Flames of War

Flames of War
Miniatures-based Wargame published by Battlefront Miniatures
First Publication	2002
Essential Books	Flames of War: Fourth Edition, and your chosen faction's rulebook and/or unit cards appropriate to the period (see below)

Flames of War is a tabletop wargame, first released in 2002, by the New Zealand company Battlefront Miniatures. It recreates the fighting in the European and North African theaters of World War II using 15mm scale models. There are also expansions that cover Vietnam, World War 1, and the Arab-Israeli Wars. Play simulates combat between company-level forces, with each stand of infantry typically representing half a squad. In the mid-2010s its popularity outside its homeland has skyrocketed, and it is moving rapidly on its way to joining Warhammer Fantasy Battle (Lol dead), Warhammer 40,000 and Warmachine/Hordes as one of THE big-name tabletop wargames. Also like those games, it is quickly developing a strong community of whiny, sophist 'YouTube War Expert' players. Still, most players are quite friendly and welcoming to newbs, newbies, noobs, and nubs. Even if they often make typos. Also developed by a team of mainly very nice gentlemen.

Battlefront Miniatures itself has become fairly popular in comparison to other well-known companies, as they have given their blessing for players to use other company's products in games, even allowing them in tournaments; and for making many of the army lists available on their website. Also the prices from the company aren't that high ($52.00 USD is pretty good for 2 Rifle platoons, a weapons platoon, a Company command squad and a few bazooka teams), and in addition to that, most of the stuff you own can be mix-and-match as those infantry platoons you own can be used with your armoured companies and vice versa. Also, as infantry don't really change much, and since at 15mm it's hard to tell what they are equipped with anyway, you can use your infantry platoon/company throughout all war periods, and can proxy them as mechanized (provided you have the transports), paratroopers, ect. with ease.

Rules Basics

Both above links are dead, and alternates will be found.

If you've played any other tabletop wargame, you should be halfway to knowing the rules for FoW, it's just a matter of the squirrelly parts. Some of the major points are:

• Unit ratings- Units are rated on two stats, their motivation and their training. Ratings are typically applied across and entire army list.
  • Motivation- How happy and ready to fight your units are. Keeps troops in the battle and helps them keep moving and fighting. There are three ratings (barring special snowflake rules): Reluctant, Confident and Fearless. Note that Fearless is not as good as it is in 40k, although it's still pretty damn great as it stops your platoons and companies pissing out at a moment's notice.
  • Training- How skilled at combat your troops are. Keeps them alive and helps with things like moving through rough terrain, digging in, hitting the enemy in Close Combat, and a whole range of other things. There are four flavors of training: Conscript, Green, Trained and Veteran.
• Motivation tests- There are numerous situations when Motivation checks are required. Think of them like Leadership tests in 40k. The most common check is when a platoon is below half strength, it has to take a motivation test or be removed from the game. Following this, when your entire army is below half strength, your Company Commander has to take a motivation test or (if he's copped it) you lose the game automatically as your troops run away like little girls bravely tactically retreat to fight for Freedom and hamburgers another day.
• Shooting- one rule that confuses a lot of new players is that when one unit shoots at another, the chance to hit is based on the target's Is Hit On rating, not the firer's skill score. The reasoning is that any moron with one arm and two brain cells to rub together can spray machine-gun fire at people, and what really counts is how good the people being shot at are at taking cover and not bunching up like a flock of sheep. Generally this will be Reckless (3+), Aggressive (4+) or Careful (5+).

List Building

In Fourth Edition, army lists have been drastically overhauled. Whereas previous editions used an army-wide Force Organization Chart, list building in 4th is a little more open ended, theoretically to represent concepts such as decentralized command and combined arms using formations. In addition, each faction now has their own dedicated book portraying a specific period and theater rather than the theater at large, with some theaters having a compendium of all factions.

So how do you build a list once you've decided on the details like points cost, nation and period? Well first and foremost, you'll need at least one formation, but you can have as many as you want (so long as you can afford its points cost). Formations generally consist of a compulsory HQ and 2 compulsory combat units, with optional units to bulk them out if you so choose. You can also take support units that aren't part of any formation such as artillery, AT guns, recon units, aircraft etc. The units you can take will be outlined at the front of the book in a chart under the formations you can take. Your army can have formations without support, but never support without formations. This applies to both list-building and actual games - If at any point you only have support units on the table, game over!

Sample Army

Let's say you want to build a force representing the American forces in North Africa. This list will be set in the Mid War period, which means you can only use it against other Mid War lists. The appropriate book for this will either be the standalone book Fighting First or the section for said book in the North Africa compendium. In this case the compendium will be used to allow access to more units such as paratroopers. As mentioned above, you'll need at least one formation. Optionally, you can take command cards. They're by no means necessary but can open up different avenues of play and give you some thematic options for your army such as famous commanding officers. Worth at least getting a deck of to have all of your options available.

Next, you pick the units for your formation, starting with the required ones represented by the black boxes of the formation chart. Generally speaking, this will be an HQ unit and 2 Combat units, but this isn't always the case. Most formations will also have optional units indicated by grey boxes in the formation chart. In cases where there are two concentric/overlapping boxes in a section, this allows for the player to choose. You can take one of those options or the other, but not both.

An average game of Flames of War is about 100 points, so this is what we will aim for in this demonstration. NOTE: The list below isn't necessarily competitive or even good, but is simply for the purpose of demonstrating how to build an army. The first formation we'll pick will be is an Armored Rifle Company - Infantry riding in half-tracks. The HQ unit for this consists of 2 M1 Carbine Teams in either a half-track or a jeep. They both cost 2 points, so in this case it doesn't make a difference, but some formation HQ units allow for different configurations, numbers or upgrades listed in their section of the rulebook, so your mileage may vary.

Once you've got your HQ we need the compulsory combat units. The Armored Rifle Company requires two platoons of mechanized infantry. The platoons themselves will be a mix of M1 Garand rifle teams, Bazooka teams, M1919 LMG teams, 60mm mortar teams, and half-tracks with a single .50 cal Mg and a number of .30 cal MGs. You have the choice for each platoon of either 6 rifle teams, 5 bazooka teams and 5 total half-tracks for 15 points each or 4 each of rifle teams and bazooka teams (the other weapons will be of the same quantity in either case) and 4 total half-tracks for 12 points each. Infantry are really good at holding objectives and are generally better in numbers, especially when they're cheap as in the case of the good ol' US of A, so we're going to go with the maximum strength for both rifle platoons.

Optional units for the Armored Rifle Company are M1917 HMG platoons, 37mm AT gun platoons, T-30 75mm assault gun platoons and M4 81mm mortar platoons. For this formation we'll do an assault gun platoon for some added punch and the ability to use smoke bombardments. They're 1 point each and come in units of 2 or 3. To maximize on the firepower (and to make the math easier for this lazy bastard) we'll go with 3 of the fuckers.

Not all of your units have to be in formations or from the support section - You can field compulsory combat units from a formation as support units. This is great because you can have, say, a powerful and expensive unit like Tigers or Commandos without a formation of them eating your points budget for breakfast. Tanks are good for mobility and bringing the big guns to the field, so we'll take a platoon of 5 M4 Shermans at 8 points for a subtotal of 40.

Finally let's talk support units. For our list we'll go with a unit of 2 P-40 Warhawks for aerial support, 4 105mm howitzers for blowing shit up, 4 T28E1 AAA platoons for dealing with enemy planes and an M3 Stuart Observation Post to spot for your artillery when your other units can't. So our army is going to look a little something like this:

Formations

• Armored Rifle Company 35 points

-Formation HQ 2 points
-Full-strength armored rifle platoon x2 30 points total
-75mm assault gun 3 points

Support

• Sherman armored platoon (5x tanks, formation support) 40 points
• P-40 Warhawk Flight 6 points
• 105mm Field Artillery Battery x4 10 points
• M3 Stuart Observation Post 1 point
• T28E1 AAA platoon 6 points

Command Cards

• (Placeholder, my deck is on the way from Amazon) 3 points

Grand total: 100 points

Organization

Rather than try to balance, say, the German army that invaded Poland in 1939 against the Russian army that rolled into Berlin 6 years later, the game is divided into three periods:

In this respect, it is significantly more intelligently designed than its retarded cousin, which shall remain nameless. It is still lacking in historical accuracy, and was slowly becoming subsumed by the same special rule bloat that affected most popular miniature wargames. Thankfully, 4th Edition took a flammenwerfer to those, though 3rd was still a better game.

World War Two

Early War

Covers everything from the beginning of the war until the end of 1941. Available forces are Germany, Great Britain, the USSR, Imperial Japan, Finland, Italy, France and Poland. Typically most forces are less experienced and so there are very few forces (outside of the Germans, Finns and Japanese) who have "veteran" units. It's actually one of the most "balanced" periods of the game, and so is actually fairly popular (except among Americans for some reason). While most of the overall game is balanced, and each period is balanced, in this period every tank has a reasonable chance against other tanks (unless you're those British, Soviet or French cunts who take Matildas, T-34's or B1s- but then you'll have 4 models on the table, TOPS, and they can be easily beaten in assault by engineers). When the Germans get the later Panzer IIIs they can easily take out the allied heavy/infantry tanks, if you're willing to pay a boatload of points for a glass cannon.

Mid War

Covers 1942-1943. Poland becomes a British force while America comes in. Probably the most balanced period, with the only real cheese being the T-34 spam that the Russians can use, as amusingly enough they can almost take more tanks than you can get bases of each nation's commando/paratrooper equivalent. Lack a lot of flexibility due to the rules for Russian tanks.

Late War

Covers 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945. Includes most of the 'Iconic' battles of the war, like the invasion of Normandy, capture of Paris, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. The Soviets destroyed what was left of the Germans' ability to actually stop them in summer 1944, and finished the job in 1945, so there's plenty going on in the Eastern Front as well, from Operation Bagration in June 1944 to the Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945.

Lots of hilarious units like the Kingtiger and Panthers, both of which are too complicated and expensive for their own good, and virtually infinite opportunities to field last-ditch efforts to prevent the inevitable as the Allied powers advanced into Germany, like the Hitlerjugend child soldiers and the Volkssturm militia.

The large number of special rules makes this period somewhat more "gamey" than mid-war.

Vietnam

What started off as a few army lists published in wargames illustrated evolved into the newest period expansion, with the current book being 'Nam. NVA list is pretty standard guerrilla stuff but there is an option to run an ironclad battalion (tank battalion) with soviet make tanks and apcs, despite these kind of forces being extremely rare and only really utilized once the Americans withdrew combat forces. South Vietnam, on the other hand, had its supply of parts and new hardware cut off after the US withdrew, meaning the ROV armed forces rapidly lost all mechanized capability after 1973.

The American/ANZAC/South Vietnamese lists have access to helicopters as well as tank, mechanized cavalry, and infantry lists. Basic rules also change somewhat, and it seems like company-level combat doesn't really work that well for this conflict. Very few players, and the original boxes for units have become quite hard to come by.

Arab-Israeli Wars

Currently focused on tank battles during the Six Day War in 1967, which pits upgraded WW2 American tanks versus upgraded WW2 Soviet tanks as well as more modern vehicles such as M48 Pattons, centurions, and T-54/55s. No helicopters here, but it does have rules for jet aircraft and night-vision equipment. A lot of people like it because it just takes some tan paint to turn a Late War or Vietnam unit into one that fits this setting. The rule set was first released in 2013 as a wargames illustrated supplement called Fate of a Nation, with tank company lists for Israel, United Arab Republic (Egypt), and Jordan. In late 2014/early 2015 it was re-released as a theater book with revised points and additional lists for Israeli Sayaret (Recon) and paratroopers, and UAR and Jordanian infantry fortified infantry companies. It has been expanded to include the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Plays like a mix of Team Yankee and FoW; with the aircraft and range of Team Yankee but only a little more lethality than your granddaddy's Shermans.

Great War

Currently only one book, focused on the final offensives of 1918. Army lists exist for the British Empire, France+Belgium, the United States and Germany, with sides having access to the first tanks, better known as "landships" back then. August 2014 saw the release of German and British army boxes, supporting kits, and terrain, including craters and a trench-line system. August 2015 saw a full book with German, British, French, and American lists as well as new missions. The most recent edition, 'Great War', makes stat updates in the veins of V4 Flames of War and gives you even more ways to send young men to die aimlessly on the battlefields of Europe.

Unsurprisingly, this is the 'safest' game by Battlefront. You may have tanks that literally delete anything else from the table, but the strategy of hiding in trenches and depressing charges into machinegun fire defines the period, and the game as a whole. It is also worthy of note that machine guns have the ability to delete certain tanks, and artillery is far less important than in regular Flames.

Team Yankee

After the eponymous book by Harold Coyle, the newest addition to BF's expanding list of non-WWII theaters, focusing on a hypothetical WWIII with the Warsaw pact vs. NATO in the Fulda Gap and the North German Plains. On the NATO side are the Americans, British, West Germans, French, Canadians, Dutch and the ANZACs. On the Warsaw Pact are the Soviets, East Germans, Poles and Czechs.

The 2019 book Oil War saw an expansion of the war into the Middle East, featuring lists for Israel, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. This was also the first book to slowly but surely advance the timeline of Team Yankee to cover the late eighties and early nineties, allowing for more modern (and lethal) kit to be introduced.

Team Yankee uses a ruleset based upon standard Flames of War, but is different in many details and noted to be quicker and more violent than standard Flames of War. No word yet if that means that one side nukes the other if they lose, something that NATO actually was planning to do.

THE most popular offshoot of Flames of War, but still a smaller game than its daddy (just ignore the fact that it has the largest presence on 1d4chan). Check it out here.

Armies

This article or section is being fought over by people undoing each other's changes. Please use the Discussion page for fighting instead of the article.

FoW supports most of the major military powers that fought in WWII. The following is an absolutely completely unbiased list of those that are currently available.

United States of America

They may have shown up two years late, but once in the war the Americans brought with them one of the largest war industries ever heard of, and by 1945 fielded one of the largest and most powerful armed forces ever seen in history. Built around vehicle spam, heavy artillery, and a seemingly endless supply of bazookas. Technology like stabilizers, AOPs, and semiautomatic rifles make your troops great at maneuver warfare and help make up for generally average or poor hard stats. US artillery enjoys the time on target rule which forces rerolls on saves; going into the war the US Army was a bit of a one-trick pony, but that trick was focusing ALL their artillery in range to hit the same thing at the same time.

In Midwar, the US has some of the most powerful technology, with some of the heaviest armed and armored medium tanks of the era, massive amounts of bazookas (which are waaay scarier in this era), and their always capable artillery. What's the tradeoff? You have some rather poor crew stats that limit your flexibility and give you discounts on your troops, so they are still relatively spammable, and your special rules still make your troops decently flexible despite that. Even though your options aren't huge, you have a tool for every job and the US represents a capable force.

Late War depicts the Americans as a force to be reckoned with due to their probably the most powerful artillery in game, higher training, and insane list building flexibility. These capabilities help you overcome your glaring weaknesses: you don't have access to the level of armor and penetration that the Soviets, Germans, and British can bring in numbers. This doesn't mean that your units are much cheaper though: the top level M4 mediums are similar in price to Soviet heavies and SS panthers. This means that you have to play a bit smarter, using smoke, artillery, terrain, and your special rules and training to out maneuver and out think your freedom-hating adversaries. Played well, it's a beautiful sight to see, but you will be punished quite readily if you lose your luck or wits.

Great Britain

The old saying goes that the British Army loses every battle in every war except the last one, and Britannia certainly got the last laugh in the 1940s. Jollie olde Anglaterre and her Commonwealth mainly field bland looking masses of brown and drab paint. They are good all-rounders, and are especially good in assaults. One of their biggest draws is that Great Britain isn't just England- you can also field Scots, Irish, Indians, Canadians, Nepalese, Australians, New Zealanders, and Maoris. The British are tough in defense and favour drowning their enemies in dead colonials tend to have a small, elite core supplemented by special forces. They are best in defense however, due to their special characters and special rules that favour a mainly static war (unless you play an armour company, in which case the British rules are made to let you charge in guns blazing).

Soviet Union

The only army a true fa/tg/uy should ever play. Brutal fucks that get a pass because they helped the other Allies shove the Fascists back into schnitzelland, proving that communists have speech 100. The Red Army also taught the entire world that no technological advantage beats A LOT of men equipped with simple, sturdy and easily mass-producible tools of war... as long as you are willing to take and replace A LOT of losses in the process (which they were). The Red Army's units are a mess of contradictions, with decent hard stats but some significant weaknesses that allow you to field them in large numbers. The Soviets suffer from a near complete lack of artillery smoke, a -1 to hit if they move on nearly all their vehicles, a lack of careful units, and sparse infantry AT. What this means is you can field a massive number of units that, when used together right, can mitigate their weaknesses and do a lot of damage. When used wrong, however, they tend to die in droves. To give you an idea of how much you're going to be outnumbering your opponent, most other armies are a 'Company' made up of 'Platoons'. The average Soviet army fields 'Battalions' made up of 'Companies'. Chances are you will fill up your side of the table with your forces, so I hope you enjoy assembling and painting those little basta- *BLAM!* fearless defenders of the motherland. Despite this, the Late War Soviets also bring a good amount of highly skilled and capable units, helping mitigate the weaknesses of their regular brethren. That or you could just spam T-34 and T-70s like a mad lad and take so many throwaway tanks that the amount of burning wreckage they make is an acceptable replacement for the smoke you don't have. Either way is fun.

The Polish People's Army seen in Team Yankee originated in the Soviet Union in 1943, so there is the possibility to field them using selections from the Mid-to-Late-War Soviet lineup as well, like the T-34/85.

Soviet Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	T-70 - Valentine - M5/M3 Stuart - M3 Lee - T-34 - KV - Churchill - IS-2 - Captured Tank Platoon - T-28 - BT-7 - KV-2 - T-26
Transports:	M3 Scout Car - Universal Carrier - SdKfz 251
Infantry:	Rifles - Motor Rifles - Penal Company - Storm Group - SMG Company - Engineer Sapper Company
Artillery:	Katyusha - 152mm Artillery - 122mm Artillery - 76mm Artillery - 120mm Mortars - 82mm mortars
Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns:	45mm Anti Tank - 57mm Anti Tank - 76mm Anti Tank - 100mm Anti Tank - SU-76 - SU-85 - SU-100 - SU-122 - SU-152 - ISU-122/ISU-152
Recon:	Scout Platoon - BA-64 Platoon - Armored Reconnaissance Platoon - Reconnaissance Platoon
Aircraft:	Il-2 Sturmovik
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU M17 - DShK AA MG Platoon
Midwar Monsters:	KV-3 - KV-5 - T-43

Germany

The Nazi state might have produced some of the most horrific evil ever seen or done by man, but they also forged a war machine with enough discipline, training, equipment and fighting spirit to seize and hold virtually all of Europe and take on most of the world, basically by themselves, for over five years. German forces feature the Heer (Army), Luftwaffe (Air Force), Kriegsmarine (Navy), the Waffen-SS (Armed-Protection Squadron), the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) and the Volkssturm (People's Assault). Their quality ranges from extremely good to extremely bad, with the latter becoming more common in Late War, when the German military was rapidly running out of guns, bullets, fuel, vehicles, time and ability to train new troops, etc. and were generally just throwing together whatever they could. The stern discipline and tenacity of the Heer is plenty visible, as is the skill and daring of the Luftwaffe's airborne troops and the extreme Villainous Valor of the Waffen-SS. The Volkssturm, a pitiful last-ditch effort to stave off defeat, is just a bullet-sponge militia, and the mobilized boys of the Hitler Youth have been soaked in Nazi propaganda for years and just don't know any better.

German forces were driven to extraordinary lengths by Hitler's decision to try taking on basically the entire world at once, but the upside is that snazzy German engineering; there are literally over a hundred different vehicles to choose from. Most German units will win one-on-one with their Allied counterparts, but will usually be outnumbered by a noticeable margin. Also, there's several lists that lets you field an army of nothing but Tiger or Konigstiger tanks, so that's cool too. Germans have great tactical flexibility and firepower but don't stand up to attrition very well. Their special rules are very newbie-friendly as they pretty much ignore the rules about platoon command teams, since if one dies, they can "appoint" a new platoon commander without having to have the Company commander or second in command there.

France

If you enjoy sitting back and dragging out battles, France is the country for you. Usually they field a static army of soldiers with low morale, able to blow the shit out of the enemy with their special snowflake artillery. Enjoy laughing in the face of your opponent as you pore over complicated tables every time you shoot something. In addition, you can also take giant indestructible tanks, or get your Fearless Trained African soldiers to do your dirty work for you. Their special rules REALLY favour the defense, as both infantry and armour alike are unsuited to attacking. One special rule allows your servant to move your objectives closer to you, and another gives all colonial troops an advantage in assaults so you can sit back in your trench and enjoy your wine and cheese.

Those collaborating Vichy surrender monkeys don't really appear, and for that matter, neither do Free French, either. The former was relegated to a support role at best and the latter had no ability to produce updated French-designed and made uniforms or equipment and thus pretty much would be American units on the tabletop anyway.

Italy

Ah, yes- the Italians. The ally Germany asked for but wound up wishing they'd never gotten. Italy shares the massive numbers of weak troops with the Soviets, but lacks the supporting equipment. Don't expect any decent tanks unless you take German allies (Semoventi are one of the few Mid-war SPG Artillery units the Axis can take as a core Formation, and just happen to not be subject to the whims of the Dice Gods when determining just how bad they could be, cuz Italian Arty are Veterans). The only tanks in the entire war that were definitely worse were those fielded by Japan (and theirs were basically made of paper). The Italians could fight extremely well when they wanted to, but the Italian people as a whole were not as fired up for an all-out war as Mussolini wanted them to be, and so the motivation and skill of Italian forces varied widely. Hence the special rules that give random motivation/skill ratings to their platoons, which can lead to hilarious lists where you either have elite hordes of Fearless Veterans or untrained masses of Reluctant Conscripts. Depending on the table you roll on, it's usually geared towards Confident Trained or Reluctant Trained. Still, absolutely hilarious for both sides when rolling.

Italian Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	Renault R-35 - P-26/40 - L6/40 - M14/41
Transports:
Infantry:	Italian Parachutist Platoon - Italian Assault Engineer Platoon - Bersaglieri Platoon - Parachutist MG Platoon - Bersaglieri MG Platoon
Artillery:	Parachutist Mortar Platoon - Bersaglieri Mortar Platoon - 47mm Anti-tank - 100mm Howitzer - 88mm Anti-tank
Tank Destroyers and Assault guns:	Semovente 90mm Assault Gun - Semovente 75mm Assault Gun - Semovente Assault Gun
Armored Cars:	AB41 Platoon
Aircraft:	CR.42
Anti-Aircraft:	Lancia 90mm

Japan

Dishonorably only available in Early War for now. New Pacific Book 'Banzai' has came out. Now you can field Japanese army for Pacific supplement rules, and also for good ol' Late-War rules. They have the best morale in the game, even refusing to listen to the player when they fail their company morale check. At points where the even the Waffen-SS and those crazy Nazi kids in the Hitler Youth would decide they'd had enough, the Imperial Japanese Army's soldiers fought on, often literally until every last man on their side was dead. They were trained and taught to fight ferociously and die gloriously for Empire and Emperor, and they were extremely good at both. Their vehicles are somewhat lacking- an understatement, given how machine gun fire proved capable of breaching Japanese tank armor- but they make up for this by taking the steel that would have otherwise been used on those tanks and turning it into the enormous balls that are standard issue for their soldiers. No surrender. NO SURRENDER. Their average infantryman has a rifle and a banner that gives him a hard-on for death, and their anti-tank weapon of choice is a bomb-thrower who would put the Taliban to shame. If you were looking for a sane game of Flames of War, look elsewhere. You don't play Japan for their competitiveness or survivability, you do it because every single unit is foaming at the mouth to charge the enemy and start murdering. For the Emperor!

Tactics for V4: japan flames of war

Finland

One of Germany's best allies until circumstances forced them to switch sides late in the war, Finland was driven into German arms by Stalin's shameless (and Pyrrhic) war of aggression that robbed them of a good chunk of territory in the Winter War. They joined in the invasion of the USSR in the hopes of getting revenge, and fielded a professional army that benefited considerably from the use of modern German equipment. They made use of captured Soviet hardware as well, and slapped swastikas on every vehicle to ensure that the Stukas didn't come after them.

Despite lacking the equipment and vehicles of the other powers, the Finns are still a force to be reckoned with. They get a huge advantage in Winter and Forest terrain (which the Soviets learned about the hard way in the Winter War), and are usually rated Veteran, even in the early war. They field a mix of Soviet, German, and WW1-era equipment. You need balls to play these guys, as you can't rely on numbers or special rules to win the day. Their armored company is considered one of the most challenging lists to play.

The Finns were on the Axis side until a ways into the Late War period, when they would appear fighting the Germans if you were to field them.

Hungary

The poor man's Germans Very similar to Germany, but with unique organization and equipment. Have useful special rules that provide advantages in both attack and defense, and can take a lot of German equipment in the Late War. Their most famous vehicle is the kawaii-as-fuck Zrínyi assault gun.

Hungarian Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	Toldi II - Panzer 38(t) - Turan - Panther
Infantry:	Hungarian Rifle Platoon - Hungarian Mortar Platoon - 7/M31 MG Platoon
Artillery:	Nebelwerfer - Hungarian 105mm - Hungarian 100mm
Tank Destroyer:	Zrinyi Assault Gun - Stug III - Hetzer
Recon:	Csaba Armored Car
Aircraft:
Anti-Aircraft:	Nimrod SPAA

Romania

Mainly focused on infantry and cavalry, with hilariously underpowered vehicle options. They get random motivation like Italy, and can also take a lot of allied equipment. They are unique because they switch sides after being conquered by the Soviets in Late War, so Romanian players can choose between German or Soviet allies, while quietly wondering why they're using Early War equipment in 1944. Historically it is because, while there was an assistance agreement in place, Germany handed them their cast-offs and captured Russian materiel while keeping the updated stuff for their own units. The Romanians, while having decent technology lacked the heavy industry to equip their entire army on their own, so they were actually relatively thankful for said cast-offs. Later on after they switched sides, the Reds didn't trust the lukewarm enthusiasm the Romanian king showed for Communism, so they didn't want to heavily arm someone they already knew they would eventually have to deal with. Which happened two years later: the king was booted out, Romania became a full satellite of the USSR and (ironically) at that point received the same better materiel other USSR allies did.

Romanian Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	Renault R-35 - Panzer IV - Panzer 38(t) - Panzer III - R1 Light Tank - R-2 Tank
Infantry:	Romanian Rifle Platoon - HMG Platoon - Romanian 81mm and 120mm Mortar Platoons
Artillery:	76K/02 - TAC 47mm Schneider - TAC 43 Resita - 76K/02
Tank Destroyer:	Stug III - TACAM R-2
Recon:	Sd.Kfz 222 - Tatra vz. 30
Aircraft:
Anti-Aircraft:	SdKfz 10/4 Light AA Platoon

Poland

The poor Poles have it even worse than the Finns. They have okay equipment, especially for Early War, but you will find yourself stretching to get your units to fit all the roles you need. You can try to impersonate the Soviets with masses of weak infantry, but their real advantage is in the great balance of their units. They can hold their own in assaults, and tend to excel in defense. In Late War, they have the legendary Armia Krajowa, which beats the Finnish armour company for the position of hardest list in the game. It's literally a bunch of armed civilians with whatever German stuff they could get their hands on, and it would come as no surprise if Sun Tzu himself couldn't win a game with them.

NOTE: The game balance in this game is actually really good. There is no "best army," just strong lists. Lists are usually strong against one type of list and are countered by others. Eg: Commandos are an elite British list that are awesome against raping shit in melee, and are fearless veterans, but they are expensive and you can't take many of them, meaning you get absolutely raped by horde tank lists like the Russian lists.

Homebrews

"It Will Be You Tomorrow", covering the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in 1935-36.

"The Army of Man", a fun book that lets you pit your Flames of War army against some 1950s B-movie monsters.

Supposedly there is also a Falklands War homebrew in the works.

There is also a Girl und Panzer homebrew which is seriously in need of a new revision, which is designed to be it's own separate game. However, depending whether you are a truly pure-blood historical gamer or if you don't mind animu this could be extra heretical.

There is a project to update V3 with some of the good rules changes from V4, and fix some of the jank (arty park). Link here.

Gallery

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  soviets actually have veterans now, which makes this one all the better. They also announced a release for the Pacific Campaign, which means this will all become true in 2016 March.

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  what it's like using German tube artillery in-game.

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  damn those hungarians and their pancakes of death!

External Links

• Flames of War homepage