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.

Soviets		Americans
Churchill Guards Heavy Tanks	23	M4 Sherman Tank Company	61
HQ	3	2 HQ M4s	7
3 Churchill 6pdr	10	5 M4s	18
3 Churchill 6pdr	10	5 M4s	18
T-34 Tank Battallion	69	5 M4s	18
HQ	3	Rifle Company	39
7 T-34s	21	HQ 2 SMG Teams	2
5 T-70s	5	Rifles 7 M1s 1 Bazooka 1 HMG	8
7 T-34s	21	Rifles 10 M1s 2 Bazooka	9
15 SMG Company+1 Komissar	17	Rifles 7 M1s 1 Bazooka	6
3 82mm Mortar	2	2 81 MM Mortar	2
Light Tank Killer Company	8	3 T30 75 MM Assault Guns	3
4 45mm Guns	8	4 M1917 HMG	3
		4 37mm guns	6

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.