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Hi all, I only recently stumbled upon Flames of War and it immediatly caught my attention; I love history, especially conflict history, specifically WWII. My family has personal ties to WWII both taking part in the war and as civilians in Holland (My Grandmother has an ash tray made out of an artillery shell ).

So I guess I should move on to the questions I have:
- Is there a gaming club around Brampton, Ontario? I would love to come see a game or two in progress and have a talk about the game in general, and knowing the club in my area would help me pick an era.

- Is there a Canadian army list?
- Is it viable?
- If so, what book would I start with?

- Is there an SS army list?
- Is it viable?
- If so, what book would I start with?
- Is there lots of hate towards people who play this?

- Is there an Airborne list?
- Is it viable?
- If so, what book would I start with?

1. Dunno.
2.There is a Canadian list (at least one), AFAIK they are all subsets of the British list with special rules to reflect the peculiarities of Canadian troops serving during the war (same goes for ANZAC, Indians, Scots, South Africans, etc.).
3.As it is a British list w/ some minor alterations, I would say yes it is viable
4.No clue. I know Festung Europa has it in there, I would assume Fortress Europe (the updated version of Festung Europa) would have it as well. I would assume some of the books set around D-day/overlord etc. would also feature canadian rules in them considering their actions at Juno Beach.

5. Yes, there is an SS list (many of them in fact).
6. Yes it is viable, although it can be a bit difficult to use for newer players, as you pay a premium for having some of the best troops and vehicles in the game, and thus are usually heavily outnumbered.
7. Just about any book out there should have SS lists in there... actually, thats not true, while many do have an SS list, some of the more specailized 'campaign' books don't cover any SS units. Eastern Front and Fortress Europe have them for sure, as do numberous other ones.
8. It seems to me there is a lot of hate, but not necessarily because they are playing a force that committed war crimes, etc. (although this is most often the stated reason), but usually because the players of said force are perceived as playing them because they are bandwagoning on what is percieved to be a '1337' force. The Germans are seen as the Space Marines of Flames of war... the Waffen SS are like the Space Wolves or Blood Angels.

9. Yes, there are several Airborne lists, for Americans, Brits, Germans, and who knows who else.
10. AFAIK, they are all viable
11. Dogs and Devils covers British and German airborne units IIRC, books set around Normandy/D-day, or Operation Market Garden should usually feature an airborne list for one side or the other, and books for the Italian campaign are bound to have German or American airborne units in them

Festung Europe would be a great over all book to start with. It also contains the army list for Fallschirmjagers in ground operations.

As Chaos said, Market Garden will give you both British & American Airborne army lists and D-Day will give you primarily American Airborne.

I believe its the North Africa Book that will give you actually Airborne Fallschirmjager lists for Airborne Operations. (not 100% about this though). I do know there are lists and rules and missions for Crete Invasions. You might also look into the Blitzkrieg rules and information as they may cover the airborne operations for France, but I dont know if it covers any of that. Havent looked into Blitzkrieg myself.

The Website itself has alot of specialized Army PDFs on there that might be useful as well.

The new turning tide book has loads of Canadian options and lists including lots of british airborne too. You dont need to ask if lists are viable in flames of war as they are generally much more finely balanced than 40k armies. It is impossible to make a beat everything list in FoW as someone can easily trump it with a list designed to counter that type of list, thus the best options are always mixed arms approaches which are fairly balanced by their nature. The only lists that come to mind as being a bit on the weak side (from a tourney perspective) are the armoured car based lists for all forces.

Also Festung Europe is edition 1, edition 2 of the same book (with updated lists and more stuff) is Fortress Europe so make sure you get that one if you see them available. The D-Day books are the latest release and easiest to get into thanks to extensive explanations which are missing in earlier books so I'd recommend picking them up (Turning Tide for allies, Earth and Steel for Germans, or just the d-day battle for france compilation of both).

Late War has been well covered. I'll just add a bit about mid-war.

You can field Canadian companies from Operation Husky and mainland Italy. They're basically the same as the british, except that they're CT instead of CV (and have a few special rules). Those lists are in the North Africa briefing. North Africa also has a list for the 1st Airborne Division, but no SS.

I'll also second legoburner's recommendation of Turning Tide. I got it on Christmas and it's an awesome book with lots of Canadian content.

Thanks a lot for all the responses guys! you've been a great help. So I pdf'd some of the books you guys suggested so I could look at them (if/when I get into it I swear I will actually buy the books), I couldn't find Turning Tide anywhere, not even on the FOW website.

For the other books (the Fortress Europe two sepcifically), is Festung Europa made invalid by Fortress Europe? Fortress Europe is great and it's organised so much better, but there's less content in it then Festung Europa.

Mecharius wrote:Thanks a lot for all the responses guys! you've been a great help. So I pdf'd some of the books you guys suggested so I could look at them (if/when I get into it I swear I will actually buy the books), I couldn't find Turning Tide anywhere, not even on the FOW website.

For the other books (the Fortress Europe two sepcifically), is Festung Europa made invalid by Fortress Europe? Fortress Europe is great and it's organised so much better, but there's less content in it then Festung Europa.

Nope, that's the great thing about Battlefront. You don't have to purchase or use the newer books, they don't invalidate the old ones.

Turning Tide is not out until later in Jan, you can get it early as part of the d-day compilation. I'd probably recommend that book the most (much bigger than fortress europe and better for beginners too).

legoburner wrote:Turning Tide is not out until later in Jan, you can get it early as part of the d-day compilation. I'd probably recommend that book the most (much bigger than fortress europe and better for beginners too).

Sorry for the topic-shift, but will there be a non-collector's version of the D-Day books? I wouldn't mind getting them, but the price as listed is a bit intimidating for a game I don't actually play!

Balance wrote:
Sorry for the topic-shift, but will there be a non-collector's version of the D-Day books? I wouldn't mind getting them, but the price as listed is a bit intimidating for a game I don't actually play!

The 100$ set includes the two books, Turning Tide and Earth & Steel, and is apparently a very limited item. Turning Tide on its own should be available in January, and Earth & Steel in February, both for 50$ each.
If you're tempted by FoW and the LW western front, these are the books you want to get.

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, and it was enough to finally decide me to start FoW armies.