I’ve been on the prowl for a good, new, miniatures game for some time. I play Starship Troopers, Babylon 5, 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Battlefleet Gothic, Warmachine and a slew of others but I’m cutting back and keeping just a couple of those. The money from selling off my other stuff will allow me to pick up one new game.
I looked around and considered Confrontation, expanding one of the other games, but then I came across Flames of War. Nick Payne, a pal I used to play BFG with several years ago, has gotten into FoW in a big way. He is an employee at Danger Planet Games in Waltham, Mass and last Thursday we got together after 2+ years of not seeing each other. We went to DP where I got to see its extensive FoW collection. I also had the pleasure of seeing a league final game between an American Armored Company and a German Panzergrenadier Company. We left before the end but I was hooked.
I’ve owned the core rulebook and the Hitler’s Fire Brigade book for quite awhile. Several years ago I considered a British Mechanized Infantry force but that died so I could focus on BFG. Games Workshop pulled the plug on that game shortly thereafter. This time around I thought I’d try a Panzerkompanie. I already own the book for it, Hitler’s Fire Brigade, so why not?
The game is put out by Battlefront Miniatures, which is an outfit based out of New Zealand. These guys really know their stuff. The rules are incredible, the models amazing, and they provide constant free updates. They have a series of books that tackle different types of armies and periods of the war. The game covers Early, Mid (the most popular), and Late War.
I bought my Hitler’s Fire Brigade, updated and balanced rules for using German Armored Forces, on eBay for a pittance. Since then an updated version came out but instead of forcing gamers to buy a new book the kind people at Battlefront give it to us for free. That’s right, they give us a free updated book in the form of online downloads. I downloaded and printed out the updates for HFB, 11 pages in total, in no time. Each page has updates for the entire book. Simply cut out and paste the sections over the sections in the book and you have the updated version. Each page tells you exactly where you need to paste the section. I had no trouble doing this and I spent perhaps 20 minutes on the entire process. Not bad since I saved myself $25 instead of buying the updated book.
Speaking of updated books I should mention that within a week or so version 2.0 of the game is coming out and that means a new, updated, core rulebook. Just like with their other books they are providing this updated core rulebook for free. If you already own the core rulebook, the old version 1.0 one, go to free, new, mini softcover rulebook to learn how to get this free updated book. Naturally, you may want the nice, new, hardcover version in which case you need to hit up your favorited retailer.
FoW has detailed models to accurately represent the different variations of vehicles for each period of the war. They have taken this care down to the smallest detail of even their infantry. Since this is a game where the models are smaller than those in say Starship Troopers this is even more astounding.
In closing here are some photos of the models taken from the official FoW website.
Websites Referenced in this article
