For the Emperor! A New Player's Guide to the Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal If you're a new player looking to dive into the Pacific theater, the Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal is a fantastic starting point. This box provides a substantial and versatile force, representing the tenacious infantry and supporting arms of the Imperial Japanese Army or Navy. This article will guide you through what's in the box, how to effectively use these units on the tabletop, and how you can expand your force as you delve deeper into the hobby.

What's in the Box? A Look at Your Forces: The Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal is packed with miniatures, giving you a solid foundation for your army: 4x Command Teams: These are your leaders! They are crucial for keeping your troops motivated and in the fight. 18x Type 38 Rifle Teams: The backbone of your force. These represent your infantry squads armed with the Arisaka Type 38 rifle. They are numerous and can lay down a respectable amount of fire. 8x 50mm Mortar Teams: Small but deadly! These mortars can bombard enemy positions with indirect fire, forcing them to move or pinning them down before an assault. 2x Type 92 HMG Teams: Heavy machine guns provide significant firepower to suppress enemy infantry and even pose a threat to lightly armoured vehicles. 2x 20mm Anti-tank Rifle Teams: While not effective against heavily armoured tanks, these can be useful against lighter vehicles, gun emplacements, and even infantry in cover. 2x 70mm Infantry Gun Teams: These small artillery pieces offer direct fire support against infantry and light vehicles. They have better penetration than your mortars. 2x 47mm Anti-tank Gun Teams: Your dedicated anti-tank units. These guns have a better chance of penetrating enemy tanks, especially against lighter ones like the Stuart. 2x 75mm Regimental Gun Teams: Larger artillery pieces that offer a good balance of firepower and penetration. They will be your dedicated artillery. 3x Type 97 Chi-Ha Tanks: Your main armoured punch in this deal. The Chi-Ha is a medium tank with a decent 57mm gun effective against lighter tanks and infantry. 3x Type 89 Chi-Ro Tanks: An older medium tank. While slower and with weaker armour than the Chi-Ha, its 57mm gun can still pose a threat. Buy the Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal on the Webstore here...

How to Use Your Japanese Rifle Company: A Beginner's Guide to Tactics Playing as the Japanese in Flames Of War often emphasizes aggressive tactics, utilizing terrain, and overwhelming the enemy with numbers and close assaults. To get started with what’s in the box you first have to choose your core Formation, and here we have two excellent options in the Army Infantry Company or the Naval Infantry Company. Now there are several differences between the two Formations beyond just the name, which we will look at in another article. Both Formations feature Banzai and the Night attack rules but for the purposes of today let’s look at the Army Infantry Formation. The Banzai Rule This give the unit that has it a better assault and counterattack rating, a 6” move for charging into contact, and makes it so that the unit can not be force to fall back from defensive fire. On the downside they will only save on a 4+ from said defensive fire and can never choose to break off. This is a super powerful rule for this army and may be one of my favourite aspects as almost every game I have played has been won with decisive assaults! Night Attack If you are attacking while the defender has minefields, you can opt to start the game with the night fighting rules in effect. A good defensive offensive boost as this will help you get closer to the foe with much reduced enemy fire coming at you! But be careful, the night also helps protect them from your fire! Force building wise for the Army Infantry Company, you have the usual compulsory HQ unit, as well as second Infantry platoons, on top of which you can take a third Infantry platoon, a Type 92 Machine-gun platoon, a Rapid-fire gun platoon, a 70mm Battalion gun platoon and a 75mm Regimental gun platoon. So let’s see where the contents of the box fit into this by looking at each of the units one by one.

Infantry Company HQ This is the easiest spot, 2x Type 38 rifle teams, with one of which containing a flag bearer, these are the motivational core of your list so keep them just behind the front line close to your main combat units to keep them up and moving with their re-rolls on motivation checks.

Infantry Platoon This comes in 2 levels, either 7 rifle teams and 2 type 89 50mm mortars, or 10 rifles and 3 mortars. Additionally, you can give the unit an extra 50mm mortar, a single type 92 HMG team and a 20mm anti-tank rifle team. The box comes with enough troops for you to build them out as two full strength platoons, each with an additional 50mm mortar and 20mm anti-tank rifle. With their Banzai rule these large platoons will be nigh impossible to stop in the assault!

Type 92 Machine-Gun Platoon This allows for a dedicated unit of 2-4 heavy machine funs to help you lock down the point against oncoming enemy troops, an excellent defensive option. This is often how I will choose to bring my heavy machine guns as I like to leave them defending an objective while I push forward with my troops to assault the enemy off theirs.

Rapid-Fire Gun Platoon Your main source of integral anti tank support, with options between 2 of either 47mm or 37mm guns. the anti tank 8 of the 47mm is solid against most vehicles your going to see in the Pacific, only Shermans and Valentines really will give you headaches from the front. But that can easily be defeated either with ambushes or clever placement of your guns.

70mm Battalion Gun Platoon 2x 70mm Infantry guns will give you excellent support in the form of bombardments and smoke. Artillery bombardments will help to pin down a target, hopefully keeping them locked down while you land your assaults and thus reducing their defensive fire. The smoke will let you either block off incoming fire from an angle or just make it harder to hit when shooting through it. With the Fire Bursts special rule, the bombardments will only need to re-roll successful hits once it is down to a single gun.

75mm Regimental Gun Platoon This will give you another potent artillery piece to assist in keeping the allies pinned in place while your commanders lead you in glorious assault! While these guns lack the ability to lay down a smoke barrage, you gain a much increase range for your bombardments, and a decent direct fire anti-tank of 6 making them a versatile addition to your list.

Type 97 and Type 89 Of course, the box still has two more units in the Type 97 Chi-Ha and Type 89 Chi-Ro, both of which can be taken in support to your infantry company through the ability to field a combat unit from a black box as support. The Type 97 is your main stay medium tank, armed with a low velocity 57mm gun with decent firepower that’s good for digging out infantry, or swapping for the later production Shinhoto with the high velocity 47mm of your Rapid-fire gun platoon. For supporting this force I’d go with the 47mm option on the Chi-Ha and use them to skirmish with enemy armour. While bringing along the Type 89s to deal with enemy Infantry if your artillery and banzai charges cannot shift them.

So let’s put it together into a list!

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Coming in at 49 Points, this gives you a super solid Infantry Formation with some tank support, 7 units in the Formation itself will make it hard to force a morale break on you while giving you a lot of room for additional options later on. On the offensive, use your artillery to pin down the enemy units around the objective, looking to disrupt their ability to conduct defensive fire. Target heavy machine guns, flame troops and other high rate of fire elements first. Try to time the arrival of your infantry platoons with a smoke barrage from the Battalion guns to make it harder to hit them while they launch their assault and you will bring glory to the Empire. In defensive operations, dig in your HMGs and artillery around your objectives and screen them with your infantry platoons to make it as hard as possible for the allies to take an inch of territory. Use your rapid-fire guns in ambush when you can, placing them to get the best shots on the flank of allied tanks. If an ambush is not available, try to use them to support the HMGs on defense, dug in and gone to ground until the allied tanks have to assault you, allowing you once again side shots on their weak flanks. In either situation use your tanks to harass the enemy, your Type 89s can withstand most infantry weapons while delivering machine gun fire and high explosive shot before moving into the assault. Your Type 97s can either respond to enemy armour by utilizing terrain to try and get to their flanks, or to assist the type 89s in breaking the enemy's infantry.

The Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal is a great starting point, but Flames Of War offers a vast array of units to expand your army. Here are some suggestions for new players: More Infantry: Adding another infantry Formation will give you more boots on the ground and increase your staying power. Consider adding a third infantry platoon to your Formation to give you a third unit for either supporting assaults or a mobile reserve. Or, get a second army deal box and add a whole other Formation of Infantry to your game. Another option is to look at the support Infantry units, an engineer platoon can be your ultimate assault unit, with between five to eleven rifle teams and 2 flame-thrower teams. Maybe a scout platoon to give you a spearhead unit, helping you to deploy further up the table to land your assaults sooner. More Anti-tank: As you face more heavily armoured opponents, you may find yourself wanting more dedicated anti-tank. Outside of taking an additional company for more rapid-fire gun platoons or wildcard options like the Type 4 Chi-To, your best option in support is the 75mm Anti-Aircraft platoon. Much like the ubiquitous German 88, this is an AA piece capable of functioning in an anti-tank role, giving you a whopping AT of 10 to fend off enemy armour and coming in 2 or 4 gun platoons.   Artillery Support: More artillery can help you soften up enemy positions before an attack, pinning the enemy, forcing them to move out of their defensive positions or suffer repeat bombardments. You have many options for this, from 81mm mortars with their solid 40” of range and smoke. To the 75mm or 105mm Field Artillery sections, with their longer range and much more brutal anti-tank and firepower. Air Support: The Zero Fighter-Bomber flight will be your option here. Bringing a fairly standard suit of 20mm guns at AT 5, or some nice 250 KG bombs with AT 3 and firepower 2+, these will excel at destroying light vehicles and infantry in the open. The Japanese Rifle Company Army Deal provides a fantastic entry point into the world of Flames Of War. With its mix of tenacious infantry, versatile support units, and a few reliable tanks, you have the tools to learn the game and experience the unique flavour of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific War. Embrace the aggressive spirit, utilize the terrain, and remember that even in the face of superior firepower, courage and determination can often turn the tide of battle. Good luck, and Tenno Heika Banzai! ~Jacob, Lack of Foresight Gaming