Flames Of War and Team Yankee

2017 and beyond

It has been six months since the release of Mid War and the new edition of the game and we would like to give you an update on the projects that the Studio team is working on. With so much going on we are going to split the update over two weeks, so without further ado here is part one… V4 Unit Card Packs

Since the release of V4 we have had many existing players asking if we planned to make specific card packs available for the new V4 Mid War books. Originally we thought that existing players would not need the cards having been accustomed to using stat lines from books. Since day one though players have been so adamant about how good the cards are and how useful they are to have during game okay that we are going to produce a series of one off print run card packs for each of our new Mid War books, starting with Desert Rats, Afrika Korps and Fighting First. We are in the process of finalising the print runs for these so they will not be in stores till later in the year and we will update you with more information closer to the release dates. Each pack will contain one of each Unit Card that relates to the book. These packs are not evergreen or ongoing products that will remain in our product range indefinitely. They will be a short print run designed only to assist existing players that have already bought our miniatures and built their armies under previous editions and want cards to help transition to V4. Organised Play

Last year we released TANKS under the GF9 brand, a skirmish game that was designed to be fast and deadly. To support this release the team created a series of Organised Play Events to help bring communities together to play games. Based on the success of these events we have been working on a similar plan called Flames Of War Gaming Nights. Over a series of months at your local store or club players will be able to earn points by playing games, winning, as well as embracing the other aspects of the hobby like building and painting new units or bringing new gamers along to try out Flames Of War. Each month players will be rewarded with prizes that are only available as part of these kits such as special Tokens, Objectives, Dice and even Card Boxes to store your Unit Cards. Gaming Nights are not meant to replace tournaments or other structured events but rather support gaming communities and give players another reason to go to their store once a week to play a game or two against their friends, enemies or even total strangers. Left: a mockup of the Card Box Team Yankee

We have a lot going on with Team Yankee this year with Red Thunder giving Soviet players a larger range of options and Stripes doing the same for the Americans later this year (including the much anticipated M113 Scout Platoons with both the Scout and Spearhead special rules!). Stripes will feature new plastic kits including the M60 (both the A1 and A3 variants), LAV (with the -25, -AT with TOW missiles and the –M mortar carrier), the HMMWV and the UH-1 Huey (with both the Army and Marine variants). Right: shortly before the outbreak of World War III, a group of brave men and women ventured behind the Iron Curtain on a covert mission...

Firestorm: Red Thunder

Right now we are busy with the Firestorm: Red Thunder campaign that we are running in conjunction with the team at Beasts of War and are planning on following it up later this year with a “Stripes” campaign which will start where the Red Thunder campaign ends. It has been great to see so many people sharing their battle reports and fighting to see how World War III will play out. If you haven’t checked it out yet then don’t miss out on your chance to be involved. Firestorm: Red Thunder... Updated Team Yankee Rulebook

We will be releasing an updated version of the main rulebook. The releases of Red Thunder and Stripes have largely rendered the old US and Soviet lists in the book redundant and the Unit Card system means that as soon as you buy a box of tanks you get the appropriate Force and Formation Cards to help you build your army anyway. To replace the lists section in the book we are including the complete Force Diagrams for the Americans, British, West Germans, Soviets and East Germans. None of the rules section is changing so the copy you currently own is exactly the same game but this updated version is the update new players need going forward. Operation Hammerfall

With the success of the MW set we wanted to give new TY players the same thing. For those of you that have seen the El Alamein Starter Set for Flames Of War then Hammerfall will look familiar. It includes a pair of M1 Abrams and three T-64 tanks along with a mini-rulebook and an intro to help guide new Team Yankee players into the hobby. It will be released later this year. Team Yankee Language Translations

We have been working with our local distribution partners in France, German, Poland, Italy and Spain to produce translated versions of Team Yankee in their local languages. Following the release of these we will also be translating the Army Books for sale. Additionally the boxes and blisters sold in those markets will include translated versions of the cards! No longer will you need to do a Spearhead move, but instead German players (for example) will be able to do a Speerspitze bewegung - okay that’s a guess using Google Translate but you get what we mean. 2018 will see more support for Team Yankee and whilst we cannot go into much detail right now there will be a NATO book that includes some of the other forces fighting to keep the West free from communist oppression! V4 Lessons From the Front

With the Studio so focused on so many projects this year it would be easy to think that we have not been listening to feedback about V4. We have been, but we have been taking a considered approach and waiting to gather feedback from the global community. Based on your feedback we are reviewing a number of areas of the game 1. Missions and ‘Winning’.

2. Big Companies in Early and Late War.

3. Aircraft in Early and Late War. This is not the complete, nor extensive list and over the coming weeks Phil and Wayne will be rolling out some proposed changes primarily to balance out the Early and Late War books under V4 so stay tuned for more on this. It is our intention though to be conservative at this time and rather than diving in and trying to address everyone’s feedback at once we are reading it all and then picking areas to focus on. For the current Lessions From the Front documents click the links below:

Lessons From The Front: V4 (3 pages; .pdf; 183KB)...

Lessons From The Front: Early and Late-war (2 pages; .pdf; 185KB)... There you have part one of our update. In part we are going to touch on: Release Schedule,

Wild Cards,

Our plans for ‘Nam, Arab-Israeli War and Great War,

As well as one more thing… Read Part Two here... ~Battlefront Miniatures

