Flames of War Tournaments: A Noobs Guide

Hi there, I'm Marc and I'm probably one of the newest Flames of War players on this blog having only played for just over a year.  My games this year have been mainly at tournaments so I thought I'd share with my fellow Noobs a survival guide to the UK tournament scene.

So you've played a few games of Flames of War and you've heard of tournaments being talked about down the club, indeed you may have read the odd after action report on your favourite blog and for some reason you've decided to give it a go.  Until earlier this year I had never entered a wargaming tournament but reading about them piqued my interest.  So far this year I've played in five tournaments and have a further two coming up bringing my total for 2014 to a respectable seven, not bad for a new player I think.

So whilst I am by no means a hardened veteran of the tournament scene hopefully my observations will make it easier for fellow tournament noobs to jump in and have the same great time that I have had so far.

Fez's First Frothing Foray on BTA - BTA Mid War One Dayer AAR

Hello all!
Fez-man here, excited to join the Breakthrough Assault team. I've been playing Flames of War tournaments for just over a year, but have been a hobbyist for many more, working for Games Workshop for a few years, and I'm also Chairman of the Guildford Games Club.

For my first post, I'll be looking at the recent Breakthrough Assault One Dayer - Mid War, that I attended with my British Infantry Tank Company.

First, a quick look at the Venue, LvlUp Gaming in Bournemouth.

Not the largest selection, but at least its a start!

KV-1e (SU082) & KV-2 (SU081) Re-sculpts Review

Hello All

As part of the Early War Sale I ordered six KV-1e's (SU082) and two KV-2's (SU081) for my Mid War Soviets (well they could be used in Early War but those nine tanks would be something like 4,000 points by themselves!). I was quite surprised that when I received my KV's they were the new re-sculpted version!

I didn't know what to expect from the re-sculpts, I figured it would just be adding some new tools or something and maybe refining a few details of the model. Man I was wrong!

New Beginnings and Every Wargamers Dream!

Hey all! Matt here and this is my first post for Breakthrough Assault. Yay!

In fact, I've just had an entire week of 'first times' come to think of it; My one year old daughter has just taken her first few steps and popped her first baby teeth, I was best man at my mates wedding, had hot and sour soup from the Chinese takeaway for the first time last night... oh yes and I've just bought a house (and got permission to build a 'Man Cave') Boom!

So given these hectic times I don't have too much to talk about armies/ painting wise, so let's talk about THE Man Cave! 

New Additions to the Team

Hi All

We at Breakthrough Assault are expanding and we'd like to introduce you all to our newest team members. In no particular order we have:-

Matt "Papa Bear" Pullen - papabear@breakthroughassault.co.uk

After becoming a proud stay at home Dad in late 2013 Matt has been able to devote a lot more time into the hobby. Needless to say he doesn't miss those wretched night shifts and is now only half as grumpy as he used to be (which is actually still pretty grumpy compared to most standards)!

Favourite Army: Panzergrenadiers/ German Armoured Reconnaissance (Aufklaungs)

Best Wargaming Moment: Defeating Marc at Art of War and then the huge debate on the way home after as to what holds more 'prestige' - me winning our head to head game, or him finishing higher in the rankings!

Worst blunder: Not listening to any advice regarding tigers and panthers (both in the same list) being too expensive for tournament play. I certainly learnt that the hard way!

Sally 4th Flames of War Storage Boxes - Review

Hello All

A few weeks ago I came across the Sally 4th laser-cut Flames of War Storage boxes and as I needed more storage before my wife killed me I thought it would be a great idea to order some and see what they looked like.

So the four boxes I ordered turned up in a pretty short time, let's have a look inside.

Beyond The Foxholes - Episode 20

Hello All

In Act One we join Ben, Winner Dave and Adam as they chat about what they have been up to recently, Battlefront news with price reductions and digital books and then the guys talk about the resent BA One Day MW tournament.

In Act Two the guys talk about painting tips and then move onto Dave's Mail Bags.

In Act Three Adam leaves us as, so Winner Dave and Ben talk about some commonly overlooked rules before chatting about a few random projects.

Shattered Battlefield and Large Craters and Ruined House Review

Hey folks

Recently I bought the latest terrain products from Battlefront designed with The Great War in mind.  I wanted these as I didn't think I'd find the time to getting around to making my own and as we all know by now, these come pre-painted ready to go.

Project Finland: Finnish Tank Hunter Platoon (Late War)

Hi all the penultimate unit for my Finns. I thought they deserved their own little article, as despite being 7 stands strong (apologies for only showing 6 stands forgot one in my box!) they have a real tactical use which I think deserves a highlight.

Flames of War Tactics - Kangaroo

Ahh one of my favourite units, and I'm going to look at how to use them. Hi all coxer here once again and I'm discussing the British armoured transport the kangaroo, both Ram and Sherman.

So for those of you who don't know what a kangaroo is let me enlighten you. During the war British infantry were aware of how vulnerable infantry were, at the same time the US made Priest self propelled artillery piece was removed from British service due to problems with supplying ammunition - these defrocked Priests became the basis for this experiment and were very successful - it was then that the obsolete Canadian Ram tank was identified as an armoured transport - in Italy damaged shermans were used in a similar way.

Project Finland - Finnish T-34

Hi all

Coxer here with some T-34's for my Finn's. Firstly These are the new Battlefront T-34's and just WOW!!! These models were a real pleasure to put together, I was properly impressed by the quality of the kit, and the details on it. The options for both the 76 and 85 were really appreciated too. But enough of the build quality, lets look at the painting of these - as I've refined this since I started way back with the T-26.

I started by basing the model black, I'm a big fan of this as opposed to grey for tanks, as it gives it depth I think.

Call Me Mr Pink! Vietnam Pink Team Helicopter Squad

Hello All

After doing a load of Great War Germans I decided to mix things up a bit and get back to my Vietnam US. Having spent many months looking at the Helicopters on my desk I decided to start with a Cobra and a Loach pink team (so called as it's a mix of the White scout teams and the Red attack helicopter team), partly as they are in my first infantry army list and I wanted to do something small, but mainly as helicopters are cool!

The Loach was a great piece of kit, the plastic make it very quick to put together (especially compared to the other Helicopters in the range) and it looks very slick once done. I as always followed the guide on the Battlefront website but I do feel I put the back fin on at the wrong angle.

Project Finland : Mid War Fun & Madness

Hi all welcome to the third part of my Finnish list discussions - this time Midwar! (Early and Late war are here.)

I'm going to be honest this post has been rewritten perhaps three times - because trying to come up with a Finnish list for Mid War is tough! I'm once again sticking with Jääkärikomppania, and once again I'm FV. I'm planning this list for the next BA one day event, and Reading Warfare!

So where am I going to start, well once again lets go with the compulsory choices Jääkäri platoons, unlike late war I don't think I have the points for lots of upgrades, except of course Torni for one platoon and a close defense team for the other.

I'm thinking that I'm going to be defensive quite a lot due to the overwhelming number of tankovy lists I've previously played in MW, as such I'm going a little different, I want big platoons on the board with everything. As such I'm going to next go for the Anti Tank Rifle Platoon, but going to make them all Close defense teams and I can combat attach them out.

Great War German Infanteriekompanie HQ (GGE701)

Hello All

Today I'm finally rounding out my Great War army with the final blister, the Infanteriekompanie HQ (GGE701).

Of all the blisters this was the most fun! The amount of option to paint up and use is massive! Flamer throwers, light (well if you can call FP 3+ light!) mortars and anti-tank rifles, this blister has it all.

The Great War - British Rifle Platoon - 2

Hello all,  I'm really pleased to have finally finished all the units from my Great War boxset.

For reasons I can't quite explain this last platoon has really dragged on.  Partly family holidays/Exams/Job interviews/Having to paint Soviet stuff/Lack of enthusiasm.

Project Finland: Looted Reinforcements

Hi all,

Coxer here with a paining update for my Finnish army. I've been trying to come up with some way to link all of these looted units was about the only option.

Lets start with the tanks - The ISU-152. This was a present from Ben, and realistically there is nothing wrong with having such a ridiculous vehicle in this army - except I like vet intantry, a trained tank is very out of keeping. Historically the Finn's captured two of these, one became a recovery vehicle, the other back in working order. I painted this one in keeping with the other vehicles, tri colour camo, a white wash and then some details, nothing too swish - oh and some weathering. I'm not sure how useful it will be in game, but I'll try it out no doubt.

Great War Trenchline System (BB182) - Review

Hello All

This week I finally got my hands on the Trenchline System (BB182). I have been waiting for this for a while as I didn't want to start playing until we had the trenches. Yes I know you can play without them, but to me playing the first game without trenches would been like a Soviet army without a load of red banners or a German army without any Panzer IV/70's, just wrong! Anyway lets have a look at what you get inside the box!

The trench set gives you a four foot long trench with two foot long communication trenches. It is featured in the Great War rule book and is designed to be perfect for the two missions that use trenches (Through the Mud and Blood & Big Push). It comes fully painted and like all the Battlefield in the Box range can be used straight from the box.