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Hi everyone, I've decided to buy into Tanks! I'm not decided on any nation just yet, as I really like most of them. However, I want to buy into flames of war later down the line, playing an armoured company if I could. Is there any nation that really makes this transition the best? At this point in time I've decided I DONT want to play the soviets. Which leaves me with Germans, British, and Americans. Thank you for your help!

All the nations Tank Companies are pretty similar with an HQ of 2 tanks combat platoons of 3 to 5 and then a mix of support platoons which would be all your recce, infantry, artillery, etc.

American's probably have what is generally considered to be the best Armoured List in FoW. The 7th AD with Sherman's, Easy 8s, and Jumbos, is very competitive. All of these tanks should be playable in Tanks although they are not available yet.

Also there are no plastic sculpts for Easy 8s or Jumbos yet. The initial tanks release was plastic sprues that already existed for Fow. To that extent the Germans probably have the greatest diversity of Tanks and the most plastic kits available at this time. You could check out https://forces.flamesofwar.com which has a view army lists available to the public so you could see generally what you might want to work towards collecting.

Hope that helps

The German StuG and Panzer IV, as well as the respective Shermans for the Brits and Americans, will be the most flexible for moving into a full blown armored company in Flames of War. The least flexible will be Jagdpanthers, Pershings, and Comets, theyre pretty rare and dont appear in many company force orgs. Panthers are common, but expensive and hard to use in game, I woildnt recommend them to a newbie.

Do not mix StuG's and Panzer IV's, theyre usually not available together. The Brit Shermans and American shermans mix fairly easy (IE the American 75mm and 76mm' are usually found together, as are the Brit 75mm Sherman and their Fireflies) So if you pick one of those nations youre fairly set to mix and match.

For Germans, look at lists from Grey Wolf and Desperate Measures. These have great lists for tank companies. Desperate Measures in particular is the only place that you can use Panthers, StuG's, Jagdpanthers, and Panzer IV's all in the same list, so if you have a few of each it might be a good idea to pick that up.

For Americans, you'll want to look at Blood, Guts, N' Glory, or Bridge At Ramagen. Blood, Guts, N'Glory has lots of options for running tanks, while Bridge at Ramagen is the only book that has Pershings.

For Brits, I believe Market Garden and Nachtjaeger (translator's note: means night hunter) have the most flexible lists for the 4 types of plastic British tanks. Not as familiar eith them though.

As for who transitions the best, thats tough to say. All 3 have a great amount of plastic kits available for infantry and tanks, both from Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company. If I were you I'd look at all 3 nations and see which interests you the most. Read a bit of history, look at how theyre painted, and see which grabs you.

Also, this may sound odd, but there's a flames of war general thread on /tg/ of 4chan. As weird as it sounds, its one of the better online communities out there for Flames of War and will give good advice as long as you dont mind them being bluntly honest about things. If you find yourself having a lot of questions, or odd little ones, it wouldnt hurt to ask them.

To add on to MrMoustaffa's post, while I have no experience myself I have often read that the Devil's Charge (Digital Exclusive) lists have some solid entries for tank companies. It's a free series of lists available at http://forces.flamesofwar.com and is just the old Panzers to the Meuse PDF if you'd prefer to track that down.

I think the Desperate Measures list is more fun from a collector standpoint because of the variety, but just figured I'd toss that option out as it's free and seen as decently competitive.

As a FOW player for awhile now. I think for me if i was to choose i Americans first,German and BRitish for last. I do own Armor Companies for both.
Here is my thought on the PRo and COns od each Nations FOrce for LW.
USA
PROs, A nice variety of equipment to chooose from, Also you will Also will want some Armored rifle Mech Troopers and the Americans have the best due to the overwhelming Firepower. Shermans are a decent tank with alot of Variants.
Throw in some arty and its all good. ME i am a fan of the arty park for the americans.Also have the PErshishing which is a decent cat killer.Also have a nice selection of lite tanks and TAnk destroyers,JAckson and HEll cats are great fun.
Cons, Very little armor on the shermans and TD. Not much of a selection of Recon VEhicles
GErmans
PRos BIG cats, nice selection of Amor,arty and recon.
COns can be expensive in the points deptartment,especially for somebody like who likes play SS armor.
BRitish
PRos Nice selection of of medium armor ,arty and recon.Also have my favorite tank in the game the FIrefly,Churchills have good armor
COns, shermans armor is not that great.Mech infantry are a little VAnilla with just the basic infantry list.Churhills main gun for me is a little weak vs other tanks.

I probably could add more to list for pros and cons but theese are the main ones off the top of my head ,Also each force has decent nation rules,usa and Brits have good special arty rules and germans get the extra move bonus.
as for list i recommend the following as mentioned,USA bridge at ramagen,GRey wolf for the GErmans it has one of the best list for GErman combined arms(kinda like build your own SS KAmpfgruppe) British i like the Guards armor list MArket GArden.
Also here is link to join the google pus community. it is open membership and we have nice group of players that will be more than happy to help you out.. Also i am the site owner and moderator.
https://plus.google.com/communities/117412863405313146907?utm_source=chrome_ntp_icon&utm_medium=chrome_app&utm_campaign=chrome

Thanks for your help everyone. I decided on trying out the Brits for now! If I need to buy a second set I'll pick up some Germans!