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So I'm just getting into FoW with a few buddies and have a few questions. Thanks in advance for any advice, tips, etc.
Just for your information, we have all chosen to play Late War (maybe Mid later on).

1. Is the pocket edition of the rules good enough to play with or should I pick up the complete rulebook (the one in 3 parts)? If I'm not wrong, only the 3-parts book offers the different army lists and Force Orgs right? (Which I need to construct an army...?)
2. What is the best way to start a US mechanized infantry army?

To answer your first question, I have the smaller rule book that comes with open fire and it has all the same stuff as the big rule book. You aren't missing anything. That being said mine fell apart quick, and I've read several had the same experience. I took mine and cut all the pages out and put them in a three ring binder and found half sheet page protectors. I also put tabs on all the major sections. Very easy to navigate.

As for your second, not super sure as I play an armor company. I would say look at the time period you want and then look at easy army for the books in hiatal time period. Next go to the online store and see how everything is sold. I know at my FLGS today they had armored infantry platoons, so you'd need at least 2 of those, a company HQ blister, and if that doesn't come with half tracks you'd need at least some vehicles for them.

 Zaki66 wrote:
1. Is the pocket edition of the rules good enough to play with or should I pick up the complete rulebook (the one in 3 parts)? If I'm not wrong, only the 3-parts book offers the different army lists and Force Orgs right? (Which I need to construct an army...?)

The Forces book consists of a few generic lists for the four main nations (Germany, United Kingdom, US and Soviets). You're almost always better off doing a little research and finding a specific unit that speaks to you and then using the appropriate Intelligence Briefing for that unit.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kiwi461 wrote:
That being said mine fell apart quick, and I've read several had the same experience. I took mine and cut all the pages out and put them in a three ring binder and found half sheet page protectors. I also put tabs on all the major sections. Very easy to navigate.

Take it to your local office store (Staples, Office Depot, etc.) and have it spiral bound and the covers laminated. It will be a lot more handy that way and still cheaper than any GW rulebook.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Zaki66 wrote:
1. Is the pocket edition of the rules good enough to play with or should I pick up the complete rulebook (the one in 3 parts)? If I'm not wrong, only the 3-parts book offers the different army lists and Force Orgs right? (Which I need to construct an army...?)

The Forces book consists of a few generic lists for the four main nations (Germany, United Kingdom, US and Soviets). You're almost always better off doing a little research and finding a specific unit that speaks to you and then using the appropriate Intelligence Briefing for that unit.

Where can I find these Intelligence Briefings? Do you mean the "expansion" books like Red Bear, Grey Wolf, etc?
I was interested in running a German Panzer army (Tiger 1, Panzer IV, etc) and a friend of mine was in for US mechanized infantry of sorts.

the battlefront website has many stand alone PDFs that are free to download. The other briefings are in the supplement books (red bear, grey wolf, desperate measures, etc)

Easy Army (www.easyarmy.com) lets you build from all books prior to Desperate Measures. For 1.99 you can buy the lists from a particular book. All the books from the generic book that ghaz mentioned and all the PDFs are free. Be careful about paying money right now as Battlefront just announced they will be creating a new system and money now most likely won't carry over.

 Kiwi461 wrote:
the battlefront website has many stand alone PDFs that are free to download. The other briefings are in the supplement books (red bear, grey wolf, desperate measures, etc)

Easy Army (www.easyarmy.com) lets you build from all books prior to Desperate Measures. For 1.99 you can buy the lists from a particular book. All the books from the generic book that ghaz mentioned and all the PDFs are free. Be careful about paying money right now as Battlefront just announced they will be creating a new system and money now most likely won't carry over.

Is Easy Army "legal"? I mean wouldn't you technically have to buy the books to get the lists? Or is Battlefront kind enough not to have the GW-syndrome?

Easy Army is about to be taken over by BF, and they have not promised to allow continued access to purchased list access, you may lose your investment. Easy Army does allow free access to PDFs and the Forces book. EA was started by a BF playtester and contributor, so it was sorta endorsed by the company, until they saw it was a success and decided to take it over.

http://fowlists.blogspot.com.au/p/welcome.html
Is a list building tool that does not have the special rules or requirements, but it should be able to give you an idea of what you can build.

For US Mech forces, 2 boxes of the Plastic BF Armored Rifle platoon and the Armored Rifle Company HQ box, along with either a M4A1 or a M4A3(late) platoon (either BF plastics or PSC plastics) and a BF Armored Field Artillery boxset will be a good start.

That's 4 platoons and roughly 1000pts (with 5 M4A1s) from Forces.


you can find the BF pdf briefings here:
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=108&art_id=881&kb_cat_id=100
Panzers to the Meuse is a very strong German PDF for PanzerIVs (not tigers)
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=108&art_id=3730&kb_cat_id=100

here's an oddball briefing with Tiger1s
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=108&art_id=4246&kb_cat_id=100

Hmm I didn't realise that BF were going to take over EasyArmy, thanks for the info AndrasOtto.

Extremely useful link there for the book lists as well, thanks again for that!