Unboxing Kelly's Heros

What makes Tour of Duty and now Brown Water Navy games different to the World War Two games is the strategies the Free World and PAVN must use defeat their opponents. The PAVN and especially the Viet Cong Company found in Brown Water Navy rely on numbers and hit and fade tactics to weaken the Free World companies where as Free World Forces rely on well trained, disciplined units and  backed up by medics that get their troops back into action.

All these pictures were taken at work as soon as I got the box open. The large boat bits come wrapped in bubble rap and each set of small metal bits comes in its own plastic box or bag.

British Airborne Forces from Nachtjager (Digital) aka Varsity

Hi all, Coxer here returning to me oldest FoW love - British Airbourne forces. With the new lists out on Forces of war, I thought now was a good time to look at the new lists covering Operation Varisty, if you want to know my views on British para's here are thoughts about Market Garden, and Overlord.

So Where to begin? Well there are three lists, Parachute Company (British and Canadian), Airlanding, and Airborne Armoured Recce (AAR). Interestingly all of them including the AAR are Infantry (now it's been changed to mech)- even though the AAR has no infantry in it's core platoons. So what are the big changes if any? Well firstly there is the new rule 'All on the same page'  which shows the closer co-operation by ground forces so that there are no 'allies' in the list, just all one big force.

Great War German Commission - Stoss Platoon

After my adventures in Polish armour, it's back to the Great War commission.
After painting tanks I always fancy painting some infantry and vice versa.

So without further a do, a direty bunch of Stossers.

Unfortunately my photography kit is packed in boxes so I had to free had these photos, meaning my already terrible shots are Ivan on the scale of terrible.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 30 - On The Road To Solent Wargamers Armageddon

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 30 On The Road To Solent Wargamers Armageddon, in this episode we join Adam, Ben and Paul in Ben's car as they chat about the Solent Wargamers Armageddon tournament. - This is only a short one guys.

In Act One the guys chat about the tournament, their army lists and what they hope to get out of the day.

In Act Two the guys give a full AAR of the event, some thoughts about their army lists and plans for the Welsh Open.

Expanding Vasily's Hammer (SUAB06) - Part Two

Hello all

In part one of this two part post I looked at how to make the new Vasily's Hammer (SUAB06) into a full 1750pts army. As I said at the time I thought that the Hero Tankovy aren't as good as the normal Tankovy, well today I'm going to look at how to expand your box set into a full Tankovy army.

I'm going to be using Desperate Measures again for this list so there is no need to buy another book just yet (you may want to later on when you look at more options and I would highly recommend you do pick up Red Bear (FW117) at some point as it has a lot of Soviet lists in it). This is going to be a very different beast, where you need to think and get used to Hen and Chicks, but at the same time you will have twice as many tanks. So lets look at the list.

Campaign Team Tournament 2015 - AAR

Hello All

A few weeks ago myself, Cid and Alex represented Breakthrough Assault at the annual Campaign FoW National league. For those of you who don't know the National League is a yearly event with a round-robin league that has promotion and relegation between three divisions. Division One has some of the best players in the country and is always hotly contested. Our 2013 performance (we wasn't able to attend in 2014) meant that we were now in Division Two. Our aim was to get a spot in Division One for 2016...

Within the team you all play a different period and then play the opposing player of the other team who is also playing the same period. I was playing Early War and took my trusted Japanese Infantry, Cid was playing Mid War with his Romanian infantry horde and finally Alex was playing Late War with Motorstrelkovy from Desperate Measures.

Home Made Fields

I had an impromptu terrain making weekend and ended up making these fields.
I'd had the brown rigged mat kicking around for ages and always had meant to do something with it.
I glued it down to a bit of ply-board to give it solidity.  Then I glued cat litter around the edges.
I covered the cat litter in emulsion paint to help bind it together, before painting it various greys.
With the stones in place I then glued the foliage on top.

After that I set about making each field different, using whatever terrain making stuff I had to hand.

Gale force nine autumn mix...

Tanks! (Western Front) (FOW Survival Guide)

Let's face it, this is the main reason we love this game so much... Tanks! - Lots and lots of tanks! It is only fair therefore that we give them a dedicated spotlight in the Survival Guide...

Regardless of list type armour will almost always play a dominant role in any FOW battle. Whether they are supporting other units, or leading the main thrust into battle, you are going to want to ensure that you have the right tool to do the job that your list requires of them. As such we shall be looking at some of the more iconic tanks of the late war period (Western front) and discussing their apparent strengths and weaknesses, as well as the role that might suit them best. 

Now of course, I am no expert (far from it) and the opinions mentioned in this article are just that - my opinions. In addition it's important to remember that the majority of the tanks we shall be looking at are capable of fulfilling several different roles within the game. There is no right answer here, so feel free to experiment. Anyways enough chitty chatty & more tanky tanky...

Expanding Vasily's Hammer (SUAB06) - Part One

Hello All

Continuing on from Adam's post last Monday I'm going to look at how to expand the new Vasily's Hammer Boxset (SUAB06) set into a full 1750pts army.

What you get in the box

I'm going to split this into two parts. One will be how to expand the core box to make 1750pts ASAP which will be a Hero Tankovy list. The second part will be turning it into a regular Tankovy list.

Colours of War Review

Hello All,
Fez-man here with a quick review of the new 'Colours of War' book by those fine chaps over at Battlefront.

The Night belongs to Panzers.... List deconstruction

So after ten games with my 'Von Ben' night attacking panzer list I thought I'd break down what's worked well, worked badly, would do differently next time and lessons learnt.

What worked well is pretty easy - night attacking! The ability for a spearhead move + always being hit on a 5+ on the first few turns is a huge benefit. With one exception where a king tiger rolled three sixes, I'm fairly certain this kept my force going most times. It really helps as well being a panther, as the FA10 is still huge, and all bar king tigers are pretty easy to ignore, add onto that IR equipment and Uhu half tracks and you're in a good place to lead the charge. Alongside the night attack getting to spearhead is effective especially when married with panzersturm or recce!

Product Review Universal Carriers (BR211)

Ah just what I have been waiting for...

Hey guys,

Today I am going to be looking at the new Universal Carriers (BR211).

Up until now I have been using the older Battlefront Universal Carriers in my British army and although they are very decent models, I didn't hesitate in getting my hands on these,  given the high quality of the recent Battlefront releases this year.

Beyond the Foxholes 29

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 29, in this episode we join Adam, Winner Dave and Ben as they chat about FOW. 

In act one the guys cover their normal AAR, have some news about the future of Beyond the Foxholes and then cover the recent Late Late War tournament they went to.

In act two Ben interviews Chris Townley from BF HQ in New Zealand, they cover Berlin, Cold War Gone Hot and the Pacific. After the interview the guys chat about the highlights of the interview.

In act three we empty Winner Dave's mail bag before looking about ideas of how to change up some of the missions to make them better.

Expanding Rämsch's Charge (GEAB12)

So we set ourselves all a little challenge of expanding the new army boxes into 'proper' 1750 points Flames of War forces - and at the same time doing it on a budget!

So this is basically what you get in the box. As the groups main german player I got Rämsch's Charge (GEAB12) to expand. In the box you get 5 Panzer 4's, 3 StuG's and a platoon of Panzergrenadiers. Not a bad starting point, but also (if I may whisper) a little unfocused with the mixture of StuG and Panzer 4.
Lastly I'm going to go for a choice based more on coolness of model, both for look and effect on the field -

So firstly let's find a 'competative' list I can use as a base for a new player. The answer is obvious I think personally - the free 'Devils Charge Digital exclusive (which is free on Forces of War, and known to many as Panzers to the Meuse) even less cost for those of you joining the hobby. For this list I've gone for Lehr.

Building an EW Polish Army - Armour Part 2 The Rest

As promised in my first post on my new EW army, here's the rest of the armour.

The armoured cars...

I couldn't be bothered to try and source some decals, so I had a go at painting the eagle.  Naturally some are better than others.

Early War AAR - Japanese Infantry Vs Soviet Heavy Tankovy Batalon - Free For All

Hello All This weekend is Campaign, the yearly flames of war team league. Each team of three players are split between the 3 different periods and play all the other players in the same period. There is promotion and relegation and this year myself, Alex and Cid are representing Team Breakthrough Assault A Team (the B team is Marc, Matt and Steve). I'm playing Early War with my Japanese and as the format is 1500 points for EW I needed to change my list up from the one I took to the Art of War. I was struggling to find time to practice when I got an email from Army Dave asking if I was free to play a game at Entoyment. So off I went to try out the list, I turned up expecting to face Army's infamous Confident Conscript Soviet Infantry but instead I was facing 8 T-35's (gamesmanship Army?) which I knew I was going to struggle against with my great AT of 5... Still he would struggle to dig me out.  We rolled up Free For All and we would have tried out our changes as talked about on episode 29 of Beyond the Foxholes if this wasn't a tournament practice game. I won the dice off to attack and so I choose to make it a night fight so I could manoeuvre without getting shot at in the first few turns.  Quick note guys, this game starts off slow but gets bloody fast towards the end.

Japanese Hohei Chutai (7th) - Fearless Veterans HQ + Regimental Banner Full Infantry Platoon + Banners Full Infantry Platoon + Banners 2 Type 41 75mm 2 Type 97 Chi-Ha (Fearless Trained) 4 Type 89 Chi-Ro (Fearless Trained) 4 Type 89 Chi-Ro (Fearless Trained)

Heavy Tankovy Batalon HQ T-35 5 T-35 2 T-35 9 KhT-26 Full Unarmed Sappers Sportadic I-153 Chaika

Product Review - SAS Jeeps (BR414)

Hey guys!

Papa Bear here and today I am going to be looking at the new SAS jeeps (BR414), kindly given to us to review by Battlefront.

What's in the Box

So you get 3 of these rather cool looking jeeps along with their SAS crews and all the weapon options you could ever want - Twin MGs, AAMG and 50.cals, these guys are armed to the teeth and rightly so!

Building an EW Polish Army - Armour Part 1 The Train

Hi, so i'm keeping a diary of my progress, partly to keep my momentum up, partly so in a year's time I can come back an see how I did something and partly because that's what blogging's about.

Enjoy!

Winnerski

[14-03-2015]

Today I start this year's project, which is my EW Polish army.  Because of the way I paint, I'm most efficient if I combine similar models, so I'm doing all the armour assets together...which includes the train...yay!

Unfortunately my enthusiasm quickly waned, as the train did not want to go together nicely and I'm left with a fair bit of filling to do.  At least its just the loco, the carriages seem fine.

Not a bad day's work though, one train, three armoured cars, three 7TP tanks, and 5 Tankettes.  I own an assortment of rare earth magnets now, which is really handy as you can easily adjust for each turret.  I have some that are thinner and some that are thicker than the standard BF issue sized magnets.  Right now everything is soaking in soapy hot water.

The Cohesive Look for an Army.

Hi all

I'm currently on a bit of a mission doing a load of German units - the reason why - got an airbrush, my paintings improved and I hate a 'piecemeal army'. What do I mean by piecemeal - well it's an army without cohesion, because personally that's what makes a collection of models an army to me.

A bit of history - I've always considered myself an average painter - what that means now when I consider that I'm a better painter now than I used to be can be interpreted in many ways. However the point is this, individually I never thought my units were impressive, an entire army of them, in a cohesive display was! So since then my aim was to have an army in which no individual model is amazing, the force in full display together looks impressive.

Road to Nowhere - List Destruction

So I'm back from Art of War, and my French have had their first outing, 3 wins, a mutually lost fair fight, and a loss - no 6-1 loss so happy on that!

It was a learning experience, with only one previous game vs armour, I found defending - especially in a mobile battle tough. The Czech 38t is my nemesis! (On a side note I've ordered two boxes from PSC!) The difficulty with this list against the 38t is that I have units which can hurt them - panhards/lafflys and units which can take a hit from them - hotchkiss, not one which can do both. Combating them was also problematic for the hotchkiss, with the 38t having a longer range - and my one man turret getting to shoot at them effectively was tough.

The other problem was against infantry - with lots of no HE I needed to assault to clear people off objectives, and with lots of HMG's the recce Hotchkiss were not relied upon. 

Thankfully I only faced barbed wire in one mission, but in my practice games it was noticeable how tough that made things for me.