Flames of War: Armylist Construction 101

Bulwark here to talk about building an armylist in Flames of War. Now that we are familiar with Flames of War game play basics, its time to craft an overall plan for your force.

Start thinking of what your army is going to look at these points levels:

600 pts
1000 pts
1250 pts
1500 pts
1750 pts
2000 pts

A good starting army level is 600 pts. 600 point armies only have to have the Company HQ and 1 Combat Platoon. This level gives you an idea of how to play your army without investing too much. These games are played on half boards and the scenario is usually ‘Free For All’ from the main rulebook.

All other Armies have to have HQ and 2 Combat Platoons and all scenarios are used. Nationally, most Late-War tournaments are 1750 pts, and Mid-War tournaments are at 1500 pts. Though 2000 pts and 1250 pts tournaments are common enough to mention. 1000 pts occurs once in a blue moon, but is used in doubles formats where two players are teamed up against two other players.

Some general guidelines that should always be in the back of your mind.

1) When you build an army, even number of platoons provide a better army break point in terms of morale and Deployment.

Morale: You win the game in two ways. You can capture or defend the scenario objective or you can beak your opponents army. To do this, kill or eliminate over half of your enemies platoons (that are in play) and if have your opponent’s commander fails a motivation roll. If your opponents commander is dead, then he automatically fails this roll.

Deployment: About half the scenarios require one or both of the players to keep half or more of their platoons off the board. A 5 platoon army mean only 2 platoons can start on the table, but a 6 platoon army gets 3. The German Kampfgrup rule can mitigate this by making a extra platoon.

Tanks: There are three forms of tank lists that you will often see on the table. The tank hoard takes large numbers of lighter tanks. The heavy armor list will run several of the elite heavy tanks; King tigers, Crocodiles, IS2s, etc. The Sherman list is the fallback for most US and British based armies, combining better armor than the lighter tanks, and higher numbers than the heavy armor list, and the disadvantages of both.

Infantry: You have to prepare for three basic infantry models. The Russian infantry swarm bring scores of infantry. Each one isn’t very effective, but in mass they are devastating.  Elite infantry are another threst. Dug in fearless veterans don’t do much offensively, but are extremely difficult to get off objectives. Dedicated assault lists will take large number of infantry with anti-tank weapons and machine guns. They have enough warm bodies to take casualties across the board, then use their weapons to overwhelm the opponents defenses.

Anti-Tank: Anti-tank comes in three flavors. Pioneers are basic infantry that are trained in anti-tank combat. In assault these guys will set explosives on the hull of enemy tanks. Infantry weapons, like the Bazooka, are short range, but very strong. They are also very good in assault. Anti-tank guns have one role and do it very well. Long range and good firepower means these are the bane of most tankers. Either smoke them, or hope you are able to take them out before they take out you.

Artillery: The king of the battlefield. These have the ability to strike anything their observers can see and hit hard. Nothing can withstand a few rounds of artillery. Americans and British both have special abilities that take their artillery up a notch. For the sake of argument, I’ll throw in ground attack aircraft in with artillery. It uses a similar mechanic and can strike across the board. Unlike artillery, inexpensive anti-aircraft units easily negates it.

Keep in mind that it important how you will react to each of these threats. Realize that no list has a complete answer all of these threats. Ultimately, this is a giant Rock, Paper, Scissors Games. For example an infantry list will generally eat most heavy tank Armies, but they fear medium armor companies and attacking other infantry armies.  In general Flames of War rewards the combined arms approach to army list building and super specialized lists will often times find themselves in untenable situations.

3) Note the value of multi-role units.
One thing you might want to stay away from is one-dimensional Platoons, especially if points are tight. For example, unarmored anti-aircraft vehicles are really only good at anti-air duties. They tend to die very quickly if confronted with anything else. However, armored AA not only provides protection against aircraft, but now can attack infantry with it’s high rate of fire and resistance to small arms fire. Reconnaissance infantry teams provide two functions, one is protection against ambushes, but the other is impromptu force of grunts for emergencies; especially for point strapped armored companies.

~That’s enough to get the gears turning for your first army cadets.  We’ll be moving onto the nation specifics next time.