Thinking of starting FoW

[sasheep]

Hi guys. As the title says, I am thinking about starting FoW, particularly with British forces. I feel like painting something a bit different and the game itself looks rather good. So far I have watched about half of the boot camp videos up on the main website but still have a few questions. The first one is, does the main rule book have enough in it to get me playing or are the rules for units in a separate book? What is a good starting size game? And what is the best kit to buy to start with?
Cheers.

PS. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm writing this on my phone. And sorry if this is in the wrong place, if it is mods can you please move it.

[Axel]

Get yourself their starter kit, it contains three (Britsh) Shermans and two Stugs and the small rulebook (which is the same as the big one, just in small - no different content).

You will need at least one scenario book for army lists, though.
Choose a theatre and force you like and get the book for it.

There are, however, a couple of armylists as free PDF-downloads, so you could probably start for free and only build up later.

[Xelee]

Hi SASheep - I'm pretty happily playing V3 with the mini version of the rules and Easyarmy.com as the source of most of my armylists. I still have the up to date book for MW Eastern Front but the rest have been revised so many times that my replacement's replacements, have been replaced; and that is just the V2 LW lists I had. I think that the Easyarmy.com lists have enough detail to be fully playable without the books. It's about $2 USD for a handbook's worth of lists there.

As to size, 'standard' seems to range from 1500-1750 with all manner of permutations around that for events. Many of us have found that 1100 or 1000 pts is giving a better game. That possibly may be us being a little too jaded!

[Omniassiah]

The starter set isn't bad if you want to run a tank force or at least have shermans in your list. you'll get the mini rule book which contains everything in the hard cover version with the exception of the short historical brief. Now if your not sure if you want shermans in your force the my suggestion the the Core rulebook bundle. It will give you the Hardbound rule book, a hobby booklet, and more importantly a small forces booklet that cover 13 lists (3 for US/UK/Soviet, 4 for Germans). Its a pretty solid deal to start with.

[Amnar]

First off, now that you've narrowed it down to Brits, what kind of force are you most interested in? Are you mainly a tanker, an infantryman, or do you like the big guns? Personally, I like infantry, and I like elite troops, so I play brit(Canadian!) paras.

Once you narrow that down, pick the force that best suits that play style and also has the minis you want.

Are there any historical formations or battles in ww2 that you're particularly fond of?

The forces book will have all the basic lists, for others, you may need to pick up a campaign book. My paras for example are from turning tide, the sourcebook for the western allies from dday up until the fall of Paris.

Cheers

[dreamwarder]

First off, now that you've narrowed it down to Brits, what kind of force are you most interested in? Are you mainly a tanker, an infantryman, or do you like the big guns? Personally, I like infantry, and I like elite troops, so I play brit(Canadian!) paras.

Once you narrow that down, pick the force that best suits that play style and also has the minis you want.

Are there any historical formations or battles in ww2 that you're particularly fond of?

The forces book will have all the basic lists, for others, you may need to pick up a campaign book. My paras for example are from turning tide, the sourcebook for the western allies from dday up until the fall of Paris.

Cheers

It's also worth considering play-style.

Infantry are a very forgiving force generally speaking, Tanks are a lot less so. I've not had much experience with mech inf, but I'm told the new edition favours them somewhat. Also, do you like to have hordes of units or a few elite troops?

I can recommend British Paras as a fun force. Also a basic British Rifle company is pretty decent, and I also quite like playing Armoured company Cromwells from Villers Bocage.

[Amnar]

Agreed. Play style and army type really go hand in hand.

One of the advantages as well is that FoW forces are pretty easily adaptable. Your British infantry company with armour support can easily become a British tank company with infantry support.

[ColShaw]

I'm slowly learning the game, and building a British Para force. So far, results are mixed (2 wins, 2 losses) and I'm having lots of trouble dealing with tank-heavy enemies, but some 6-pounders will help with that. It's a fun game, and I'm enjoying it!

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool infantryman, so as of yet there is nary a tank to be seen in my collection.

[Major_Manny]

@ColShaw, where abouts are you from? If it's in the UK, you should come to some tourneys, theyre a great bunch.

Brit paras shouldn't have to worry about tanks, don't forget they have tank assault 3 ;-)

[ColShaw]

@ColShaw, where abouts are you from? If it's in the UK, you should come to some tourneys, theyre a great bunch.

Brit paras shouldn't have to worry about tanks, don't forget they have tank assault 3 ;-)

Regrettably, I'm actually based in Minnesota in the USA, so about 5000 miles from merry old England.

I know all about the "sock bombs" giving me Tank Assault 3, but those damnable Panzers with their Stormtrooper moves make it very hard to pin them in place for an assault. I'm also exhibiting a really unfortunate tendency to roll lots of 2s for my saves for my poor, often-shot-up paras... last game I played, I took 5 hits on a platoon, then failed 4 of the saves.

[Panzermike]

Hi guys. As the title says, I am thinking about starting FoW, particularly with British forces. I feel like painting something a bit different and the game itself looks rather good. So far I have watched about half of the boot camp videos up on the main website but still have a few questions. The first one is, does the main rule book have enough in it to get me playing or are the rules for units in a separate book? What is a good starting size game? And what is the best kit to buy to start with?
Cheers.


PS. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm writing this on my phone. And sorry if this is in the wrong place, if it is mods can you please move it.

Sasheep, good to hear you are looking at FoW. After playing FoW for some six years now I can highly recommend the current third addition of this great game. In my opinion it is the best WW2 game in 15mm. As other chaps have indicated the recently released starter set called Flames of War Achtung is a very affordable way to get into Flames of War. The Hardback rulebook slip case has an excellent army list for all the main factions in the game and I would recommend this over the starter set in my opinion.

The essential advice I can give to a new player is to know right at the beginning, that Flames of War has split WW2 into three main sections that being Early war 1939 to 1941, Mid War 1942-1943 and finally Late War 1944-1945. The best advice I can give is to early on decide which period you want to get into and base your entry into Flames of War on that and thus what you buy in terms of books and models.The Main rulebook is obvioulsy your first step. With the periods FoW has split into you get Intelligence books, basically army books, for each period which in many cases actually gives you a force list for all the factions involved for example Blitzkrieg in Early war has lists for Germans ,British, French and Polish and the list encompass the various types of forces for each country such as Tanks, infantry and divisional support.

Once you know your period and have your intelligence book for that you then buy the models in line with your force list. Most battles/games are played at between 1500points and 1750 points at the moment. I have found that Early and Midwar games tend to focus on the 1500 point value and late war goes up to the 1750 point mark.

Recommending which kit to start off is a bit tricky until I have an idea which period you want to go for. If you want to chase every period and every type of force be prepared to spend a LOT of money irrespective of what 15mm supplier you opt for. The main thing to understand with FoW battles is to get the balance right, just like in real war. The best force is balance of infantry, infantry support weapons, armour and artillery or air support. Straight off the bat infantry play a major role in this game so I would recommend focussing on that and expanding your army out from there.

I hope to hear from you on what your period of choice is and hope to help further from there.