point List section you can easily use it for the hobby league.
If you do not know what the hobby league is or want to learn more check out our video about the Hobby League above.
The main goal of the Hobby league is to create a Flames Of War community where players can come together to play games and work on their armies. To this end players are rewarded for hitting certain painting goals throughout the league. The first month players aim to paint 50 points, at the end of the second month players will aim to finish another 25 points and at the end of the third month players aim to finish their final 25 points and end the League with a fully painted 100 point army. The League also feeds into the upcoming TableTopGaming Global campaign, so if you finish painting your army for the League you will be ready to participate in the Global Campaign.
Month 1 has a 50 point goal; it also ends in a 50 point tournament, so you will want to focus on your core formation to make sure you have a legal list to run in the tournament. For this I would paint the following units first,
- M4 Sherman Tank Company HQ with 2x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks and Lucky Command Card (10 Points)
- M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 3x M4 Sherman (76mm) Tanks (17 Points)
- M5 Stuart Tank Platoon with 3x M5 Stuart (37mm) Tanks (7 Points)
- M4 Sherman Tank Platoon with 4x M4 Sherman (75mm) Tanks (16 Points)
Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted core so let’s work on some more support and some Anti-Tank,
- M10 3-inch Tank Destroyer Platoon with 4x M10 (3-inch) Tanks (18 Points)
- My Priest Battery with 3x M7 Priest (105mm) Tanks (8 Points)
For the Final month I am focussing on the infantry and light armour,this will be a shift form the tanks you been painting but it will fill up those last points. This is what I would be planning on painting for the last month,
- M8 Greyhound Cavalry Patrol with 2x Greyhounds and 2x Jeeps Tanks (5 Points)
- Armored Rifle Platoon at Full Strength (19 points)
Now at the end of month three you have another tournament this time it’s a 100 point tournament so you will get to use your full army and get used to how it works in games. After that the Global TableTopGames Campaign begins having you and your friends fighting over Europe, you club or store with the rest of the world will be sending in their game results to contribute on the global scale making this one of the biggest campaigns you will ever participate in.
My final word of advice is to take time to enjoy painting your models your way and to learn as much as you can from others in the league to get the most out of the Flames Of War community.