Category Archives: Flames of War

Hobby Streak 01/17/2023

The hobby streak crashed and burned around Christmas. Coupled with trying to get to level 250 in Call of Duty. I haven’t hobbied much until the last week.

A few things that didn’t get pictures. I finalized a massive structure for the DND Campaign. It was 3d printed, no color has been added yet. I also primed the player models and had our session 0. Crafted most of the story, our first game is set for this upcoming Sunday. I think this is where we will chronicle the party’s efforts. Expect a new page and weekly DND posts.

For the streak, I did hobby on Saturday the 14th and have maintained it since then. My elves are producing models at an alarming rate. I hate building models and have 3 hired hands that assist in their spare time. One is working on my Horus Heresy Collection, one on Star Wars Legion, and one on Flames of War. I will officially own a unit of most Flames of War models across the 5 main European players soon.

I produced a couple random DND monsters. I had an hour or so and sat down with my airbrush, and went to work. I prepared some trees for the terrain. I glued a crap ton of scenery for Marvel Crisis Protocol. I am 100% complete with all MCP except the December and January releases, which felt huge. I can’t wait to begin painting those.

In the next week, you can expect a fully finished dwarven army. I have 45 models left to paint. 25 pikemen, and 20 warriors. The warriors are all primed and will begin being painted this very afternoon. I just printed the pikemen; they need to wash and cure and will be back to work. I also have 10 dnd minis that need to be done. Our 7 PC’s, 2 Velociraptors, and an NPC.

I would upload pictures, but……. fail. Until next week.

Flames of War Battle Report USA vs Soviets

For whatever reason, I have never actually put my Flames of War models to the table. I have 5 armies, fully painted and angry ready for battle, but have never actually played myself. Over the next few weeks there are four battles scheduled so I can teach myself. The rules are vague as to how big of a table to use. How much terrain, deployment areas etc. I am setting up 100 pts on a my standard 8×4 table as such.

I have no idea how much space should be required. I have no idea what is a good list or a competitive list. I have read zero blogs and watched zero Youtube videos. We are going to take an adventure together.

SovietsAmericans
Churchill Guards Heavy Tanks23M4 Sherman Tank Company61
HQ32 HQ M4s7
3 Churchill 6pdr105 M4s18
3 Churchill 6pdr105 M4s18
T-34 Tank Battallion695 M4s18
HQ3Rifle Company39
7 T-34s21HQ 2 SMG Teams2
5 T-70s5Rifles 7 M1s 1 Bazooka 1 HMG8
7 T-34s21Rifles 10 M1s 2 Bazooka9
15 SMG Company+1 Komissar17Rifles 7 M1s 1 Bazooka6
3 82mm Mortar22 81 MM Mortar2
Light Tank Killer Company83 T30 75 MM Assault Guns3
4 45mm Guns84 M1917 HMG3
4 37mm guns6

First movement for the Russians has been made. I only had the Mortars in range of anything, unfortunately I did not have an artillery template.

1 Week later I have an artillery template, plus a few dozen of the other sets of tokens you also need to play. The mortars killed a single set of the M1s. American go. The first few turns took a significant amount of time while I figured out the system. The whole when to save when to to save and other items were perplexing. I have watched several youtube videos and have a better grasp. The Americans did destroy a couple of T34s.

Turn 2 for both teams involved a ton of shooting and numerous tanks destroyed. At this point I think I have the basics of the game figured out. Artillery is very high-powered and can do a ton of damage to infantry. (no kidding) Tanks go up like popcorn making the battles very high-paced. Also any unit that is unsportted is at risk meaning you need well-rounded forces. A horde of infantry may take losses but can generally assault and stop a tank company. For either side I didn’t have much strategy, just kill and learn the rules.

Turn 3 resulted in a ton of damage to the American side. You can see most of the infantry defending the top village were assaulted and destroyed, all but 5 of the shermans were destroyed vs the soviets still having about 12 tanks left. I called the game here. I the soviets just had too much firepower and it would have been a blood bath.

What I learned. This first mission had very little depth aside from lining up units for one side or the other to their best advantage. Table set up is huge and I need to be better. I half hazard through down some hills and other terrain not thinking my next table will be better. I think the game is balanced I wish elevation played a bigger role.