Flames of War Army Types

by | Sep 18, 2013

It's almost Flames of War season once again, and in the next few weeks we'll be gearing up for The Toropets-Kholm Offensive!  We made our first steps into campaigning in this WWII game last year, and it was a huge hit.  We're excited about hitting the Eastern Front once more!  

Today, I want to talk about the types of armies available in Flames of War.  With the new campaign looming, a few folks have asked me about joining the game.  It's hard at first to wrap your head around this game, especially if you've been living with robots and dragons for most of your wargaming life.  With that in mind, I want to run down the basic types of lists that most armies have access to.

I totally nicked these photos from the interwebs.  Apologies to whomever they belong to...they came from Google, and I tried to find info to credit you.  Also, my keyboard doesn't have those characters.


An Infantry Company with air and armor support.

The most basic of army lists is the Infantry Company.  These armies are composed primarily or entirely of infantry teams.  There are many variations on this basic theme, but the most common is the humble and ubiquitous Rifle Company.  These are the boots on the ground, and very often will have the most serious artillery / anti-tank guns available.  Choose an Infantry Company if you want to swarm the opponent with infantry or pound them with batteries of guns.


A Motorized Infantry Company.

A Motorized Infantry Company is basically an Infantry Company, but entirely mounted in transport vehicles.  Some types of these companies are more heavily armored than others, but it's usually balanced by how many infantry teams you can transport at one time.  These formations are at the forefront of the army, always pushing forward, and can be supported by a wide variety of fast armored units and vehicles.  Choose a Motorized Infantry Company if you enjoy quickly transporting infantry into your opponent's deployment zone, or just because you like half tracks or deuce-and-a-half trucks.


An Armored Company with Infantry support.

An Armored Company is composed primarily of tanks.  Like all these list variations, there are a wide variety of these formations to choose from.  These variations are based on the type of tank that the formation deployed, from T-34 battalions to a squadron of Tigers.  All sorts of heavily armored units and vehicles are available for support as well, allowing you to tailor your list for a great many different battlefield circumstances.

There are three other list types as well.  The Armored Car Company is composed mainly of lightly armored reconnaissance vehicles arrayed in squadrons.  The Cavalry Company is composed mainly of...horsemen?  Yep, turns out that in Russia and Romania, horses were totally in back in 1942.  Like, horses running with tanks.  The Fortified Company is less common in our theater, but it does exist - mainly consisting of infantry teams and supporting armor piled behind trenches, minefields and razorwire.

Those are the basic sorts of lists.  If you're interested in joining Flames of War here at the Wargate, this is the first step you need to take:  what sort of list do you want to collect?  After choosing what country your allegiance falls to and what army list you will collect, it's a short hop, skip and jump to the miserable winters of the Eastern Front in the early 1940's.

See you there.