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FezFroth – Great War

With the new Great War comes Great Excitement, and I thought it would be a perfect time to start a new series of articles – Fez Froth!

While the other members of the blog are much better at balanced, in depth reviews of new releases, I often find myself fixating around one or two aspects of the release, and I figured it would be fun to put finger to keyboard and share these with you, explaining my logic and maybe inspiring a few projects along the way.

Trenchline System (BB182)
How awesome doe this look??

The timing of this release is exciting due to the perfect storm of my renewed interest in the WW1 themed Battlefield 1 video game, and the YouTube channel ‘Forgotten Weapons’ running a series examining the effectiveness of almost all the period LMG’s. (Click here to see the intro episode)

All the LMG’s!

The ‘sensible’ first focus for my Great War collection would be to use the ‘old’ Brett’s Brawlers starter box I collected from the first release as the basis for an American army. The mix of Olive Drab, American rifles and French Guns and Tanks is really appealing from a painting perspective. Looking at the points on the new book, if I were to run them as the ‘Big Red One’ veterans, I would be almost at 100 points without adding any models!

Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01) Great War American Army Deal
The OLD box – the new one has a better balance of support

As it is, I’ll probably drop the HMG platoon to only two guns in order to free up some points for those smexy French 75’s. Any gun that has a cocktail named after it is worth including and being a 4+ firepower template that ignores the re-roll for only having two guns is also rather tasty – and that’s without the direct AT shots!
The box-tank-of-doom is also a potential for the chopping board, as it’s just so….. ugly, especially when compared to the FT-17’s. I’ll have to see how the list performs in the new format and missions to really get a handle on what tweaks are really needed.

Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01)
Toot toot – All aboard the cute train of death!
Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01)
A face only a mother could love.

I’m excited to see how the V4 format is going to work on the smaller board game size of 4’ squared, given just now mobile infantry are now with blitz/follow me and dash moves without the terror of being completely MG’d to death.

Trenchline System (BB182)
Plenty of room for infantry to flank and assault guns, and for tanks to fail cross checks!

With the inclusion of Trenches, and the new styles of reserves in use in the missions (all your reserves arriving on turn 3 with no rolling – Waylaid reserves, or only having to put one platoon in reserves to have it arrive in the flank of the enemy – Flanking Force), Great War is going to play very differently to your usual FoW game, and I relish the challenge of figuring out what is needed in an army to achieve victory.
The little extras such as ‘Cratered ground’ giving stationary infantry bulletproof cover over the whole board, and ‘Overwhelming force’ where the attacker can recycled destroyed units really help to sell the WW1 theme, and again give a new challenge to these games – The irrepressible onslaught of the Landships rule has the potential to cause some real tactical headaches!

Related image
That’s a lot of holes

On the modelling front I’m looking forward to including some WW1 biplanes in the form of crashed objective markers – there are plenty of 1:144 scale plastic kits to get creative with.

Image result for crashed Spad
We cannot allow such technology to fall to the enemy!

Talking of new models, my ‘flight of fantasy’ army would be a British Cavalry list – Those new sculpts look AMAZING. Calvary (and motorcycles) are always a nightmare to collect, as you need to do 2.5 times the painting – the regular infantry models, and then the more complex cavalry as well! Added to this is the fact that a sensible second army would be a German one to play games against my Americans – The appeal of sabres slashing through the ‘Hun’ is rather a strong one however…. Watch this space 😀

I hope that gives you a little light on what I’ll be frothing about over the next month – What are you most excited about fielding?

*Miniature photo credit to Battlefront

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3 comments

Simon

Pity there’s no real artillery, in a period where the creeping barrage was developed it does seem remiss. Lack of communication can’t be blamed either as there were whole networks of telephones carrier pigeons and semaphore flags and preplaning
Bash On

Nice article-especially your thoughts on how the new rules might change up the game. Was disappointed that the article title was not referring to a release of Turkish forces that I somehow missed. That would be something!

I already have enough British and Germans to equip 4+ players, so I probably won’t be buying any of the new releases. Like you, though, I also have a box of Brett’s Brawlers (and extra blisters) needing to be built, and that new force will be fun to field.
Bash On

For got to add. Don’t just use airplanes for objectives–add them to the game. Here are rules we’ve used (need to modify for new rules):

Air Support:
Airco DH.4 Hit on 5+ Save on 3+
Weapon Range ROF/To Hit AT FP Notes
MG 16” 3/– 2 6
Bombs Artillery –/5+ 3 3+ One-time use

Halberstadt CL.II Hit on 5+ Save on 3+
Weapon Range ROF/To Hit AT FP Notes
MG 16” 4/– 2 6
Bombs Artillery –/5+ 3 4+ One-time use

Special rules:
-MGs may not be fired in same turn bombs are used. The observer is busy handling the bombs and the pilot is busy keeping the plane straight and level for the observer. Aircraft may not fire on or interdict other aircraft.
-For bombing, treat aircraft as two planes for hit re-roll purposes (i.e., no reroll of hits or misses), except that hits on vehicles must be rerolled.
-Bombs are one-time use weapons. Aircraft may return to their aerodrome for one full turn to rearm and then return automatically the following turn.
-AA fire: Absent dedicated anti-aircraft weapons or MGs mounted on a suitable platform, aircraft may only be fired on by rifle teams. Range 16”, ROF 1, FP 6. Add +1 to the To Hit score needed for firing teams that are pinned. Firing at aircraft is done just prior to the aircraft’s attack. Teams that fire at aircraft may fire normally in their own turn.
-Planes are hard to hit with a bolt-action rifle, and the planes themselves are simple and relatively robust. Aircraft are 5+ to hit and have a 3+ save. Destroyed on a successful FP roll. Destroyed aircraft may be replaced on a 4+ roll at the beginning of any subsequent turn.

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