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He Guy's,

Getting the Open Fire box as a present I wanted to "Expand" the miniatures in the box.
I already got Festung Europe book but I find it hard to get the right boxes to start with.

Are these 2 the ones to make a good start to try out the game?

Festung Europa is the older book, I'd reccomend Fortress Europe for a good generic list book. As for boxes.. What were you trying to run? US rifles and Grenadiers? Sturmkompanie box is pretty good, but for the price, http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=117&ProductID=2869 is the best deal for the money

Maybe I should mention I'm building 2 small army's..
German and USA....

I'm not an expert, but it looks like you could build a very 'generic' list for each with that, and a bit of armor support from the starter box.

Don't forget that those Shermans could be used with British companies as well, not just those fancy pants GIs!

notprop wrote:Don't forget that those Shermans could be used with British companies as well, not just those fancy pants GIs!

Indeed they can. Its exactly what I did with them.

My Shermans will be part of my Italian front Indian army when I get round to building it.

ArbeitsSchu wrote:

notprop wrote:Don't forget that those Shermans could be used with British companies as well, not just those fancy pants GIs!

Indeed they can. Its exactly what I did with them.

Looks like they are early production M4A1s VVSS... Used by the British as the Sherman II, so really only suitable for the British in North Africa, though they did pop up in limited numbers in Italy during 1943 as seen with the knocked-out one below near Termoli...



Not sure what variant the Indians had, but the Sherman III (M4A2) seems to have been the most common in Commonwealth service. The Poles also used it.

Big P wrote:

ArbeitsSchu wrote:

notprop wrote:Don't forget that those Shermans could be used with British companies as well, not just those fancy pants GIs!

Indeed they can. Its exactly what I did with them.

Looks like they are early production M4A1s VVSS... Used by the British as the Sherman II, so really only suitable for the British in North Africa, though they did pop up in limited numbers in Italy during 1943 as seen with the knocked-out one below near Termoli...



Not sure what variant the Indians had, but the Sherman III (M4A2) seems to have been the most common in Commonwealth service. The Poles also used it.

13th/18th Hussars as part of the 79th Armoured used II's as the basis for Duplex Drive Shermans, and may also have fielded some without conversion. Royal Scots Greys definitely used II's as well in Normandy. I found a picture of them in a real honest to god book, but have yet to locate it on the net. (I spent AGES trying to justify using the OF Shermans in a Brit Normandy Army.) Other units may have used the older Shermans as replacement vehicles.

Poles/Czechs/French were mostly supplied from UK stocks of lend-lease materials, because that where their divisions were (re)formed before Normandy. Other Dominion forces substantially pre-date that, and were bouncing around in Italy and the desert long before the III and above were even in production. Indian Army units in the middle east would have got theirs at the same time as the British did, and subsequently been using the same vehicles through Italy, until re-equipped with III and above.

Indian units IN India probably got the same end of the crappy supply stick as the 14th Army did: Use what you're given, because its all you're getting. (With the provisio that India paid for its own army from its own treasury, rather than using the UK one.)

These are Scots Greys in Wismar in 1945.



The Sherman next to the Firefly 'seems' to be a Sherman II.

These are Scots Greys in Normandy with the Sherman II...

I should specify that the pic I actually found in a book that I hadn't found online was a colour image, not that I hadn't found others online, but BigP has indeed found some great examples of the "Open Fire" Shermans in British usage in 44+

For the OP, this means that he could definitely choose an American Rifle company OR a British one and retain historical accuracy.

Interestingly enough the Shermans in the OF "How to Start" booklet in the "painted example" aren't the ones in the box, but are a V instead.

On the subject of the Sherman, I actually used them to start my 15th Scots Division army. T

The Open Fire! Shermans do resemble the Sherman II, which is a part of the Armoured Platoon option (and Confident Veteran, as well!).

infinite_array wrote:On the subject of the Sherman, I actually used them to start my 15th Scots Division army. T

he Open Fire! Shermans do resemble the Sherman II, which is a part of the Armoured Platoon option (and Confident Veteran, as well!).

Yeah, I went for 51st Highland from that briefing, with a teeny fudge, in that the late production M4 Sherman 1 came as a cast/welded hull hybrid, and thus looked like enough like M4A1 that at 15mm it makes no difference, and the Tank option for the 51st is Sherman 1s. It may not be 100% technically accurate per se, but as I can find no evidence to suggest that the 33rd Armoured Brigade DIDN'T use the cast hull hybrid, I have no problem rolling with it. Besides, once the Germans start brewing up the Tommy Cookers, I'm sure the brigades started to look a little mixed up.

Both of those boxes will get you the full core for the armies you intend to use. I think they are great starts.

Thought that I'd point out that if you want to get the most out of that Sturmkompanie box you should probably pick up the Stalin's Onslaught book. It contains the list for the actual Sturmkompanie, which can be quite nasty.