Let’s talk about what rules from the Flames of War Caen campaign we can use in other settings!
As I have posted about before a group of friends and I are going through the Flames of War 3rd ed Caen Firestorm campaign. Since hte last post we have had three turns including the turn 0 landings!
Turn 0
Not much to say here, most of the landing missions were a bit of a struggle with the Germans taking one of the beaches in a counter attack while the allies staged a break out on the left flank.
Turn 1:
The allies get super unlucky and roll a low number of battles (3 total) and only get 1 attack despite getting +1 to the roll and winning ties (roughly a 70%-ish chance to win each roll). This leads to the surrounded paratroopers and infantry squad getting captured. The only allied success comes from a scripted event. Since the Allies hold Bayeux they automatically capture B-1 and attack D-1. I managed to eek out a victory there, giving a small silver lining to the Allies.
Turn 2:
Turn 2 has just started with the initial battles being fought on this coming Tuesday. The allies are trying to break out of Juno beach with attacks into A-4 and B-3 but we will also need to defend a german attack aimed at B-2.
Early Lessons and Thoughts:
So far I must say I am enjoying the campaign a lot even though it has some pretty severe limitations. There are some big balance issues such as the fact that German reinforcements teleport into any territory but allied ones can only arrive on the beaches. Losing a beach early in the campaign really cripples the allies and could easily end a campaign in the first three turns
The random nature of attacks can also bite you through bad luck. This set up puts immense stress on the allies to do well in turns 1-3 or the campaign just peters out. It appears the allies strength is numerous firestorm troops but these can be countered if the allies are bottle up as the germans have significantly higher quality units.
That being said the basic rules are a lot of fun. The extra strategy based around trying to maneuver troops and generate advantages/plan out counters to enemy thrusts is engaging. Having to coordinate with your team mates is interesting and hearing ideas about the best ways to assaults your objectives can be a challenge in and of itself. I actually plan on using a firestorm type of campaign for Legions Imeprialis this summer.
Vindication
It is worth mentioning that the minds behind Flames of War have updated the campaign recently and addressed many of my concerns. In the new Overlord campaign germans can no longer take over beaches though they get points for winning there. And the allies get to make all the attacks during the first turn. Furthermore hte number of games is set to 7 each turn.
Our group is already discussing how we want to adapt these Version 4 rules for V3 in the future as they seem to address so many issues we are encountering. Furthermore these seem like good templates to use if you wanted to create your own invasion campaign for 40k, Age of Sigmar or any other rules. I started this campaign with some amount of trepidation. I didn’t think I would enjoy it that much but it is a great and engrossing system. The writers even have rules for running the campaign in a day long event!
I will continue to provide updates as the campaign progresses. Our group is quite inexperienced but we are having a blast and I would encourage other people out there to give Flames of War (3rd or 4th ed) a try!
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