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| Flames Of War, How To Get Started? | |
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| Topic Started: 21 Apr 2012, 05:00 AM (857 Views) | |
| ☺The Antipope | 21 Apr 2012, 05:00 AM Post #1 |
COMFORT COMES
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It's a couple of months away till I'm going to do this, but I want to get started into Flames of War and there is SO much stuff I don't know where to start... If I can plan a purchase then I can figure an appropriate amount to save for and have a 'goal'. This always helps me save. I'd be looking into buying the rulebook, a German Force and a Soviet Force. So which supplements would I need? And how would be the best way to drop 300 quid or so on this including books, decals, and minis? I hate to ask noob question but there are many FoW guys here so I figgered someone could help out? Edited by The Antipope, 21 Apr 2012, 05:05 AM.
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| # the_great_gonzo | 21 Apr 2012, 06:51 AM Post #2 |
Prince of Sambuca - black lightning!
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Mate. Where to start? Version 3 rules have just been released, they update every 5-6 years so you're best bet is to buy them. The A5 soft back has the same page count as its A4 big brother. Lighter too. You can pick them up on eBay cheap enough. The A4 has a separate hobby guide and forces book for basic lists. Just depends which one as a noob you're wanting to buy. next thing to think about is period. WW2 is split down into early, mid and late war. Soviets only entered mid/late so start there. Choose which one and then look for the relevant intelligence hand book. (late war has a new one "red bear" just released too, "grey wolf" details late war eastern front German forces. Now you've got the books you need to decide on what force you want to collect: pure infantry, mech inf, armoured inf, engineers battalion, artillery company, airborne infantry etc. they all have different options available to them. This is personal choice mate. One good step is to go and look at "boot camp" on the FoW website. It gives examples of beginners forces and shows force org charts so you know what I mean about different options for each force. They also have intelligence briefs you can download for specialist formations and units. Finally, the new starter set (A5 rules, dice and minis) is supposedly being released soon. I bought the last one which had 3 shermans and 2Stugs. Good value for money. Might be an idea to look at that when it comes out. Edited by the_great_gonzo, 21 Apr 2012, 06:57 AM.
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| Apex Predator | 21 Apr 2012, 06:53 AM Post #3 |
Warrant Officer First Class
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First of all, great news on having another convert to FOW and I look forward to seeing your stuff when its underway. As for getting started, Battlefront have just launched a new version of their rule book. I dont know if they will be with this version, but with the last one they did a mini rulebook with a couple of Shermans and Stugs for about £20. If they do that with the new versions it will give you and easy way in to the rules side of things. When it comes to your armies you will need to choose the period of war for the relative army. You can have Early, Mid and Late war (along with campaign specific like North Afica) so its really down to what you want to paint and what your gaming group collect. A friend of mine is doing a Normandy campaign which is great and fantastic, but there is no place for my tiny communists...So I'm looking to start up some Americans as well (thinking about the 29th Division) Both of the armies you are choosing are well serviced for their relative army books, Im not sure about the germans (as they have loads depending on what theater they will be from) but for the Russkies the book Red Bear will give you the army lists and composition for the Red Army from late '43 onwards for the whole of the Eastern front. Im hoping to pick up a copy at Salute today:) After all that you just need to figure out what you want to spend your money on. There are quite a few companies out there doing 15mm models with differing degrees of quality and cost, and you will be well served whether you choose andinfantry or vehicle heavy force. For myself, doing Russians meant I needed lots of figures and Battlefront prices (I think) are quite high, therefore I did some looking around and found a couple of other businesses that do similar stuff and now I have loads. With more to come:) |
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| # the_great_gonzo | 21 Apr 2012, 07:06 AM Post #4 |
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Prince of Sambuca - black lightning!
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Have a look in the 15mm WW2 resource thread (In links). As mentioned there are more to WW2 than battle front for 15mm minis. Plastic Soldier Company are great for tanks, I have panthers and T34's by them, ace kits. They also mad infantry/heavy weapons too. Forged in battle do a good range too, though their tanks come pre mounted on resin bases, not to my taste. Skytrex, Peter pig miniatures etc all make so good stuff, best bet is to have a web trawl and see what you fancy, I even found 15mm German zombies! |
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| ☺The Antipope | 21 Apr 2012, 07:35 AM Post #5 |
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COMFORT COMES
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I'd do it all from Battlefront. As I said in another thread, If I play a PP game, I like PP mini's, GW game/GW minis and so on. I don't really care about the price, as it's just a few quid here and there and I like to have the proper stuff. It seems so...complicated. The product list for each army seems to be massive. I think I'd start buy getting the books and an infantry, artillery and tank set for each and go from there. |
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| # the_great_gonzo | 21 Apr 2012, 07:40 AM Post #6 |
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Prince of Sambuca - black lightning!
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It is a bit daunting at first. Once you get sorted with a hq, 2x compulsory platoons then you can give your selected army the flavour you want. Eg I've got a ss panthers as hq and 2x troops, stugs, tigers and armoured infantry as support. That's about 2000pts for 20 vehicles and a few stands of inf. My ruskies are an engineer battalion and the hq + 2 troops is something like 40 stands and 2trucks for 600pts! If I'd gone for tanks 10 T34s depending on the list can be anything from 600-800pts. Ricky have a look in the links page at the army builder. There's a few books that are free so you can build up an army without spending money first to see how it all goes together. Edit2: I've got most of the recent books, if you need help or want some lists *built*  give me a shout. I'll get a couple of pics pointed your way mate.
Edited by the_great_gonzo, 21 Apr 2012, 07:45 AM.
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| ☺highmarshaldave | 21 Apr 2012, 07:46 AM Post #7 |
Urban Leg-End
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Yeah man, its literally all about your setting. Best way to choose a force is by thinking (in this order) about play style, then nation, then period and finally theatre. Now, you've said German and Russian, but when and where do you want to field them? Do you want a complimentary pair of armies that you can use against each other, perhaps to introduce a friend, or will they be intentionally not from the same theatre so you can play a wide variety of games. What kind of armies do you want to play and, more importantly, paint? Armoured lists are more powerful than infantry lists and faster to paint as they have less models, but they're also pricey and susceptible to failure off the back of bad decision making. Mech infantry would, in theory, combine the strengths of both but their vehicles are often weak and their infantry are generally less numerous, though the make up for this with mobility and seriously concentrated firepower. Since you said you'd buy stuff and have fun, pick a consistent period. For Germans vs Russians, Mid War will give you the typical Stalingrad/Kursk/etc epic battles with a good balance of forces on both sides and some neat equipment, whereas Late War will cover Germany's fighting retreat back into Europe, with brilliant kit on both sides but the balance of power weighted more towards the Russians. Help you any? |
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| ☺The Antipope | 21 Apr 2012, 07:48 AM Post #8 |
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COMFORT COMES
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It does help Dave and Stalingrad/Kursk is what I'm thinking so it looks like mid war is the place to start... As an aside, what are the mini's made from? The Infantry I can see are metal, but are the tanks resin or plastic or metal or what? |
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| # the_great_gonzo | 21 Apr 2012, 07:54 AM Post #9 |
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Prince of Sambuca - black lightning!
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Most tanks are resin bodies and metal tracks. Older stugs and panzers had metal side skirts, I believe they are plastic now because they are a bitch to hang easily. Smaller vehicles tend to be all resin, and have a resin base underneath them (I don't like this though)
Edited by the_great_gonzo, 21 Apr 2012, 08:01 AM.
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| # Old Guard | 21 Apr 2012, 07:58 AM Post #10 |
Entertainment officer...Meet the gang cos the boys are here.....
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see If you can get a few editions of Wargames illustrated ( especially the april -IE current edition) they are very heavily into FOW and there are some good articles particularly if you want a quick overview of the rules and forces etc... Not that I'm into this myself ( cant be dealing with 15 mm) but I do read it all nonetheless. |
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| flakjacket | 21 Apr 2012, 08:05 AM Post #11 |
Warrant Officer First Class
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Sounds like you will be needing the Eastern Front book that covers this period. It covers 1942-43, having all the lists you need to cover both Jerries and Rooskies for this period. The starter sets would be more useful to you if you were going late war, then the Shermans would fit in as lend lease tanks. FOW is a great system, i keep meaning to return to it myself. But i need to pick up the latest ruleset first 
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| Lucius von Kalteisen | 21 Apr 2012, 01:43 PM Post #12 |
Warrant Officer First Class
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Maybe some helpful soul here could help you to make a sample list so you would know what to purchase in the first place miniatureswise? I haven't yet gotten 3rd edition rules myself or any of the newer sourcebooks. Of course if you want to start light, so to speak, get the new Achtung set from the Battlefront. You get two Sturms and three Shermans (you can use them for Soviet land-lease versions) and see if you like the game or consider it utter crap and waste of time. LvK ps. just an off-topic sidenote, funny that there's no early Soviets as it was in 1939 that Winter War broke out so it was kind of early in my view. |
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| # Marovian | 21 Apr 2012, 08:04 PM Post #13 |
High Lord Admiral of the Imperial Fleet
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I'm glad you raised this Antipope as FoW is back on my radar as well as I am lining up a potential opponent. Sorry to hijack this but you FoW guys - what is the best source book for Panzer Lehr lists? |
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| ☺highmarshaldave | 21 Apr 2012, 08:28 PM Post #14 |
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Urban Leg-End
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Probably Earth and Steel, though I can't actually find a contents list. |
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| horuswaspretty | 24 Apr 2012, 11:39 AM Post #15 |
Warrant Officer Second Class
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Having read this thread I have had a look into Fow, I have always liked the models and I love WW2 but never really considered it. But the rules seem quite simple so I wouldnt mind getting a few models for some small games. Can anyone suggest a nice small list, that would be a good beginners list and be quite cheap to purchase? |
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| ☺The Antipope | 24 Apr 2012, 03:37 PM Post #16 |
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COMFORT COMES
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I've just watched Schindlers List for the first time. Am I a nob if I say that it suddenly made me lose any interest in FoW at all? Not that I'm down on anyone else for liking it, but it brought home a lot of things... Suddenly I think Space Marines make me feel safer than the thought of buying German period tanks and painting swastikas on them... |
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| ☺highmarshaldave | 24 Apr 2012, 03:55 PM Post #17 |
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Urban Leg-End
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Ah, a noob mistake, swastikas don't go on tanks. . . |
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| Lucius von Kalteisen | 24 Apr 2012, 04:17 PM Post #18 |
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Warrant Officer First Class
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And you don't have to buy the evil Zermans, you can always go for the Allies, lots of to choose from on that side as well. |
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| ☺The Antipope | 24 Apr 2012, 04:54 PM Post #19 |
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COMFORT COMES
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I like the evil Zermans. It just all seems a bit 'real'. It's OK, I'll likely be over it by tomorrow. I don't tend to feel emotions for a long time. Good movie though. |
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| ☺highmarshaldave | 24 Apr 2012, 05:13 PM Post #20 |
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Urban Leg-End
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No, I agree with you though. I mean, the Horus Heresy makes WW2 look like an arm wrestling contest, but we don't really think of it in "that" way as its not real. Any wargaming that deals with a period which is still in living memory of any portion of society is seen as a touchy subject. If that war is accompanied by atrocities or morally questionable politics then that makes it all the more complicated to simply enjoy it. |
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