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Hi dakka,

I'm just dabbling really because I'm looking at moving away from the GW games for a while (another UK increase in january is the last straw for me).

Always liked WWII and the thought of being able to play it on the table top sounds great, so two questions really:

1) Whats it like to play comparable to the GW games (sorry my only experience with table top)

2) Is it expensive to get a decent army going? What kind of points limits and choices are involved?

Oh and a third question:

3) Is the starter set worth it? Been looking at on the official site and for 23 quid (GBP) that sounds good to me

Thanks all for your time

Hello! And welcome to the wonderful world of Flames of War!

Ok, first things first - look around your local gaming scene, and ask what 'Era' people play in - Early, Mid, or Late.

As to your questions:

1. You'll definitely see some resemblances with 40k - the way units shoot/move are very GW like, as is the 'list' army building system which isn't generally used in Historical Wargames.

2. That depends. Head on over to Easy Army and check out some of the free lists. You can pick up more 'books' after making an account for $1-$2 apiece - and remember, these books are usually $30-$45 dollars apiece. And don't worry, it's done with Battlefront's consent!

Now, the cheapest armies will usually be non-soviet Tank Companies - Tank Platoons are usually pretty hefty in points, so your 2 core combat platoons and HQ will make a solid core for your company. You'll pay even less money if you use non-Battlefront figures (which is perfectly fine!) - my recommendations would be the Plastic Soldier Company and Peter Pig.

3. Yes! Not only do you get 5 tanks that can be added to almost any army, you also get a nifty little rulebook that's a full-color, scaled down version of the hardcover book.

Brother-Captain Scotti wrote:Hi dakka,

I'm just dabbling really because I'm looking at moving away from the GW games for a while (another UK increase in january is the last straw for me).

Always liked WWII and the thought of being able to play it on the table top sounds great, so two questions really:

1) Whats it like to play comparable to the GW games (sorry my only experience with table top)

2) Is it expensive to get a decent army going? What kind of points limits and choices are involved?

Oh and a third question:

3) Is the starter set worth it? Been looking at on the official site and for 23 quid (GBP) that sounds good to me

Thanks all for your time

Flames of war is kinda similar to 40k, but I think simpler most of the time. There are lots of little rules too, but they only apply in some situations.

Battlefront models are expensive, but if you get some of the plastics or Gaming Models mini's that are sold you can do your army up much faster. Battlefronts vehicles, especially the newer kits, do look REALLY nice, but plastic solider company and Zveda make some good plastic tanks, and Plastic Solider company makes good infantry, both for lots cheaper then battlefront. Neal at the war store sells Zveda tanks for $3.49 I believe, compared to about $12 for a battlefront tank. I use Zveda for my KV-1's and my soviet aircraft. Both have their pros and cons.

The starter set is worth it if you are going to build german or american, because the units you get are useful for both. Playing armor is the easier thing to get into, and the tanks you buy for your first list will be useful all through your FoW career, even in other lists. Tanks are also super easy to paint, at least in my opinion, so you can get a sharp looking force on the table loads faster then you can with say, soviet infantry (what I did for my first army. Painting 63 stands of infantry did get a little redundant). Even with Russian you will probably only paint around 30 tanks (21 T-34 76/85's & some support, maybe SU-100's and BA-64's). Germans can have a 1500 or 1750 point list with 10-15 pieces of armor on the table, and still do well since their armor is pretty killer. As far as collecting, most people play mid and late war. If you are going for those, they have a soviet and German book coming out in December that is a list compilation for those forces. Some people play early war, but its a lot newer then late war and mid war, and those people probably have mid and late war lists as well.

All and all it is a really fun little game, and being able to deploy several hundred troops, a few dozen guns and some tanks or SPG's all in a normal game is a lot of fun.

Brother-Captain Scotti wrote:Hi dakka,

I'm just dabbling really because I'm looking at moving away from the GW games for a while (another UK increase in january is the last straw for me).

Always liked WWII and the thought of being able to play it on the table top sounds great, so two questions really:

1) Whats it like to play comparable to the GW games (sorry my only experience with table top)

2) Is it expensive to get a decent army going? What kind of points limits and choices are involved?

Oh and a third question:

3) Is the starter set worth it? Been looking at on the official site and for 23 quid (GBP) that sounds good to me

Thanks all for your time

Welcome to the glorious WW2 game known as Flames Of War. Good to see new players droping into the game

1. Yes as the other two posters pointed out the game is quite similiar to GW games. You will get a hold of it quite fast
2. It depends on your income, and maybe on what period you want to play in. I play with the Afrika Korps and I did not pay too much for starter set, check the prices at your local retailershop. You also have the choices of almost all the major factions in WW2 in Europa. Either a pure infateri army, or Soviets are a quite cheap way to start up.
3. Yes the starterset is definitly worth it. May I ask what set you where thinking about?

Tabitha wrote:The starter set is worth it if you are going to build german or american, because the units you get are useful for both.

All three of the major Allied nations use Sherman tanks - some moreso than others.

For instance, the Soviets are currently the only nationality that can put more than a half-dozen upgunned Shermans in a list...

Soviets can use shermans, true, but the T-34 is a hell of a tank, not much reason to field shermans unless you want to for a theme when you can take T-34's.

Thanks to all your replies

Thankyou for the heads up about the books infinite array, I'll definitely have a good peruse once I know which ones I am interested in.

Thanks also Tabitha for telling me about the alternate tanks, $3.49 for a tank is fantastic, I'll have a look once I've got an idea of what I'm building to.

Well I thought I'd have a good look around on ebay for the starter set and I got it brand new for £17.88, or 25% off the english price which is great!!

I would like to build on the german tanks and have always been fond of tigers and panzers, how easy would it be to make a force comprised of these? Can someone give me an example of a army list? For things like HQ, do you have a command tank as such? If I could fit a king tiger in that would be great

Thanks again for your time guys

There's a lot of armies made of Panzer 4s and Tigers. Tigers tend to be very expensive, even in late war, due to the tiger ace skills.

The HQ in tank armies is almost always a tank as well.

Thanks for the reply vertrucio, slowly gathering knowledge lol

Ok so I received my 'open fire' box set today and I've gotta say the mini's are nice and I'm really impressed with the quality of the rule book too, nice to see they don't just skimp because you bought a cheaper set so to speak.

The next step is building up my army and seeing what is available. I've just emailed my local gaming club to see what era they play and I'm 90% sure it's late which is fantastic as I would like to be able to field panzer IV's and tigers. I've also done my research on the alternate makers of 1:100 scale models and I'm really impressed by both zvezda and the plastic soldier companies stuff. So I was thinking would this army deal in the link be a good first step for me: http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_22_24_50&products_id=212 ?

It looks to have a solid base of both infantry and plenty of tanks I can use, along with my 2 StuG G III's and I'm also getting a King Tiger for Christmas

The other question I have is can all late era armies play each other? as I know there are multiple supplements for each era.

Many thanks in advance

All armies from an era can play each other, although optimally you'll have to use lists from books of the same front or battle. But for the most part things balance out.

The only problems I have with the Plastic Soldier company stuff are that their infantry tends to have almost no variation in pose. They only have a small number of poses, most of the infantry are just slight variations in outfit (cap or helmet) in the same pose, which to me is a sloppy waste of digital sculpting's ability to quickly repose models, only having to resculpt a small portion of the model at the joints.

Certain details were not made to gaming miniature quality, which means the really thin stuff like the barrels and infantry weapons are made small and to scale, but because of that they are really flimsy and break easily.

However, you do get a lot of infantry in those boxes, and at table distance and with a bit of creative placement, you won't really notice the posing issue.

It's good that the game seems so well balanced, everyone is very happy about it.

Well if they are the only problems then I think I will invest in this set. I'll just be careful with them and try to mix the infantry up good on the stands with blue tack before actually attaching to obtain the best mix

Now to write that down on my christmas list for my mum and dad........

Thanks again

Brother-Captain Scotti wrote:Ok so I received my 'open fire' box set today and I've gotta say the mini's are nice and I'm really impressed with the quality of the rule book too, nice to see they don't just skimp because you bought a cheaper set so to speak.

The next step is building up my army and seeing what is available. I've just emailed my local gaming club to see what era they play and I'm 90% sure it's late which is fantastic as I would like to be able to field panzer IV's and tigers. I've also done my research on the alternate makers of 1:100 scale models and I'm really impressed by both zvezda and the plastic soldier companies stuff. So I was thinking would this army deal in the link be a good first step for me: http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_22_24_50&products_id=212 ?

It looks to have a solid base of both infantry and plenty of tanks I can use, along with my 2 StuG G III's and I'm also getting a King Tiger for Christmas

The other question I have is can all late era armies play each other? as I know there are multiple supplements for each era.

Many thanks in advance

Welcome to Flames of War. While similar in some aspects to 40k, I find the flames of war rules make better sense and are generally much better written. The Open Fire! boxed set is a nice set. The way they save on money is that the rulebook that comes in the boxed set does not include the campaign and mission details. If you really get into the game definitely buy the full rulebook. The Open Fire! book is a nice easy to use in game reference book too.

The plastic soldier company has some great deals. Been meaning to pick up a couple boxes of shermans for my brits.

Yes the points are generally balanced across the various periods so that armies from the same period can fight against each other. LW Russians and Germans do get some monsters on the table and sometimes can be tough for other LW forces to deal with aside from each other. I tend to play british airborne in late war so that all those big fancy monster tanks need to dig out my solidly emplaced fearless veteran infantry to win the game. Helps to balance things for me. On paper british LW armored forces are just not geared towards fighting Russian or German heavy armored forces. Having only a single tank in a tank platoon (Sherman Firefly, or challanger) with a 17pdr to take out the heavy armor that can be specifically targetted and taken out first is of limited usefulness.

With your force of Tigers and PZIVs you should be able to take on all comers in LW.

The Russians are generally annoying to deal with in any period because their forces are so cheap. They have limitations on their units which make them cheap, but when the dice go their way they are nearly unstoppable with their numbers. It can be really intimidating in late war with a tiger force to see the disparity in numbers from your side of the table and the Russian side of the table. VERY SCARY!!

Skriker

Skriker wrote: I tend to play british airborne in late war so that all those big fancy monster tanks need to dig out my solidly emplaced fearless veteran infantry to win the game. Helps to balance things for me. On paper british LW armored forces are just not geared towards fighting Russian or German heavy armored forces. Having only a single tank in a tank platoon (Sherman Firefly, or challanger) with a 17pdr to take out the heavy armor that can be specifically targetted and taken out first is of limited usefulness.

See, that's the thing I like about FoW - players get excited for Panther and Tigers and King Tigers and then get whupped by a infantry force with a couple of pioneer platoons, ambushing AT guns, and some decent artillery (Priests. Everyone loves Priests). Most of the time, it's because they're ex-40k players who had tanks with template weapons, haha!