Converting To Armour - Part One

Hey everyone, Matt here!

So here's the situation - I have been playing Flames of War for just over a year now, been to some great events, played some excellent players and was even fortunate enough to have been asked to join this rather fabulous blog (you can remove the gun from my head now fellas!) and so here I am... 2014 was clearly a fantastic year and 2015 has a lot to live up to indeed. I started the new year in the best possible way - A day trip to the tank museum...

Apparently people have better things to do than visit the tank museum on New Year's Day. Losers!

Nachtjager - Tactical Thoughts

Hi all 

Coxer here, and today I'm going to use my own immeasurable tactical expertise to weigh in on how I see the new lists from Nachtjager will stand up in the maelstrom of tournament play. 

British

Armoured squadron

So let's start by looking at the Comet. In my head I've always had this unit compared to the Easy 8, and I think that's not an awful place to start. The comet is cheaper than the E8 just - but not by much. They're both quick on their feet, the comets AT is better, both have FA7 and protected ammo - the Easy 8 though benefits from having a jumbo in it's platoon and detroits finest. I can see these guys being great on more open tables, but they will suffer on the more congested tables we often play on here. 

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 24

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes episode 24. 

We join Ben, Adam and Fez as they chat all things Flames of War, in act one the guys go over what they have been up too, some Flames of War news about up coming books, BA's German infantry lists result and finally an AAR of the last Early War one day tournament.

In act two the guys look at the latest book Nachtjager in detail (you can check out the review of the books here for the British and for the Germans).

And finally in act three the guys answer your questions in Winner Dave's Mailbag (without Winner) before ending the episode with Corrivalry chatter and then it turns into endless banter.

Nachtjager AAR - 15th/19th Hussars vs Von Benningsen - Break Out

With the new book in hand (well iPad) myself and Adam wanted to try out the new lists in a game. We'd have loved to have used the Comets but not having any the new 15th/19th Hussars would have to do (not a problem as it looks like a fun list!).  For the Germans we wanted to use the new night fighting auto attacking Germans and made the choice of Von Benningsen to fit Adam's German collection. We chose to play Break Out (you can check out the mission here) as it seemed like a nice themed mission (and something different). After making the two lists we rolled off to see who would play which army, I ended up with the British and Adam the Germans.

15th/19th Hussars (Confident Veteran) HQ Cromwell + 2 CS Cromwells 4 Cromwells 4 Cromwells 3 Challengers 3 Carriers 4 25 Pdrs AOP

Von Benningsen (Reluctant Veteran) HQ Panther 3 Panthers + Infra Red + Uhu Halftrack (proxied by the 250) 2 Panzer IV/70's + 1 StuG 2 Panzer IV/70's + 1 StuG 1 Kfz 234/1 + 1 Kfz 234/4 (Pak40) 1 Kfz 234/1 + 1 Kfz 234/4 (Pak40) 2 Pak 40's

Breakthrough Assault Early War One Dayer AAR

Hello all

On the 11th Janurary we held a one day tournament at Entoyment, 16 players come to what was for most of use the first tournament of the year.

The event was 1550pts, open with three games, this was the first time any of us had played a tournament with the new Barbarossa book and we were very interested to see what effect that would have on the "meta".

I was trying out T-34's in Early War for the first time, in fact I didn't get a single practice game in... still something it's best just to get thrown in the deep end.

Nachtjager Tale of 4 Gamers Painting Challenge

Hello All

With the new Late War book around the corner we thought it was a great chance to do every hobbyist's favourite challenge - a Tale of 4 Gamers. This will be based on Operations Varsity and Plunder with all of the armies from the new book. This also links in nicely to Ben's new years resolution.

The plan is to do three months of 600pts chunks with a legal army and games planned for month two. We will also be taking the armies to a tournament and we are looking into the possibility of a campaign as well.

Ben and Andy will be focusing on the Allies while Fez and Alex are going Axis.

So here are the guys to talk about what they are planning.

Beyond the Foxholes Epsiode 23 - Interview with Mike Haught

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes episode 23. 

Ben and Adam are joined by Mike Haught, co author of Nachtjager. In act one they talk about the British lists in the book. These include the 11th Armoured Division, Comet tanks and the 51st Highland Division.

In act two the interview moves onto the Germans, infra red equipped troops, railway guns and a quick chat about what is next for FoW and Volkssturm companies!

Nachtjager Part Two:- The Germans!

If you missed the British in part one check them out here.

We again join the Germans in the last days of the Reich. We have had the quickly rushed together Armoured Kampfgruppes of Desperate Measures and the Auto Defend Heavy Tanks holding off the US in Bridge at Remagen. Now it's the turn of the Night Attacking Infra Red equipped Tanks of Nachtjager. There are three lists and like the British you have two armoured and one infantry list. The Tank lists focuses on the last Panzer Division Clausewitz and the Infantry are the 2. Marine-Grenadierdivision.

Nachtjager Part One:- The British!

So after having to wait their turn the British finally get another Late Late War book. Nachtjager is 80 pages long and focuses on the British led Operation Plunder, the encirclement of the Ruhr Pocket and the drive towards Denmark. You may have noticed I didn't say Operation Varsity and I haven't missed it out, the Airbourne forces aren't an option at all in this book.

Winner Dave's Captured Half-Tracks

Now when I said the DShK trucks were the last of my Soviet units for a while I was of course lying.  I didn't mean to lie, but it's just worked out that way.  I discovered in my bits box that I hadn't given my lone SdKfz 250 to Adam as I thought, I also discovered that EnToyment had taken a small batch of stock from Plastic Soldier Company with some Zvezda model thrown it.  £2 for a single SdKfz 251...hell yeah.

This is also a good unit to bring a very different feel to the army as it grants me access to the infiltration rules.  I think that could be a lot of fun to try out, although no doubt my opponent will roll the 6 needed for detection.

Bring Up The Guns, US Style!

Hello All

As you might be aware Corrivalry is around the corner; and with already 80 sign ups as I type and with players from Italy, Ireland and France this is going to be the biggest tournament of the year in the UK. If I'm honest myself and Adam tend to worry about lists for Corrivalry more than any other event on the calendar. With that in mind I have been madly writing lists, then emailing Adam and Co and chatting to WWPD Luke about every US infantry list around. So with a load of lists written I needed to add a lot of guns!

A quick dig through the bits box found four Towed M5 3" Guns and an order to get four more Towed Guns and eight (yes that's right eight!) 155mm artillery! And of course me being me I decided to paint them all in one go.

Alex learns how to... Cromwells

Wrong Cromwell...

So this is the start of what will hopefully be an irregular series. I've moved away from the south coast
up to the Midlands, this is halfway across the country, or if you are American, the distance to the shops. Anyway, I'm no longer near Ben and Adam and Winner, but I am now near Steve Charlton, the UK number 1. So the plan is that Steve will show me what I'm doing wrong with the various armies I can't get to work for me and show me how to do better with it. I then write it up so that it's not just me who benefits from Steve's expertise.
Cracking idea right?

Anyway, one autumn evening I made the drive to a secret location in the middle of nowhere to Steve's top secret lair with my Desert Rat Cromwell list. If you are a long time fan then you will know of my love/hate relationship with the Cromwell cruiser tank and my ability to screw up with them in pretty much any situation.

Road to the BTAEWOD

BTAEWOD - Breakthrough Assault Early War One Dayer

Hello all,
Fez here with a quick post on my latest army completion-my Early War Fallschirmjager!

Done - and a week early!

Next weekend is the next one day tournament in Bournemouth, Early War 1550. Not having time to paint up a new army, I decided to revisit and finish off my Luftlandesturm glider borne force. I took two air landing platoons to my first ever tournament at Warfare Reading in 2013, and with my task of getting as high up the rankings as I can (well, at least better than the other new members of BTA) I thought I should cut it back a little, and only have one platoon in gliders:

The Redemption Of The HMG

Hi All

I like to work on the principle that I'm always right. And many of you will remember back in one of our podcasts we slated the HMG. We were right at the time, however experience has changed what 'right' is - and I have to say I now love HMG'S!

I've changed my mind as the environment in which I play has evolved. When I slated the HMG it was after my experiences of using them in British lists in LW. They were unable to combat attach, I never found a good time to use their bombardment rule (which was not available to the para's anyway!) and in comparison to the 6pdr less versatile - all of that is still true.

Review: Peter Pig - Dutch Infantry

Recently we were lucky enough to be sent a selection of infantry from that venerable manufacturer Peter Pig'. I've picked up a few models from there in the past, and have a soft spot for them as they're based only a few miles away from us in Weymouth. They do a huge range of 15mm models and their WW2 stuff is under the name 'PBI' you can get them now throughout the world, but enough about them, let's look at the models!

I received a selection of their Dutch range, it covers all the bases, with rifle teams, LMG's, HMG's, mortars, anti tank crews, casualties etc - a really wide variety which you can use to build an entire force with.

Road to ETC - Team New Zealand Part 1

Road to ETC - Team New Zealand Part 1 

The European Team Championship (ETC) for Flames of War is something that I’ve heard spoken
about in almost reverential terms over the past year.  I first heard of the ETC when I went out for a beer with some of the more experienced hands from the tournament scene.  Over the coming months I started to hear more and more war stories of Team England’s heroic efforts and how it wasn’t just about the individual games but also the strategy employed by the team captains to determine the match ups.

Given that I was relatively new to the tournament scene I had written off any hope of getting into a team to compete on the world stage.  After all teams are composed of six players and there is no way I classed myself as being anywhere near the top six in England let alone the UK.

However as I was chewing the cud after Warfare 2014 at Reading Warfare 2014 I was quite surprised to be taken to one side and asked whether I would consider joining Team New Zealand by their captain, Dave M.  It turns out each team can have a small number of “mercenaries” in their ranks and apparently I’m not considered to be a bad player, although my results at Reading would say otherwise!  I was very quick to accept the offer and almost bit his hand off in doing so.  It was only then that I asked the relevant questions such as where and when it was.  Turns out it clashes with my wedding anniversary, doh!

New Years Resolutions

Hello All

Firstly Happy New Year to you all, may 2015 be a great year. Like we did in 2014 a new year means it's time for new year resolutions! With all the new guys on the blog this year we decided to reduce the number resolutions a little. We all picked one resolution for ourselves, then got two from the group and had to come up with one blog focused resolution. In hindsight a few of last years resolutions were a little, well, weak, so if we felt any weren't up to scratch then the group made it a little harder.

So lets see this years offering.