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.

Tournament Report from Dec. 8th

Recently I had my first experienced as a Tournament Organizer, due to a last-minute family obligation on the part of our normal TO. I was a little disappointed since I had been hoping to play in the tournament, although as it turned out I was still able to throw some dice thanks to an odd number of participants. I'm just going to do a quick recap of each of my games, a summary of the winners podium, followed by a picture dump, and round out with a short list of things I'd like to try the next time I'm a TO.

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: German Panzers vs. Brits in Counterattack

Hi everyone, I know it has been a while since my last post but work and vacation have left little time for our great hobby. Luckily I was able to get in a game the other night against my previous opponent, who was looking for a rematch after having me on the ropes in our last battle. We played a 1650 Late-War game, and I wanted to really try and challenge my army. Since my opponent has Crocs he becomes auto-attack, which can really knock my army off balance in missions with Mobile Reserves, or missions with screwy deployment zones. So, we decided to limit our options to Surrounded, Cauldron, or Counterattack (a highlight reel of most players' least favorite missions).

We rolled for Counterattack, which was fine by me since a similar list really struggled for me in this mission at a recent tournament. Just FYI, my iPhone camera ended up taking a slew of blurry pictures so there may be times in this report where words have to take the place of pictures (never ideal for batreps), so I apologize in advance.