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Before I invest in the game, I was wondering how the mid-war game's mechanics are. Please give a brief explanation on how the game is played.

Looks like you're heading off to Boot Camp, soldier!

As to Mid-war specifically, I'd really, really like to play in the desert (currently in Normandy, at the moment). Mid-War is considered the most 'balanced' of the game's eras. It's not in 'beta testing' like Early War, or dominated by monster tanks like Late War. I get to avoid the worst of late war, however, since there's no reason for a German play to take a Tigers or Panthers when the Allies are mostly fielding Shermans, Cromwells and Stuarts.

Looks neat, I feel pretty interested in the Russian troops. I like the idea of having T-34s and insane conscripts at my command. What kind of tactics do they use?
Being a veteran 40k player, is this game at all similar to warhammer? The rules seem a bit more complex, and I'm willing to learn them. The bootcamp page was helpful, but I need to hear more about this game from a person.

Russian tactics are simple.

1. See where the enemy is.
2. Throw everything you have at them.
3. ????
4. Win!

Russians benefit - when using conscripts - from the fact thay they're often Fearless, so they won't run often.

The game is similar to 40k in some ways. Assaults are absolutely horrific, since you fight them out until one side breaks or gets wiped out - they're also the point where the game is either won/lost.

Artillery is much less about killing troops, and more about either laying down smoke to prevent enemy troops from shooting, or Pinning enemy troops to knock down the amount of defensive fire they'll get during the assault.

Infantry are the kings of the battlefield - with a 3+ save, and the ability to Dig In and Go to Ground, they're extremely good at defending.

Do you have any more-specific questions about the game?

Yeah, what do the statlines look like for troops?

Troops don't have Statlines, actually. They have two 2 ratings - Motivation and Training.

Motivation, from poorest to highest - Reluctant, Confident, Fearless

Training, from poorest to highest - Conscript, Trained, Veteran.

Each rating means a different score on a die to do things. For motivation tests, you have 5+, 4+, and 3+, respectively. Training is usually meant for shooting at enemy troops. If your targets are Conscripts, you'll hit on a 2+ (plus any other modifiers, like shooting over 16" away, or if they've gone to ground). Trained, 3+, Veteran, 4+. It's possible to make it impossible to hit infantry in certain situations, such as when modifiers add up to needing a 7+ to hit.

So, these ratings are combined from different troops - Fearless Veteran Fallschirmjagers, for example, to Reluctant Conscripts like Luftwaffe ground troops.

So, how is it decided the size of each army? Is it in points, number of squads, or platoon numbers?

Speaking of FlamesofWar, I just dug up an old boardgame called A Bridge Too Far. Ironically, it's also playable as a flamesofwar campaign.

The size of each army is determined in Platoons and Divisional Support. Points are used (1500-1750 is the standard). And, of course, an army of Fearless Veterans will be much smaller than an army of Reluctant Conscripts.

I'd recommend you check out Easy Army - they offer Flames of War books for $1-$2 each (I've bought every one so far!), and some books for free. It's a great resource for army building.

http://easyarmy.com/

So, many troop types seem very similar, if not the same. Is there a pdf form of the rulebook?

Not any legal ones, no.

It's a fun game, and it's more game than historical sim, but that's why it's easier to pickup and play. That said, it still respects history.

It's one of things I like about the game - it converted me from 40k to Historicals by being the 'game about WWII action movies'. It respects history and rewards actual tactical thought, but doesn't crush players in details.

Heck, now I'm so deep in I'm debating on whether or not I want to do the French and Indian War or the Civil War for Sharp Practice, and the Civil War or Napoleonics for Black Powder. My current inclination is to do ACW for both, so I can tie the skirmish-level SP with the Division level BP.

Wait, I could do Easy Company from Band of Brothers instead of the Russians! Lt.Winters could be my company commander, and I could eventually make the entire Screaming Eagles regimemt.

I literally started about 2 months ago, and now I have a full British 6th Airborne mid and late and a Polish early war army complete with armored train. It fills a need for a mass battle game for me, without involving unwieldy blobs of single base 28mm models.

A 101st Airborne company is in the game, but I'm not sure if they have Lt. Winters as a hero option for the company command yet.

Playing Airborne usually means Fearless Veterans, which are some really tough infantry to kill, but not invincible. You also don't get many of them.

They're hardy enough that it's likely they can survive some shooting when out in the open, but always try to get them in concealing terrain since you don't have enough to afford to lose teams. Usually airborne Defend, but if you're against another infantry list, you might be attacking. Oh and in FoW there's always an Attacker of Defender.

While defending a lot of the game will be you either deploying, or moving your infantry to the objectives, digging in, and just sitting there until the enemy gets close enough to assault. So, you'll have to get used to just your support elements like arty and vehicles doing stuff while the infantry just sit dug in, gone to ground, and near impossible to kill at range.

Attacking with them is trickier, you'll need to find the best way to approach with some kind of concealment, or basically pray you hit with smoke every time (use mortars for that, since they're more accurate). Infantry in the open, even veterans, are easy to kill, when most fighting vehicles will have a machinegun each on them, and even a few failed infantry saves means a drastic reduction in fighting strength. So don't rush unless you have to, vector in your units safely until you can get everything ready for the full push and assault on to the objectives.

I have about 1 base of airborne men, now. Trying to practice on some german sentry dudes whatever they're called. 101st it is!

By the way, does the range of fire differ between units?

Range or Rate of Fire (RoF)?

Ranges are all the same for whatever class of weapon, most rifles only fire 16". HMGs fire 24". Most AT guns and most tanks fire 24"-36".

Anything over 16" is at long range, making it harder to hit and gives it more armor against the tank shells.

Rate of fire is simply how many dice a particular team (base) of infantry gets to roll to attack. The RoF of the team is determined by the team type, Rifle, Rifle/MG, or MG and usually just represents an averaging of a particular platoon's shooting across all the weapons.

The only complex thing about the game is when lots of shooting or assaults happen between mixed platoons or multiple platoons. But thankfully the rules go step by step, so it's not a confusing mess, just more of a bunch of steps to grind through. But assaults are still a fun part of the game even with that issue. Just make sure you read it all.

To be honest, I've gotten a lot of games under my belt now, but I haven't actually read through any of the rules.

Oh, and lastly, there are still nasty, almost super units in mid war, namely the tigers and other similar stuff. They cost a lot of points, but they can be worth it in how much they kill, and how difficult they can be to kill.

And SMG squads................

Yean, sorry I meant range, I just phrased it oddly. I like the realism of this game, its- intriguing.

In the U.S., how much does shipping cost for this stuff regularly?

They have a US warehouse and shipping center, so it costs the same as anything else you might order.

Also, a lot of the product line is available through normal distributors.

I'd recommend going to the Warstore, since they have a lot of the product line at a discount.

Oh! And another thing, since you said you're a veteran 40k player:

You don't have to use Battlefront miniatures!

A Panzer is a Panzer is a Panzer, as a US Paratrooper is a... Well, I think you get it. If you're looking for cheaper models, there are plenty of 15mm WWII mini manufacturers out there - Peter Pig being an excellent example.

infinite_array wrote:I'd recommend going to the Warstore, since they have a lot of the product line at a discount.

Oh! And another thing, since you said you're a veteran 40k player:

You don't have to use Battlefront miniatures!

A Panzer is a Panzer is a Panzer, as a US Paratrooper is a... Well, I think you get it. If you're looking for cheaper models, there are plenty of 15mm WWII mini manufacturers out there - Peter Pig being an excellent example.

YAY!

If you're in the US then Peter Pig is a bad example, since they are made in Europe have to shipped overseas to get here so that drives their price up. You'll find US players recommend Old Glory and European gamers recommend Peter Pig. Peter Pig is on the top of the scale in terms of quality, but sadly if you are in the US it goes for about double MRSP of the same thing by Battlefront.

There are a few companies coming out with plastic infantry and tanks now to (Plastic Solider Company and Zvezda), which are actually quite superior to the Old Glory models becuase their molds are wearing out.

Since you play GW games the FoW army creation and rules will be very easy for you to pick. The rules are not perfect but they are far better written than any rules GW has currently and nearly anything they've ever done period.

It seams like everyone and their brother wants to play the "Band of Brothers" US Airborne army. That's fine but be forwarned: If all you've ever played are GW games then you have no practical concept of army balance. There is no army in FoW that is an easy win.

Swordbreaker wrote:If you're in the US then Peter Pig is a bad example, since they are made in Europe have to shipped overseas to get here so that drives their price up. You'll find US players recommend Old Glory and European gamers recommend Peter Pig. Peter Pig is on the top of the scale in terms of quality, but sadly if you are in the US it goes for about double MRSP of the same thing by Battlefront.

There are a few companies coming out with plastic infantry and tanks now to (Plastic Solider Company and Zvezda), which are actually quite superior to the Old Glory models becuase their molds are wearing out.

Since you play GW games the FoW army creation and rules will be very easy for you to pick. The rules are not perfect but they are far better written than any rules GW has currently and nearly anything they've ever done period.

It seams like everyone and their brother wants to play the "Band of Brothers" US Airborne army. That's fine but be forwarned: If all you've ever played are GW games then you have no practical concept of army balance. There is no army in FoW that is an easy win.

Probably true, as I have an all-mechanized tau army with no kroot. I'm thinking of instead making a more stalingrad styled Russian army.

I'm thinking of instead making a more stalingrad styled Russian army.

The battles of Stalingrad do fall in the Mid War period for FoW. There is no difference in game mechanics between any of the three periods.

The game is broken into three time periods becuase this makes it easier to balance and assign point costs to the various units, becuase there were such massive changes in equipment as the war progressed.

You can collect an army for one period and if you plan your collection right, play it for other periods as well and only need to change a few units. Examples of this would be the Plastic Solider Company's box of T34s, which also come with the T34/85 turret as well. So you can field them as T34s in Mid War and use them as T34/85s in Late War. Infantry are Infantry, so while your models may have winter clothes for Stalingrad but, no one is really going to give you a hard time or care if you use them for fighting a battle in the summer of '44! The unit makeup may change some, so you could need maybe more or less stands or infantry but your models are still perfectly valid.

Excellent thread, I want to play this game now.

NO_SUCH_LUCK wrote:Excellent thread, I want to play this game now.

Thank youu, i feel the same way.

Is it commonplace to see 1/72 minis used in FOW? I'm asking because I have a metric ton of 1/72's on the shelf.

FoW is about 1:100, so not quite the same as the Bf miniatures.

Of course if you have enough for two opposing forces then there is no reason why you can't alter the rules to suit the scale.

1:72 is about 20mm and there are many rulesets in that scale.

People say they want to play Russian Infantry Horde until they start painting Russian Infantry Horde.

All this reminds me I have to finish painting my Finnish armored AA guns. I still can't fingure out why I convinced myslef they needed to be in their original Sweedish colors instead of Finnish tri-color....$10 on paint for two models.

Shotgun wrote:People say they want to play Russian Infantry Horde until they start painting Russian Infantry Horde.

All this reminds me I have to finish painting my Finnish armored AA guns. I still can't fingure out why I convinced myslef they needed to be in their original Sweedish colors instead of Finnish tri-color....$10 on paint for two models.

I like painting hordes. Just airbrush and use like 3 other colors afterwards. I play 40k tau, so I don't get much to paint, anyway. AA guns are hard to paint, so good luck.