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Well I have been lurking on various forums and finding information on Flames of War, it looks very appealing, and I already have been dreaming up ideas on what armies I want to field, play, etc. but I'm having a tough time deciding between getting the North Africa book, or the Earth and Steel book.

The thing is I have seen two army types that really appeal to me, the Italian Squadrone Esplorante, and the German Beutepanzerkompanie, I would love to do something different, and first looking at the Italians they have a lot of fun, unique looking units and tanks, fortune for me I love italian tanks, and looking at the squadrone esplorante, it seemed like a fun force to play, horde of light tanks backed up by heavier equipment like semoventes or artillery, I dismissed the Germans, as cool as they are, because they are always the ones in the spotlight. However I also love french tanks, and after reading through the summaries on the various books on the Flames of war website, I noticed the "Beutepanzerkompanie" I looked them up and fell in love with the idea of fielding a horde of French tanks painted up in German markings and colors, with German tank destroyers, artillery, etc.

So my question is what do you recommend, or list the pros and cons of each force? I would love to spring for both army types but it's still rather expensive, so which do you recommend?

Well, here's one thing that may sway your opinion.

Earth & Steel is a Late War book. North Africa is a Mid War book. So, that means you'll be in one era or another. You may wish to find out what your local Flames of War community favors.

Well I can't say I know of a hobby store, or a local community nearby, but either way I know I would field one of the two armies regardless! I have considered the era and from what I've seen or read up on, due to the amount of material Flames of war has on Late war it would not seem too difficult to find a group that plays mid/late, I would be more phased if it was early war, but I can't say I'm too worried about what period people play.

There is a briefing that does include late war Italians http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/Italian-RSI-Briefing.pdf

Yeah, as others have mentioned, you'll be straddling between two eras there; Mid-War for Italians and Late-War for the German Beutepanzerkompanie.

However, like Makarov has mentioned above, the Italians do have a Late-War briefing for the CIL.

The Esplorante Squadron is a pretty decent list as it's a fast-mover for the majority of your forces. The Autoblinda AB41 armored cars are recce-teams and the L6/40's are really fast.

Guess it depends on what your local gaming community is into and what eras they play.

Personally, I have a Italian Bersaglieri army for North Africa and I am working on Italian Fucilieri for Eastern Front....so I find them very challenging and somewhat unique/different when compared to other forces out there.