Flames of War: What’s it gonna take to build an army?
A guest piece by Bluestroll
Hi everybody. Today I want to talk about the expectations of the game tactically. Since money can dictate your army make up. Let’s break it down. Armies are pretty much made up three types of teams.
Types of Models
The first group of teams are the Infantry team. The basic building block of infantry platoon is a fire team. In WWII, the fire team concept had evolved from the mass formations of previous wars. The infantry teams have the unique advantages of being supple in terms of taking cover, cheap gamewise and having 66% chance of saving just about everything fired at them. They are usually groups into platoons of 5 to 15 teams. The main disadvantage is that they are slow, easily pinned and susceptible to large amounts of fire.
The Second group of teams are vehicles. Each vehicle is a team. This type of team has the advantage of speed. If armored, then they have the added bonus of resisting fire. They can vary in cost. The big heavy tanks cost the most expensive teams of the game. Transports, not so much. It all depends how much armor, AT of the main gun, and number of secondary guns. Sometimes, they act as force multipliers, in which their role is to support the main platoons of the army. Mainly they are in platoons of 1 to 5 teams.
The third group of teams are gun teams. Each gun is a team. These teams can very in cost, but are less expensive than their vehicle counterparts. These teams are man-packed gun teams, artillery, anti-aircraft, and other support weapons. They only have a 33% save, so you will have to be careful of them. They are generally 2-8 teams.
Basic Army Pricing
The price of the items generally fall like this for BF figures. $15-20 for an infantry platoon, $11 for an armored vehicle or 2 to 3 transports, and $15-$20 for 2 guns or a platoon of man-packed gun teams. They also have packages the give a small discount for a platoons of vehicle or guns, and couple of platoons of infantry with HQ.
To make an army, an armor army usually has 4-6 platoons, infantry armies can run 4-12 or more platoons, but usually runs around 8 platoons.
So most armor armies run about $150, infantry armies can run between $100 to $200 depending on the support you give it. If you want to mechanize (add halftracks or trucks) your infantry army price will double.
Time wise, to get the minis up to playing standard doesn’t take that long. At 15mm, a platoon of vehicles can be done in a night or two. So if you have a month, you can have 1750 point up and going.
This game is growing strong. Believe it or not, there is a vibrant tournament scenes in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, and in the EU. So that means you don’t have to always play your best friends or locally gaming group. In fact in Texas, there are at least 20 tournaments a year within 4 hour drive from where I live (Austin) with more adding all the time.
Meet ya at the Table,
Bluestroll
