Produktbeschreibung
The British and Canadians land at dawn, pouring ashore across Juno and Sword Beaches, pushing inland as they overran the German defences. Impatiently the veterans of the 21.
Panzerdivision await the order to counterattack.
General Marcks, frustrated by the delay, arrives to take charge.
Ordering the tanks of Kampfgruppe Oppeln to counterattack, he confides to Oberst Oppeln, 'If you don't succeed in throwing the British into the sea, we will have lost the war.'
The Panzergrenadiers of Kampfgruppe Rauch attack to Oppeln's left, finding the gap between the British and Canadian forces. Racing forwards under intense fire, they reach the sea. The ships of the Allied armada dwarf anything they have seen before. With the sight still fresh in their minds they slowly fall back before the British juggernaut. Clearly the fight has just begun.
The counterattacks deny the city of Caen to the British and Canadian forces for now. From here on things will get bloody as both sides throw forces into the meatgrinder, struggling to control the cornerstone to the German defence Caen.
In Flames Of War, The WWII Miniatures Game, you and your friends decide the outcome of the Second World War. Using a range of historical units, weapons and
vehicles, duel your way across the table-top battlefield using strategy and luck to defeat your opponent.
Features:
History of the battles for Caen.
History and complete organisation of the German 21.Panzerdivision, largely equipped with modified French half-tracks and home-made self-propelled guns based on old French tanks.
Options to field Panzer, Panzergrenadier, Panzerpionier or Aufklärungs companies.
History and complete organisation of the British 3rd 'Iron' Division and the 3rd Canadian Division.
Exploits of Major Hans-Ulrich von Luck und Witten, commander of 125. Panzergrenadierregiment and Captain John Treleaven of B Company, the Regina Rifle Regiment.
Three new scenarios: to be played separately or as part of a campaign: Kampfgruppe Oppeln Attacks, Kampfgruppe Rauch Attacks, and Out Of Luck.
Captain Treleaven special offer!!!!!
We are pleased to announce that Captain Treleaven has been given new orders. He is to personally escort each and every copy of Monty's Meatgrinder purchased from your local hobby store or our web-store during the week of release free of charge. As of the second week of January please visit your local hobby store and pre-order your copy of the book to make sure you don't miss out on this great free miniature. We are sure you will enjoy having this warrior in your army.
This Fearless Veteran Canadian hero is noted for always being in the thick of the action and leading from the front even when his higher commander is killed.
The men of the Company always turn to him in times of crises, staying in the fight till the job is done. Monty's Meatgrinder also allows you to field him as a British Warrior with the same abilities so both Allied forces can benefit from his presence (aka Captain John Smith).
Monty's Meatgrinder is released on 9 February 2008.
"Monty's Meatgrinder" Design Notes with Steven Ptak:
As a Design Studio we knew that we had to write an intelligence briefing for the Rommel's 21. Panzerdivision, even if we were to do nothing else with Normandy. We also knew that the Canadian forces needed to be addressed. Thus was born the next book of the Normandy Campaign, a book that would address both of these forces and the unique equipment that they used.
In Monty's Meatgrinder we cover these two forces from the D-Day invasion through to the fall of Caen. In these battles the Canadians and the 21. Panzerdivision came to blows many times on the field of battle, earning each the mutual respect of the other.
We also chose this book to have a hard look at how you make up your force and made some evolutionary changes to the way we define the structure of a company. We decided to simplify things by removing the limit on the number of support choices that a company could have to give you a more realistic flexibility for larger scale games.
This was done after a great deal of thought and playtesting. We realized that with the limits to types of support platoons that were introduced with version two of the rules (e.g. a German Fallschirmjägerkompanie can have either a Panzer Platoon, a StuG Platoon, a Heavy Tank Platoon, or a Radio-controlled Tank Platoon, but only one of these) there was no need to limit the total number of support choices for the average 1500 point game, the amount of points naturally limits your choices. For larger games having such restrictions forced you to create some odd mixes due to the 0 to 1 restriction. We believe this is a great step forward for the game and makes it both easier to build your force and gives you greater choice for those bigger battles. In the future you can expect that each book will retain this change to our force organizations.
So, on to the fun stuff that you are sitting on the edge of your seats for.
Lets start with the 21. Panzerdivision...
Over the last few months many of you have asked will you have any of those funny little French vehicles? The answer is a resounding yes. We've made all of them! What makes the 21. Panzerdivision so unique is its equipment. Thousands of armoured and unarmoured vehicles were captured with the fall of France. It was these vehicles that would largely equip the Division once they had been converted into assault guns and armoured half-tracks.
We have faithfully reproduced as models the following:
- The 7.5cm (Sf) 39(H) assault gun - a 7.5cm PaK40 gun mounted on a Hotchkiss tank chassis.
- The 10.5cm (Sf) 39(H) assault gun - a 10.5cm leFH16 howitzer mounted on a Hotchkiss tank chassis.
- The 10.5cm and 15cm (Sf) Lorraine Schlepper - artillery pieces mounted on a Lorraine Schlepper carrier chassis (the same one use by the Afrikakorps).
- The U304(f) leSPW light half-track - a Unic half-track armoured as a personnel carrier.
- The U304(f) (2cm) half-track - a Unic half-track carrying a 2cm anti-aircraft gun.
- The S307(f) (Pioneer) half-track - a SOMUA half-track mounting a pioneer assault bridge on the sides.
- The S307(f) (PaK40) half-track - a SOMUA half-track mounting a 7.5cm PaK40 gun.
- The S307(f) Reihenwerfer half-track - a SOMUA half-track mounting sixteen 8cm mortars.
- The S307(f) R-Vielfachwerfer half-track - a SOMUA half-track mounting a Katyusha-style salvo rocket launcher.
- The 12.2cm FH316(r) howitzer - the standard Soviet artillery piece with a German crew.
You can now have the fun of a bunch of cheap, lightly-armoured tanks that hit like a professional boxer. Or if you are inclined you can add the Lorraine Schlepper self-propelled artillery and pound your opponent into submission. The lists that have been created in this book truly allow you, the commander, a great deal of flexibility in force selection and composition and a before unseen number of German models on the table.
Every model in the book has been produced and will be made available in the three months following the book release. This was a huge endeavour and was brought on by our continued desire to give you the utmost flexibility - that and it gave us a great excuse to make all these great little vehicles that we all wanted to play with on the table!
Of course the division would not be complete without a warrior. For this we choose Major Hans Von Luck, a Kampfgruppe commander who fought against the British Paras in and around the Orne River. Some biographies have him single-handedly stopping the British attack during Operation Goodwood where he pulled his pistol on a Luftwaffe 88 commander, forcing him to engage the British Guards tanks. Always moving about the battlefield (many times in a borrowed Panzer IV tank) Von Luck usually got reinforcements to the right area just when they were absolutely needed.
Now on to the Allied side...
Some may think the Allies never had any fun with their equipment. I hope we manage to dispel that terrible rumour with this book!
For starters who wouldn't want some medium artillery to pound those hard-to-get-to enemy troops and tanks. Yes, we did it. The first really big guns in Flames Of War. In Monty's Meatgrinder, your Canadians/British can opt to take some big 5.5" guns in addition to their normal 25 pdrs to bring the heavy stuff to bear.
On top of that we are introducing a new Typhoon fighter-bomber model. Yes, we have had this aircraft in our books for a while now, but now you can actually field the model. You will be able to make devastating rocket attacks with these famous ground-attack aircraft. From now on it behoves the Germans to bring a little anti-aircraft with them if they plan to stay out of harms way.
The riflemen of the 3rd Canadian and British 3rd Divisions can also be mechanised with the inclusion of Defrocked Priest armoured personnel carriers. These were literally Priest self-propelled artillery converted into infantry carriers by the Canadians who removed the gun and added a few steel plates. Now your infantry can ride into battle protected by hard steel.
11If that was not enough, there are also the Wasp flame carriers. These little Bren Carriers have flame-throwers on them to sweep into battle bringing a fiery end to your foes.
Our Canadian warrior, Captain John Treleaven, might not have been awarded a Victoria Cross, but that does not make his accomplishments any less amazing. Treleaven was involved in heavy fighting that killed his commanding officers on several occasions. During these fights his innate leadership skills came to the fore as he took over the leadership, inspiring his men to accomplish their mission in spite of the setback of losing its commander. Happily I can say that this is exactly what Captain Treleaven allows you to do in Flames Of War as well.
If Canadians are not your cup of tea, then you can field the British 3rd "Ironsides" Division instead. These tough D-Day assault troops put a British spin on the Canadians, but use the same equipment.
Now let's talk about the scenarios. We followed the trend we started in Villers Bocage giving you two scenarios to play either as separate battles or as a mini campaign.
Strike for the Sea is a pair of scenarios for the 21. Panzerdivision's counterattack that successfully made it to the beach on D-Day. Success in the first scenario changes what happens in the second one, either delaying the German attack, or adding extra forces as the victors of the first battle join the second one.
The third scenario is Out of Luck telling the story of the fighting on the left flank of Operation Goodwood, the battle that captured Caen in July 1944.
Of course we also included our usual fully-illustrated painting guides and some great history as well. Monty's Meatgrinder has everything you need to collect, paint, and play with these fantastic forces.
In the end I feel that we have done the battles between the 21. Panzerdivision and the 3rd Canadian Division and British 3rd Division the justice they deserve. With unique equipment you can recreate the battles they fought in Normandy, or tackle all manner of opponents simply for the challenge.
Steven W Ptak
Manager, Design Studio |
