Firestorm - Bagration

I recently received a copy of Battlground's Firestorm - Bagration campaign game (this was the big Soviet offensive in the summer of 1944 that pretty much ended German hopes in Russia). 

I like the FOW campaign ideas of linked scenarios and bonus "power units" - referred to in the game as Firestorm units - for boosting your tabletop armies for certain engagements. The interface between the campaign map movements and the game table seem to have a good dynamic. That said, I don't currently have painted Soviets ready for FOW (there's a growing number of troops in lead mountain, though). 


The one thing we are looking forward to trying out is the 'General's Wargame', which totally takes place on the mapboard. Each player is assumed to have armies in their territories and the Firestorm units are bonuses that may be employed to tip the balance of their engagements. The elite units may be lost in combat, win or lose. This concept could work well in a Late Roman campaign setting, with the deployment of certain palatine units and the like. It really got me to thinking.


Another thing I like is the concept of the 'Total War' game, which is designed for really big games. While I don't generally like to play really big games (I do enjoy looking at them), I mostly like the idea of dividing forces into combat and support groups and for using a 'To The Last Man' concept for army morale. This makes me think my arbitrary scenario-based army breakpoint ideas for Great War Memoir aren't a bad way to go about tabletop army-level morale.

You can check out the game's design notes here on the Flames of War website.