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Hi,
I'm going to start a new army as my local gaming store has a 50% off sale from Flames of War. I would like to buy one of the following:

Soviet Engineer-Sapper Battalion

United States Parachute Rifle Company

United Kingdom Parachute Company

Which one of these has the most $ to point value? I have ~70 pounds to spend for the first 1000 points if that's possible. Thanks!

Either of the Parachute companies. Since they're both rated as Fearless Veterans in the Turning Tide book (the latest compilation book that covers the Normandy campaign), they'll be worth quite a lot in points.

Avoid Soviet infantry lists if you're looking for a cheap army.

infinite_array wrote:Either of the Parachute companies. Since they're both rated as Fearless Veterans in the Turning Tide book (the latest compilation book that covers the Normandy campaign), they'll be worth quite a lot in points.

Avoid Soviet infantry lists if you're looking for a cheap army.

Avoid Soviet Infantry lists if you're looking to paint them quickly.

British Airborne is a good easy option (British Infantry special rules and British Artillery rules make them very dogged and difficult to shift once dug in). You don't need tanks, just a couple of Platoons, some Mortars, HMG, AT Guns, Artillery. Your guys are great at tank assault as they are Fearless so go toe to toe with even the heaviest armour, and they have the dubious PIAT. I would recommend you buying FiB para's they are cheap and very good. You can buy BF stuff to go with them and they are almost indistinguishable and actually many people think the FiB ones are better quality.

http://www.forgedinbattle.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_41_24&products_id=116

But actually if you are willing to upscale your purchase the BF Para Company is the best value and you get the bases etc which makes it alot cheaper than even FiB.

http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/flames-of-war/fow-british/526

furthermore due consideration should be given as to whether you are doing a Paratrooper Force or a Gliderborne Force (Airlanding). The Airlanding units get much bigger platoons and access to slightly heavier weaponry because they are able to land with the kit rather than jump with it strapped to them ( you try jumping with a Howitzer strapped to your leg) .
Dirtyjon has suggested on other threads taking Colonel Frost as he is tough as nails.

One of the most expensive bits will be your Book! D Minus 1, or Fortress Europe, I do know there is a forces book in the V3 Rule book pack but I do not know if British Para's features in it. One of the guys on here will advise us i'm sure.

Agree with everything that's been said here.

I will point out though that, if you really want to do Soviets, filling out access points with their heavy tanks/Katyushas is a good way to soak up points and, with PSC and Zvezda making good cheap plastic kits, shouldn't be too expensive.

But, yeah Paras will probably be cheaper, easier/quicker to build/paint, and more forgiving to a new player...

Thanks all! Now all I have to decide is wether to choose the tommies or the yankees.

The british are cheaper in terms of money, but they are only usable in late war, but the US Airborne can be used in mid war too, however it is more expensive. I like both of these armies, but I think I will go with the yanks because of the mid/late possibilities.

EDIT: Woah, I will choose the tommies, because the flames of war site lists them as usable for mid-war. Which book are they in?.

Another thing you can look to stretch you dollars/pounds are the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) tanks. Not sure if your local store is offering/could offer those at 50% off, but it is a much cheaper route for the tanks.

http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/

Quoted from another post

infinite_array wrote:There's always Easy Army. It's not free, but for $2 you could pick up all the lists from both Earth & Steel and Turning Tide, which should give you the panzergren and para lists your looking for, with the appropriate company ratings and vehicle/weapon profiles.

I think you can get access to each book for $1 and it would be a way to look through the various lists/options you could point up and use that to figure out which direction you want to go.

I'm familiar with PSC and Forged In Battle, however for me it is much cheaper to buy Battlefront products now, while the closing sale lasts.

Thanks, I bought the Turning Tide and the North Africa book one easyarmy. (And also the Earth & Steel for my german grenadiers.)

ysengrin wrote:Thanks all! Now all I have to decide is wether to choose the tommies or the yankees.

The british are cheaper in terms of money, but they are only usable in late war, but the US Airborne can be used in mid war too, however it is more expensive. I like both of these armies, but I think I will go with the yanks because of the mid/late possibilities.

EDIT: Woah, I will choose the tommies, because the flames of war site lists them as usable for mid-war. Which book are they in?.

Looked at the FOW store in re: to this and you're right, several US and Brit Para items are listed for LW only, even though both lists are included in North Africa......strange....

mwnciboo wrote:One of the most expensive bits will be your Book! D Minus 1, or Fortress Europe, I do know there is a forces book in the V3 Rule book pack but I do not know if British Para's features in it. One of the guys on here will advise us i'm sure.

All D-1 lists are now in Turning Tide. There are no british airborne lists in Fortress Europe at all. Hell's Highway includes US lists for the fights to capture objectives leading to Arnhem and A Bridge Too Far includes lists for the british Airborne in Arnhem. As for the differences in British para and airlanding companies, the Airlanding platoons have 1 less stand than the parachute platoons, and the parachute platoons can take all of the airlanding gun platoons as support choices so no worries there. The only real difference between the two for availability is really the fact that the airlanding mortar platoon can get 6 tubes, while the parachute mortar platoon can only ever have 4. Due to availability, airlanding heavy AT platoons can get 4 17pdrs in A Bridge Too Far, but only 2 in Turning Tide.

I need to check the rules for Frost as to whether he can be part of any parachute company or just those in the Bridge Too Far book. Unit prices are more expensive in that book than Turning Tide.

British airborne also get the bonus of having lists in North Africa for Midwar as well, so are a little more adaptable for multiple period play.

To the original poster, as others have said, limited budgets are not a good match with soviet armies of any type. Even their armored forces are huge.

Skriker

Unfortunately the para boxes sold out, so I can only buy Soviets and Germans. (I have enough krauts thanks to PSC... )
These are the box sets that I'm interested in:

Udarny Strelkovy Batalon

Engineer-Sapper Battalion

Which one should I get?

I already had an Udarny Strelkovy Batalon once but I disliked the minis and sold it because they were too skinny, however the box set is just full of minis and they are seriously cheap for 20 £.
The Engineer-Sapper Battalion on the other hand looks amazing, they almost look like sci-fi troopers, but I have to buy a lot of heavy weapon blisters, scouts and other units to use them, but for 20 £ this is also a good box.

So help me to decide, I don't want to spend a whole fortune on them and if I can make a usable 600 pts army out of the box that's a huge plus. (1-2 PSC tank set, Zvezda boxes and some blisters are ok though)

ysengrin wrote: Which one should I get?

I already had an Udarny Strelkovy Batalon once but I disliked the minis and sold it because they were too skinny, however the box set is just full of minis and they are seriously cheap for 20 £.
The Engineer-Sapper Battalion on the other hand looks amazing, they almost look like sci-fi troopers, but I have to buy a lot of heavy weapon blisters, scouts and other units to use them, but for 20 £ this is also a good box.

So help me to decide, I don't want to spend a whole fortune on them and if I can make a usable 600 pts army out of the box that's a huge plus. (1-2 PSC tank set, Zvezda boxes and some blisters are ok though)

You already replied to Your question - go for what You like to play with. Money is not an argument to play with minis that You don't like for personal or esthetic reasons.

They were not that bad, they just weren't compatible with my old Forged In Battle minis, however they are more or less in the same scale as PSC.