Hit The Beach Front Of War Review

Hit The Where?

Flames of War: Hit the Beach Army Set is another in the series of excellent starter sets from Battlefront Miniatures. It contains a wealth of well made and accurate, 15mm, late WW II models plus the rules, unit cards and dice to enable you to play Flames of War battles. Unusually, for these starter sets, it also contains a decent amount of infantry to complement the large number of tanks. Oh, and this set actually has a terrain piece with it, though, sadly, it is somewhat irrelevant. In line with other sets in this series whilst the individual models are historically accurate their relevance to the box titlle is less so. The US troops are paratroopers which landed behind the enemy lines to cut off the German reinforcements trying to dislodge the main forces landing on the beaches. It should, more realistically, be called “Hit the Landing Zones Somewhat Behind the Beach” but I guess that wouldn’t fit on the box!

Band Of Brothers

The landings of the Allied forces in Normandy on the 6th June 1944 was known as Operation Neptune. The more commonly used term D-Day comes from the fact that all operations start at H-Hour on D-Day and planning can be made for events that must happen say 2 Hours before the start at H-2 or 3 Days before at D-3 and subsequent targets say 3 Days after at D+3. Then if the actual start time and date has to be changed, as was the case with Operation Neptune because of bad weather, you don’t have to change all the planning documents. Simples!

The US troops in the set depict a US Parachute Rifle Platoon. These would be either part of the 101st Airborne Division “Screaming Eagles”, 6,928 men of which jumped in the first wave or the 82nd Airborne Division’s 6,420 troops that dropped in the second wave. They landed on the Cherbourg peninsula around the areas of Caretan and Sainte-Mère-Église. These events have been captured dramatically in the Videogame Medal of Honour Airborne and the TV series Band of Brothers which follows the 101st.

Due to a variety of factors including weather and navigation issues the paratroops were badly scattered and struggled to meet their objectives. Perhaps you will do better?

The dramatic action blurb on the lid, faithfully reproduced in the ZATU product description, refers to the arrival of a Tiger tank and the ensuing panic in trying to combat it. Well I wouldn’t worry, chaps, because there is no Tiger tank in this box! What you do get in the box this time is a terrain piece. I believe that is unique in terms of FOW starter sets and I don’t know why we don’t get more of them.

However, this is a V1 rocket and it’s launch ramp and whilst it is quite interesting these sites were nowhere near the Normandy beaches. They were further round closer to the Calais area so they had a shorter distance to cross the channel to their British target areas.

Contents:

- 8x Plastic Sherman (75mm)/(76mm) Tanks
- 1x Parachute Rifle Platoon (32 figures)
- 1x Panzergrenadier HQ (6 figures)
- 2x Panzergrenadier Platoons (58 figures)
- 2x 7.5cm AT Guns
- 3x Panzer IV Tanks
- 1x Complete A5 Rulebook
- 1x Quick Start Guide
- 1x V1 Flying Bomb Terrain Piece
- 16x Unit Cards
- 20x Dice

We Happy Few

Hit the Beach is one of the few Flames of War Starter Sets that includes infantry. To be precise: 32 US and 64 German, plus 2 Anti Tank guns and crew. For this we’re very grateful as it’s quite hard to get the little men that make up the backbone of our forces. The British, in particular, are hard to come by. This is a shame as they are all fantastically detailed in a sculpt that is no bigger than your fingernail (normal not Lexi’s!) [I do have long fake nails...]

You’ve got a useful range of 11 tanks – Shermans and Panzer IVs but no Tiger! Each of the Units has an appropriate Unit Card plus an overall Formation card and Command card for both the US and the Germans.

There are no less than 6 Unit Cards for the Shermans: both a basic and a veteran card for each of: the Tank Company HQ and the Tank Platoon with the latter having two variants: the standard 75mm gun and the longer 76mm gun, known to the British as Firefly. The kits can be made with either variant. Not sure how they parachuted in with the Airborne Division but that’s by the by.

As usual all the kits are crisp mouldings that fit together well using the double-sided A3 sheet of exploded diagram instructions.

He’s Bought It!

This is an excellent value box of stuff to fill out your Flames of War battle forces. Some of the history is bunk and you could have had more useful options for the terrain piece: fortifications or gliders for example but you are getting a lot for your money and you can have a good game with just this boxful.

I think all the FOW starter sets are great value for money. I’ve got four of the six now: Hit the Beach, Stalingrad, Kursk and Tobruk and will get the other two: Kasserine and Clash of Steel in due course and fit them in with my armies.

If you are really starting out into the world of Flames of War then Hit The Beach with its balance of Tanks, Infantry and Guns is the best option. Buy it!