With the latest FOW army release, Battlefront has covered all the late war period forces for WWII. This release allows British players to field forces up to the end of the war. While it is called “Bulge”, the set covers all the late war force options for Market Garden through the fighting in the North German plain. If you like this period, then this is a solid set to purchase. With Market Garden being one of my favorite campaigns, I have really been looking forward to release for some time.
The set gives you the organization for fielding six tank companies and four infantry companies. The tank companies include a Recce, Sherman, Cromwell, Churchill, Cromwell and for some strange reason a RAM company. I would have liked an Italian Recce company to be included, instead of the fictional RAM company or even a Tetrarch company. I guess BF will not be doing the light tank anymore, so I can kind of understand that. If there was going to be a fictional company, I guess they could have gone with a different late war monster and done Centurions. However, hit is just my opinion of coarse. In the end, you get the important armor forces, which is all you really need. In regards to the infantry, you get Infantry, Motor, Para and Glider companies. If you play commandos, you need to get these from the D-day set (since you can mix and match late war British forces, this is not an issue).
You get the same AT assets as D-Day, but with the addition of the Archer. The Archer still is not great, as it cannot move and shoot. It is clearly designed to be a Blitz asset, so there is a work around.
Transport options contain the normal kit, but with the addition of the Kangaroo and Amtrak. An option for the White scout car would have been nice, as it was used a decent amount by the British. We of coarse have the Wasp too.
The Reece troop selection is a bit odd. You get the Daimler and Dingo of coarse and a couple of Jeep options (both welcome). They have not included the Humber AC (which they sell in the mid war range), or the Humber SC (which I guess they are dropping from the line). You can use the Dingo to proxy the Humber SC, so no great loss. Finally, there is no AEC or SP 75mm. There are options for these in the Command cards, so you have some coverage if you have the miniatures already. I can understand this, but where they have the models, it is not clear to me. I like that they now include the pure Dingo troop too!
The infantry options are basically the same as D-Day, with a stat change here or there to give you a little variation in your forces. This is something that I like with these releases. I wish BF would do this with various divisions in the game. I think people would pay to have a card set of their favorite division and not have to kit bash it with command cards. Maybe this is something we will see in the future, cannot image it would cost much to produce division specific card sets (maybe with the token sets). With that said, I suspect we will not see that, as they still have to get to early war and I suspect we are not too far away from a new version of the rules.
The artillery, AA and air options are also as you would expect and mostly follow what is in D-Day. The Auster OP is now in the deck, along with the Land Mattress rockets. Rockets are a nice add, since everyone else has them it seams….. I was a little surprised that we got the self propelled boors, instead of the 20mm. However, neither of these got much front line service, so its not too important.
That brings us to the big boys, the tanks. Full coverage here. They provide the newer troop organizations, so players can double up on Fireflys and Challengers (for you tourney players out there). The Cromwells are still the IV version with 6 armor. I was hoping they would provide the up armored late war VII and VIIIs, but alas no. This is an oversight that I have never quite understood. Especially, since they added to RAM. I assume this recent add has to do with selling box sets. I would have preferred they just did the Badger (Flamethrower tank) instead, but you do find this in the Command Cards. They could have also added the Wallaby (gun tow), as it is basically a Kangaroo. Once again, these are picky comments. In the end, you get your Churchill VIIs and even the Cuckoo Panther for the Guards Tank Brigade! For those of you that like Funnies, you will not be disappointed, AVREs, Crabs and Crocodiles oh my!
In the end, this is a nice set and a must for players that want to field late war British forces!
- Manteufffel