Flames of War General - Pushing Inland Edition

>Lane of Advance
Seems inoffensive enough, if somewhat niche.
>Combat attachable Pioneers
Sweet jesus, that's a very good buff. Very good. Pioneers are cheap platoons, and adding more organic AT to British platoons addresses one of their key weaknesses/character traits.
>Guns Left
Thing is, compare it to other characters like Rommel, or that AAR guy, or the various characters that do similar things, and what he's packing isn't really that remarkable.

Yeah; none of the improvised armour things were all that effective (the applique plates were, but they added 15-20mm of actual armour to the hull), but they dramatically improved morale since crews believed they worked.

>Sweet jesus, that's a very good buff. Very good.
And it's 100% pulled from the british infantry manuals of the time. It's one of those things that ends up working really well in game as well.

Still ends up pretty balanced, since the pioneers are still only TA 3, generally rifle-armed, and with the small platoon sizes losing the commander when attaching them out is a notable loss. Plus the "no more than half (ignoring command team) to another platoon" thing makes it difficult to give two extra teams to a rifle platoon. ~30 extra points to even the team count and add some auxiliary TA (plus some extra against fortified companies, all 2 times you run into them) is still pretty useful, though.

So, will Pacific lists be entered into EW tournaments, you think?

Tell me about Christie suspension, /fowg/.

what did you want to know. Its the "gotta go fast sanic" suspension of tanks

Does anyone sell plastic Japanese?

Plastics are relatively rare in historical gaming miniatures.

Most of the plastics we have are BF or PSC, and I don't think either of those have plastic Japanese.

Per JP on the FOW Forum:

"...our first armoured car frame will the second new one out with Bulge."

...next plastics, maybe Pumas?

>will the second new one out with Bulge
I think he forgot a word or two.

HolyfuckingshitIhopeit'sPumas!

He probably means "Our first armoured car frame will be the second new *release* out with the bulge"

In a move surprising everyone, including the manufacturing staff, it's daimler dingos.

Wha... Bu... I mean... ...dafuck?!...

Can you imagine how many dingos you could get on a single sprue? A box would last you approximately two armies.

And now I realise that Universal Carriers would make sense in plastic, but I highly doubt we'll get those anytime soon, especially since they recently redid the tooling for those in resin.

Why did they add treads to their tanks as armor? What were they fighting that kept punching through it?

You know, I wouldn't actually have a problem with that. They ARE the most adorable armored car in the war.

>Why did they add treads to their tanks as armor?
Hoping that a bit of extra armour would provide them with that much extra chance of survival.
>What were they fighting that kept punching through it?
Germans. Seriously, most everything german had a tendency to punch through anything lighter than a Churchill (just look at the FoW stats, even Panzer IVs are very dangerous to Shermans). More specifically, panzerfausts.

It would be nice...but I have 18 Forged in Battle ones already and they're very nice. Hopefully, there will be options for the 7.5cm 234/3 and the Pak40 234/4.

I was hoping for something heavier and mass produced: a Panzer IV L/70 (V), plastic King Tiger or a Hetzer would have been my first choices.

Knowing BF though, it won't even bee Pumas...It'll be a US kit, M8 Greyhound and M20 utility options in a box :P

Tournament organisers will probably slap them down.

How about for the blinding, CDLs can force a Artillery Template's worth of infantry to take a skill check or become pinned down. Rather hard to advance or shoot when someone's fried your retinas.

I like the Eight Tradesmen and the Combined Assault Rules.

>I like the Eight Tradesmen and the Combined Assault Rules.
Yeah, I really dig the combat attachment. Kills two birds with one stone.

Anyone know if there's any 15mm shermans with deep wading gear, or am I making that myself? Looking at it it seems there were several kinds of wading gear employed; was it the case that it was produced where it was needed, or is it just that there were a few types of it?

>treads

those deuce trips!!!

of satan!

toward the end of the war, every german and his 6 year old son were literally packing panzerfausts. These weapons use shaped charges and were very nasty. Soldiers believed their tracks, being composed of metal and rubber, might give them a slightly increased chance of bouncing a shot.

Thats nowhere near the extreme of how tanks were modified though. Check out pacific sherman crew mods. Theyd add concrete, sandbags, wooden boards, and even weld nails and chicken wire to the hatches to thwart japanese anti tank tactics.

The sad thing is that apparently due to the nature of early shaped charge weapons, most improvised armour just made them more effective by giving them the stand-off distance to form the charge effectively.

i always hear this but have never seen a source, do you know where this theory that improvised armor improved the effectiveness comes from?

Ive always wanted to read up on these weapons a bit more, since theyre arguably one of the most influential weapons to come to use in WWII.

At the very least, the armor improved morale, so in the long run it probably helped more than it hurt.

Hopefully.

>do you know where this theory that improvised armor improved the effectiveness comes from?

Not that user, but if I had to guess it's from tank crews doing the layman's math that more material between them and an AT round = more betterer. I can't imagine they thought that adding a bunch of treads and whatnot that had lots of grooves and other things that would make it easier for a round to get a "grip" as it were would be an effective way to increase deflection, but rather that they just figured it was more material between them and a german AT gun or panzerfaust. Like the other user said though, all it probably ends up doing is make it more likely that a shell or round or what have you will not be deflected. Smooth flat angled surfaces are what you want, tanker crews!

Post War HEAT Rounds typically have a addition to the nose to increase the stand-off distance. Unlike Wartime HEAT rounds which usually just had the charge further forwards. It's very precise art to get the copper charge in just the right place to form the penetrator.

Anyone in Newcastle Australia playing FoW? Need an opponent badly, new to the area. I miss tabletop gaming.

How about:
"Teams under the template count as having moved when determining their rate of fire and to-hit number in their next shooting step, and count as Pinned when determining their rate of fire for defensive fire in the next assault step. These effects are ignored during daylight"

The defensive fire thing is the same turn, so it's easy to remember what teams are what (since they won't have moved). By the opponent's turn it might be a bit harder, but it's still easy to remember what teams didn't move, and for those that did move the actual moving makes keeping track of specific teams irrelevant. And thankfully H&C will only give the teams under the template the extra +1, not accidentally fucking the entire platoon because one guy got a mega strobe light in his eyes.

I wonder why the light tanks didn't have similar deals? I guess they had a lot more mobility to lose.

Because they knew that their armour was too thin for it to help?

For sandbags to stop AT rounds? Yeah, sure. Things like covering hatches in wire to avoid Japanese tank hunters climbing on and opening you up to throw something inside, or wood on the side to keep magnetic mines off would still "function" even on thinly armoured vehicles.

...

zvezda.org.ru/catalog/aot-bronetehnika-1-100/sovetskij-tank-t-34-85

Zvezda T-34/85 variant is on the site...

...

...

Oooh, flat-sided turrets.

Looks pretty good.

I'd probably still go with Battlefront or Plastic Soldier Company, but those loll like a decent option as well.

...

Would they even be cost efficient in the numbers that you would need for a full Tankovy force?

While I like how these things can go for $4 a piece from some sites, they aren't as nice as something that PSC would make.

How's pacific gone over in your area?

Yeah, they're £3, so a 10-man platoon is £30, compared to £40 for a PSC one or £50-60 for a BF one.

That is, of course, if you're OK with:

Lesser detail (it's okay enough for most people, but trickier to paint than BF or PSC stuff).
No commanders.
No stowage options.
No multiple turrets (both BF and PSC kits come with both T-34/76 and T-34/85 options where you can interchange them.

They might be good as a unit filler, although I'd be tempted to just but one of the Battlefront Open Fire two-packs instead.

They're also snap fit and made of really tough plastic, so. I'd say they're definitely a really good deal: a box of PSC tanks (bonus stowage and commander tanks) and 15 zvezda ones should be a nice way of getting 20 T-34-85s for a desperate measures company.

I don't know what open fire has to do with it; AFAIK there's no T-34s in that.

ton of shit came into LGS

have yet to pick it up.

some of it has trickled off, but it's no team yankee.

i have yet to ask the clubs....

Battlefront has cheap two-tank boxes (plastic, the same sprues as in the regular boxes) for all of the major nations.

They're part of their starter range, very nice as a cheap buy or to expand a platoon without buying a full box of 5 tanks.

Good day, Veeky Forumsentlemen,

May I ask a question? If you have answers, I will gladly take them.
Answers with a cited source is far better, but in any case:

*Who are the Battlefront staff who've worked at Games Workshop?

*What was the former position at Games Workshop of all said members of Battlefront?
No other questions.

I ask this because this information seems to be only available on the Internet as hearsay.

Cheers!

Does anyone own the Battlefront Italian paratroopers? I'm trying to make an RSI Italian paratrooper army, but the Battlefront models seem like they might be out of place in as RSI Italians. Right now I have a platoon I bought from Eureka that I'm working on and I'm really happy with the sculpts, but ordering them piecemeal is kind of a pain.

I'm pretty sure none of the Battlefront staff worked with or for Games Workshop. However Flames of War did start as a Fan-Expansion for Warhammer Historical. In like, the 90's. Then they rebuilt the ruleset into their own thing and First Edition was born.

Like. I'm no expert. But I'm pretty sure there's a pretty large gap between Nottingham, where Games Workshop HQ is, and Auckland, where Battlefront's is.

John Matthews was regional vice president at GW for 11 years. Thanks linkedin. I know there were others but they never talked about what they did.

>But I'm pretty sure there's a pretty large gap between Nottingham, where Games Workshop HQ is, and Auckland, where Battlefront's is.
Specifically, a gap of over 18,200km / 11,300mi, using the shortest line between them (which passes over the arctic)

> Start as a fan expansion

Is there a good history of Flames of War, as well as it's development?

I'mma go with "Not Really", this is stuff I've pieced together from talking to old timers, and looking through the Wayback machine at Battlefront's site.

Maybe ask battlefront themselves.

which region? oceana?

Anyone have Peter Pig figures? I was curious as to how many of them came in a pack, because the pictures usually only show three figures, and I'm not really down for spending $5 for three models.

Standard is 8 a pack.

While working on my Canadians, I painted some of my Eureka Italian paras and I'm pretty happy with them. The SMGs are rather low detail, but I guess there's only so much you can do at 15mm.

Speaking of Peter Pig, what's the thread's thoughts on which of these packs would work best for an bren gunner on a wasp?

Does the new Gf9 Tanks! game belong in here? It uses FoW models

Shit's cool yo

forgot my pic

That's a pretty good question, I was meaning to ask it on Panzerfunk, does Team Yankee and Tanks fall under our purview? Obviously Team Yankee kind of does.

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be discussed here.

I personally think the top right guy on the left shooting from the hip would look really cool.

How are things, Screaming? Still not good on the homefront?

i wonder why i have 1 of these on my desk.....?

Things have reached a point of no return. There is no way my mother will recover.

She is on full life support and almost completely brain-dead.

My uncle flew in from California so that he can say his goodbyes tomorrow.

Once that's happened, we'll be removing her from life support and letting nature take its course.

I didn't want to discuss this here. FoWtg is not my blog. And I shouldn't be dumping my real life crap on all of you.

But I'm glad you guys have been offering me support and encouragement the past few days.

It's bizarre how here on Veeky Forums of all places has been so supportive.

Thank you. All of you. For your words of support and encouragement.

Shitfuck, that sucks. Sorry you have to deal with that, and remember that you can take as long as you need to with panzerfunk. I realize this may sound a bit dumb to say at this point, but good luck.

We chose you, Eagles.

we'll always support our chosen leader.

May you find Fortitude and Grace.

as for blogging, we have the email for non public. feel free to rest, and call on one of us...

Oddly enough working on Panzerfunk, when I can get away from my family long enough to do so, has helped me get my mind off of things. It's probably 75% ready. I'll upload when I can.

But yeah, I've got a lot of real world responsibilities right now that will keep me busy the next few days.

Thank you.

Hang in there man, wish I could help you out somehow. Ive been down here visiting family for a funeral but that was an ornery great grandma that we were all expecting to go, I cant imagine what youve been going through.

Keep your chin up and theres always the email chain to talk realtalk if you need it.

...

In other, probably not appropriate in the same post news, curious if there are any players in the Murray Kentucky area. Im looking at going to college at MSU and while they have a great X-Wing community and a couple DZC players, there are no historicals to speak of, not even Bolt Action. Murray is in the far west dangly bit of Kentucky for those of you not familiar with it. Im only two hours from Nashville for example.

All I can think of would be attending tourneys in Nashville, St. Louis, and maybe Paducah (if they even have a store besides dragons hoarde) and I'd like to be able to play a casual game every so often. I even have a full board of city terrain and a nice table matt, all I need is another player or two. Hell Ill even provide the beer.

I may or may not have an idea

Really sorry to hear that, man. I lost my grandpa last year, and that was terrible; I can only imagine how much worse an even closer relative must be.

All I can say is that everyone handles it differently, but it's okay not to be okay. And if there's anything you need, you know where to find us.

must be contagious or one of the great mysteries of today...I have one sitting on my painting table *strings an accord on a Kantele*

Oh god. Oh god. Stop stop.

*strings a chord on a Kantele*

~stupid autocorrect~

Just look after yourself bruz. Its a rough one to be going through, but it happens and we that are left have to keep going missing a part of our lives. I hope you are all good, as many anons have said, feel free to come here and talk about real life, we aren't just emotionless anons without real lives of our own, we can relate and we are more then happy to offer any assistance we can, be it support or simply just someone to talk to.

Be well eagles

I agree with , that or the one on the fair left middle, looks like hes searching the horizon.

I'm just so sorry to hear all of that. I expect it's going to be hard, but look after yourself, okay?

What are you casting now?

Check and see if they have wargames club at the school.

If not, perhaps there will be a store or two in town.

Or you might just have to drum up interest on your own.

- - - - - -

Again, thank you all.

You're a cool dude Eagles. Keep the chin up.

Anyway.

Tournament that I'd like to assist with the organisational aspects of is this year running 1380 Points and Midwar.
Since I was tentatively agreeing to adjudicate rules and do Draws, I need a special army, one that I referred to as "Fast and Dumb." Fast as in, it can't be a slow grinding Infantry company that I have to spend half of the time allotted setting up and tearing down, and Dumb as in, I can't spend too much time thinking about how it works because inevitably I'll be called away to help someone else.
If this was Early War, I'd be laughing as I'd do Fallschirmjager Luftlandensturm and just hotdrop two glider platoons and win or lose on the first round of the game. However. Mid War.
So what meets the criteria of "Fast" and "Dumb", inital thoughts were to KV tanks, while not 'Fast' they are plenty 'Dumb', a brick of KV-1 and KV-2s that I throw through the enemy's window. Maybe backed up by the obscene message of as many Ba-10s as possible.

Crusader armoured company. Or a predominant Stuart US Tank Company. A ton of light tanks, basically.

Definitely go with Crusaders, way more style.

i need to get all that painted. so far i'm at 35%

casting pOumas is genius. castign BT-42's is WTF...for what i have on my desk:
....has it about right.

Dude, you are an inspiring guy. Keep on keeping on man.

Alright /fowg/ give me the rundown on Flames of War vs. Team Yankee. After reading reviews and watching youtube videos I'm leaning more towards Team Yankee since I want an easy game to get into. Plus I love Cold War stuff. However it seems like Team Yankee is rather new so not a lot of players are playing it. However if I go with Flames of War I would go for a German or American. Plus Flames of War seems to be a tad more realistic. So give me some pros and cons of each.

First point: TY is more expensive.
Second point: Be prepared to grow the community yourself because at the moment, TY doesn't have a fraction of the players of WW2 FoW.

They're both about as realistic as each other.
TY has a slightly slicker ruleset, but it doesn't have a fraction of the choice or variety of FoW.

FoW is only more realistic in the sense WW2 actually happened. The games aren't more or less bad than each other when it comes to slightly weird displays (though the WW2 game continues to trigger me by including full artillery batteries within cannon range of tanks).

TY is definitely new and will have less players, but I'm hearing it's been really successful. Certainly only having two factions is hurting it right now; I've heard a lot of "I'm waiting for Germany", "I'm waiting for Poland", "I'm waiting for BAOR", etc.

TY's rules are unquestionably better. There are areas where they're a bit weird (aircraft LOS is one thing, it'd be a shame to lose variable tank speeds, and hit allocations would be hard to implement in WW2) but frankly, if it's indicative of what's coming for V4, it can't come fast enough.

Thanks for giving me the rundown. From what I heard West Germany will be slowly rolling out in the next two months. Hopefully East Germany will roll out afterwards