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Starting at the 14:30 mark, we hear about the two Pacific books (Banzai and Gung Ho!), Bulge compilations for the middle of the year and a book on recon forces towards the end of the year.

EDIT: Battlefront has posted 2016 - The Year Ahead with more information on the Pacific Theater, a not-so-subtle hint on the next two nations for Team Yankee, three new Late War books (two 'Bulge' compilations and a new book with new plastic models!), info on the TANKS game, an update on the Flames of War Digital app for Android and some new and old favorites from Battlefield in a Box.

Interesting. I do wonder why having invested so heavily in digital products BF have decided that cards are the way forward with Team Yankee. It will be interesting to see what effect book compilations have on existing digital books.

The reason for the cards is explained in the Team Yankee Design Notes.

What a Bulge Hard BAck? Nice, i havent bought a book since th ITaly HBs. I just found it upset me that their was going to be no more HB anymore especially since i already own them all that are in print.
It might be enough to bring me back into the fold for awhile since i switched To Bolt action PAcific.
Also nice work, i reshared with a link to the Google Plus group i mod for.

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
What a Bulge Hard BAck? Nice, i havent bought a book since th ITaly HBs. I just found it upset me that their was going to be no more HB anymore especially since i already own them all that are in print.
It might be enough to bring me back into the fold for awhile since i switched To Bolt action PAcific.
Also nice work, i reshared with a link to the Google Plus group i mod for.

While details haven't yet been released, I suspect that the two Pacific books will both be hard back. The few bits of information released by Battlefront so far suggest that both books will have a *lot* of lists, covering a wide range of years.

Eumerin wrote:

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
What a Bulge Hard BAck? Nice, i havent bought a book since th ITaly HBs. I just found it upset me that their was going to be no more HB anymore especially since i already own them all that are in print.
It might be enough to bring me back into the fold for awhile since i switched To Bolt action PAcific.
Also nice work, i reshared with a link to the Google Plus group i mod for.

While details haven't yet been released, I suspect that the two Pacific books will both be hard back. The few bits of information released by Battlefront so far suggest that both books will have a *lot* of lists, covering a wide range of years.

I'm always a bit leery of Battlefront releasing straight to hardback. They did that for Early War and it wasn't a resounding success (anyone remember the stickers to cover whole entries in the books )

 Ghaz wrote:
The reason for the cards is explained in the Team Yankee Design Notes.

Yep, and it's totally at odds with supposed benefits of digital books and digital army builders.

Unless of course your digital product was a clunky mess and the digital books are still only available on one format a year after their release.

Didn't say it was a good reason...

 George Spiggott wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
The reason for the cards is explained in the Team Yankee Design Notes.

Yep, and it's totally at odds with supposed benefits of digital books and digital army builders.

Unless of course your digital product was a clunky mess and the digital books are still only available on one format a year after their release.

Have to disagree. Cards are easy and portable to carry around. And they're much faster. If you want to check stats on a card, then you pull the card out. If you want to check stats on a mobile device, then you have to pull out the device, turn the device on, open the app in question, and then search through the app until you find the entry that you want. Digital apps will *never* be as fast as cards until apps are designed that respond at the literal speed of thought. And the reason for that is inherent in the device itself.

Ghaz wrote:Didn't say it was a good reason...

Do I detect a fellow Android user?

Eumerin wrote:Have to disagree. Cards are easy and portable to carry around. And they're much faster. If you want to check stats on a card, then you pull the card out. If you want to check stats on a mobile device, then you have to pull out the device, turn the device on, open the app in question, and then search through the app until you find the entry that you want. Digital apps will *never* be as fast as cards until apps are designed that respond at the literal speed of thought. And the reason for that is inherent in the device itself.

Because you couldn't possibly leave the app on all game.

We'll see how useful/popular it is if it appears in Pacific.

Otherwise it will be interesting to see if they change anything in the late/late war lists. It may be an excuse to build a late/late war German force.

Well, on the topic of cards I'll steal the notes from another games company on why their brand-new game went with cards instead of putting things into books (including their digital PDF that IS actually cross-platform):

 Spiral Arm Studios wrote:
It was a very tough decision to make, as clearly a lot of people (myself included) like to have all the points and options in one central place that can be easily perused in a sitting.

However, by not putting those points costs and options into the book, it leaves us the flexibility in the future to add or change stuff to units as needed, and simply re-issue the cards for an absolute minimum cost to any players (plus offering a print-and-play free download of them from the website). Obviously we don't intend to change unit cards very often, but to be 100% honest, we are a brand-spanking new game company, and as awesome as the group of playtesters we got were, there is always the chance of stuff not really being noticed until the rules start getting used/played by a much wider audience.

That flexibility allows us to potentially fix/improve parts of the game without suddenly creating an outdated rulebook that contains faulty/bad info that new players picking up the game may then not be aware exists.

...

Hopefully that decision makes some sense. Again, it was a tough choice and I know it is not the optimal way for some people to ingest their rules (myself included), but I do think the positives we gain in using this method outweighs any negatives by a wide margin.

Not saying BF's reasons are the same, but clearly there's a school of thought to be had there wherein the cards are viewed as a better option.

Leaving the app on all day runs the battery down - assuming you remember to pick up your mobile device every fifteen minutes to keep it from going into sleep mode. That's not a big issue when you're only playing a one-off game. But when you've got a full day's tournament of games...?


As someone who owns an ipad, and has numerous texts on it, experience tells me that the cards will be *much* more convenient.

However, Battlefront also printed the information on the cards in the book

Paper books are ton better, i dont have to sqquint to read them,easier to find pages. also alot better for throne room.Especially after morning coffee reading material and the one last thing alot cheaper than dropping ur Ipad in the toliet when you bend over to flush.

I don't normally care for FOW rules but I'm gonna dive into team Yankee. Really liking this whole streamlined thing....and hinds......HINDS!


Oh and late war pacific?! Yes please.

 Strombones wrote:

Oh and late war pacific?! Yes please.

I guarantee that it will be rammed full of tanks.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

 Strombones wrote:

Oh and late war pacific?! Yes please.

I guarantee that it will be rammed full of tanks.

Oh Jesus. I can't even imagine what a tank battle on a jungle island would look like.

Either way I just need a platoon plus of infantry for each side for other games. I've always prefered Battlefront sculpts to other 15mm.

Okinawa Perishings,enough said....

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Okinawa Perishings,enough said....

My understanding is that the fighting was over by the time they arrived.

Obviously, no idea yet whether tank companies will even be allowed in the Pacific. But I doubt that there will be many Japanese tank companies, assuming that they're allowed. The primary Japanese tank throughout the war was present (in very limited numbers) during the battle represented in Rising Sun. Put it up against anything heavier than a Stuart, and it's a speed bump at best.

Pretty much what the American armor found them to be on the Philippines, though they did manage to score some victories of their own due to the more confined combat ranges. An interesting write-up on one of the few engagements where tanks fought each other in a limited fashion in the Pacific; the Battle of Munoz:

http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/chieftains-hatch-munoz/

Further interesting things for (US) armor in the Pacific would be:

http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/chieftains-hatch-amtanks/

So interesting products to be made from that, but, as many others have said about the Pacific, it will be a challenge to make those lists work well with the ETO stuff. Almost like two very different wars being fought due to the logistical challenges.

Eumerin wrote:

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Okinawa Perishings,enough said....

My understanding is that the fighting was over by the time they arrived.

This is Battlefront remember.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Eumerin wrote:
The primary Japanese tank throughout the war was present (in very limited numbers) during the battle represented in Rising Sun. Put it up against anything heavier than a Stuart, and it's a speed bump at best.

I remember reading an account of a tank battle in northern Burma between Japanese tanks and (IIRC) Grants. The only Japanese tank to do any damage at all was a captured Stuart that was being used as a command tank, the others just couldn't penetrate the British armour.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

Eumerin wrote:

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Okinawa Perishings,enough said....

My understanding is that the fighting was over by the time they arrived.

This is Battlefront remember.

.

Yup. And Battlefront has been pretty explicit in the past that if it didn't fire a shot in anger, then it won't go on the lists. Case in point - US 90mm AA guns were actually on the front lines for a brief period during the retreat from Kasserine Pass (US forces used a screen of anti-aircraft guns to shield their retreating units from the Germans). But because the Germans didn't attack while the AA gun screen was in place, the US 90mm guns never saw ground action in Africa. And as a result, they aren't available for use until Late War.

Eumerin wrote:

Yup. And Battlefront has been pretty explicit in the past that if it didn't fire a shot in anger, then it won't go on the lists. Case in point - US 90mm AA guns were actually on the front lines for a brief period during the retreat from Kasserine Pass (US forces used a screen of anti-aircraft guns to shield their retreating units from the Germans). But because the Germans didn't attack while the AA gun screen was in place, the US 90mm guns never saw ground action in Africa. And as a result, they aren't available for use until Late War.

90mm guns don't have tracks. If something outlandish and tank shaped fired so much a a single MG round in anger though Battlefront will be all over it.

Anything more heavily armoured than an M3 Stuart was pretty much impervious to the Japanese 37mm. Against the M3 Stuarts, it was pretty much who hit who first, as the M3 Stuart and Ha-Go were about as close a comparison as you could get, even though the M3 had a little more armour. US M5 Stuarts and especially the M4 Shermans, as well as British Matildas and LL M3 Lee/Grants that were transferred from the desert after the Shermans appeared, were all but immune to the ageing Ha-Go 37mm.

The low-powered 57mm, and even the updated 47mm of the Japanese Medium Chi-Ha and ShinHoTo Chi-Ha respectively couldn't reliably wound anything better than an M3 Stuart. The Japanese did eventaully develop a 75mm and a hull to put it on, but none of them saw service.

The main strength of Japanese tanks was the ability to 'appear' where nobody thought tanks could possibly be, which caused the British no end of trouble in Burma, and they were still effective against infantry. In an all-out tank battle, they fall over to a stiff breeze, but against an infantry company or something without much armour, they could probably still be rather effective.

I can easily see them getting a better version of Ambush or something similar to keep them at least partially useful; maybe being able to ambush closer to enemy platoons and pushing back Recce bubbles.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

Eumerin wrote:

Yup. And Battlefront has been pretty explicit in the past that if it didn't fire a shot in anger, then it won't go on the lists. Case in point - US 90mm AA guns were actually on the front lines for a brief period during the retreat from Kasserine Pass (US forces used a screen of anti-aircraft guns to shield their retreating units from the Germans). But because the Germans didn't attack while the AA gun screen was in place, the US 90mm guns never saw ground action in Africa. And as a result, they aren't available for use until Late War.

90mm guns don't have tracks. If something outlandish and tank shaped fired so much a a single MG round in anger though Battlefront will be all over it.

That's just it - the M-26s on Okinawa didn't fire in anger. The fighting was already over by the time they got there.

In any event, any US player that actually took Pershings would be making a big mistake. 75mm Shermans are just as effective against the Japanese, and should cost quite a bit less.

The problem is that if BF is allowing Pershing they will allow some the heavier Japanese tanks like the Type 3 Chi-Un and Type 4 Chi-To tanks

bobjoerock wrote:
The problem is that if BF is allowing Pershing they will allow some the heavier Japanese tanks like the Type 3 Chi-Un and Type 4 Chi-To tanks

I'm not sure they'd go that far, even if they did--for whatever reason--allow the Pershing. Only 166 Chi-Nu and 2 Chi-To tanks were ever completed, and none saw combat at all, with the 166 Chi-Nu tanks that were produced being used solely for homeland defence against the planned Operation Downfall, the Allied invasion of Japan that never went ahead because of the atomic bombings and subsequent Japanese surrender. The Pershing, at least, was mass-produced and actually arrived at Okinawa, even if not in time to actually see any combat themselves. The Pershing was certainly far closer to seeing actual combat than either the Chi-Nu or Chi-To.

That's not to say that BF would be right to include the Pershing, and I'm of the mind that they won't. Take the new Berlin book for example, it's documented that two British Mark Vs could've been used in the defence of Berlin, but due to the conflicting information, the idea to put them in was shelved because it couldn't be verified. I can't see BF turning around and, despite much well-documented, easily-verifiable evidence to the contrary, allow Pershings to fight in the Pacific. There are no accounts of small skirmishes that a Pershing briefly drove through, or that they fired once at something they thought might be an enemy, they saw no combat of any kind whatsoever. There's nothing to base even the use of a single Pershing on. Not a shred; not a jot; not an iota. Personally, that's enough to convince me that BF won't allow them.

That said, my judgement on things has been known to occasionally be very, very wrong...

But one good USA tank we will see is USMC Satan Flame tank.

2 new Pacific books, and it doesn't look like either will have any Chinese forces in them.

Guess I'll just keep waiting until next year to make my Nationalist Army force.....

 Freytag93 wrote:
2 new Pacific books, and it doesn't look like either will have any Chinese forces in them.

Guess I'll just keep waiting until next year to make my Nationalist Army force.....

Not sure why you're so surprised about the absence of Chinese lists. China wasn't part of the Pacific theater. It was part of the China-Burma-India theater.