2nd Edition Intelligence Handbook updates

With the new version of Flames Of War, we released Option

two compilations of all of the mid-war Intelligence • Mount a Tankodesantniki SMG team on each tank
Handbooks. Afrika covers the British, German, Italian, for +15 points per tank (was +30 points for the
and US forces in the desert, Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy company).
in 1942 and 1943. Ostfront covers all of the Finnish, The points values for M3s (M3 Lee) tanks and several
German, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, and Soviet options have changed. What hasn’t changed are the
forces on the Eastern Front in 1942 and 1943. Both points costs of anything else. T-34 tanks and basic M4
of these books have the characteristics of teams and (M4A2 Sherman) tanks are still the same price as they
points of platoons amended to match the new edition were, as are all of their other options.
of Flames Of War.
This update provides owners of the original mid-war New Arsenal
Intelligence Handbooks (Stars and Stripes, Hitler’s Fire After listing all of the points changes for each country,
Brigade, Desert Fox, Stalingrad, Diving Eagles, Desert the update gives a complete mid-war arsenal in the new
Rats, For King and Country, Za Stalina, and Avanti format. Most of the characteristics are the same, but
Savoia) to continue to use these books with the second some have changed and are marked in bold.
edition of Flames Of War. The biggest differences between the old and the new
How to Use This Update arsenals is that vehicle weapons are now listed directly
beneath the vehicle characteristics, and that artillery
To keep this update short, we have only listed the bombardment characteristics of a weapon are listed on a
changes between the two versions. If something has not separate line form the normal direct-fire characteristics.
changed, then we do not mention it.
As an example, Hitler’s Fire Brigade has new points for General Changes
Heavy Anti-aircraft Platoons as follows: While we explain most changes in points values with
Heavy Anti-aircraft Platoon Now Was the new values, there are a number of general changes
that apply across the board.
2 Anti-aircraft Sections 280 points 240 points
1 Anti-aircraft Section 150 points 130 points HMG teams have all changed to ROF 6, but become
Man-packed Gun teams. This gives them a more defined
The sheer power of the 8.8cm Flak36 gun in every role was
role as heavy-duty infantry-stoppers.
underestimated by the original points values.
Large-calibre machine-guns between .50 cal and 15mm
You can see that the cost of the platoon has increased
have increased their firepower to 5+ to match the 20mm
from 240 points to 280 points for the full platoon, and
weapons as all have essentially the same role. Light guns
from 130 points to 150 points with only one gun. The
of 37mm to 40mm calibre have increased to Firepower
reason for the change is given as well.
4+ along with the 45mm to 57mm weapons to distin-
As the update says nothing about the option to increase guish their significantly heavier HE charge from the
the guns’ ROF to 3, that means that it has not changed lighter automatic weapons.
and remains +10 points as in the original book.
Artillery in general has dropped in price. Although they
Another example is the Medium Tankovy Company in pay a bonus for being dual-purpose weapons, they can
Za Stalina. The changes are listed as: only perform one task at a time and were overpriced in
Medium Tankovy Company Now Was the old version. At the same time, artillery has increased
10 M3s (M3 Lee) 635 points 545 points its Anti-tank rating when firing bombardments making
9 M3s (M3 Lee) 590 points 505 points them actually worth firing at tanks!
8 M3s (M3 Lee) 545 points 470 points Whereas the old version had a specific type of team for
7 M3s (M3 Lee) 490 points 425 points artillery observers, the new version allows any type of
6 M3s (M3 Lee) 435 points 380 points team to be designated as an observer team. As a result all
5 M3s (M3 Lee) 375 points 330 points Observer teams have become Observer Rifle teams.
• Fit any or all M3s (M3 Lee) tanks with long M3 Special Rules
75mm guns for +10 points per tank (was +15
The special rules for various weapons and countries
points).
have all been gathered together in the new Flames Of
M4 (M4A2 Sherman) War rulebook. Where a special rule appears in both the
• Arm any or all M4 Sherman tanks with .50 cal AA new rulebook and the old Intelligence Handbook, the
MG for +5 points (was AA MG). new version is the one to use.