Unboxing Flames of War Kasserine Starter set – fun in the sun?

• Posted on 18 February 2022
• By Simon Thurtle
• Posted in 15mm, Flames of War, FoW, Unboxing
• 0

Unboxing the Kassarine Starter set

Unboxing Flames of War Kasserine Starter set – fun in the sun?

With the arrival of the awesome North Africa Mid-War Forces from Battlefront (read our review here), the battles in North Africa are very much back on the menu for Flames of War (FoW)! With this book comes a pair of new starter sets; one covering Italian vs British and this one, Germans vs Americans.

So, jump into your camo pants and slap on some factor 50 sunblock: we’re off to the Tunisian desert…

What IS FoW Kasserine?

The battle of the Kasserine Pass took place in February 1943 and saw the first engagement between the inexperienced US and veteran German forces.

The new FoW Kasserine box is the perfect starter for players getting into FoW or existing players who want to start playing mid-war. The box includes two armies including unit cards, a rulebook, dice, getting started and how to build guides, all you need is a table to play on.

The miniatures, as ever, come unbuilt and unpainted. So, you’ll need to put the minis together, but they are in different coloured plastic, so you can play without painting them if you’re keen to get going.

You’ll even find important tokens and objectives on the side of the box, so you can cut them out to use in the game.

Does that mean it’s not for experienced player? Actually, no. There’s still some value here for existing players, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

US Forces

The US force is based around an M3 Lee formation and is focussed on all the armour, all the time. Out of the box, the army is setup as:

Headquarters

1 x M3 Lee tank HQ

M3 Lee Tank Platoon

3 x M3 Lee tanks

M4 Tank Platoon

3 x M4 Sherman tanks

M3 Stuart Platoon

5 x M3 Stuart tanks

A note for new players, you can build the M3 Lee with long or short barrelled 75mm guns, we recommend that you build all Lees with the long version. This will ensure that the US forces in the boxes are roughly the same points cost as the German forces. So, if you’re only playing with what’s in here, the games will be a more even match!

In total, with long 75mm on the Lees, the army comes to 58 points in total. As most FoW games are around the 100 points mark, you’re well on your way to a full army with just this box.

German Forces

The Germans are rocking a Panzer III tank formation with support from heavier Panzer IV tanks and some 5cm guns. Out of the box, your army structure looks like this:

Headquarters

1 x Panzer III tank HQ

Panzer III Tank Platoon

5 x Panzer III tanks

Panzer IV Tank Platoon

3 x Panzer IV tanks

Anti-tank gun Platoon

3 x 5cm guns

A note for new players, Building the German unit takes a little more care as you have a large range of options in how you put them together. If these are the only miniatures you have for FoW, then we recommend that you build the following tank versions:

Panzer III platoon, not the mixed one, with the short barrel 5cm and without up armoured option.

Panzer IV with short barrel 7.5cm option only

In this configuration, your full army will come to 60 points including the gun.

If, however, you start adding in long barrel and up armoured versions of the tanks, you’ll end up with 90 points in total.

Is Fow Kasserine good value?

If a full game in a box wasn’t good enough, it turns out that this starter set is exceptional value.

All of the tanks in the Kasserine set are sold in separate platoon boxes of five tanks, which are priced at €36 per box. Considering that there are 21 tanks in this set, and a full anti-tank gun team (usual price of nearly €15), this whole set should come to over €166.40 PLUS the books and dice.

You can pick up your copy for €48.95, saving €117.45. And that’s where the value comes in for existing players. If you’re looking to expand your existing mid-war forces or taking on a new army, this is a great set to do it with.

So, head on over to our store and get yours on order today or, if you’ve got any questions, catch us on Facebook.

Keep an eye out for building and painting blogs on this box in the coming weeks and, if you’re lucky, maybe even some battle reports so you can see these in action!

Finally, if you prefer a cup of tea and pasta, look out for our Tobruk review featuring the British and Italian forces later today.