Category: Fortress Europe

The D-Day Global Campaign

with Andrew Haught (Battlefront NZ)

This week we take a closer look at the D-Day: Global Campaign Battlefront and the crew over at OnTableTop are running later this year. We have done several campaigns with OnTableTop in the past for Team Yankee and those who played in those will recognize this campaign- even though there are a few key differences. The campaign itself will have players fighting their way through the battles of Normandy taking over Routes and securing Areas that will earn their side a bonus when fighting in that route during the next week.

This Global Campaign kit is flexible and can be played during the online campaign, linking both your store’s campaign and the online campaigns together; or it can be played offline at any time using just the campaign kit. Each kit will have a ruleset, a campaign map, recruitment posters, and a set of stickers to mark your progress.

The online part of the campaign will link gaming communities from across the world together to fight over a global map. Along with recording your games and adding your side’s victories you can also write up your battle reports and share them with the online community, earning cool achievements and giving your side even more of an edge.

Did I say edge? Well, here is a non-obvious segue way into talking about Tactical Edge cards! Those who are participating in the Hobby League you will earn Tactical Edge cards to use during this campaign. These cards give you a one use boost for any game you play during the campaign, giving you an “edge” in your games. If you didn’t take part in the Hobby League then you don’t have to worry about these cards, unless your opponent has, then be afraid! Be very afraid!

Just kidding, the cards are cool and have cool effects, but none of them are game-breaking on their own, so if you don’t have them and your opponent does it’s not the end of the world.

Well that’s it for our first look at the Global Campaign, later on we will go even more in depth on what’s in the campaign kits and we will go over how the campaign will work. For now why not join in the global discussion over on our Facebook forums and let us know what side you will be representing in the global campaign.

Currahee!

with Chris Potter, BF UK

For me nothing typifies Late War like the Normandy invasion. The largest seaborne invasion in history? Check. The largest airborne drop of troops to date? Check. And all this against a dug in and entrenched foe, led by none other than the Desert Fox himself: Erwin Rommel.

When the Late War journey was announced and the information about the books started to come to fruition, I was in my element like a kid in a sweet shop. I was at the front of the queue when we had the Late War sale clutching my list of ‘must haves’ begging the boss to let me get my blisters and box sets. Like a lot of others, I had to wait my turn, much to the better half’s relief as my list far outweighed my wages.

But boy did the factory deliver. I managed to bag myself two boxes of US Parachute Infantry, to get my Band of Brothers Airborne fix, as well as a box of 29th Infantry for the all important beach landings. This would be the start of my D-Day Force. Because on the horizon I was being tempted by the new plastic Airborne sprues and some rather tasty kit in the form of new plastic jeeps and rumours of 80mm mortars to rain fire on the enemy.

However, Matt managed to bring me back to the present as he reminded me that we needed to put together forces for Fortress Europe before I got carried away with the US D-Day book. Sorry boys of the 29th and 101st, you will have to wait whilst the glory boys of the 3rd Armored have their time in the spotlight.

I don’t want to reiterate what has already been said by a thousand others, but nothing screams US dominance on the Western Front like the wonderful Sherman tank. Whatever version of Sherman, you see a group of these coming, and you know that the rest of the US forces are not far behind. They are the breakthrough, the reason that prior to D-Day in 1944 the plucky Brits designed a Duplex Drive (DD) system to allow them to ‘swim’ up the beach to smash the enemy. They even fitted them with canvas flotation devices to literally float them through the surf.

From Omaha to Caen, throughout Market Garden to the German homeland, Detroit’s finest were leading the way and looking good doing it!

So when I saw that the new US Combat Command contained no less than 5 Shermans, which when combined with the 8 found in the Hit The Beach starter set, meant I had the solid core needed for a Fortress Europe Armoured Company. Add into that, the Priests for some artillery support and the M10 Tank Destroyers for some long range AT, all I need is some Armoured Rifles to take and hold objectives.

I am really excited to field Americans in Late War for V4. At heart this is all about getting as many models onto the table all at once. My usual modus operandi is to get what looks cool, then play a few games and work out the weaknesses before changing up the army composition. This time will be no different. My first game is against Gareth’s Germans. Let’s see how the Combined Arms list compares and performs!

Fortress Europe Live Launch Landing Page

On June 6, we celebrated the launch of our first Late War V4 book Fortress Europe to much fanfare and celebration. You can check out all the great launch day content here:

Previews and Releases
Fortress Europe live on Digital
Fortress Europe live on Forces
Fortress Europe Overview
Fortress Europe: German Spotlight
Fortress Europe: American Spotlight
Fortress Europe: Soviet Spotlight
Fortress Europe: British Spotlight 
Fortress Europe: Late War Additions
Hobby League: German
Hobby League: American
Hobby League: Soviet
Hobby League: British

Videos
OnTableTop Bootcamp
German Stater Force Unboxing
American Starter Force Unboxing
Soviet Starter Force Unboxing
British Starter Force Unboxing
FURY Unboxing
Hit The Beach Unboxing
How To Play Flames Of War
Pete the Wargamer Paints Flames Of War
Hobby League
Military History Visualizedfeat. Flames Of War

Forces and Projects
Historical Forces in Fortress Europe
Currahee!
Big Four of Late War
Alex’s Hit The Beach Germans
Phil’s Move To Late War
Aaron’s Launch Day Project
Studio Update

Thanks for Watching!

The Late War launch is over for the time being (that is, until D-Day: American hits the shelves in a few weeks), so we’d like very much to thank you for joining us and to let you know that we look forward to the next launch when we will have even more exciting stuff to show off.

Until then, we are going to leave you with some excellent coverage of the Flames Of War Boot Camp, hosted by OnTableTop over the launch weekend.

Thanks again for joining us!

www.flamesofwar.com

www.ontabletop.com

Hobby League: Soviets

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 Soviet Starter Force but if you want to learn about the other three Starter Forces, there’s more info in previous posts.

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,  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
T-34 Tank Battalion HQ with 1x T-34 (76mm) Tank (3 Points)
T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
T-70 Tank Company with 5x T-70 (45mm) Tanks (5 Points)
KV-1 Guards Heavy Tank Company with 3x KV Tanks (12 Points)
S085 Tank-Killer Battery with 4x SU-85 (85mm) Assault Guns (23 points)
Katyusha Guards Rocket Battery with 4x Katyusha Rocket Launchers (8 Points)

Total 66 Points

Creating a 100 Point List
This set gives you a ton to work with but Soviets are points-affordable, so we will need to add a few more things to make it a full 100 point list, but let’s keep it focussed. I think after playing around with your Starter force you may get a good feel of what you want to add but for those who want to start off with a full 100 points I would pick up five more T-34s, some flame tanks, and an 82mm Mortar platoon and you will be good to go. To get to  100 points you just need to add the following:

T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
KV-8 Flame-Tank Company 3x KV-8 (45mm) Tanks (15 Points)

82 Mortar Company with 6 82mm Mortor Teams (4 Points)

Total 34 Points

Now, I would run the T-34s in platoons of 5 and have two working platoons, but you can combine them into a single ten tank platoon if you want the numbers.

Army Tactics
This army is pretty medium armour heavy, so you want to maximize your speed and numbers to hit tanks on the side amour and use your massive numbers to overrun any dug in troops with the sheer amount of firepower you can bring to bear on them. Your SU-85s are your strongest Anti-Tank assets so you want to place them somewhere that they can hit your opponent’s heavy armour no matter where they deploy them. Your artillery combined can decimate any dug in guns and infantry guarding objectives, while your heavy KV-1 can slowly move towards the objectives to take them.
Your T-70 light tanks are perfect to hunt and kill any lightly-armoured tanks your opponent has or to hold an objective against advancing infantry.

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,

T-34 Tank Battalion HQ with 1x T-34 (76mm) Tank (3 Points)
T34 Tank Company with 5x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (15 Points)
T-70 Tank Company with 5x T-70 (45mm) Tanks (5 Points)
82 Mortar Company with 6 82mm Mortar Teams (4 Points)
S085 Tank-Killer Battery with 4x SU-85 (85mm) Assault Guns (23 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 heavy tanks.

Extra T-34s to add to your existing T34 Tank Company with 2x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (6 Points)
KV-1 Guards Heavy Tank Company with 3x KV Tanks (12 Points)
Katyusha Guards Rocket Battery with 4x Katyusha Rocket Launchers (8 Points)
This is a total 26 points (one over but it will count towards your next month so it’s all good)

For the Final month I am keeping it simple, this time you just have to paint up six tanks. This is what I am planning on painting for the last month,

KV-8 Flame-Tank Company 3x KV-8 (45mm) Tanks (15 Points)
Your remaining T-34s with 3x T-34 (76mm) Tanks (9 Points)
At the end of month three you have another tournament and 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 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.

Hobby League: American

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.

 

OnTableTop Boot Camp

There’s still more to the Late War Launch this weekend! Be sure to follow the OnTableTop boot camp starting this afternoon! They’ve been working hard to set up some fantastic tables and have really thrown themselves into the Late War Launch!

You can follow the action right here…

And here’s a great little bocage video so you can start prepping your tables for D-Day!

 

Hobby League: German

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 German 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 German Starter Force has a total of 14 vehicles, 2 big 8.8 AA guns, a rocket artillery battery and a full Grenadier platoon, with the whole army adding up to 95 points using the German 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
Panzer IV Tank Company HQ with 2x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (11 Points)

Panzer IV Tank Platoon with 3x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (16 Points)

Tiger Tank Platoon with 2x Tiger (8.8cm) Tanks (24 points)

Armoured Panzergrenadier Platoon at Full Strength (12 Points)

Fallschirmjäger Stug Assault Gun Platoon with 3x StuG (7.5cm) Assault Guns (17 Points)

15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket  Battery with 3x 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket Launchers (9 Points)

8.8 Heavy AA Platoon with 2x 8.8cm AA Guns (6 Points)

Total 95 Points

Creating a 100 Point List
This box gives almost a full 100 point list, only 5 points shy, so there is not much 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 simply add a Puma Scout Platoon, this only gets us to 99 points, so adding a 1 point Command Card (starting with D-Day: German) gets us to a total of 100 points. So to get to 100 points all you need to add is the following,

Puma Scout Platoon with 2x Puma (5cm) Tanks (4 Points)  

Lucky Command Card (1 Point)

Total 5 Points

Army Tactics
This army is well rounded with artillery, infantry, heavy anti-tank guns, and a great selection of tanks. With the core of your force I would recommend attacking with this force. Your mix of tanks gives you loads of good options to knock out your opponent’s tanks. The Tigers being some of your best anti-tank should focus more on your opponents heavy armour, supported by the 8.8 AA guns. Use your artillery to soften your opponent’s defences and use your German Halftrack infantry and Tanks to assault their objectives and to win the game.

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,

Panzer IV Tank Company HQ with 2x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (11 Points)

Panzer IV Tank Platoon with 3x Panzer IV (7.5cm) Tanks (16 Points)

Tiger Tank Platoon with 2x Tiger (8.8cm) Tanks (24 points)

 

Strictly-speaking, this is 51 points but fine enough for the 50 point tournament as it is close enough, it will be up to your event organizer to make the final call on these things but all the core set 50 point armies listed in these articles are fine to run in the Hobby league 50 point tournament.

Month 2 you are looking to paint another 25 points, you just painted core so let’s work on some more support and some Recon,

  • Armoured Panzer Grenadier Platoon at Full Strength (12 Points)
  • 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket  Battery with 3x 15cm Nebelwerfer Rocket Launchers (9 Points)
  • Puma Scout Platoon with 2x Puma (5cm) Tanks (4 Points)  

For the Final month I would focus  on the last bits, tactically you can add your 1 point command card here to your list’s HQ, and this will round out your 100 point list,

  • Fallschirmjäge Stug Assault Gun Platoon with 3x StuG (7.5cm) Assault Guns (17 Points)
  • 8.8 Heavy AA Platoon with 2x 8.8cm AA Guns (6 Points)
  • Lucky Command Card (1 Point)

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.