Phase Craze: Shooting

Having explored the first two phases of any Flames of War game it is now time that we venture into the deadly phases, starting with Shooting. Granted, improper deployment and movement can be just as deadly to your toy soldiers as enemy fire, but neither of those phases involves rolling fistfuls of dice and dropping little smoke-and-flame markers where once-living tanks existed.

If you can't tell, I like the shooting phase, but I have only gotten a firm grasp on how to master the phase since I learned how to maximize an army's given firepower. I haven't mastered anything yet, but feel like I'm well on my way thanks to a few key developments in my play style. To many of you these pointers will seem obvious, but I hope that some of you will be able to use this advice in your own games.

Phase Craze: Movement

Holy Hell, this is going to be a mammoth topic to cover so I apologize in advance for whatever shortcomings you feel this article contains. I'm going to do my level best to explain some of the ins-and-outs of the Movement Phase and why I think it's the most important phase in any game of FoW.

The precursor to hex-based board games, as well as the Allied Victory, whichever is more important...

Phase Craze: Intro and Deployment

Hey everyone. For a while now I've been wanting to write a series of general tactics articles concerning each of the turn phases and the deployment phase in Flames of War. Having been influenced by the math-wizardry of Eric Riha I have definitely developed my own theories about how best to exploit each one of the turn phases in Flames of War, and how to tailor that philosophy to the goals of different armies.

In this article we will explore my general philosophy and then delve into the basics of deployment, which won't take as long to explain as movement, shooting, and assaulting (although its importance is no less critical to victory than any of those phases).

"Which table quarter should we choose?"

Batrep: 1650 LW German Panzers vs. Brits

Recently I got in a very close game against one of my regular opponents. Unlike many of my battle reports where I go into detail on every move, I thought I'd try and let the pics do most of the talking, and save the blathering for the "lessons learned" section.

We rolled randomly for mission and got No Retreat. With Crocs gaining popularity among British players in the store I am starting to get used to being on the defensive, despite being a tank company. But let's be honest, this fits in with history a little bit since the Germans were almost continually on the defensive in the Late War period. The game was fun and came down to the wire, and I learned several lessons that will serve me well in the future.

List Discussion for Upcoming Tournament

This article was prompted by a tweet from @kenputski who asked that I share a list that I had recently come up with that didn't force the Sporadic Sturmvogel into it. First, some background: I love the Sturmvogel model, but hadn't yet figured out a way to fit it into a list without feeling like there weren't other things that I'd rather spend the 105 points on. However, while trying to figure out a 1650 veteran Panzer list (the new points standard for Late War) I stumbled into a list that features the Sturmvogel as an organic part of the army, as opposed to a last-minute add-on.

List Discussion for EW 1200-point Tournament

We have an Early War tournament coming up this weekend at Brothers Grim Games and Hobbies, and I have been having a hard time in choosing what list to bring. Frankly, the Germans just don't get a lot at 1200 points (we are keeping to points low to try and draw in more players to EW). It doesn't help that I really have no idea what my opponents will bring. So far, however, I've been able to narrow it down to a few lists.

Tactica: Panther

Ah yes, the Panther tank. Aside from the US Tank Destroyers probably no other tank has engendered as much discussion amongst the Flames of War community as the Panther. Lately there are those who have been bemoaning its lack of competitiveness and high price in terms of points. They are right...sort of. The Panther probably is a little over-priced, and is not as competitive as it once was. The exact wrong approach to take, however, is to yell about how the sky is falling and making hyperbolic statements about how Battlefront is the worst company, nay, the worst organization, that has ever existed.

What follows is how I've been using Panthers lately.

List Discussion: 150 Panzerbrigade (aka - the Skorzeny guys)

First, sorry for the sporadic blogging as of late, but I have found Twitter to be a much more economical way to engage with other gamers via the intertubes. That said, blogging still has a role to play for longer discussions, which has brought me back to the keyboard today.

Since the three Battle of the Bulge books were released (BG&G, Devil's Charge, and Nuts!) I have been thrilled with the allied lists but less than enthused with the German lists...with one exception. For some reason  I find the 150 Panzerbrigade to be just cool as ice, with great models and a competent tabletop potential (they aren't a powergamer's dream, but neither are they under-powered).

One of the actual disguised Panthers

List Construction Part 2 - Building Competitive Lists

Welcome back! Now that I've given you my thoughts on list construction for beginners, which has been especially apt since I've been helping a bunch of people learn the game recently, I want to delve into what i look for in a competitive list. I'll just get this out of the way now: tournaments are a blast no matter what army you play. Don't think that I'm discounting fun, flavorful lists. Frankly, Flames of War is balanced enough to give almost any list a chance to win games. But! There is definitely an art/science balance that needs to be considered if you're looking to win tournaments.

"We don't have time for 'fluff'"

Some Thoughts on List Construction - Part 1: Beginners

Hi everyone. In a recent tournament a few players had armies whose deficiencies in list construction became woefully apparent, as either their match-ups or the missions themselves conspired against them. I want to use this space to give a few of my thoughts on list construction as it relates to the tournament scene and as it relates to new players. At the end I'll list example armies that I faced and how they could have been improved. This is Part 1 of this series, where we'll focus on list construction for beginners.

Countering Spearhead

Lately there has been a lot of discussion amongst the FoW community about the Spearhead rule. Whether talking about Patton's influence on the Americans or the awesome new Panzers to the Meuse PDF, many gamers are getting a little testy over just how powerful Spearhead can be. But is it really a game-breaker? And what can be done to mitigate its power?

"Tanks don't have brakes" - Heinz Guderian

Tactics: King Tigers

King Tigers.  The undisputed 1-on-1 masters of tank warfare in FoW (Battlefront just posted pictures of the Jagdtiger as I write this, so stay tuned).  Plus, the models are cool as ice.  However we all know that FoW requires a combined-arms, coordinated approach, and King Tigers are usually too expensive and too unwieldy to justify including in a competitive list. Although they can probably win any tank duel they come across, trained artillery can bombard them out of the game (AT 4 on bombardments...just don't roll a 1, right?), and my local meta is centered on infantry-heavy lists. But I didn't re-paint these mean cats just to have them sit on a shelf!