This is the third post in my Audit series (the first on, on Warmachine and Hordes, is here and the second on Malifaux is here). This time around it’s a game that I don’t get to play much, but that represents another interest – Flames of War.
Flames of War
I’ve always been interested in war. It’s a peculiar thing to say as war is a terrible thing that humans inflict on each other, but war and specifically the engineering that underpins warfare really interests me. Flames of War allows me to explore World War II through wargaming. I think I’ve only played two games in the last year, painted one platoon and added some 28mm Paratroopers, but Flames of War is still an important game to me.
This game has inspired me to read deeper into certain campaigns and battles, specifically the fighting around Carentan after D-Day, the slaughter in the Hürtgen Forest, Market Garden and the allied offensive in Italy. Each reading is guided by the armies I own – US Paratroopers and Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadiers (Mechanized Infantry) – and the conflicts companies of these types fought in. In that sense the game really does influence my knowledge WWII.
I have little intention to expand my forces in the coming year or to buy any more books. I have the core rulebook and plenty of expansions. If I decided to only play Flames of War in the coming year (I’m not going to!) I think I’d have more than enough models and books to keep me going. That said, I may add a few discrete things, some Stuart tanks and some regular US infantry. I’ll probably use a different company for the models though, as the Battle Front models are pretty pricey.
I’ll probably play some campaign games over the coming year, but I suspect, like this year, I’ll only play a handful of games.
Owen