ZeroMoon17

Amen

Its the same scale as flames of war 1:100. The Abrams are a little larger than the size of a king tiger, and the helicopters are large, but I don't think that the scale will really be all that big a turn off, I actually thought they were pretty small, after what everyone was saying about how HUGE they were on the Flames of War forums.

James and I will be playing Team Yankee this Wednesday instead of our usual Thursday game, since Star Wars comes out Thursday night. Similarly for next week and the week after we will be meeting on Wednesday nights at 6pm at Guardian Games for our weekly Flames of War/Team Yankee games because of the holidays

Looks like one MG team per truck. That seems to make the most sense to me because 8 confident veteran MG teams would certainly cost more than 145 pts per platoon.

See pg. 21 of the raiding aces rules (entitled Play Any Era). This particular campaign allows for Mid War vs Early War forces.

That is correct, the "official" (posted) lists can use their armored support, although as per the rules of the raiding aces packet, armored support is not available until step 2 and 3. You may run either the mid war or early war variants of any of the lists. Raiding aces is kind of an Era of its own.

Just so everyone knows, once you choose a company you have to stick with that company for the duration of the escalation league. Obviously this doesn't apply until we first start playing in March, but just as a heads up. Second, everyone has the option (not the obligation) to bring both a raiding force and a garrison force. These forces will accumulate raiding aces points separately, but the idea is that if everyone brings a raiding force and a garrison force (or if 80% of people bring both forces) then nobody will have to sit out a game because they both only have a raiding force or a garrison force. At 500 pts, I don't think its all that difficult to do (a couple platoons of infantry and an HMG platoon is typically a garrison force, and some jeeps/kubelwagens/trucks for raiding forces). Third, I'm going to allow people to bring any infantry or motorized infantry list from Burning Empires, Hellfire and Back, or North Africa as garrison forces, and any special ops forces as raiders (i.e. paratroopers, commandos, etc.). The restriction to this is NO ARMORED ASSETS. At 500 points it would be pretty hard to bring in, but the sahara was a particularly grueling place for Tanks to do battle and they wouldn't have the speed or reliability to make it on these long range desert patrols. I'm excited to see such a quick response from everyone though, I think this will be a lot of fun! Edit: put most of this post in the first post

So I just picked up my copy of the rule book and Bannon's Boys, and I have to say I'm really impressed. The rules are simpler, easier to remember, easy to read through, and yet still retain the tactical depth of Flames of War (we will see when we do a demo game if that holds up). The models on the other hand are fantastic. They are some of the best models I have ever seen Battlefront produce, probably because the vehicles are larger they can put more detail into them, but I am very pleased with my M1's and Cobras.

You are welcome to, but then you'd be competing against yourself. I plan on handing out prizes to the winning team (Axis or Allies) to get a spirited rivalry going between the two sides ;).

I added the info to the first post, "Venue: The kickoff event, Tobruk, and the majority of the games will be played at Guardian Games. However, the rounds may be played at any location, all you need is an opponent, and then post the results here on the forums. Hopefully this will allow our friends outside of the direct PDX area to participate in the raiding aces campaign." Essentially you'll be able to play anywhere you'd like, but the kickoff and the raid on Tobruk will take place (pending reservations) at Guardian Games on March 19th and May 2nd.

Ok, due to the positive feedback I'll be running this starting on March 19th. The idea is that it will be an escalation campaign and you will have 2-3 weeks to play in each of the three rounds, i.e: Venue: The kickoff event, Tobruk, and the majority of the games will be played at Guardian Games. However, the rounds may be played at any location, all you need is an opponent, and then post the results here on the forums. Hopefully this will allow our friends outside of the direct PDX area to participate in the raiding aces campaign. March 19th (11am-3pm @ Guardian Games): Kickoff event, explanation of the rules and first games (500pts) March 19th - April 2nd: 1st round (500pts) April 3rd - April 16th: 2nd round (700 pts) April 17th - April 31st: 3rd Round (900 pts) May 7th: Battle for Tobruk, super-battle multiplayer ending event (500-700 pts per player, will be decided when we know how many people will be playing) I do plan on charging an entry fee of $25 (or $5 for each leg of the league, and $10 for the battle of Tobruk, this is an escalation league after all) in order to provide prizes throughout the League. Here are is a list of available companies for the league: RAIDING FORCES British Forces: LRDG Patrol SAS Squadron Italian Forces: Compagnia Autosahariana 103a Compagnia Arditi Camionettisti Free/Vichy French Forces: Compagnie de Tiralleurs Senegalais Compagnie Decouverte de Combat German Forces: Brandenburger Halbkompanie Kampfgruppe von Koenen (website PDF) Unternehmen Dora (website PDF) US Forces: OSS Operational Group GARRISON FORCES British Forces: Sudan Rifle Company Italian Forces: Compagnia Mitraglieri Free/Vichy French Forces: Compagnie de Tiralleurs Senegalais Here is the PDF with all the rules: http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/RaidingAces/Raiding-Aces.pdf Who's signed up (Forum name, real name, nation, raiding company, garrison company): Axis (ITA/GER/VFRA) 1. Rcnjack, Keith, Brandenburg, Mitraglieri 2. fingolfin, ?, ITA, ?, ? 3. Bolo, ?, German, Unternehmen Dora, ? 4. Mr. Bigglesworth, ?, Ger?, ?, Pioneers? 5. taran.shannara, Steve M. GERMANY, Unternehman Dora, Raiding company 6. Allies (USA/UK/FFRA) 1. ZeroMoon17, Michael Henry, UK, SAS, Sudan Rifle (can swap to axis if needed) 2. Barca, James, FFRA, Compagnie Decouverte de Combat, Compagnie de Tiralleurs Senegalais 3. CyrusLucainis, Daniel M., US, OSS Operational Group, ? 4. Apophis93, Daniel A., UK, LRDG, ? 5. 6. FAQ (to be updated later): Do I need to stick with the same company throughout the league? Yes, once you choose a company you have to stick with that company for the duration of the escalation league. Its composition may change, but you cannot go from British SAS to an LRDG list. Obviously this doesn't apply until we first start playing in March, but just as a heads up. Why is there a raiding force listed and a garrison force listed in the sign ups? Everyone has the option (not the obligation) to bring both a raiding force and a garrison force. These forces will accumulate raiding aces points separately, but the idea is that if everyone brings a raiding force and a garrison force (or if 80% of people bring both forces) then nobody will have to sit out a game because they both only have a raiding force or a garrison force. At 500 pts, I don't think its all that difficult to do (a couple platoons of infantry and an HMG platoon is typically a garrison force, and some jeeps/kubelwagens/trucks for raiding forces). Can I bring a list that is not listed above? Yes, I'm going to allow people to bring any infantry or motorized infantry list from Burning Empires, Hellfire and Back, or North Africa as garrison forces, and any special ops forces as raiders (i.e. paratroopers, commandos, etc.). The restriction to this is NO ARMORED ASSETS. At 500 points it would be pretty hard to bring in, but the sahara was a particularly grueling place for Tanks to do battle and they wouldn't have the speed or reliability to make it on these long range desert patrols.

Now that Battlefront is producing plastics, the price difference isn't so drastic. A box of PSC Shermans is roughly $30 whereas the Plastic Shermans from battlefront is $45. Mind you its still cheaper, but it isn't the 1/2 off deal it once was, plus Battlefront minis are typically much nicer than the PSC ones.

For the record I won't be able to make it on Wednesday the 23rd

Hey guys, how do we want to do our weekly game with the holidays coming up? Our weekly games would fall on the 24th (Christmas Eve) and the 31st (New Years Eve). Do we move to a different night those two weeks? I'll be out of town from the 23rd to the 28th, but I could play on the 30th if anyone is interested (normal time 6pm)

Haha, they gave me 50% off the desert fort last Thursday, sounds like they are changing the sale every day :p

I'll put the 30th on my calendar, but my wife is due for the 14th of February so I'll probably not be able to make that one, being so close to the baby coming and all :( Edit: Also Sundays are always bad for me, but I'll try and make every Saturday event.

Typically just a time period will do. You can agree on a theater as well, but two companies from different theaters but same era are usually balanced. I personally feel that playing with lists from the same theater really enhance the game but its far from a necessity.

No I did not, I took the blame for that one, and I regret nothing ;) Unfortunately this particular event is themed North Africa, so Italians, Brits (commonwealth), Germany, France (both vichy and free), and US combatants. The good news is a box of infantry and maybe a couple of guns is all you really need for the garrison force (the US force is restricted to infantry only so you could get away with one to two boxes of infantry and play the whole event)

I second this, I love late-war, but lets get some Early war and Mid war back into the mix! On top of that we have Team Yankee! So many toys, so little time...

I don't remember which battle we played, but SchneiderKarl and I finished our game 5-2 German victory. No warriors were used, and it was an empty space for the British defense so no firestorm units were killed.

Wait they are canceling all their pre-orders? As in our pre-orders for TY? Also I'm surprised that they haven't done this sooner, I mean we are a niche group of what 6-10 local guys, and we are taking up how much shelf space? I mean only people interested in Flames of War are really going to purchase anything. I hope that they keep around a shelf or two of main box sets for new players but other than that I'm fine with ordering everything I'm interested in through GG and let them free up the shelf space. Glad to see that they are still committed to supporting us as a group.

I picked up a desert fort last thursday at GG as well. 50% off, for a limited time offered piece of terrain I just couldn't pass it up >.<

So people have been tossing around the idea of doing an escalation league, and I've heard a lot of talks about maybe doing more in the Mid War department. I know we currently have the Overlord Firestorm campaign going on right now, but I thought it would be fun to do a Raiding Aces campaign as kind of an intro league at GG. Since each Raiding aces force and garrison force are sub 1000 pt lists it could be a great way to introduce newer players to the game. I figure that the Overlord campaign will run clear into february/march but we could start some time after that. I'm posting here simply to gauge interest. http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=146&art_id=2991&kb_cat_id=103 It's designed as an escalation campaign where your first battle is 500 pts, second is 700 pts, and last is 900 pts. Thoughts? Rules: http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/RaidingAces/Raiding-Aces.pdf

For the record, last night while we were at the store Nathan came up and told us that GG will be continuing to stock FOW, but that they will be downsizing because of this most recent event. He did promise that new releases will still be stocked and that they will support team yankee, but they will keep far fewer things on the shelves. He also promised that we will be able to order things from Battlefront through them still.

:( that's really sad news. I guess we'll have to convince another store in the area to stock it for us then...