Why We Fight 7 - Summary of information and review

After listening to the excellent “Why we fight, episode 7: Tanks, Tracks, Bang, Yeah with Peter Simunovich” podcast from the WWPD guys (http://www.wwpd.ne/2016/10/why-we-fight-ep-7-tanks-tracks-bang.html?m=1). I thought I would try and summarise and give some of my thoughts.

First off, there was a ton of information shared in a very short period of time. Hopefully I do it justice. I strongly recommend downloading the WWPD podcast and listening to it yourself. Both the Why we fight and News from the Front podcasts are terrific and have always been great at sharing new information often via interviews with key stakeholders at BF.

So, here are the points I picked up.

1.      Battlefront (BF) are looking to bring out a new Team Yankee (TY) style hardcover book for Vietnam and Fate of a Nation. I.E a new rule set based on the TY ruleset.

2.      Peter is personally keen on a Bush War/Angola list. We might see this in the future.

3.      BF are committed to finishing off Berlin. We should expect a compilation in March 2017.

4.      The big news – There will be a version 4 of the rules. This will be in two ways. Firstly there will be new rule book for EW and LW. This will allow all of the current EW and LW books to be used with the current points values, including the new Berlin compilation that is about to come out. 95% of these books will be compliant with the new V4 rules

5.      For MW, there will not only be a new rule book but it will be accompanied by new dessert lists. Initially these will be for Brits and DAK. Other dessert forces and then Eastern Front lists to follow. These will be a new 100 point style system. There will be cards.

I think this will be great. MW is my favourite period and is currently a bit stale. It seems the perfect place to start again for BF. I cannot wait to dive into this period again with new rules and lists.

6.      The new V4 rules will be inspired by TY. However Peter went out of his way to say they will not be the same. To paraphrase him, WW2 is a much richer historical period than the Cold War, with more forces and troops and vehicles. The rules will need to match.

7.      There will be a new V4 rulebook. How this will work exactly was not detailed. This is awesome news. I got a free V3 rulebook when that book came out and that really kept me excited about the new rules. Hopefully this will do the same for V4.

8.      The rules will be more streamlined and won’t cover every possible point like the current 300 odd page V3. Instead there will be a new Letters from the Front type document with a cooler name that will serve as a living document to accompany the rules. I see this aimed more at the tournament gamer than the Friday night garage gamer.

9.      The new rules will retain the current morale and motivation settings. Peter used the example that Fearless Veteran will remain. This to me is good news. This is one of the charming aspects of FOW and something that isn’t really in TY.

10.   Even though cards were announced, Peter did say that players don’t need to use them. The current TY doesn’t NEED the cards. This might be how older gamers with big collections can get by without the cards.

11.   BF are still working on how to distribute cards. Selling packs was raised as an option. However it sounds like nothing is yet set in stone. BF is looking for feedback on this.

12.   Forces will remain. Peter did say there is a big effort involved in updating forces but he sees it as critical to the game. I for one love forces and easy army before it and would struggle without this excellent tool. If you haven’t tried it, it can be found at forces.flamesofwar.com

13.   BF are trying to be cautious with the new rules. In summary it seems there are still discussions and heated agreements over aspects of the rules in the playtest group. Peter was careful to point out that this game is precious to BF and they are not treating the new version and the potential fallout lightly. They are calling for reasoned feedback as his team are working very hard on the release and contents. I am personally pleased to hear this. Like many, I have invested lots of money and time in this game and want to hear that it is being cared for and hopefully will be just as good or better in version 4.

14.   The distribution timing and exact method is still being nutted out by Battlefront. However it seems likely that the new V4 and MW releases will be timed together.

15.   One of the most interesting points of the conversation was around why. Peter said that BF need to change, FOW is slowly reducing in popularity. A 300 page rule book is a barrier to entry and that modern games sellers need to change to be more acceptable in the modern, internet-based marked. This will attract new players and keep the game viable.

I can see this everywhere. I personally think this is the right thing for BF to do. Lead the market with innovation. The alternative is a slow and painful decline.

16.   There will be new plastics for MW. YES!!!

17.   We should look out for a new Aussie TY list. YES again!!

18.   Peter personally committed to return to answer questions at a later date. He asked for feedback via WWPD. There is a thread on the excellent WWPD forum at http://forum.wwpd.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20227

We that’s it. In summary I am excited not only about the product but with the care and attention that V4 is being shown. I look forward to the release.

I hope you enjoyed my summary and commentary. Please feel free to leave comments.