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I just picked up the Main Rulebook (v3) and was looking through it, and at some of the rulebooks online and started wondering if FoW is like GW. I recognize some of the names in FoW as old GW guys. Do I have to worry about when the rulebook for an army I like came out, because it will be reprinted and the exiting one will turn into a pumpkin? Now that V3 is out are they going to be reprinting everything? I see several rulebooks for the same theater. Whats that about? Are they specific actions in a theater, so you can accurately recreate them?

Im mainly interested in North Africa action and even Italy. Am I safe buying the North Africa rulebook or should I just stick to those generic lists in the V3 books?

I'm trying not to come off as a hater, cause I tried a demo and like FoW. I just don't want to drop $30 on a book thats gonna be obsolete in a few months.

I say go for the North Africa book if you want it, as it is not likely to be updated anytime soon (they are currently updating Late War, it is Mid War). Also, the lists in the Forces book tend to be generic and some are slightly weak (with no AA or Recon options).

FoW is not similar to GW in their update policies, as the previous books are not banned from all use or completely obsolete. Unlike GW games, the armies in FoW are all well balanced, and the new armies coming out will not have an unfair advantage over the old. The old books are also not outdated with the new edition, as most the changes are clarifications of rules and small tweaks.

I would also encourage you to go for Italians as a more unique army than most and, IMHO, a very fun army to play (with the Battalian organization and the 8 Million Bayonets rule), if you are not overly concerned about winning all the time. The Italians can also be used in both Early and Mid War with very similar forces, meaning, with the Hellfire and Back and North Africa books, you can have an army for both EW and MW. One note, though, is that you will have to pay a slightly higher cost for an Italian army than for some of the major nations, as many of their units are special order only.

Overall, you will be fine choosing the North Africa book.

Phydox wrote:I just picked up the Main Rulebook (v3) and was looking through it, and at some of the rulebooks online and started wondering if FoW is like GW. I recognize some of the names in FoW as old GW guys. Do I have to worry about when the rulebook for an army I like came out, because it will be reprinted and the exiting one will turn into a pumpkin? Now that V3 is out are they going to be reprinting everything? I see several rulebooks for the same theater. Whats that about? Are they specific actions in a theater, so you can accurately recreate them?

Im mainly interested in North Africa action and even Italy. Am I safe buying the North Africa rulebook or should I just stick to those generic lists in the V3 books?

I'm trying not to come off as a hater, cause I tried a demo and like FoW. I just don't want to drop $30 on a book thats gonna be obsolete in a few months.

The main rule books have a better life expectancy than 40K editions, IIRC V2 has lasted 5 years.

The 'army' books are another matter though as FoW has begun a trend of releasing books with lower points costs than the book that preceded it meaning that in order to stay 'competitive' you will need to keep updating. If your focus is on North Africa though you should be ok with the North Africa book as mid war isn't being worked on for a long time. That being said some stats and special rules have changed so it is possible that it will get a reprint to be V3 compliant.

There are 2 types of book; large 'front' books and the smaller campaign books. The front books contain lists to accommodate most if not all major formations within the specified time period and place and not much else. The campaign books have a much tighter focus on specific units and include scenarios.

General Seric wrote:I say go for the North Africa book if you want it, as it is not likely to be updated anytime soon (they are currently updating Late War, it is Mid War). Also, the lists in the Forces book tend to be generic and some are slightly weak (with no AA or Recon options).

FoW is not similar to GW in their update policies, as the previous books are not banned from all use or completely obsolete. Unlike GW games, the armies in FoW are all well balanced, and the new armies coming out will not have an unfair advantage over the old. The old books are also not outdated with the new edition, as most the changes are clarifications of rules and small tweaks.

I would also encourage you to go for Italians as a more unique army than most and, IMHO, a very fun army to play (with the Battalian organization and the 8 Million Bayonets rule), if you are not overly concerned about winning all the time. The Italians can also be used in both Early and Mid War with very similar forces, meaning, with the Hellfire and Back and North Africa books, you can have an army for both EW and MW. One note, though, is that you will have to pay a slightly higher cost for an Italian army than for some of the major nations, as many of their units are special order only.

Overall, you will be fine choosing the North Africa book.

Have to agree with the General Seric here; as an Italian player myself, I've found the North Africa book along with the Hellfire and Back and Burning Empires books just add to my Italian forces allowing me to play between eras easily. (EW and MW). However, North Africa is solid and very balanced; you can't go wrong there.

They can't mess it up too much, A tank is a tank is a tank and a bloke is a bloke is a bloke.

Aldramelech wrote:They can't mess it up too much, A tank is a tank is a tank and a bloke is a bloke is a bloke.

The same could be said for 40k

One other thing no-one has mentioned. I just picked up the V3 rulebook completely free, I just had to take my 2nd edition book into the store for them to put a stamp in the front cover. It's essentially a smaller soft-back copy of the original hardback, but otherwise has all of the content (i.e. it is not a reduced, 40k boxset style book).

And I still use 'Festung Europa', one of the first second edition era books, but it is still perfectly usable in current games of FoW. I believe the point costs may have dropped very slightly, but certainly my late war Americans don't seem to have had particular problems against people using newer books so it can't be that much different. GW they ain't, not by a long shot.

Equally, there is talk of Stickers to update your book to the new v3 Standard, I have seen them on the "tinter-webz" but cannot find the link. Will have a little hunt around and post up a link. The changes in FOW are smaller, than the radical change in 40k you tend to have between editions and Codexes.

Thanks for the reassurances. I picked up Earth and Steel, and Grey Wolf (wow lotta lists), and will prob pick up the North Africa book next. Then I have all three major theaters.

I saw a recommendation on DakkaDakka, I believe, to start with a Tank Battalion list. This way, you can learn the rules, then add in Infantry and other support platoons as you learn those rules. I think I may use the Schwere Panzerkompanie (503) from Earth and Steel: 5 Tigers, schwere AA platoon, Schwere Armored Scouts, Schwere Panzer Pioneers, and a Rocket Battery.

I'd like to stick with some DAK lists from North Africa (and will consider the Italian Army), but the thought of fielding a small elite army of Waffen SS or fallschirmjagerkompanie is VERY tempting.

I'd be careful with using the Big Cats, though. Yes, tank companies (battalions with the Soviets) are probably the easiest to learn with, but sinking that many points into 5 models that you could lose to aircraft, artillery, or infantry may not be the best idea.

North Afrika is a safe book to use. For LW Gray Wolf, Red Bear, and Blood Guts and Glory are all squeaky new so they should be useful for quite some time.

I put together my first FoW list based on the Schwere PanzerKompanie in Earth and Steel its hovering at 1815 pts... too big? Whats tweeks would people recommend? My main opponent plays late war Americans.

HQ 1 Tiger 1E (225 pts)

Combat Platoons

I. Schwere Panzer Platoon 2 Tiger 1E (430pts)
II. Schwere Panzer Platoon 2 Tiger 1E (430pts)

Weapon Platoons

I. Schwere Panzer Anti Air Gun Platoon 3 squads (armor upgrade) (165pts)
II. Schwere Panzer Armored Scout Platoon 4 squads (Command squad panzerfaust) (220 pts)
III. Schwere Panzer Pioneer Platoon 3 squads (Upgrade to halftrack) (180pts)

Divisional Support

I. Armored Rocket Launcher Battery 3 squads (165pts)

Unusual points? What points are you playing, 1500, 1750, 1800 and 2000 are quite common.

The list looks okay, but remember that you kill one tiger and the other may run away and I'm not sure if your Tanks are fearless. If they aren't Fearless, they will have a good chance to run away.

My Schwere SS Tigers allies, One was blown away by a British AEC in the side armour and despite being Fearless the other one high tailed off the table. Bye, bye 480 points, they achieved nothing.

infinite_array wrote:I'd be careful with using the Big Cats, though. Yes, tank companies (battalions with the Soviets) are probably the easiest to learn with, but sinking that many points into 5 models that you could lose to aircraft, artillery, or infantry may not be the best idea.

yes right, I think putting all of your eggs into one basket (or cats, as it were) is probably never a good idea when getting into a new game. Spread the risk, and use multiple unit types so you can take in all of the different aspects FoW has to offer (and therefore learn more quickly) would be my advice!

Phydox wrote:I just picked up the Main Rulebook (v3) and was looking through it, and at some of the rulebooks online and started wondering if FoW is like GW. I recognize some of the names in FoW as old GW guys. Do I have to worry about when the rulebook for an army I like came out, because it will be reprinted and the exiting one will turn into a pumpkin? Now that V3 is out are they going to be reprinting everything? I see several rulebooks for the same theater. Whats that about? Are they specific actions in a theater, so you can accurately recreate them?

Im mainly interested in North Africa action and even Italy. Am I safe buying the North Africa rulebook or should I just stick to those generic lists in the V3 books?

I'm trying not to come off as a hater, cause I tried a demo and like FoW. I just don't want to drop $30 on a book thats gonna be obsolete in a few months.

Different books for the same theater are often for different eras. FoW is split up into Early, Mid and Late War ers to try and coincide with the increase in armor and weapon capabilities to keep the playing field somewhat more level. North Africa covers US, British, Italian and Germans lists for Midwar in Africa and other areas of the mediterranean. Hellfire and back covers British, German and Italian lists for early war in Africa. Burning Sands adds to the Early war mediterranean mix as well. Generally the basic lists in the V.3 rulebook bundle are VERY basic. I recommend buying the rules, deciding on a time period and then picking up the appropirate theater book. I play British because they are available in all 3 eras. The Italians are available in EW and MW for the mediterranean and even the MW Eastern Front using their sadly outclassed vehicles against soviet forces. Germans are available in all 3 periods fully with Americans historically not making an entry into MW. The russians were present for EW, but so far there is not an EW eastern front book available yet.

As for the similarity to rulebooks, V3 just came out and the rules have been improved, but not changed overall. Many of the improvements are in areas where players had issues or complaints in the past with V.2. All in all this makes Battlefront not even remotely like GW which feels the need to change the basics of most everything in a new edition instead of making the rules better. I still contend that with 5th edition 40k and 8th edition WFB those games should be near to perfect by now, but they keep changing the playing field.

The campaign books list some historical details in them and an overall look into the far reaching campaign, but to truly fight a decent in theater historical recreation you will need to do a bunch of leg work on your own. In general the game is fought using randomly generated missions, but with some work you can set up very specific table actions for historical battle refights. Only thing to keep in mind with historical refights is that often the battles were not the perfectly even and balanced points fights that the game regularly runs with. We have had some larger battles in Africa where the British and commonwealth were stacked up with nearly 6000 points of forces and facing an axis force with only 4000 points. So it can be challanging to do, but still fun as long as the goal is to recreate a cool historical battle and not just "to win". Heck in my example game the Axis was almost successful in stymieing the commonwealth advance thanks to good axis die rolling and poor allied die rolling at points.

Skriker


Automatically Appended Next Post:

mwnciboo wrote:Unusual points? What points are you playing, 1500, 1750, 1800 and 2000 are quite common.

The list looks okay, but remember that you kill one tiger and the other may run away and I'm not sure if your Tanks are fearless. If they aren't Fearless, they will have a good chance to run away.

My Schwere SS Tigers allies, One was blown away by a British AEC in the side armour and despite being Fearless the other one high tailed off the table. Bye, bye 480 points, they achieved nothing.

Well this can happen if one is destroyed and the other is bailed, but just losing one tiger with the other tiger undamaged will not result in a platoon morale check. The comparison is between destroyed and undestroyed tanks and you have to "pass" the 50% destroyed mark before a test is necessary. That is why 2 tank heavy platoons can be useful. Lose 1 tank and the other just really doesn't care very much, unless it gets bailed out as well.

Skriker