The End of the Beginning

Hi Folks,

I've finally finished the second Grenadier platoon after what felt like a real slog, so to mark point in the project I thought I'd steal a line from Churchill for the title of this post because it seems rather appropriate. As far as painting an army for wargaming goes this is the first army that I have finished…except I'm not finished and I always knew that. But personally this is quite significant in that I completed what I initially set out to complete and for a time I can relish in the achievement, however small it may be!

Land Mattress Launcher and Ram Kangaroos

I thought I’d look at the two units which are quintessentially Canadian first of all, Ram Kangaroos and Landmattress’s. There are some lovely articles on the FoW website detailing the history of both of these unusual units, and I found as I read them I really was quite inspired to crack on with both of the units – that and a deadline also helped!

Market Garden - Guards Armoured Recce Review

Hi again, I'm here again.

I know this has been out for a while and that Ben also did a review of the US cavalry box, but I still feel it's good to look over these boxes

So what do you get for your money? Well you have enough for the core of any Cromwell force (except rats in Normandy - you're missing a firefly!) You also get some decent support - M10's and Stuart's. Alongside this you get 2 very nice resin objective markers and all the dice, decals and markers for your force.

First Grenadier Platoon Complete, what next?

Hi All,
Andy here with another small update!

So here they are, my first finished platoon for Flames of War, and for the first time ever I finished them on time! I was rushing  them a bit towards the end as I'd been away for work and ended up going a bit dark on the wash for the faces. Other than that I'm pretty happy with them.

US Airborne Engineer Platoon

Hello All

another updated with my latest platoon painted up for my Market Garden US Para Army. I have rounded out my infantry with an Airborne Engineer Platoon.

This is one of my favourite units in the US Para army, The combination of 3 Bazookas, LMG's and the Pioneer Supply Cart means you have a real combined armies platoon that can take anything thrown at it.

US Para Field Artillery

Hello All

another updated with my newest platoon painted up for my Market Garden US Para Army, this time some Para Field Artillery to round out the support options of the army.

US Paratrooper for Market Garden - HQ Section

Hello All

Ben here with a painting update, this time for my 101st Airborne Market Garden army.

For the HQ, I decided to use the Easy Company heroes as the command models for a few reasons. Firstly they are very nice models, secondly it means I can do Easy Company from Normandy to the Bugle and finally there is only 2 US Para command models, the blister adds in quite a few more models to the mix. To make the commands different from my Bulge army and to keep it historicalish everyone got a downgrade. So Winter's has become the Company Commander instead of a Higher Command model, Lipton will be a Platoon Commander, etc.

Bridge By Bridge Compilation Review

Hello All,

Dr Cox here with a review of the Axis Market Garden Book, is going to be different to the Allied one, mainly as I haven’t played the axis forces in the book, or really any axis forces, so any comments will be appreciated!

Again I like the layout of the book, and unlike the allied book, I think it really has a lot of new lists, and for that reason alone I’m happy I bought this!

Fallschirmjagerkompanie (vet and trained)

Well I do have a fair amount of experience killing these guys thanks to Winner playing them. Firstly with VDH they get to ignore the allies rule which is brilliant, and those Panzefaust traps are an annoyance as always!

I like the fact these lists can access all manner of interesting support including some older panzer models, and the inclusion of rifle recce, should also help them out a little bit. All in all though I think FJ will continue to bring the best that Fearless Vets (and at times fearless trained) have to offer, but still so pricy once you add fausts!

Market Garden Compilation Review - Allies

Hello everyone

Ben and Dr Cox here with a review of the new Market Garden book.

So the new Market garden book is out, and we thought we'd review it, as it's quite a chunky tome we've split it between us. Adam will be taking the British Para's and Canadians, I will be taking the British Armour and American forces.


First Impressions

The book is up to the normal Battlefront standard as the other compilations like Grey Wolf, Turning Tide, etc. The book seems a little bit smaller than the other Late War hardback books, but has a similar number of pages compared to the Early War hardback books so while not a surprise to me but I could imagine some people might be annoyed by this fact.

AAR - 1750 Frost's British Para's vs Von der Heydte's FJ - Hasty Attack

Hi all Adam here,

So with the new Market Garden books out this weekend, myself and 'Winner Dave' organised a game, it's only his second outing with his FJ, but he had won the 1st.

we set up the terrain as you can see, and rolled up Hasty attack, I elected to attack at night, so Dave went on the defensive. Dave choose to deploy his heavy Mortars on the back line, and one of his FJ platoons on his right flank/middle (+VDH). He left the HMG's in immediate ambush. I deployed my Light Battery and one Para platoon on each flank, one with Frost (left flank) and one with my IC (right flank). The HMG's then deployed on Dave's left flank and I took my spearhead moves.

View from my right flank

Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein'

This summer whilst on holiday in Europe, having left Trier we headed to Amsterdam, but on the way decided to stop near a town called Arnhem...

We (myself and my significant other) decided to visit the Airborne Museum (actually in Oosterbeek!) there, which is in the hotel which served as Urquhart's HQ during operation market garden.

The first thing you notice when we took the turning to Arnhem was how much September 1944 had left it's impression! We were there in July but already there were signs about events in September to commemorate it, and a rather imposing memorial.

We parked up the car and had a stroll around to begin with, in the grounds were some 6 and 17 pounders as well as a Sherman, and some walks you could take with names like lion, leopard etc.

The museum itself was a really moving experience, you started off with a briefing about the events and plans for market garden, before moving onto exhibitions where there were artifacts from the soldiers and civilians in the local area, as well as interviews with the people who had fought or lived through those days.

Personally there were a few of those interviews where I found myself quite emotional, and watching recordings if meetings between the old adversaries, whilst listening with my German girlfriend really made me realise how far Europe has come in 70 years.

It was also the humanising stories, fighting for friends and comrades, not for Germany or Hitler.

After the artifacts there was a walk through about being part of the Airlanding forces, the sounds you would have experienced, and then exhibitions on the contemporary media and the other roles the museum had.

We spent maybe three hours there before we had to leave for Amsterdam, but I'd recommend this to anyone it was unique, interesting and moving.