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having been playing whfb and 40k ive been looking at fow.
is it any good?
are the minitures any good?
are the rules any good?
thanks

It's terrible; there's hardly any bald people, and very little screaming. Also, Battlefront needs to nerf Hitler because he turns up in every game!

Nurglitch wrote:It's terrible; there's hardly any bald people, and very little screaming. Also, Battlefront needs to nerf Hitler because he turns up in every game!

Don't forget that they're willing to listen to and communicate with their fanbase.

Seriously, what kind of company does that?

You might do better to enquire in the Historical Games forum.

Flames of War is a WW2 game and there are heaps of companies making suitable WW2 models.

You can play with the official 15mm (?) models if you want. You can buy compatible figures from other companies. You can buy a different scale and adapt the distances to fit.

I recommend you listen to the review of the game in this week's D6 Generation podcast (there's a link in the sticky post in this forum).

Be warned: the game lacks skullz!

Open Fire! is fun, but it lacks infantry and that makes it a rather weak starters set. But it's fun to do the tank scenarios, takes some getting used to all the rules they've got.

thanks for the help

Open fire gets you two things for 40.00

-A softcover rulebook where the HC is 50.00
-55.00 in tanks.

No way are you stopping with just that, but it's a good place to start.

I use the open fire set to show people the mechanics for fighting with tanks. It lets you play a fun 20 minute intro game.

assultmarine wrote:having been playing whfb and 40k ive been looking at fow.
is it any good?
are the minitures any good?
are the rules any good?
thanks

yes it's good, but it's not as detailed as other games on the market. If you want an enjoyable points based system FoW is what you are after.

The miniatures are good, sometimes great but at 15mm it depends on how well you see the detail on them. Some variation between sculptors has lead the pickier fans to complain about the differences in scale, but on the tabletop the differences are not that obvious.

The rules are good but like any system there are quirks and simplifications they've made to make the game more playable but less like a simulation of what actually would have happened.

I think it's a great system and a good alternative to 40k if that is what you are after. I think it's scale is about right at 1500-2000pts for a standard 4x6 table.

Platuan4th wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:It's terrible; there's hardly any bald people, and very little screaming. Also, Battlefront needs to nerf Hitler because he turns up in every game!

Don't forget that they're willing to listen to and communicate with their fanbase.

Seriously, what kind of company does that?

mantic games does.

lord marcus wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:It's terrible; there's hardly any bald people, and very little screaming. Also, Battlefront needs to nerf Hitler because he turns up in every game!

Don't forget that they're willing to listen to and communicate with their fanbase.

Seriously, what kind of company does that?

mantic games does.

Well, to be fair, Mantic has less than 1/10th of 1% of the product out that Battlefront does. But yes, both companies are very good about listening to customers.

Interestingly enough, both are headed up by ex-GW VP's and a lot of other ex-GW people in the ranks. So do Army Painter and Warlord games. I think what we are seeing are very talented people, who after a few years, (or few decades) at GW, are entering the market and producing some quality product and rules.

Makes me wish I was younger and could move over to the 'lead belt' that's developing in Nottingham and NZ.

assultmarine wrote:having been playing whfb and 40k ive been looking at fow.
is it any good?
are the minitures any good?
are the rules any good?
thanks

You remember how 40K used to play when you first played it?

Quick fast and in a hurry, with tactics and lots of dice? Think of that times ten.

Its a sweet game, but the guys can really get you cost creeping.

Drop about a hundred, and stop. If not, GW has nothing on the cost of a minis game that this one does.

First you'd buy an army book, or a campaign book, then pick out your units and go for it.

I also agree, there is no skulls and raised screaming vengence fist bumps.

Grot 6 wrote:

You remember how 40K used to play when you first played it?

Quick fast and in a hurry, with tactics and lots of dice? Think of that times ten.

When did 40K do that? I seem to recall that 1st and 2nd ed took ages to play four turns in which you'd be lucky if your stuff moved more than a foot.

Your description sounds more like 40K now.

Grot 6 wrote:I also agree, there is no skulls and raised screaming vengence fist bumps.

I'm guessing you haven't seen the SS dice and the Russian infantry command teams yet.

BrookM wrote:

Grot 6 wrote:I also agree, there is no skulls and raised screaming vengence fist bumps.

I'm guessing you haven't seen the SS dice and the Russian infantry command teams yet.

LMAO!!!!

As for the other comment, 2d edition had its moments. Modifiers, templates from hell, wargear and a pare tree, sustained fire dice, 100 dice for the countless ork horde and the vehicle rules? You don't remember them? Had one game where one unit of orks that I had had about 50 dice in it per attack one time.( That was one of the little units, by the way.) move, shoot, communicate. go on overwatch, shoot again? You don't remember that?

What about all of those templates running around the board, had one once about a foot wide. You don't think you learn to move fast, fighting someone with something like that?

Grot 6 wrote:As for the other comment, 2d edition had its moments.

What about all of those templates running around the board, had one once about a foot wide.

The randomly-roving & growing template phase of 2E was the best part of the game, IMO. I'd like to see that return to 40k.

Good times.

You could try Disposable Heroes. It's a 28mm WW2 game with pretty good rules. You still get the detail of a GW game, but with more tactical and complex rules.