Flames of Tanks Day at Common Ground Games

 Back to Stirling we go

 It's been a while since I was last over in Stirling, and Common Ground Games, but I'd been chatting with Steve, the manager, for a few months about getting some sort of event run for them. Flames of War had been taking off and proven to be extremely popular since I first wandered over last year with fellow Ranger Jason Brown. The Open Fire Demo Day had been a small success, with a few people dropping in and out of the games; Not as many as we'd hoped, but the interest was there.

The familiar and expansive gaming room of Common Ground Games

 Jason was absent this time around, so I enlisted the help of fellow Flames of War player Gordon. Gordon has been playing just over a year now, participating in both the Tank and Infantry Aces campaigns that I've run at my home club, and has by far been the most enthusiastic about it.

Flames of Tanks, a whole new world

 Well, probably not a whole new world, but the rule set we were running on the day was the well received 'Flames of Tanks' mini-game. This rules set allows players to emulate the famous and popular 'World of Tanks' game for PC and Xbox. I myself am a veteran of the game, clocking up many hours toddling about in some sort of armoured behemoth, or scooting around the map in a nippy little scout tank.

A great game,and great inspiration

 For those who have never heard of WoT (To give it it's known abbreviation), or have heard of it, but never experienced it; World of Tanks is a team based "shoot-em-up" with a difference. In most games of that type, you control a soldier armed with a variety of weapons and are put with other players to achieve objectives and rack up 'kills'. World of Tanks though, you command the crew of a single tank. Everything from the tiny little Panzer II C, all the way up to the imposing, but never actually used 'Maus'. World of Tanks allows players to experience the joys of driving around numerous maps, firing off shots at other tanks, while contesting objectives, and all the while avoiding becoming a messy pile smouldering metal. The game is usually 15 on 15, and is tiered so that players are not usually put into matches out of their depth.

A selection of low to mid-tier tanks head out, with recognisable tanks

 World of Tanks is a free to play game available on Wargaming.net. I advise picking it up if you find yourself itching for a bit of tank on tank.

 How does this link into Flames of War?

 It's very simple; the rules set we're using allows players to experience (in a way) World of Tanks, using the Flames of War rules and models. Players take it in turns to move and shoot with their one and only tank, gaining experience with each kill and objective captured. The game is quick to pick up, can be played in a very short amount of time, allowing many 'rounds' to be played, and best of all, newer players can easily borrow a model tank to use to get into the game and maybe inspiring them to buy one of their own to use at some point in the future.

The table is set up like any other Flames of War battlefield

 The table was set up with numerous points of interest; The Bastogne Church providing the centrepiece of the table along with a few fields, buildings and the usual roads. With the table set up and the tanks ready to go, all we needed were the players. So, we sat back and waited.

What happened?

 Through no fault of Steve, his advertising through word of mouth, facebook event post and general prodding of regular players, we got our lowest turnout for any event ever... one lone soul. To give our player, Kyle, his due he was fantastic, he got into it, the competition he gave Gordon (Who volunteered to be his opponent) led to the games being memorable, competitive and most importantly, fun.

The Tiger objective is hotly fought over between a Hornisse and a Sherman

Round One: Capture the Flag

 Kyle opted for the Axis, leaving Gordon with the allies. I gave them both a light tank, a medium tank and a heavy tank. This led to my first deviation from the main rules. In the main rules all tanks have the same weapon, armour, only the speed and the space for upgrades changes. I elected to reduce the armour of the light tanks by 1 all over, and the heavy tanks gaining one, meaning that the rewards for killing each type mirrored the difficulty in doing so. So, what did the players pick to represent each type?

Kyle: Nimrod AA (light), Hornisse (Medium), King Tiger (Heavy)
Gordon: Stuart M5A1 (Light), Sherman M4A1 (Medium), Challenger (Heavy)

 Now, before some of you start narking on about these tanks not being of the designated type, allow me just to remind you that this is a fun game, and if they wanted to use the Stuart as a heavy, I'd have rolled my eyes, but allowed them to do so. It's all for laughs any way.

An M10C protects the Sherman objective

 A second deviation to the rules happened here; instead of going round players in order i.e. 1, 2, 3... Instead the tokens were flipped face down. Initiative was then rolled, and the winner would have one of his tokens flipped and allowed to activate that tank. This added a little strategy to the game, as you could not plan which tank would go when, and led to some coy moves as tanks were hidden or offered as bait.

 The game rumbled on, with exchanges bailing out tanks and objectives ticking over. Each time a tank was knocked out, a little marker was left where it was destroyed, and the tank itself replaced with another, meaning no tank was put on twice.

A 'lend-lease' (from Steve) Sherman closes in on the Cromwell objective, but to no avail

 By the time I called sudden death, the Axis held two objectives, the allies one. Giving the victory to Kyle.

Round Two: Team Deathmatch

 Next round was more like a normal game of World of Tanks, albeit on a smaller scale. Each player was given command of six tanks, two of each category and the spawn points moved to the short table edges. Sudden Death was implemented from the start, so it was a straight forward 'Scrapyard' mission.

 Upgrades earned in the last round were carried over, this led to a humorous occurrence, Kyle's Nimrod AA, the tank representing his light choice had managed to get the 'Searchlight' Upgrade, meaning it ignored concealment. The nippy little tank had become his sniper and performed admirably, sniping off a few tanks itself. Alas, the light tank's upgrade slots are limited, and soon it was carrying more spare equipment than it had use for.

 Once again Kyle came out on top, bringing pride to the Axis as only his tanks remained on the table at the end of the round.

Round Three: Clash of the Titans

 This final round, I allowed each player to take three tanks, and outfit them with any and all equipment they had garnered during the last two rounds, giving each player their 'Hero' tanks. 

Gordon elected for the 'All or Nothing' approach, his Challenger being given all the armour upgrades, his Churchill (Which he was using as a medium, much to my ire) being given a balance of armour, AT and range. Finally, his M10C was given all of the AT upgrades her could, making it a sniper.

Kyle on the other hand went more balanced, mixing skills, AT, Armour and Range amongst his three tanks (Kingtiger, Panther and Nimrod).

Gordon's Challenger sets its sights on the Panther, but does less than nothing

 The balanced approach worked out for the best as Gordon's tank-killing M10 managed to bog itself on a hedge twice in a row before getting annihilated by the Konigstiger. The Churchill faring no better as it too bit the dust, leaving the Challenger to be swamped by the remainders of Kyles forces.

The Konigstiger cares not for the burning Churchill

 The End

 That was the day that was, despite the low turnout, both players thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I have a game to take to the shows this year. A quick, easy and fun little game.
 I would highly recommend Flames of Tanks to break up your gaming a little bit. It's something different, while still retaining the core experiences of Flames of War.

Find out more about Flames of Tanks here

 Stay tuned as the convention season gets under way and I give the new Mechanised Aces rules a go at the club.