Open Fire Design Notes with Mike Haught The Open Fire! rules are designed to be learned quickly and get you playing in no time. It cuts straight to the action, dispensing with national special rules and simplifying artillery, reconnaissance, aircraft and transport rules. While Open Fire shares many of the same components and basic rules as Flames Of War, the two are separate games. Open Fire is about getting into the action with fast-paced battles, while Flames Of War offers the depth of history and tactics. An updated version of the Flames Of War starter set will be released in conjunction with 4th edition.

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So which one should I play? That’s totally up to you. In fact, you can even play both! If you want a casual gaming experience or want to focus on collecting and painting miniatures, then Open Fire! has a lot more to offer. Add American and Soviet forces and expand your collection of German and British equipment by picking up one of our many Open Fire kits. The great thing about these models is that when you decided to make the transition to Flames Of War, you can take all of your models with you!

If you want to dive into a complete rule set and field historical forces that perform just like their real-life counterparts, then Flames Of War is the game for you. The transition is easy. Every Open Fire model is useable in Flames Of War, and the core mechanics are the same. Flames Of War adds tonnes of exciting new facets of the World War II tabletop game: reconnaissance troops, transport vehicles, field fortifications, new missions and much more! Additionally, Flames Of War covers the entire spectrum of the war from the early blitzkrieg years to the fall of Berlin and beyond. You’ve fought the battle, now fight the war!

Can you just play Open Fire and not Flames Of War? Sure! Open Fire and its Forces book are designed to let players do just that. Think of Open Fire as a cut-down version of Flames Of War, geared toward fast-paced play. The new armies in the Open Fire Forces book will give players some more lists to play beyond the ones featured in the box. All are designed to be played against each other and offer fun and rewarding games time and time again.

What is the Open Fire Forces book? The Forces book offers a redesigned straight-forward force organisation chart for players to build their forces. While the box itself includes German infantry and British tank companies for Open Fire, the Forces book adds German, US, and Soviet tank companies as well to give players some more forces to explore. Left: The Panzerkompanie from the Forces book. Click on it to see a bigger version.

Is there a specific time period for Open Fire? No. Rather than selecting a single campaign, Open Fire gives you all of the iconic vehicles, such as Tiger I heavy tanks, Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers, T-34/85 tanks, Shermans, and more. It's about all of Late-war mixed together. The lists are designed to be more flexible to allow you to quickly get into the action with all of the toy soldiers that you want to play with!

What about new models? We’ve come along ways since our first plastic tanks in the older Open Fire box. Since then we have completely changed how we designed the miniatures. The box includes new StuG G assault guns, Sherman V and Firefly VC tanks. These are excellent models that fit together nicely and paint up wonderfully. The new tanks are paired up with the well loved US paratrooper and German grenadier infantry plastic sprues to make an amazing product. So amazing and action packed, in fact, that we had to make the box bigger to contain everything! Right: The Open Fire Panzer IV H box set, with two Panzer IV H tanks

Are there Open Fire Missions? Yes. We add two new missions, including one that uses the V2 flying bomb miniature included in the Open Fire box. We added these for the same reason we added the new Forces lists: to add depth to Open Fire. You now have three mission scenarios to test out and explore. Left: The Doodlebug mission. Click on it to see a bigger version.

Spending time with Open Fire One of the things we really wanted to do with Open Fire is to expand it so that players can spend time playing and enjoying Open Fire without pressure to move into Flames Of War. In the old days, when you got an Open Fire set, you built it, played a few games of the same scenario, and then either moved into Flames Of War or not and that was it. Now, with additional forces, platoons, streamlined rules, and a variety of missions, you can explore Open Fire at your own pace.

What does this mean for Flames Of War? Nothing much other than hopefully bringing in new faces into the hobby! Open Fire will not change Flames Of War however, we hope that the two games will benefit from each other with new players and rewarding hobby time. Open Fire is here to make the game stronger for all of us! ~ Mike.