Flames of War

Flames of War is published by Battlefront Miniatures and is a 15mm World War II tabletop wargame allowing players to either recreate famous historical battles or play hypothetical battles between the Axis and Allies.

Flames of War’s game play is similar to other systems of its kind in that players take it in turns to play and it is dice based. Movement and range is measured in either centimeters or inches depending on the players’ preference. Only 6 sided dice are used. Games are usually objective based and the basic rules system uses in excess of 8 missions so there is plenty of variety.

Being a World War II historical wargame dictates the armies and settings/terrain for the games. Flames of War is broken into three periods to account for the difference in technology throughout the War:

• Early 1939-41
• Mid 1942-43
• Late 1944-45

This allows players to correctly weight their armies against each other i.e. the equipment an Early War German army can bring to bear is vastly different to that of a Late War German Army.

Axis includes armies such as German, Italian, Finns and Romanians and Allies includes British, American and Russian armies.

Players choose armies from selected lists designed to represent historical forces, typically at a company level that fought in the specified theatre - for example a British Armoured Squadron from Normandy 1944. This dictates the structure and equipment available to the player. Typically the opponent would chose an opposing army from the same theatre but this is not always the case.

Battlefront currently publishes Army Lists for North Africa and the Eastern Front for Mid War; and Army Lists for the Western Front and Eastern Front for Late War. Bein an “enthusiasts first” company, they strongly support their product with an open forum and constantly add free FoW Army Lists to their website.

Flames of War is well balanced and translates well to the tournament scene. This is most probably due to the natural balance that is placed on the game by being historically accurate.

To get started a player needs the rules – either the Hardback Rulebook or the Open Fire boxed set that comes with a few dice 2 Axis tanks and 3 Allied tanks – and an army list.

The army lists are published in 3 formats:

• Division/Army (the military term not the generic term) specific lists published on the website – e.g. Scots Division List for Late War
• Generic Army Lists compilations – for Late War it is Fortress Europe, for Mid War it is either Eastern Front or North Africa – e.g. German Panzerkompanie (division unspecified) from “Fortress Europe”
• Division/Army specific lists published in Intelligence Handbooks specific to a Battle/Campaign or region – e.g. 101 Schwere Panzer Abteilung for the Battlef for Villers Bocage June 1944 from “Villers Bocage”

The game is typically played on 6x4 foot table but this can be adjusted to pretty much any size depending on the game/mission. Templates aren’t necessary but an Artillery Template does help for working out what’s hit with and artillery barrage. Only 6 sided dice are used.

Turns are split into Movement, Shooting, Assault and Morale and taken in turns between both players. The exception is Assault which can contain turns between both players.

This game system has a nice range of miniatures with high level of detail considering their size (a small 15mm scale). Flames of War is recommended by (and naturally attracts) the mature player with a passion for World War II.

Review by Jas

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