Flames of War General /fowg/: I'm Fuching tired of gluing on wheels edition

Solidly competitive list, consider attaching some spare wheels to the sides of Abrams' turrets to bring yourself into that 2.5-2.75 w/p sweet spot.

Hinds are cheaper that NATO choppers and are OP with 4 wheels/chopper. NATO helicopters don't even have wheels... What was battlefront thinking?

AH64 longbow when?

...

So, I played a game of Team Yankee last night.

89 points of Soviets vs 93 points of Americans.

My Soviet list:
HQ T-72
5 T-72
5 T-72
5 T-72
2 Shilkas
4 BMP-2 Souts
2 Hinds

His American list:
HQ M1
3 M1s
3 M1s
3 M1s
2 ITV
2 VADS
2 Cobras

The table was set up as a 3-way road intersection between several large hills and forests.

I don't remember turn by turn exactly what happened but here are some highlights.

The Hinds were on point early knocking out 2 M1s from one of his Abrams platoons, but the 3rd tank passed his role to stay in the fight.

They survived return fire from his VADS for about 3 turns as they continued tank hunting, but eventually got turned into Swiss Cheese and blown out of the sky.

The T-72s and BMPs did their best to pincer up both sides of the field, but the Abrams and ITVs were set up in really good defensive positions.

I'd lose maybe one tank per platoon per turn, but mostly only cause bails with my own hits. Mostly just the will of the dice there.

The VADS went hunting for my BMPs and Shilkas once the Hinds were down and were able to turn them into Swiss Cheese as well.

By the end of the game both sides were risking Formation Morale checks, but he was able to force mine first which I failed.

Overall it was a hard fought game on both sides.

Tactics were sound from each of us, but dice caused a lot of good plans to turn into exploitable mistakes on both sides.

Eventually I reached the point of doing the "Fuck it" move and going for one final push before he broke me, and I had a chance of breaking him first, but the dice let me down, and I lost in his following turn.

>9 Abrams
>Under 100 pt game

The absolute madman, I salute him. I never really get the opportunity to use all 10 of my Abrams unless its a higher point game, since I like to go air-heavy.

He went tank heavy, and it worked. 10 M1s at just under 100 pts.

Although I have to admit he placed them well and played them very defensively. Then again he is former army, and I'm just some civilian schmuck who likes playing miniature war games.

Abrams on the defense are strong.

Granted I made significant progress up the board against him, but he still won out in the end.

i picked up 2 bannon's boys back when they had the bonus. a tank company is 12 tanks.. but i'll never field em because russian air will shit all over it. i'll also never field my cobras/a-10's because russian anti air will shit all over it.

american ftl. had i realized there was only 1 aa unit in the game for them i would of avoided building an american force.

I've played about a dozen games of TY with my Abrams and air support, and I've usually done fairly well, and had a blast. If you're terrified of every counter to your troops, then you may as well field nothing at all. The only time I've ever truly gotten my ass kicked was against West Germans spamming Leo 2s and tons of AA.

From my limited experience with the Soviets, I honestly think that while the US does need more AA, the VADS are nothing to sneeze at, they turned my Hinds into Swiss Cheese once they were able to get a good shot on them.

Frogfoots (Frogfeet? What is the plural on that?) might be a different matter, but the Hinds will still go down to massed Vulcan fire.

You haven't faced teh 32+ bmp 2 spam with AA that covers every inch of the board and will pborably garner minimum 10 shots before you even pick up dice for your aircraft.

i see that shit on a regular basis and it's not fun to face if you bring any air.

Worst part is if you are forced to have any reserves i'ts almost an auto lose situation.

try covering 2 objectives spread the fuck out and your only AA is 1 unit of vads that will probably run away after you lose 3 of em.

us really needs the carparal and redeye teams.

It also doesn't help that the vads unit's are restricted by stupid rules that in no way or shape really represents how vads are really deployed.

(normally spread the fuck out so far they can't see each other and each vad is suppoted by 1 or 2 red eye teams (wich don't exist)

Aw man, it seems like Dom's Decals are going to be too big to put on my tanks. At least where they're supposed to go on the actual tanks. That's a bummer, I was hoping to source some 6th Airborne decals for a Cromwell-equipped Airborne Armoured Recon platoon and 4th Canadian for an armoured recce squadron.

Has anyone ordered from him? Are they the right size?

Huh, so people are actually building the BMP spam lists?

I was mostly convinced that those were a theoretical threat that wouldn't be seen me ch in the table top purely because of how much fucking money you'd need to spend and how much painting would be involved in fielding the BMP spam list.

>I was mostly convinced that those were a theoretical

NOPE 2 players in my meta play them on a regular basis. (both max out their aa) 3rd russian player plays a mix of tanks/bmp with air support and every aa option he can field.

Abrams/Air fag here. At my FLGS, there's only one guy who plays a BMP-2 horde, and while he spams the shit out of them, and can be quite scary, he is in turn terrified of US mech infantry. Everyone is scared of something.

I think adding some mechanized groups to your list and some M109s with bomblets might help against all the BMP/AA Support spam.

I plan on running 4 PAHs in my list as Aufklärungs. I need the AT capability, since I can't put any Jaguars into my list. Then again all the spearhead ability for my recon units will let put pressure on their light vehicles right away. I am more nervous about facing tank heavy lists.

I stopped running tank companies when the bmp horde lists hit my meta. i run a inf company with only 1 unit of m1's in support. i'm still hurting bad becuse russian air dominates and their AA makes mine dissapear in 2 turns. it's gotten to the point i don't spend any points on air because it's usless and will be dead by turn 2.

meanwhile in reserve missions the russian just stuffs his AA units and gets to field over 80% of his force and i get crippled down to 50% of my force because of reserves.

and they bitch about night fighting .. the ONLY advantage US has vs russians... i'm serioulsy thinking about ebaying off my painted US army.

OH and don't forget about your us infantry being basically worthless. 8" minimumn range on tow missles means turn 1 they speed up into your face and you can't do dick to them. sure your laws can kill a few (max 3 per turn) but then they get to hose the fuck out of your infantry and you can't put your vads anywhere good to hide if you want to cover your shit from AA.

We don't have BMP hordes and night-attack US just completely owns everything else. Especially the hammerheads.

>We don't have BMP hordes and night-attack US just completely owns everything else. Especially the hammerheads.

i wish i was in your meta. i've seen a grand total of 2 might fiights in like 100+ games. Why? because russian players will never pick it and the time is rolled on teh chart. so yea good luck with getting that.

as for bmp spam. like i said it's regular thing in my meta.

Sounds like too strong a paper-scissors-rock system?

...

>i'm serioulsy thinking about ebaying off my painted US army.
Don't do that! Metas (and rules) change.

It has that sort of feeling, at times.

Is the Bulge compilation actually confirmed to be coming in September? Considering that's also when PSC are releasing their 25pndrs, that's going to be an exciting time. I've not actually seen any press release from BF confirming that.

Bulge is apparently coming out January now.

any news on ardenes compilation? this review i read eralier really has me wondering how bad germans are going to be after it's release.

wwpd.net/2016/08/the-ardennes-offensive-reviewed-and.html

Yeah, if you can just hold out until the Americans get Bradley's and Redeyes, it should even things out a bit against horde tactics. Maybe you can convice the people you play with to play one of the book scenarios with you.

>Yeah, if you can just hold out until the Americans get Bradley's and Redeyes,

bradleys really won't help much. redeyes will help SOME but really need chapparals also and maybe re-do the vads to being 2 pts for 1 4 pts for 2 max 3 support so they can be spread out. chapparals should be 2-3 unit for 6-8 pts and handle redeyes like the aa inf in the leopard book.

bradleys might end up being a trap. i'm not 100% sure yet. tows min range still makes them marginally usefull vs a smart russian player.

i think they will be a bit overcosted. hopefully not tho.

>NGFS

No need for TOWs against BMPs. I agree about giving an additional AA support to allow you to spread out. I once tried to run the VADS line abreast one game and had my commander sniped by a Hind attack, causing a rout. The firepower dice were not kind to me that game. Lots of rounds bouncing off the HInds. I think the 4+ firepower of the Gepard will perform much better.

Similarly, thoughts about the brit portion?
breakthroughassault.co.uk/2016/08/monty-rescue.html

Yeah, the US AA in TY needs a German style overhaul.

Where do you think the Krauts got their Redeyes from in the first place?

They're the same as the previous Ardennes books, but the Skozreny commandos got buffed and the good PDF lists went into print. Nothing to worry about.

But why the publicity blitz now, then?

Also going by the British lists, BotB seems like a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to do late-war Western Allies (with the exception of the Canadians/Poles). You can get pretty much anything you want for US or Brits - paras, regular infantry, armour...only thing it doesn't have is Comets.

I think you could also do 'what if 30 Corps reached Arnhem' list with the 29th Brigade/British Paras list if you want to get into alternate history or whatever.

>their AA makes mine dissapear in 2 turns.
Mind explaining how they do this?
After all, you could simply hide your AA assets from enemy ground troops using terrain.
They can still shoot at aircraft that way because of how the LoS to aircraft works.

>meanwhile in reserve missions the russian just stuffs his AA units and gets to field over 80% of his force and i get crippled down to 50% of my force because of reserves.
It's not as if you don't have access to cheap units as well, man.

Honestly, sounds like you might be misplaying certain rules or playing with far too little terrain locally, which could explain a fair few of these issues.

As far as I know, it's still coming later this year, with the TY Brits after them to round out the year.

I have no fucking clue where pulled that from, since I haven't heard anything even remotely like that.

It doesn't make any sense to drop a battle of the bulge compilation right after the time of the battle, missing most themed tournaments.

Not sure what you mean with this remark?

And generally, BF doesn't take when a battle happened in the year into account when releasing stuff about it.

I just would think that they would try hard to get it ready before December if they have it pretty much finished. Just seems like they would sell more copies if it drops before everyone has their scenarios and tournaments in December and early January. Just seems like a shame to miss it by a couple of weeks.

Berlin wasn't out for April of it's year despite it being a perfect opportunity for it.

I believe their intended release date is actually before that, since the West German releases for TY end in late august and the Bulge stuff is next after that.

Don't forget to indicate that if half your army dies you ran out of Fuchs to give.

So these are looking good

Man, so many people are going to mistake the gunner's seats on the carriage for mold vents/sprue gates and clip them off out of sheer habit.

I forsee tears.

Ok. I know it's for the joke, but in all seriousness, Fuchs is not pronounced like Fucks.

It's closer to Fooks.

Looks like, as long as you're willing to go without ammo carriers, you can do two guns from each kit. Good. I've got 8 incoming, will probably go for 4 18/25pdrs (or pure 18 pdrs, is there even a visible difference), 4 25pdrs for NW Europe and 4 17/25 pdr pheasants.

Just wondering, do we have the Afghantsy briefing for TY in our scans database?

>or pure 18 pdrs, is there even a visible difference

Completely different carriage and recoil system, yes.

From the 18/25 pdr? That was basically putting a 25pdr barrel on a 18pdr carriage? (Do note that the 18/25 pdr provided looks different from most 25pdrs)

Yep.

Yes, completely different from the 18/25pdr.

Gun barrel is the same as on the 18/25pdr, but carriage is completely different and it's also got a very different recuperator/recoil mechanism.

Ah, I failed to look in the fairly obvious FoW Digital folder.
Still, might be a good option to just have a separate Team Yankee folder in there?

In the meantime, it turns out I'd need 2 more Hinds to have all the required teams for an airlanding formation. Might be an interesting investment in the future.

A note on that, because I'm the one what did it, the support choices are all standard ones found in the main rulebook.

I didn't scan it mostly because I couldn't be fucked.

Which unit cards were provided alongside the booklet, by the way?

Hinds, Air Assaults, and Detachment cards.

So what did they change about the commandos in AO? They said something about not getting exposed but never confirmed it.

THey won't be removed from the table as soon as you fail a skill check, IIRC

Yep, and aren't in the same slot as recce anymore.

So what happens then? Are they rifle teams?

It's scheduled to be released in time for the anniversary. Which means it'll be a couple of months late.

I assume they just don't do anything.

If they're releasing it for december there's no way the Brits would fit in this year, which is what they aimed for. More likely the germans finish this month, so it's meant to be out next month and release for two months, then brits to close out the year, maybe the start of next year.

I'm aware the British had a weird district-based regimental system, where they had different districts of england making up regiments and then welding them together for divisions. What about all the armoured units? I see "50th Northumbrians", but never any "3rd Cobblebops Armoured" or anything. The only titles I'm aware of even are the Royal Tank Regiments. Did you have to volunteer to abandon all your chums or something or was everyone from Stirling mounted?

...

Nomenclature, first: the british had various "regiments", that mostly seems to have served as cadre for when new formations were needed. You then got battalions in these regiments that were sent out to the divisions, usually formed as 4 regiments to a brigade and 2 (or 3) brigades and support to a division. These battalions usually got logical numbers. The 3rd battalion formed in the Royal Tank Regiment, was the 3rd Battalion, RTR. and so on.

Some armoured battalions started as armoured, and usually as part of the RTR. Others began as cavalry and then traded in their horses for tanks (giving you most Hussar and dragoon regiments), when these didn't become armoured car battalions. Finally, there were infantry regiments that were transitioned to tanks but keeping the old name, giving you such ones as 4th County of London Yeomanry.

Of note is the entire Guards Armoured Divison, since all those regiments were initially infantry or cavalry, but they still formed 4 armoured battalions (and various Churchill battalions) from the different guards regiments.

>implying thats not how the tea drinkers say it

Emailed Battlefront last week about the shit quality of the Leopard 1 resin kit. They express shipped me a new box of them. Most of the defects were fixed. The tracks fit together better. The metal pieces look much better. Not to sound ungrateful, a few defects carried over. There is still a track with a couple of missing pads, and on another track some track pads are missing. Must be an issue with the molds.

I am planning on just using mastic to patch up the track pads then putting thin super glue to harden it up after patching. Anyone have any better ideas?

flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=4983

Battlefront's humour articles are top notch

>Standard gun tanks are better suited to covering the approach towards the mission objective, killing dangerous enemy units from afar, while the grunts do the dirty job of actually securing the objective. With all those Panzerfaust-laden infantry teams, late war tanks have to act cautiously in the vicinity of the enemy. A breakthrough tank like the IS-2 operates on the opposite principle.
Update: Top armour 2 makes you immune to a platoon of veteran infantry who're all AT 6.

Idiots...

Green stuff?

>Hero Gvardeyskiy Tyazhelyy Tankovy Polk Tactics
>with Jorge Sancho

>Jorge Sancho

Yeah, SP/Soviet Pride himself: BF fanboi extraordinaire...surprised, I am not.

Next Up: Mcswinny/Fingolfen on why BF is the bestest best thing ever (unless is comes to the correct number of spokes on the Panzer IV J idler wheels, of course).

Who are these people?

You mean Dr. Michael L. McSwiney, PhD? If I ever list my name that pretentiously after I finish grad school, please shoot me.

Does grad school mean you get to call yourself Master?

I am John Doe, MASTER OF SCIENCE!! Cower before my mastery of masterism. Of science.

Here in the states grad school can be a catch all for masters or PhD. Contrary to popular belief getting a PhD doesn't make you a superior being. Just drags you further downthe autism spectrum.

Though it is tempting to to want to call myself Master Dr. user one time after I finish, McSwinney sounds like a dick for having both in his title on multiple occasions.

Technically most doctors tend to put MD, DDS, PhD, etc after their name to differentiate between Medical doctors, Dentists, and Scientists / Professors, etc.

...

Soon...

oh shit, they really meant it.... that's... kinda funny...

the big problem with this article is that it shows a minimal understanding of a more Darwinist FoW community/meta. and, it's enthusiastic and serious. i would love to fight Jorge. i'd likely win.
----to point:
1: Big Cats are not the nemesis of IS-2's, they are 'equals' 2: using IS-2's as a primary driver of your assault is an OK idea...what's your back-up? 3: Panzerfausts and IS-2's do not mix...Panzerfausts and IS-2's do not mix.....

if i had to modify this?

1: Fear the High AT gun teams, 17 pdr and 43' 88's...for your assault against them is doomed, and your gun duel to BTG clean them out is not going to be as successful...send in Strelk or Mortars or something. anything else.
2: IS-2's can primary drive an assault if you have full infantry support, so you aren't just rolling 2 dice in assault. though, i'd say it's better to use something more numerous / has the ability to shoot on the move....like IS-85's, gee, i wonder why i use those? IS-2's work better if they push onto a spot they can hold and play 'bunker' with. go ahead and try this, but have something else useful you don't want smoked.
3: Panzerfausts kill the IS-2 in assault. better to sit at 16" and lob BTG at them....you do have recon also, right? just don't assault those pricks....at all.

Battlefront are now selling plastic sprues singly. So infantry, Guns, tanks, helos, etc. Which is pretty neat. I guess.

Do note that the tank sprues are the same price as TANKS expansions, so you get slightly less for the money... eh, useful if you'd never dream of playing TANKS and don't care for ebaying the cards, I guess

Still, useful for all things NOT tanks. And also extra confirmation of plastic Pumas and M10s/M36s

>Still, useful for all things NOT tanks
Yeah, single sprues of infantry are a niche PSC don't cover, so this is pretty great.

Where's this said? In the weekly update?

Taking a closer look at the Pak40s... How exactly do you get those off the sprue? It looks like you'd obliterate the barrel and gun shield removing it...

There's a listing for single Pumas and M10/36s in the plastic single order section, with a "to be released" note.

Yeah, the PaK 40s are made of explodium.

You need to kit the plastic frame itself to release some of the tension before you try to clip out any of the pieces.

Is this a hacksaw job or do the pieces hold if you clip the sprue apart?

I didn't do this and had to glue both gun shields back together again after they snapped in half.

>kit

Cut. Not sure how or why my phone replaced cut with kit.

It's also been swapping "in" and "on" in some cases where the wrong word makes no sense at all. *shrug*

But anyway, yeah, the PaK 40 plastic sprues are spring-loaded and ready to explode if handled incorrectly.

You almost have to cut it apart completely. Or at least I did anyway.

Things are too tight on the frame and that causes things to snap if they come off the frame the wrong way.

The big one is cutting out the corner where the gun shield is.