Flames of War V4 Lists - Where's the Beef!?!?!?

Mitch over at WWPD recently posted a review of the new Afrika Korps book from Battlefront, and suffice it to say that his impression is not positive. The new lists "streamline" your choices greatly (translation - you can't take most of the historical kit you previously could - you know, the very things that made the North African theater so interesting to play in the first place). I dug up an image of a previous edition Panzergrenadier Company (below).

This is the Afrika Korps

I've now gone through and edited the above army deal based on what you can actually use in V4 as presented in the Afrika Korps list:

This is the Afrika Korps on V4

As a veteran player this isn't a pretty sight.  Sure, the powers that be will chime in and say that there are rules for transports in the main rulebook, but based on what we've seen given the new dash speed of infantry, there is no longer a gaming reason to use them, so the red Xs stay put.

I've been a long time Battlefront customer, playtester, proofreader, writer, and contributor. I haven't always agreed 100% with every decision that Battlefront has made in the past, but none of those decisions bothered me so much that I couldn't simply agree to disagree and move forward. The neutered V4 lists change all of that for me.

I had truly been looking forward to jumping back into Mid-War with the new rules, but the new lists are simply atrocious and over-simplified, and the miniatures I'd purchased and set aside to build my new forces will simply stay in the containers unassembled, unpainted, and unused as as often as not the lists simply don't support the miniatures any longer.  In the forums, BF has indicated that they will fill the gaps, but they have also indicated that some will be open a long time. I believe that this is a huge mistake that will cost Battlefront customers.

I understand that Battlefront needs to update the Flames of War game to keep up with current trends in the industry, and honestly I don't have major heartburn with most of the V4 rules. That being said, going after the new dollar at the expense of the veteran players and long-term customers has seldom been a winning strategy. Games Workshop tried that route and it cost them greatly. Wizards of the Coast tried the same thing with V4 of Dungeons and Dragons and it cost them the top spot in role playing games to Pathfinder - which was essentially the previous version with some streamlining.

I wish Battlefront continued success in the wargaming hobby, but believe they need honest feedback from all players on the direction of the game. As of today, my FoW purchases are pretty much "on hold" pending developments. There are several Early War, Late War, and Pacific lists I can paint on in the meantime, though honestly my enthusiasm for even doing that has been greatly dampened if MW is the template for all future Flames of War lists... and I truly never foresaw a day where I'd actually utter those words.

State of the Blog and Hobby

So it's been a while since I posted here. In terms of getting miniatures done, unfortunately what you see is what you get, I've gotten effectively nothing done in the past three months. There is a simple reason for that, I've been spending literally all of my time getting the new house ready for habitation. Our part of the process seemed fairly simple - emphasis on the word "seemed" - but interior painting (which we did sign up for) also involved all of the interior caulking on the trim (which we didn't realize we'd signed up for), so schedules and timelines sort of went out the window. However, we just recently got the keys, so now the move-in process begins! I'll have photos of the new work-room once I get moved in.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely seen that Flames of War is getting ready to release its Fourth Edition in the next few weeks. Unlike previous edition changes, 4th Edition appears to be a major revamp of the rule set with many similarities to the Team Yankee ruleset. Several recent podcasts over at WWPD have detailed some of the rules, and as usual with any rules changes the reviews have been mixed, though the camps seem fairly polarized at this point. I honestly haven't digested the scope of the changes yet, so I'll have to play through several games to understand the impact

Speaking of Team Yankee, the first new Warsaw Pact nation has been released for the mid-80's World War III gaming system. I'd already started building some Soviet forces for TY, but when I found out the East Germans were going to be released I decided to wait on painting them up until the NVA rules were released. I'm still working on finding the right colors to use for the three tone East German paint scheme (which technically wasn't used until the late-80's - but this is a hypothetical game anyway!), and I'll post a painting guide once I have it together.

I've also been writing up a little something fun for the WWPD blog - keep an eye out toward the end of the week for some great photos. I've been doing some writing in the background, and I'll let you know when those start getting close to hitting the wild!

Arado 234 - Done!!!

So turns out that today was a good day to get work done after all. I managed to get the Arado pretty much completed. I ended up pulling back out my light box to take some photos that really give you a sense of the shading.

Top view - you can really see some of the black and white shading.

This view gives you a little hint of the bombs underneath the engines, but in case you think I was slacking off, the bottom is fully detailed as well!

Actually getting between the engines and the fuselage was a real pain in the butt, but it ended up looking pretty good.

For my first aircraft in literally years, I'm very happy with the little beast. Should be a fun tournament, if anti-aircraft fire doesn't ruin its day!

The Arado 234 in Flames of War

I have a tournament coming up at Guardian Games this weekend, and I'd hoped to get my Japanese army together for it, but I've been way too busy to finish painting it. So I'm therefore going to revive my 510 Schwere Panzerabteilung army from a previous tournament. The only problem is the point values are different, so I had to do a little rejiggering of the list.

To that end I've added an Arado 234 (AC015). This was a amazing light bomber that saw combat in the waning months of the war. I'd picked one up ages ago, but it had been sitting on my shelf for just such an emergency!

I wanted to try something a little different this time for the painting, so I went with the Ammo of MIG Black and White technique. This means I didn't need to highlight and panel shade every individual color - instead I did all of the shading ahead of time and then used thinned colors for the topcoat. I've been using Testors masking tape to complete the hard-edged camouflage scheme.

The photo above shows the current status. bit sadly lacks the contrast you need to really get a strong sense of the shading at this point. I still need to complete the final weathering as well, but if all else fails (read if my schedule continues to go to Hades in a handbasket), it is "good enough" to go as is.

I'll post more photos once I've finished up this little beast. It went together easily, though it needed some clean up, and has painted well.

Edit: You can see the finished bird here

Call the Exterminator - Tyranid Paint Scheme First Pass

With my son interested in Warhammer 40K, I've been working on a secondary army to give him something to fight other than another Space Marine chapter (see my previous Space Wolves discussion). The Tyranids are an army that has grown and changed a lot from their original incarnations, and I must say I really love the look of the current range of models. So I took the plunge.

At this point I've been building a lot to get something on the table to play against my son - which should be fun. I'm incrementally teaching him the rules to the game, and we'll actually start pointed list building (as opposed to "just pile it all on the table and we'll work it out from there"). Though it wasn't my intention, the match-up will be the very representative Ultramarines vs. Tyranids, so there's that aspect to the fight as well.

As with any new army, I spend a fair amount of time on one of the basic troops trying to get the color scheme right. At this point I have a grand total of one (1) Termagant pretty much painted.

I'm using Vallejo paints and Ammo of MIG washes at this point. Overall I'm pretty happy with the scheme, but I may want to pick out the eyes a bit more with a red or orange as the purple seems to be getting lost. The base is 72.034 Bonewhite (from the Game Color line) with a brown wash (which is still in flux - I'll post final washes in my next buggy installment). All of the other colors are from the Model Color range. I highlight the Bonewhite with 70.918 Ivory. The green basecoat is 70.833 German Camouflage Bright Green highlighted with 70.891 Intermediate Green and 70.942 Light Green. I add purple to the recesses and simply highlight it by blending a lighter version by adding white.

I'll post more pictures as I get more miniatures painted. Building this army on our table has led to many bad jokes about any food being left out attracting bugs... and I expect the hilarity to continue.

Of Game Scale and Ground Scale - Part II

Recently the owner of GHQ published a lengthy post on The Miniatures Page providing some company background and extolling the virtues of GHQ's 1/285th product line. Honestly they do have some nice miniatures, but I personally found the post more than a bit troublesome on many levels as it represents yet another fairly absolutist position in the ongoing discussion regarding what is the proper scale for company level tabletop gaming. What follows is an edited version of the post I made to that thread, but as this is an issue that seems to come around quite often, I thought it was worthy of a deeper look.

Plans for the Second Half of 2016

Given we're well into August at this point, I figured it was time to do a "state of the hobby" update for where I am with my various projects at this point... and the plan for the rest of the year.

My painting table is still straining under the weight of my Japanese force from Banzai. I'm hoping to have some pictures of the progress (or sadly at this point, lack of progress) on those guys by the end of the weekend. At this point the base coat and wash is on all of the infantry and gun crews, so now I have to go through and start doing the uniform highlights and details. I'm hoping to have these guys ready for a tournament about a month from now at Guardian Games in Portland.

The next list I'll be painting up is my 761st Tank Battalion list from the upcoming Battle of the Bulge compilation. I'm planning on taking this army to the Tanksgiving event at Guardian games on November 12. This event is a little different in that it is a true TANK event - no squishy infantry or gun teams allowed. That will drastically change the meta of the game. You also need a "warrior" team. This doesn't have to be an official warrior special character per the rules, but can be a historical figure or even a Hollywood character. I'm going to paint up a tank dedicated to Ruben Rivers of the 761st.

Past that I still have several Flames of War and Team Yankee projects I'd like to get back to. For Team Yankee, I may go ahead and finish the Americans first as I'd really like to do the Eastern Bloc miniatures as a non-Soviet satellite state. I also have several Flames of War armies I'd like to work on, including some mid-War Italians - both for North Africa and Sicily. I have several German forces half started as well that I really need to get back to.

I've still been slowly working on Warhammer 40K miniatures with my son. I've gotten a lot more of my Space Wolves built than painted at this point - honestly I just have base coats on one of the Grey Hunter squads. Fortunately I've found some Vallejo paints that work well as a substitute for Space Wolves Grey - as I've had too many bad experiences with Citadel paints to walk that road again (not to mention the fact that I have controlling interest in Vallejo paints at this point and buying a redundant set of paints makes no sense!). I may also resurrect my old Tyranid army for fun and flavor.

I've also picked up the rules to a miniatures game from Osprey called Frostgrave. This is a skirmish level game played with fairly standard 25-28mm fantasy miniatures, though you can get miniatures designed for the game from North Star Miniatures. The game itself follows your primary character, a wizard, his or her apprentice, and a warband generally numbering no more than 10 or 11 figures as they work their way through a ruined city in search of treasure facing perils and other players. They even have a few modular plastic sets for Soldiers and Cultists which are pretty good. A game like this is appealing because it uses fairly normal fantasy miniatures, and therefore has a fairly low painting overhead.

Chances are I won't get a all of this done before things need to be packed up and start moving over to the new house. The nice thing about the new house will be I'll have a game room and full workshop dedicated to my model-building and miniature painting hobbies. Once I get everything up and running next year I hope to be able to start busting more projects out on a regular basis.