Open Fire! - An Introduction to WWII Miniature Wargaming (1st Edition)

With a thunderous crash another shell smashes into the wall above you, showering your trench with rubble. Looking around, your entire position resembles a cauldron of fire -every roof ablaze, black smoke billowing into the night sky. As the echo of the blast dies away the crack of rifle fire breaks out, and an ominous clanking and rumbling.

Suddenly, out of the flames roars a Tiger tank!

Leaping from your trench you run forwards. Bazooka! Bazooka, now! Even as the din swallows your shouting, you see a trooper leveling his rocket launcher at the great beast's tracks. It may not be enough. You are in command. Take control. What are your orders?

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-color mini-rulebook with 164 pages of clearly laid out rules with plenty of diagrams, covering rules for tanks, infantry, artillery, aircraft, snipers, reconnaissance, night fighting, and more.
• Special rules for the nations involved in WWII.
• 16 page full-color 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.

The introduction booklet has been written to work in conjunction with the mini-rulebook included with the set.

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.

To that end, each mission contains an overview of the relevant rules you'll be learning. These introduce the fundamental principles of movement and shooting. Read through the overview and then take a look at the pages listed in the In the Rulebook box in each mission. These page references will show you where to find the exact rules being introduced.

Just read the pages and sections listed for the time being you don't need to learn every single rule first time!

Having looked over how things work, set up your miniatures as detailed in the mission that comes with each tutorial section. Fight out the mission using the rules you've learned, referring to the rulebook whenever you need to. Remember, the task is not to memorize every rule from the outset, but to get an idea of where in the mini-rulebook you can find the information you need. If anything confuses you at any point, read the overview again or have a look at the In the Rulebook box to get your bearings.

Play each mission however many times it takes for you to be confident that you've got a grasp of how things work. Having done that, you can then move on to the following mission and do the same for the next section of rules.

Once you've learned how to move and shoot with your Sherman tank platoon and StuG G assault gun platoon included in this set, we suggest that you add some infantry to your battles. Details of how to do this are given in the extra Infantry mission.

After that, the best way to learn is to get stuck in! For your next few games, we suggest that you keep things simple and use just infantry and vehicles. With a good grasp of these under your belt, you can then add in other elements such as aircraft, artillery and specialist units.

This is truly where the war begins for your reinforcements!