Battlefront UK Plays Infantry Aces: Part One

Battlefront UK Plays Infantry Aces: Part One with Anders Johansson Cassino has always been one of my favourite campaigns of World War Two. For me, Flames Of War is as much about the infantry as it is the tanks and vehicles. Read Battlefront UK Plays Infantry Aces: Part Two here... Read Battlefront UK Plays Infantry Aces: Part Three here... Read Battlefront UK Plays Infantry Aces: Part Four here... Learn more about the history of the Cassino campaign here... Learn more about upcoming Cassino releases here... Learn more about what Infantry Aces is here... Left: Anders working on his army between sales calls.

Cassino, like Stalingrad was a protracted slugging match where the infantry took centre stage due to the terrain with every inch gained paid for dearly in blood. What fascinates me most about the battles is that so many nationalities fought there; Germans, Americans, British, New Zealanders, Indians, Polish and French, making the battle a great example of the varied troop types that fought in the Italian theatre. The sheer determination of the German defenders in particular the Fallschirmjäger; combined with the Allied dogged determination to take the position made for a very compelling piece of military history.

With plenty of historical reasons making this campaign exciting and the release of the new Cassino book looming, I jumped at the chance to run an Infantry Aces campaign in the Battlefront UK office. I couldn’t wait to throw myself into the challenge but knew from the start that it would not be easy; running a campaign is a lot of hard work and can be quite challenging at times. But it’s not without reward; so with this in mind, my first task was to find some volunteers to take part in the campaign. With everybody busy with their normal day-to-day tasks, finding the time for some actual gaming can be tough. But once everyone learnt about Infantry Aces and the concepts behind it there were plenty of eager volunteers of all levels of abilities willing to take part. Below: Members of the Battlefront UK staff members at Salute 2011.

It didn’t take long to get the campaign group together. Playing on the German side was Matt Sulley (UK Customer Service) with his 44. Reichgrenadierdivision, Alex Roulstone (UK Warehouse Manager) fielding the 1. Fallschirmjäger Division and Carlo Soddu (Southern Europe Customer Service) and his 90. Panzergrenadierdivision. The motley collection of Allied players were made up of myself, Anders Johansson (North and East Europe Customer Service) playing Goums, Daniel Faulconbridge (Wargames Illustrated Editor) and Tim Adcock (Sculptor) sharing a Ghurkha Company and Rob Townsend (Wargames Illustrated Customer Service) fielding a Commando Company. This gave us a good variety of armies that would make for some interesting match-ups. Below: Alex Roulstone’s 500-points force of Fallschirmjäger.

Once all the forces had been decided upon, Battlefront was kind enough provided us with the first 500 points of miniatures to get started with, so begun the frantic modelling and painted. As expected with such a mix experience within the group some armies were finished quicker than others while few still need a few finishing touches. But we didn’t let that stop us from having a few practice game to get everyone up to speed before getting stuck in with the actual Infantry Aces campaign. One of the good things with the escalation type of campaign that Infantry Aces follows is that it allows you to build your army as you go, whether you’re veteran of Flames Of War or just starting out, a mountain of lead that has to be painted before you can start gaming can intimidate anyone. Left: Matt Sulley and Alex Roulstone preparing their Infantry Aces armies before starting work.

Infantry Aces follows your Ace as he develops different skills with unique abilities that can make up for potential deficiencies within your force depending on the path you choose for him. This makes the concepts Infantry Aces a great tool to get new players into Flames Of War as they start with a limited force and then escalates it as their own grasp of the game grows. It also allows for a bit more fun and variety when it comes to actually modelling your Infantry Ace, not to mention naming him. I can’t says how this campaign will pan out, but I’m sure that we will have a lot of fun finding out! Hopefully you, the readers will have fun finding out as well. Next week we will begin to presentation of the different armies and the Aces leading them. ~ Anders.