Wargames
Flames of War Update — March 2012
Battlefront continues to release goodies after goodies. The biggest news of course is the new FoW Third Edition rules. Battlefront released a small free paperback copy of the rules for veteran players and the new large Third Edition hardback is also now available. Physically the rules look amazing and are well organized. We managed to get in a game with the new rules and we like them a lot. Just enough changes and streamlining to improve play but not enough changes to make the change a big deal for veteran players. Tip: Keep the new Quick Reference sheet handy it really helps. For newcomers to FoW this is a great time to enter the hobby.
Of equal significance for us is the announcement of Blood, Guts & Glory the latest American forces book. After years of waiting we finally get our Easy Eights! The book focuses on the tank battles in the Lorraine Valley, September 1944 to January 1945. We finally get Patton as a warrior option as well as all of the Sherman variants. With the Bulge book coming soon it is a great time to be a late war U.S. player.
The Germans get some new lists as well representing the more ragged troops of the withdrawal phase of the war. Also see the nice Beasts of War look at FoW:BG&G.
If all of that wasn’t enough Battlefront is releasing some great new terrain as well — although the long mentioned European buildings are still MIA with not a peep about their fate. There are new obstacles, wire, trenches, fields and Russian front buildings and a whole lot more. With luck we may see new European buildings with the release of the Bulge book.
All in all it is a great time to be a Flames of War fan. It should be an interesting year.
Wargame: European Escalation — Review
The Gents over at the Three Moves Ahead podcast deliver an excellent review of Wargame: European Escalation in their latest Episode 160. We haven’t played the game yet ourselves but they give it overall high marks and make a great case for giving the game a try. The trailer video for the game certainly looks nice as do the screen shots. The game is certainly not lacking in eye candy.
A horrible name perhaps but Wargame: European Escalation provides a unique take on the RTS genre by mixing in Cold War-era history with a solid RTS game. Not a simulation by any means, the game still manages to provide that wargame feel in an RTS package. A combat-based point scoring system combined with territory capturing and supply gives the game a unique enough mix to warrant a look.
The game is available on Steam. Also see the developer’s game site.
Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy – Commonwealth Forces — Now Available
Battlefront.com released the newest expansion for their WW2 tactical computer wargame Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. Commonwealth Forces brings…err…well…Commonwealth forces to the game.
Commonwealth Forces”, the first module to the Wargame of the Year 2011 (Wargamer.com Community Award) “Combat Mission> Battle for Normandy” tactical WW2 ground warfare simulation, and includes all new, meticulously researched and historically accurate UK, Canadian and Polish Free Forces units and formations, dozens of new scenarios and QuickBattle maps and two in-depth campaigns. The full range of Commonwealth weaponry is brought to life with the same amazing level of detail and simulation fidelity found in the previous Combat Mission titles.
This module also brings you new German formations, such as the “Waffen SS” and the Luftwaffe Field Divisions. Several variants of the iconic Churchill tank, the Cromwell, Stuart and Firefly are included along with many other new units. The Germans see the mighty King Tiger and the Jagdpanther in their arsenal among several other additions.
Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear — Computer Game!
We were very surprised, and very happy, to learn Matrix Games and Academy Games teamed up to produce a computer version of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear. Even better it should be available soon.
COH has long been our favorite WW2 tactical wargame. The computer version looks great and if it faithfully mimics the boardgame should be a must get.
Designed and developed in cooperation with Uwe Eickert, the original designer of Conflict of Heroes, and Western Civlization Software, the award-winning computer wargame studio, no effort has been spared to bring the outstanding Conflict of Heroes gameplay to the computer. Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! includes an AI opponent as well as full multiplayer support with an integrated forum and game lobby. To remain true to the core gameplay of the board game, the PC version is designed to be fun, fast and easy to play, though hard to master. The game design is also historically accurate and teaches and rewards platoon and company-level combined arms tactics without overwhelming the player with rules.
The year is 1941. Germany has defeated Poland, Denmark, Norway, and France with ease. In the morning hours of June 22 over 3 million German soldiers attacked Soviet forces along a 1600 kilometer front heralding the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Complete surprise was achieved and the Germans struck deep into Soviet territory. The Germans thought that the Soviets would fold like a house of cards. Their officer cadre had been massacred by Stalin, training was poor, and morale low. The Blitzkrieg catches the Soviets by surprise and they lose over 1.75 million men in the first two months alone.
The Germans are unstoppable, their Panzers pushing to the very gates of Moscow. But then winter hit and the cold drained the German’s resources, strength, and morale. The Soviets began striking back in the dead of winter and the momentum began to shift in their favor through the following spring. The bear had awoken!
Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! takes you to the Eastern Front of World War II during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. This release includes a historical roster of infantry, artillery, mechanized and support units for the Axis and Soviet forces for the time frame of Operation Barbarossa.
Command Ops: Highway to the Reich
Matrix Games recently released Command Ops: Highway to the Reich. CO:HttR is an expansion for their excellent Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge computer wargame. CO:HttR is also the spiritual successor to Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich one of our favorite computer wargames. The new expansion includes 13 scenarios.
The scenarios cover every major engagement along Hell’s Highway, from the surprise capture of Joe’s Bridge by the Irish Guards a week before the offensive to the final battles on “The Island” south of Arnhem. The dramatic parachute and glider landings of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne, The British 1st Airborne and the Polish Brigade are all represented on some of the largest maps ever created for the series and the largest “campaign” scenario in this system to date. More than just a conversion of the old scenarios to play on the new system, the Expansion Pack represents a major update of Panther Games ground breaking classic game Highway to the Reich, incorporating numerous corrections to Maps, Orders of Battle, Unit Compositions, Reinforcement Schedules, and overall game play.
If you like solid operational wargames or just can’t resist Market-Garden check it out.
Unity of Command — Review
Matrix Games recently released a new operational-level computer wargame by 2×2 Games. Unity of Command covers the battle for Stalingrad during World War Two. Each hex in the game is 20km and each turn is four days.
The interface uses a very simple and clean click methodology that highlights available actions. Visually the game looks great but can turn off some folks at first blush. The map and interface are very clean and stark but then the units themselves are 3D vehicles and, uniquely, figure busts for infantry. This of course immediately raises concerns by veteran wargamers that this is not a serious game. But you quickly get used to the unit designs and they do aid in information delivery with different unit types represented by different 3D models. But for those still not happy, supposedly an alternate unit set is in the works as a mod.
The game manages to stride that tough line of being a simple game to learn but still provides enough depth and challenge to engage veteran players. The center piece of the game design is certainly the supply system. Unlike almost all other wargames Unity of Command uses proportional supply where you actually see your supply wither the further it gets from supply points. Again the interface makes this very clear. It is a key point in the game and managing your supply properly is crucial to victory.
The AI is challenging and over 17 scenarios are included so replay value is very high. You can also play in hot-seat mode and over the Internet.
Unity of Command comes with a very well done manual. It is a 40-page full color PDF with plenty of illustrations. It explains the game mechanics quite well except, oddly, it doesn’t provide as much information on the supply mechanic as we would have liked. A few examples of how one gets out of supply and perhaps how one could alleviate certain conditions would have been nice. But overall you have more than enough to get you going and make you feel you understand what is going on underneath with the game.
The Three Moves Ahead podcast Episode 148 has a great 48 minute discussion/review of all facets of Unity of Command. If you have any interest in the game this is a must listen. The Wargamer also has a short but useful review.
[Updated: 28DEC11]
Dystopian Wars – State of Nations
Spartan Games announced a number of significant updates to their steam punk miniature rules Dystopian Wars. They are changing the model assigned rules (MAR) and stats for a number of models. You can get all the details from their State of Nations post. They also announced some rules changes and released updated pdfs of the new Stat Cards in their Fate of Nations post.
Spartan also released related updates to the master rulebook.
[Updated: 28DEC11]
Flames of War Version 3!
Battlefront released some huge news today. An all new version 3 of the Flames of War rules will be available in 2012. In typical Battlefront fashion they are repeating the policy of the version 2 upgrade — in February anyone with an existing version 2 hardback rulebook will be able to go their local hobby store, or direct from BF, and get a copy of the new version 3 mini rulebook for free! The new hardback version 3 book will be available in March 2012. Battlefront also announced that the new rules are primarily a tightening of the rules and not a drastic rewrite and no army lists or models will be made obsolete by the new edition.
Battlefront also gave a peek at some of the new Battlefield in a Box terrain they will be releasing in 2012. They showed new fields, Russian buildings, walls and North Africa buildings. Conspicuously absent though was any mention of what happened to the European buildings that were announced over a year ago. Also shown were a number of new miniatures including some Soviet big guns and the new German armored train.
In Shops 28 January 2012
BB133 Desert Buildings
BB134 Large Desert Building
[Updated: 23JAN12]
Dystopian Wars — Getting Started Week
The folks over at Beasts of War have been going crazy over Spartan Games’ Dystopian Wars this week. They have put together an excellent collection of posts and videos about all things Dystopian Wars. Of particular note are the videos that cover the world of DW as well as how to play DW (part 1 and part 2). They do make a few minor errors with some of the rules but nothing of real significance or that you wouuldn’t catch after your own reading of the rules. But if you have any interest in Dystopian Wars this is a must see collection.
A Call to Arms: Starfleet — Available Soon
ADB and Mongoose Publishing have partnered on a new sci-fi spaceship combat game, A Call to Arms: Star Fleet. The new game is based on the A Call to Arms rule system, of ACTA: Babylon 5 fame, and set in the Star Trek universe of the ADB license (essentially the original series). In addition to the new rule set, ADB’s Starline 2400 minis have all been redone in a new 2500 line and are now slightly larger (about 25%). [Note: The original resin releases were rather bad. ADB redid them in pewter and they quality is much better.]
We are still annoyed over the death of ACTA: Babylon 5 but ACTA: Star Fleet is probably worth a look at least. ADB has a good track record with partnerships and owns its Star Trek license. The miniatures are certainly a big question. Neither ADB nor Mongoose have been known for high quality minis but Mongoose has certainly gotten better recently. The initial previews have looked good and the one picture of the unfinished resin looks pretty good as well (but not as good as Spartan). But how this translates to production pieces remains to be seen. It appears that perhaps they have beefed up and slightly shortened the Federation nacelle towers and they are going to be in resin not metal.
This month is the release of Call to Arms: Star Fleet and the first of the 2500-series miniatures near the end of this month.
Starline 2500 and A Call to Arms: Star Fleet are approaching!
The joint venture between Mongoose Publishing and ADB, Inc. is moving along quite well. ACTASF should be available in stores before Christmas. This will be a beautiful hardbound rulebook with spectacular color photos of many ships.The Starline 2500 ships are designed for use with SFB, FC, Starmada, and ACTASF, so the ship types that appear in the Squadron boxes won’t change from the 2400 line (and the price for 2500s will actually go down to $29.95). What will change is that the 2500-series ships will be cast in hard resin, not pewter, and they will be about 20% larger so that all the details that you asked us to add will be there!
Our European customers will have the option of ordering from Mongoose-UK so their shipping will be perhaps more “local.” Both ADB, Inc. and Mongoose-US will stock the minis as will many game stores, so you should have easy access to these new, highly detailed ships.
New 2500-series Border Boxes priced at $124.95 will contain 24 ships.
New 2500-Series Fleet Boxes will be priced at $99.95 and will contain 16 ships and a quick start rulebook.The 2400-series border boxes will also be available (at least by mail order) in 2500-series for a somewhat higher price. The 2400s are pewter; the new 2500s will be resin.
Remember that all of the current Starline 2400 blister packs, squadron boxes, fleet boxes, and border boxes will remain on sale at their current prices indefinitely.
[Updated: 27SEP13]
The View from the Turret 
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