FoW: Review: Rising Sun

The least expected, of course, is the introduction of the Japanese into Flames of War, and in a way that few WWII games ever have: by pitting them against the Soviets in a series of border confrontations. A very interesting, but seldom visited chapter of the smaller wars that made up the prelude to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany.

Another such conflict was the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland. This costly war saw staggering losses inflicted upon the Soviets. While winning them a northern buffer zone from likely invasion, it revealed crippling deficiencies in the Soviet military machine that the Germans would take advantage of in 1941.

Finland was not the only country the Soviet Union was eager to wrest land from in order to increase its buffer zone with the west. The Germans and Soviets made a secret pact to divide Poland, with Germany launching a blitzkrieg from the west, while the Soviet Union would jump in and mop up from the east days later.

All three of these conflicts are brought to life in Rising Sun. The arsenals of the Soviets, Finns, and Japanese are brought to bear in this fantastic, full-color, high-quality paperback Early War supplement. As for the Poles, sorry, but you don’t get any new stuff. No, there aren’t any secret anti-Polonians at Battlefront as I’m aware; rather Blitzkrieg already covers all of the Polish forces that would be otherwise in this book. That being said, let’s look at the forces:

The approach of the Soviet forces in Rising Sun can be likened performing surgery with an air hammer; no attempt is made at finesse, nor is any regard given to consequences. It is a massive, inept, lumbering but extremely dangerous monster. The Soviet player has several different forces to choose from in the category of “tank swarm” alone. And while the tanks are light armored even for Early War, they have firepower that simply cannot be ignored.

 The heaviest of these tanks, the T-35, is the core of the Heavy Tank Battalion. It is a gun-laden beast with 5 (holy crap!) turrets, giving it 5 machine guns, 1 AT5 FP3+ gun, and 2 AT7 FP4+ guns. In addition, if the tank is not bogged down, anything that would bail it out bogs it down instead. When the T-35 is bogged down it can still shoot in the shooting phase and fight if assaulted and counts as alive in morale checks. It can also move when bailed out but not bogged down. To top it off, they are cheap enough in points that you can make an entire force consisting of no less than a dozen of these bad boys. The drawback is that they are Confident/Conscript. That’s right; those awesome tanks are full of vodka and drool. Expect to get bogged down in the open in a volley of fire, and to stay there for the rest of the game while your tankers stumble out of the hatches trying to dig your tank out with the wrong end of the shovel, while still managing to lay down a withering hail of fire with your drunken gunners. Honestly, I don’t see the drawback.

If that’s not your thing, the heavy list also has access to the T-28 heavy tank, a decent 3-turret tank that comes a lot cheaper and has upgrades that seem a bit steep, but are worth considering. You can also have mismatched platoons of T-35s and T-28s.

 If a dozen tanks are just not enough, then the Light Tank Battalion should sate your hunger for tank spam. You can easily field 40 T-26 light tanks with points to spare. While you might say that the T-26 explodes under the pressure of hard staring, and that it’s Confident/Conscript rating will mean that most gunners will not need to stare at it for long, its ROF2 AT7 FP4+ gun cannot be ignored in those kind of numbers. An ambush from one of these platoons will hurt just about anything in Early War.

Want the same firepower with more mobility? The Fast Tank Battalion does just that for a small premium. The BT-5 and BT-7 light tanks have the same firepower as the T-26, but are fast tanks (vs. the Slow Tank rating of the T-26). The BT-7 even has the same armor, thin though it may be.

All three Soviet tank lists have a broad array of support choices, from a platoon of light flame tanks that are frighteningly cheap, to infantry, AA and arty as well as sporadic but powerful air support from the I-153 Chaika.

If you like your spam in the form of a communist meat shield, then the Rifle and Motorized Rifle Battalions are will not disappoint. Seriously, if a drooling horde taking up your entire deployment area gives you chills, if you think the only solution to a breach in the defenses is to fill it with bodies, if “It’s Raining Men” makes you say “Hallelujah”, then this is the list for you. Cheap platoons of 19 to 31 infantry stands each with optional HMGs and plenty of access to the Soviet support arsenal make this the ultimate “I brought my whole collection to this game” army. If you take all of the core infantry at maximum size, you will have 134 stands at a cost of 1360 points. No opponent can ignore that much infantry, even if they are Confident/Conscript rifle teams. What’s more, the Wave Attacks special rule allows them a 50/50 chance to reappear as a reserve unit when a platoon is wiped out. Make the right support choices, deploy properly, and this list will make your opponent eat spam until he can never go to a Hawaiian BBQ ever again.

Last, but not least in terms of coolness, is the Cavalry Company. That’s right; they aren’t Cossacks, but more likely Kazakhs (and Mongolians and Russians). This cheap and plentiful source of glue and funny hats may just be Early War’s most suicidal force. Dismounted platoons are an option, but they are pricey for Confident/Conscript Rifle/MG teams. Still, a fair share of access to support options gives these bold horsemen a chance in the right hands.

In high contrast to the Soviet arsenal, the Japanese forces are few in selection, but brutally effective and as tenacious as is gets. Japan has several rules that make it exceedingly difficult to destroy. First of all, if a platoon fails a platoon morale check, rather than running it makes a beeline for the nearest objective and fights to the last. This is an oversimplification, and there is a lot more to this rule, but it does mean that any non-tank unit will have to be nearly completely destroyed to be gotten rid of. Also, each infantry force has a Regimental Standard option that makes a unit auto-pass motivation tests. As a nice touch of flavor, Japanese command teams are “Sword” teams that hit on 2+ in assaults, so long as tanks are not nearby. Most of the Japanese lists can also choose to be the attacker and use the Dawn rules for night fighting. There are a lot of rules for Japan, and covering them all in detail could take up 4-5 pages.

While the rules for Japan are complex, the lists themselves are pretty straightforward. The 3^rd Tank Regiment is Fearless/Trained and consists mostly of the armor 1 all round, ROF2 AT5 FP4+ Chi-Ro tank. Each platoon comes with a platoon command of 2 Chi-Ha platoons. These are basically the same as the Chi-Ro, but faster and with an additional point of front and side armor. Support consists of a few infantry choices, anti-tank guns, some light artillery and priority fighters.

The 4^th Tank Regiment makes up for its lack of Chi-Ha tanks with its Fearless/Veteran rating and Ha-Go tanks that are similar to the Chi-Ro, but are faster and have longer range. With the same support choices as the 3^rd Tank Regiment, this force is the go-to for Japanese armor.

As for the Japanese infantry, you have access to Fearless/Trained or Fearless/Veteran forces, all with the same options. They are mostly rifle teams with a light mortar and a sword team, but their lack of firepower can be overlooked when one considers their assault potential. Thanks to the Banzai Charge rule, when an assaulting Japanese platoon is halted by defensive fire, it immediately makes another motivation test. If it passes, it immediately launches the assault again, taking defensive fire again, but getting another chance to get to grips with the enemy. Just keep in mind that this isn’t optional, and can result in your platoon’s utter perforation. All this and full access to the Japanese arsenal, including fortifications, makes this a solid choice for expanding the Empire.

Lastly, the Cavalry Company is an interesting force that has cavalry MG teams, pretty good armory access, and baseline Fearless/Veteran. Also, they have access to some cheap Reluctant/Trained Manchurian cavalry that can act as a quick-moving screen.

You might think that the Finns would be a pretty boring, standard force with no surprises, but that is far from the case here. While there are only a few special rules for the Finns, the Motti Ambush and Melting Away rules definitely stand out. These let your Platoons of Ski Guerillas (that’s right, on skis) called Sissi ambush and disappear, only to ambush again later. What’s more, they don’t take up any of the ambushes you are allowed by the mission. If you put them in reserve before the game starts, then they can ambush immediately upon making it out of reserve. Finns also get the lone Warrior of Rising Sun, a Sniper who has good survivability and only costs a 15 point upgrade. So, let’s look at the lists.

The basic infantry company consists of Confident/Veteran rifle teams with access to wide range of options that includes some tank choices, guns, artillery, AA, and even a ground attack plane, albeit sporadic. To help deal with tanks, command teams can be upgraded to Close Defense teams with a tank assault rating of 4.

There is also the Mannerheim Line Strongpoint, which is the same as the basic infantry company, but with an array of fortifications to choose from, including trench lines, minefields and tank traps.

Then comes the Elite Infantry Company, a Fearless/Veteran force that is designed to get things done. Their rifle teams can upgrade to become entirely Close Defense teams, making them pretty scary for tanks.

These are all fine choices, but none are as unique and interesting as the Ski Guerilla Company. With the Motti Ambush and Melt Away rules, this force can be very frustrating and disorienting to an opponent. The Fearless/Veteran Sissi Platoons that make us this company can also upgrade their Rifle teams to SMGs and even Close Defense teams. This is an important asset to a force than only has access to infantry, artillery, and air support. With no tanks, AA, or AT guns, this force is not the obvious choice for Finnish players, but is nevertheless the most interesting and no doubt very effective.

Overall, I think this book is great. It has a lot of things historical and miniature gamers alike love: uniqueness and variety. FoW has been getting more and more nuanced in its selection of forces and its approach to making those forces work in the general scheme of the game. The breaking of Japan onto the scene is hint of great things to come. It could be a long time before Battlefront caves in and makes a Pacific campaign book, but at least it shows that they will not eternally reiterate on the old campaigns without introducing any new material from this world-spanning conflict with a myriad of history yet to be brought to life. I, most of all, can’t wait to see if this book can shake up the stagnant Early War metagame and infuse it with some life. So check out Battlefront’s website for more pictures and to see when the new models for these forces will be hitting shelves.