Introduction
Miniatures war gaming, or just often known short hand as gaming (but not to be confused with computer gaming/console gaming or role playing games), is a really neat little hobby to participate in. It is very social (as compared to a computer/video game), require live interaction with other people, tends to cost a fair chunk of money and/or effort and time, and of course is a ton of fun! Now, not all of those are positive factors. Spending a lot of time on the hobby, for some people, is not viable. But most people have the time, if they just stop watching TV/movies, partying and doing things like that. The money part is critical for many people (especially in the mainstream miniatures games), but there are always ways to do it cheaper and more creative, and this effect is magnified with historical games. Also, the hobby tends to make a player more interested in the background material.....ie, world war II, for historical games like Flames of War. This leads one to read books/online articles, look up pictures and art, and check out the background sections in the flames of war briefings books. There is an insane amount of material on World War II, in academia and in the general reading public. This is mostly due to the huge number of people that fought in the war and later wrote about it, and the huge amount of evidence of the war that still exists today, such as pictures, old style movies, artwork, video records of peoples experiences and things like that.
There are many different miniatures games, and they come in different flavours. Many of the less popular, less visible ones, are historical based. Most of the big ones are fictional, with an emphasis either on science fiction or fantasy. Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, by GW, is the biggest one of all but there are is also Warmachine/Hordes by Privateer Press, Infinity, Malifaux, Avatars of War, Kings of War, Firestorm Planetfall and Drop Zone Commander. Then there are neat space ship/naval war games like Firstorm Armada, Halo Fleet Battles and Axis and Allies: War at sea. Games Workshop also used to have a very neat game called Battlefleet Gothic, which was in a similar vein, and that particular company always has a few little games/board games out as well. There are numerous good historical games, such as: Flames of War, Bolt Action, Chain of Command and Hail Caesar. Also, there are other rules systems or lines of models made by companies like: Minairons, Plastic Soldier Company and Zvezda. Flames of War is company based, while Chain of Command and Bolt Action are both platoon based.
Personally, I like the idea of historical war games better then the fantasy or science fiction ones. A game that is based off of real wars and units from history is far more interesting, and a gamer can hold the models company to far higher standards (fairness, game balance, prices, rules, ect) then they can for a company that makes up everything themselves. With a game that is completely fictional, the gamers feel they have less control over the game due to this point: "It is their creation, so they (the company) can do what they want with it". A game that is historically based also tends to make more sense, be easier to understand and be more playable right out of the box. Historical miniatures companies thus have less leeway with totally changing their game, as the other gaming companies can do and often will do (ie, Warmachine and Warhammer Fantasy/40K). This makes the game more reliable, less expensive and more fair.
As for size, 15mm really is much better then the 25mm or above sizes, for multiple reasons. The models are far easier to do a quick paint job on, especially base coating (spray primer for the infantry!) and they take up far less space for storage or gaming. The painting part is huge because it means that a player does not feel that he has to spend so much time on a single model (or in this case, a single team). With GW models, it is easy to spend over an hour or more on a single normal size infantry model, to do a good job. And that would be for the simple, easy to paint ones! The more complex infantry (of which there are many) and the larger models take an far more time, with the end point being something like a "Land Raider" or "Greater Daemon", which could theoretically take over 24 hours to paint! Now, the negative factor is that the 15mm infantry are far harder to do detail work on (such as eyes, faces, boots, ammunition belts and sidearms), and will seem practically impossible to do that at first. In my experience, they are doable, but it takes a while to transfer 25mm painting skills to 15mm painting skills. 15mm models take far less paint to do (yay!!), it is easier to put on too much paint and hide details. It will take a lot of getting used to to switch from huge GW/Warmachine models to tiny 15mm models, especially the tiny infantrymen. Every miniatures game has at least one harsh negative factor involved in playing the game and being involved in the community, so for most people, this one ought to not really be a big deal. Believe me, as a former Warhammer player, there are far worse negative factors then this!!! The great amount of skill and patience necessary to do these sort of detailed paint jobs will come with time and is nothing to stress/worry about. The second reason why 15mm is great is that those forces are super easy to store/move/travel with. A shoe box would be a large carrying case for most Flames of War companies. Only a few types of companies, such as the Soviet Strelkovy horde (infantry swarm), could need more room then that. Now, if one wants to have a dramatically painted army movement tray, then that may be larger then is necessary, in order to enhance the aestics of the models. This is purely optional, however, and only really matters for people who travel to tournaments frequently (which not all players have as a choice in the first place!). Flames of War companies (equivalent to a Warhammer army) take up very little space on the shelf, and are generally much tougher and harder to break. They also are easy to pack up if you frequently move to a different part of the country/different country, due to work for example. As stated above, Battlefront/Plastic Soldier Company models tend to be pretty hard to break/ruin. It is not really obvious why, but for some reason, they seem to be much easier to handle then big old 25mm models, and they also seem to be more durable. The deciding factor in this, if I were to take an educated guess, most likely is that a typical company uses less teams (then the typical Warhammer army) and that the game is so relaxed and laid back that there is less stress and less danger of rushing around and dropping/breaking models.
As stated before, miniatures gaming is a wonderful little hobby, but just how good it is depends on what game one chooses to play. There are examples of games that have, in my professional and personal opinion, turned very sour. Warhammer (both types) and Warmachine/Hordes certainly qualify for this negative label. The Warhammer community, game and even the company have serious issues that prevent it from being a generally enjoyable experience, not just for me Monsieur Hoth, but huge numbers of other people. There have been numerous enourmous migrations of Warhammer players to other games, including at one point when a large percentage of the then current Warhammer 40K community transferred to Warmachine/Hordes. This was not the first time something of that nature had happened and would not be the last time. Although Warhammer is usually the gateway into miniatures gaming for most people, a large portion of people end up either playing a different game or they quit the hobby, due to serious issues. Games Workshop is an amazing model company (as long as you like 25mm and larger), but many people take issue with their rules design and lack of tournament support. And let's not get started with the Warhammer community.......that is the primary reason I no longer play that game and most likely never will, even if someone paid me to do it.
For real great miniatures game companies, I would rank Battlefront as being one of the very best, although Warlord Games seems to be pretty good and I have heard nothing but good things about Spartan Games and Too Fat Lardies (who make Chain of Command). Warmachine/Hordes is a pretty good company overall too, but they share many of the same faults that Games Workshop does and they expressly state that their game is for hardcore, competitive gamers who want to win and only win, which is not for everyone. This sort of attitude and official encouragement brings out the worse in players, as I have seen time and time again from Warhammer (the Ardboyz tournament series). The Warhammer community is the same, although the game itself tends to have more of a beer and pretzels flavour.....even though on the other hand, the rules fully support "win at any cost" playing. Then there are some really darn good companies out there that mainly just produce models, with Plastic Soldier Company being the top of the bunch. They produce really great models, almost as good as Battlefront, and they really just focus on the models and don't pay much attention to rule sets. Their models not only look great, but are very inexpensive and are generally pretty easy to put together. Even Zvezda is a good models company, but their models very much are cheap models without a heck of a lot of quality involved. At one point they were selling (per tank/gun/plane) for less then 2.4 pounds each! However, their models tend to be pretty poor quality overall and are quite random in their casting
There are many different miniatures games, and they come in different flavours. Many of the less popular, less visible ones, are historical based. Most of the big ones are fictional, with an emphasis either on science fiction or fantasy. Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, by GW, is the biggest one of all but there are is also Warmachine/Hordes by Privateer Press, Infinity, Malifaux, Avatars of War, Kings of War, Firestorm Planetfall and Drop Zone Commander. Then there are neat space ship/naval war games like Firstorm Armada, Halo Fleet Battles and Axis and Allies: War at sea. Games Workshop also used to have a very neat game called Battlefleet Gothic, which was in a similar vein, and that particular company always has a few little games/board games out as well. There are numerous good historical games, such as: Flames of War, Bolt Action, Chain of Command and Hail Caesar. Also, there are other rules systems or lines of models made by companies like: Minairons, Plastic Soldier Company and Zvezda. Flames of War is company based, while Chain of Command and Bolt Action are both platoon based.
Personally, I like the idea of historical war games better then the fantasy or science fiction ones. A game that is based off of real wars and units from history is far more interesting, and a gamer can hold the models company to far higher standards (fairness, game balance, prices, rules, ect) then they can for a company that makes up everything themselves. With a game that is completely fictional, the gamers feel they have less control over the game due to this point: "It is their creation, so they (the company) can do what they want with it". A game that is historically based also tends to make more sense, be easier to understand and be more playable right out of the box. Historical miniatures companies thus have less leeway with totally changing their game, as the other gaming companies can do and often will do (ie, Warmachine and Warhammer Fantasy/40K). This makes the game more reliable, less expensive and more fair.
As for size, 15mm really is much better then the 25mm or above sizes, for multiple reasons. The models are far easier to do a quick paint job on, especially base coating (spray primer for the infantry!) and they take up far less space for storage or gaming. The painting part is huge because it means that a player does not feel that he has to spend so much time on a single model (or in this case, a single team). With GW models, it is easy to spend over an hour or more on a single normal size infantry model, to do a good job. And that would be for the simple, easy to paint ones! The more complex infantry (of which there are many) and the larger models take an far more time, with the end point being something like a "Land Raider" or "Greater Daemon", which could theoretically take over 24 hours to paint! Now, the negative factor is that the 15mm infantry are far harder to do detail work on (such as eyes, faces, boots, ammunition belts and sidearms), and will seem practically impossible to do that at first. In my experience, they are doable, but it takes a while to transfer 25mm painting skills to 15mm painting skills. 15mm models take far less paint to do (yay!!), it is easier to put on too much paint and hide details. It will take a lot of getting used to to switch from huge GW/Warmachine models to tiny 15mm models, especially the tiny infantrymen. Every miniatures game has at least one harsh negative factor involved in playing the game and being involved in the community, so for most people, this one ought to not really be a big deal. Believe me, as a former Warhammer player, there are far worse negative factors then this!!! The great amount of skill and patience necessary to do these sort of detailed paint jobs will come with time and is nothing to stress/worry about. The second reason why 15mm is great is that those forces are super easy to store/move/travel with. A shoe box would be a large carrying case for most Flames of War companies. Only a few types of companies, such as the Soviet Strelkovy horde (infantry swarm), could need more room then that. Now, if one wants to have a dramatically painted army movement tray, then that may be larger then is necessary, in order to enhance the aestics of the models. This is purely optional, however, and only really matters for people who travel to tournaments frequently (which not all players have as a choice in the first place!). Flames of War companies (equivalent to a Warhammer army) take up very little space on the shelf, and are generally much tougher and harder to break. They also are easy to pack up if you frequently move to a different part of the country/different country, due to work for example. As stated above, Battlefront/Plastic Soldier Company models tend to be pretty hard to break/ruin. It is not really obvious why, but for some reason, they seem to be much easier to handle then big old 25mm models, and they also seem to be more durable. The deciding factor in this, if I were to take an educated guess, most likely is that a typical company uses less teams (then the typical Warhammer army) and that the game is so relaxed and laid back that there is less stress and less danger of rushing around and dropping/breaking models.
As stated before, miniatures gaming is a wonderful little hobby, but just how good it is depends on what game one chooses to play. There are examples of games that have, in my professional and personal opinion, turned very sour. Warhammer (both types) and Warmachine/Hordes certainly qualify for this negative label. The Warhammer community, game and even the company have serious issues that prevent it from being a generally enjoyable experience, not just for me Monsieur Hoth, but huge numbers of other people. There have been numerous enourmous migrations of Warhammer players to other games, including at one point when a large percentage of the then current Warhammer 40K community transferred to Warmachine/Hordes. This was not the first time something of that nature had happened and would not be the last time. Although Warhammer is usually the gateway into miniatures gaming for most people, a large portion of people end up either playing a different game or they quit the hobby, due to serious issues. Games Workshop is an amazing model company (as long as you like 25mm and larger), but many people take issue with their rules design and lack of tournament support. And let's not get started with the Warhammer community.......that is the primary reason I no longer play that game and most likely never will, even if someone paid me to do it.
For real great miniatures game companies, I would rank Battlefront as being one of the very best, although Warlord Games seems to be pretty good and I have heard nothing but good things about Spartan Games and Too Fat Lardies (who make Chain of Command). Warmachine/Hordes is a pretty good company overall too, but they share many of the same faults that Games Workshop does and they expressly state that their game is for hardcore, competitive gamers who want to win and only win, which is not for everyone. This sort of attitude and official encouragement brings out the worse in players, as I have seen time and time again from Warhammer (the Ardboyz tournament series). The Warhammer community is the same, although the game itself tends to have more of a beer and pretzels flavour.....even though on the other hand, the rules fully support "win at any cost" playing. Then there are some really darn good companies out there that mainly just produce models, with Plastic Soldier Company being the top of the bunch. They produce really great models, almost as good as Battlefront, and they really just focus on the models and don't pay much attention to rule sets. Their models not only look great, but are very inexpensive and are generally pretty easy to put together. Even Zvezda is a good models company, but their models very much are cheap models without a heck of a lot of quality involved. At one point they were selling (per tank/gun/plane) for less then 2.4 pounds each! However, their models tend to be pretty poor quality overall and are quite random in their casting
Company/Models: 8/10
The flames of war company, battlefront, is a really great company. This company tries very actively
to maintain its support base, listen to its customers, answer feedback and provide
quality product (including the rules for the game!). Don't every take good rules for granted: this is not a given. Good rule sets are a luxury that many gamers cannot afford, as the companies behind the rules sets just don't put in the same amount of effort that a stellar company like Battlefront does.
Battlefront pursues a relatively cheap and fair product pricing
regime. They make numerous plastic kits,
which come with everything that you need for that kit, plus usually a little
bit of extras. Most of their kits are metal, but they are still easy to assemble, being so small. Using cement for metal/wood (testors, perhaps) helps greatly. Being a former warhammer player, when I saw that almost every single one of their models was metal and multi-part (this was when I first tried to get into the game, about four years ago), I panicked. However, I have come to realize through experience, assembly work and talking to people online, that this is okay. Metal Battlefront models are tiny: this means that they have very little weight and the issues with assembling large scale (25-80mm) metal models do not exist with these models, thankfully.
Now, Battlefront has a huge product line and there are no units that you can use that you cannot buy, for a fair price too. Their books are actually quite cheap when compared to other companies books, even though to be fair, they are more expensive generally speaking then the direct (historical) competition , such as: bolt action, chain of command and plastic soldier company. It must be said, though, that battlefront makes the best quality models around (especially for 15mm) and that when the overall fair prices of their books and models are taken into account, this section must be scored quite very high.
Now, Battlefront has a huge product line and there are no units that you can use that you cannot buy, for a fair price too. Their books are actually quite cheap when compared to other companies books, even though to be fair, they are more expensive generally speaking then the direct (historical) competition , such as: bolt action, chain of command and plastic soldier company. It must be said, though, that battlefront makes the best quality models around (especially for 15mm) and that when the overall fair prices of their books and models are taken into account, this section must be scored quite very high.
Unlike the mainstream miniatures companies, Battlefront has a policy of keeping
the models easy to assemble. This is
why, until recently, so many of their models were metal: because they had great
detail on them and thus had to be cast in metal. This also would be cheaper, financially, and thus make Battlefront a more competetive company. As after all, more money saved on production means more money that can be redistributed into research, distribution or administration.......and that is good for us, the gamer/customer as no gamer wants to see a good company go down in flames.
The amount of research that Battlefront puts into their
models and game are quite impressive, especially to a rookie player. They really strive for historical accuracy
but pair it with making a fair and fun game.
This is so far from how Games Workshop does things that it is really
ground breaking and mind bending. To be fair to Games Workshop, they do a good job with most things and they have a lot more to manage (being the world's biggest and most powerful game company) then does Battlefront. Aditionally, I have always felt sorry for the Games Workshop administration and leadership, because they have the world's worst gaming community as their fans and customers. I would not wish that on any company.
The last main point about the company is that they are very
opaque about their goals. They try to
make sure that their customers know where the game is headed, what they are
planning for the year (in terms of large projects) and so forth. When combined with their company forum and
social media, it is clear that they really care, are driven to succeed and are
not aloof and disinterested, like how other compannies often appear to be at times.
Community/Players: 9/10
The flames of war community is probably one of the best
around, in terms of several vital values/concepts: being respectful, having fun
and being passionate about the game.
Flames of war players are more into their game then just about any other
group of minatures war gaming players.
They not only research how the units/armies function, they often are
fantastic model artists and pay much attention to keeping things historically
accurate and fair. No other group of
players I have met puts so much effort into making sure the game is fun, fair
and balanced.
As opposed to the Warhammer or Warmachine community, the point is not to hammer your opponent into the ground (with him being able to do as little as possible), but to have a hard fought and very balanced game that could easily become a victory for either player......with only player skill affecting the outcome. For me, as a hard core veteran Warhammer player, veteran Warhammer tournament organizer, and long time painter and fan of the hobby/fictional universe, this attention to fairness/having fun is nothing short of earth shattering. It just did not exist in my previous gaming community.
In terms of respect, this community is so much better than the GW community. There are significantly fewer rude/mean people, and people in general take a more serious attitude towards being decent and not driving off new members. Another serious issue with the GW community is the severe amount of "trolling" and "factionalism". Trolling is a modern slang term that refers to a person who is being rude, aggressive or creating spam purposefully in order to harass or anger other people. Factionalism in the Warhammer community refers to how there are oppositional forces in the game and tournament scene, and how people turn these into minor armed camps (practically). In Warhammer, there is a drive for extreme, obsessive competiteness clashing with a desire to play the game in a more friendly and laidback fashion. There is the desire to limit what people may use in their foces clashing with a desire to use whatever the company makes, there are oppositional forces for scoring tournaments, and so forth and so forth. The entire Warhammer community is full of these conflicting desires and people will, and often do, attack each other and "troll" each other endlessly about these things. I have personally seen endless amounts of this, and it never ends.
For the Flames of War community, the only sticky points are sometimes the desire for historical accuracy comes into conflict with people just wanting to play with what looks like fun, and additionally the jerks in this community usually are jerks because of politics. The game is, after all, a historically based game. However, when compared to games workshop and its community, this group is practically made out of saints and angels. The number and "quality" of the disrespectful people in this community is just on another whole level when compared to the mainstream games. Now to be fair to all of the nice/decent people in these other communities, not everyone that plays in these groups is disrespectful or "trollish". However, the sheer percentages of these "trolls" and rude people is so high as to make the game something that should not be touched with a nine foot stick. Again, this is not the companies fault: this is something that the gamers themselves are responsible for.
The only real complaint about the community is that it is quite small. This is not a good game to play if one wants to play games very frequently, travel to lots of tournaments and attend multiple large grand tournaments each year. For those obsessive, super competetive gamers (let's say from Warhammer), then it is best to look somewhere else for a hobby, or frustration will be sure to follow. There are about 1/10th of the number of people that play this game when compared to games workshop games, overall. Additionally, there are fewer tournaments and much fewer grand tournaments/conventions. The plus side of it being a historical war game is that practically any gaming convention (broad spectrum, of course) or historical convention, is going to have a flames of war event. Additionally, although the flames of war community is much quieter and less visible then the warhammer one, it is composed of people that have a more laid back attitude and are more friendly to playing games at home, instead of always having to play at a store. With such a small game, playing at a store is not really all that important. Anywhere big enough for 2-4 people and one 6 by 4 table is more than enough. The last comment about the Warhammer community is that said community varies across the world. Different countries usually have quite different cultures, and this will affect a game like Warhammer. The United States has the worst Warhammer community, while from what I know, the Nordic countries are most likely the best of the bunch.
As opposed to the Warhammer or Warmachine community, the point is not to hammer your opponent into the ground (with him being able to do as little as possible), but to have a hard fought and very balanced game that could easily become a victory for either player......with only player skill affecting the outcome. For me, as a hard core veteran Warhammer player, veteran Warhammer tournament organizer, and long time painter and fan of the hobby/fictional universe, this attention to fairness/having fun is nothing short of earth shattering. It just did not exist in my previous gaming community.
In terms of respect, this community is so much better than the GW community. There are significantly fewer rude/mean people, and people in general take a more serious attitude towards being decent and not driving off new members. Another serious issue with the GW community is the severe amount of "trolling" and "factionalism". Trolling is a modern slang term that refers to a person who is being rude, aggressive or creating spam purposefully in order to harass or anger other people. Factionalism in the Warhammer community refers to how there are oppositional forces in the game and tournament scene, and how people turn these into minor armed camps (practically). In Warhammer, there is a drive for extreme, obsessive competiteness clashing with a desire to play the game in a more friendly and laidback fashion. There is the desire to limit what people may use in their foces clashing with a desire to use whatever the company makes, there are oppositional forces for scoring tournaments, and so forth and so forth. The entire Warhammer community is full of these conflicting desires and people will, and often do, attack each other and "troll" each other endlessly about these things. I have personally seen endless amounts of this, and it never ends.
For the Flames of War community, the only sticky points are sometimes the desire for historical accuracy comes into conflict with people just wanting to play with what looks like fun, and additionally the jerks in this community usually are jerks because of politics. The game is, after all, a historically based game. However, when compared to games workshop and its community, this group is practically made out of saints and angels. The number and "quality" of the disrespectful people in this community is just on another whole level when compared to the mainstream games. Now to be fair to all of the nice/decent people in these other communities, not everyone that plays in these groups is disrespectful or "trollish". However, the sheer percentages of these "trolls" and rude people is so high as to make the game something that should not be touched with a nine foot stick. Again, this is not the companies fault: this is something that the gamers themselves are responsible for.
The only real complaint about the community is that it is quite small. This is not a good game to play if one wants to play games very frequently, travel to lots of tournaments and attend multiple large grand tournaments each year. For those obsessive, super competetive gamers (let's say from Warhammer), then it is best to look somewhere else for a hobby, or frustration will be sure to follow. There are about 1/10th of the number of people that play this game when compared to games workshop games, overall. Additionally, there are fewer tournaments and much fewer grand tournaments/conventions. The plus side of it being a historical war game is that practically any gaming convention (broad spectrum, of course) or historical convention, is going to have a flames of war event. Additionally, although the flames of war community is much quieter and less visible then the warhammer one, it is composed of people that have a more laid back attitude and are more friendly to playing games at home, instead of always having to play at a store. With such a small game, playing at a store is not really all that important. Anywhere big enough for 2-4 people and one 6 by 4 table is more than enough. The last comment about the Warhammer community is that said community varies across the world. Different countries usually have quite different cultures, and this will affect a game like Warhammer. The United States has the worst Warhammer community, while from what I know, the Nordic countries are most likely the best of the bunch.
To summarize, this is the perfect game (Flames of War)for someone to play who
wants to have a nice, relaxing hobby that one can have fun doing every now and
then (once to twice a month, normally, maybe a little bit more). This hobby does not need to take very much
money, does not need to take up a lot of extra time doing extra work (painting,
assembly, army list research, ECT), takes up less storage space and is just
generally better. As a former veteran Warhammer player/TO, former Warmachine player and former Axis and Allies: War at Sea player, I would highly recommend Flames of War. It is the best game I have ever played!
Game/Rules: 9.5/10
This game, flames of war, is a really awesome game. There are three main points in its defence
that makes it strike a home run: super balanced, fair and very fun/easy to play. These three key points make the game be what
a hobby miniatures game should be: a relaxing, enjoyable past time best enjoyed
with decent friends and family. No other
game I have seen hits as many marks as does flames of war.
The last point is the simplest to address. Flames of war is incredibly easy for a
miniature gamer to learn to play, and pretty darn simple for anyone else as
well. The game is just like chess in
that it is "easy to learn, difficult to master". Sure, to be a legend at this game, it will
take a long time, lots of effort and a fair amount of sheer talent. But for everyone else, who just wants to have
a fun time and know the game well, but not perfect, this is a very easy game to
pick. For someone transferring from another
miniatures game, it will probably take about three to four weeks to pick up the
vast majority of the rules.
The next main concept is that of fairness and balance. The game is super fair/well balanced, yet it
does it through a rather odd system.
Basically, every unit in the game has a counter to it and no one unit
can just bulldoze through anything opposing it.
Tanks can mow down and crush infantry, but anti-tank guns/tank destroyers
will wreck them badly. Anti-tank guns
and tank destroyers are usually much cheaper than tanks, as well. However, neither one of those can handle infantry
and will get wrecked by them fast, especially in assault. If your opponent plays cautiously or
defensively, then air support can devastate his units from afar with very little
cost to your overall company strength.
However, your opponent’s flak units can stop your airplanes time and
time again and are very cheap in points.
Facing too many dug in, concealed, veteran infantry....take artillery,
mortars, and big guns to either directly destroy them or to pin them down so
you can assault them. Facing too many
enemy infantry in huge waves...use heavy machine guns to gun them down and
mortars to pin them in place. Enemy
heavy tanks messing you up? Go ahead and take tank destroyers or airplanes to
kill them, smoke them with smoke and make them useless or swarm them with tons
of light/medium tanks. Whatever way you
look at it, flames of war is a super balanced game and fairness is the number
one concern next to fun-ness.
Missions
Missions are a critical part of the game. They help the game to be as fair and fun as
it is. The missions are formed into
three main sections, plus a neat mission for when two fortified companies are
facing off against each other. They have:
mobile, defensive, and fair fight missions.
Fair fight missions are for when two forces are of the same
general type and neither has the obvious advantage of being able to press the
attack, so each player is not only the attacker but the defender, essentially
(with each person having two objectives to seize and two to hold). Fair fight missions are good because they
teach the player about how to attack, defend and counter-attack in a
mission. They also help with deployment
and will show one how to use reserves effectively. Retrospectively, they will help the player to
build an effective list through reserves because the player will need to have a
well-balanced list. If the list is not
well balanced, then deciding what units to put into reserves and what units to
leave on the table or place into ambush, will be very difficult. Fair fight missions are a great beginner
learning tool, but are not great to play all of the time because of the
standardized nature of the mission and the fact that they will all sort of
blend together over time and not really be exciting anymore.
Defensive missions are a more advanced learning tool. They incorporate "ambush", or
"immediate ambush" into their rules, along with forcing the defender
to place half of his units into reserve.
These two factors combine to make defensive battles a much different
game then fair fight battles. Defensive
battles are a good training tool because they teach a player how to plan a strong
defence or offence. They also help the
player to refine their skill at using reserves properly. Mobile battles are a mix of the two types of
missions. They generally are the same
idea as defensive missions, but force the defender to move around a bit more.
