Open Fire!, an introductory box set designed for those just starting with Flames Of War. It is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Open Fire has been carefully designed for someone who has never heard of Flames Of War before, or has seen the 256 page rulebook and not known where to start. Open Fire! is not a simplified set of the Flames Of War rules, but rather a complete introductory box for a new player!

Open Fire! includes: Complete Flames Of War full-colour mini-rulebook; 164 pages of clearly laid out rules with plenty of diagrams. It includes: Rules for tanks, infantry, artillery, aircraft, snipers, reconnaissance, night fighting, special rules for the nations involved in WWII, and more.

The box also includes a 16 page full-colour introduction booklet. Learn the skills needed to become a famous World War II general.

3 detailed American Sherman tank miniatures.
2 detailed German StuG G assault gun miniatures.
3 American dice.
2 German dice.

Its aim is to introduce you to the basic mechanics of the Flames Of War rules and to help you navigate your way through the rulebook for your first couple of games. Once you’ve played through the missions included, you should be ready for your first full battles.

More on Open Fire!…

In the following brief introduction we take you through Flames Of War with examples of game play, including moving your miniatures, shooting your opponents troops and assaulting them.

To keep track of the chaos that is a WWII battlefield, Flames Of War breaks the actions of the players into turns and steps.

There are four steps to a turn:

STARTING: Rally your forces, bring up reserves and air support and spring ambushes.

MOVE: Manoeuvre all of your teams into position.

SHOOT: Shoot the enemy from a distance.

ASSAULT: Charge the enemy defences in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

Before you start to move your troops in each turn you have a number of things to check before hand. In this step you can make Motivation tests to un-pin platoons and remount bailed out vehicle crew and Skill tests to un-bog stuck teams. In some missions you will also check for reserves and deploy your ambush troops if you wish. You also check for aircraft arrival.

Each type of team (a plastic base with 2 to 6 miniatures based on it) or vehicle (tank, armoured car, or truck) has a particular movement speed.

In your turn you can move all of your troops up to their movement speed. You don’t have to move every team or vehicle, and it’s often a good idea not to (so your troops can shoot better for example).

Their movement can also be affected by rough terrain and obstacles.

Go to the sample game turn Movement Step…

Once you’ve moved all your troops it’s time to shoot. Your can shoot each of your infantry teams or vehicles in every turn (provided, of course, they can see something!)

Most weapons roll two dice to shoot if they didn’t move, or one if they did. This is the Rate-of-Fire or ROF.

The score your troops need to hit their target depends on how good the enemy is at spreading out and taking advantage of cover. If the targets are:

Conscripts, like Soviet troops, you’ll need to roll 2+
Trained, like US troops and British tanks, you’ll need to roll 3+
Veteran, like German troops and British infantry, you’ll need to roll 4+

The score to hit is further modified by the range to the target (targets over 16”/40cm are 1 harder to hit, i.e. +1 to the score required to hit).

Terrain and the behaviour of troops can modify the score to hit as well.

When a team or vehicle is hit by fire it gets a save, this entitles it to a dice roll to try and prevent the shot from having any effect.

Infantry need to roll a 3+ to save. If the roll is 3+ the team is saved and may continue the game, if it is 1 or 2 the team is destroyed. Unarmoured vehicles and Guns get a 5+ save.

Tanks and other armoured vehicles have an armour save; this pits the weapons anti-tank rating against the tanks armour. The target tank’s player rolls a dice and adds to the armour value of the target.

Blowing things up!

Each weapon also has a Firepower rating; this is how good the weapon is at destroying targets. If a vehicle fails its armour save, or an unarmoured vehicle, gun or infantry fails its save and is in bulletproof cover, the firing weapon must make a Firepower roll to destroy the team.

If it fails, the target armoured vehicle is Bailed Out and unarmoured vehicles, guns or infantry are unharmed.

Go to the sample game turn Shooting Step…

Assaults happen when you move you troops into contact with the enemy, it represents close range shooting as well as gritty hand-to-hand fighting.

Assaults are easy. An assaulting platoon and a defending platoon alternate rounds of combat until one side wins. You then move on to the next assault.

Resolving an assault has three basic parts.

• Charging into contact and receiving defensive fire from the defending platoon and adjacent platoons who have teams within 4″/10cm of the assaulting platoon.

• Assaulting teams within 2”/5cm of enemy teams roll a Skill test to destroy enemy teams.

Skill Tests

Conscripts, like Soviet troops, you need to roll 5+
Trained, like US troops and British tanks, you need to roll 4+
Veteran, like German troops and British infantry, you need to roll 3+

Both sides take turns at counterattacking until one side fails its Motivation test and flees, or one side has no teams left.

Go to the sample game turn Assault Step…

Now you have reached the end of the first players turn it becomes the other side’s turn and they run through all the steps above, then pass the turn back to the first player to begin the second game turn.

Motivation tests will also be required at various stages during a game of Flames Of War as mentioned above.

To make a Motivation test roll a dice for the testing platoon and check it against its Motivation below.

Motivation Score Needed

Reluctant, like un-enthusiastic Italian Fusilieri, you need to roll 5+

Confident, Like American, British and German troops, you need to roll 4+

Fearless, Soviet Troops, you need to roll 3+

A platoon that receives 5 or more hits during shooting is Pinned Down. Pinned Down infantry platoons can’t advance closer to the enemy, but they may move away in the movement step. They also have their fire reduced to ROF 1 when it is their turn to shoot and they can’t assault.

Bailed Out

When a tank is Bailed Out the vehicle cannot move, shoot or assault.

At the beginning of their own turn Bailed Out and Pinned Down troops they may make a Motivation test to recover from Bailed Out or Pinned Down. If they pass they may behave as normal.