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Hi Guys,

Im relatively new to flames of war and in the process of painting my force and learning the game. Since 90% of my 1500pts army are painted now i asked myself what the standard game sizes would be to see how i am going to expand the force.

I had a 800pts FFA test game against a Russian infantry Company and absolutely crushed them with my british tank company because they were severely lacking long range anti tank on that points level. We are all together completely new to the game so there are no experienced players to help us out so far. This game felt unbalanced. But since we dont have any experience it couldve also been the FFA mission that made it look imbalanced. Since we want to keep the price for a new force low for a while (to drag more players in our club into FoW) what would be a points level that is not too unbalanced but doesnt require everyone to build up to 1500 immediately (Late War)?

Thanks in Advance
Mywik

600 used to be pretty common to start out, only one combat platoon required (rather than the usual 2 for larger games) and of course an HQ. Some forces don't function well at these low points levels, my SS for instance struggle at anything less than 1000.

The standard game size varies quite a lot but 1750 is what I tend to play to. 1780 is the new tournament standard for some reason.

MarsNZ wrote:
600 used to be pretty common to start out, only one combat platoon required (rather than the usual 2 for larger games) and of course an HQ. Some forces don't function well at these low points levels, my SS for instance struggle at anything less than 1000.

So im reading this like we should put our games at 1000pts at the moment for new players in our club. Its kinda hard to get people away from marines and elves to play fow so a low cost for an army is one of the best arguments in this case. Best route for us is if we can tell them "hey for the price of that tank you shouldve gotten a full fow force". As soon as they are dragged in and bought their 1000pts force they are lost anyway

At the moment we have 4 players for late war (russian inf, german inf, german tank/inf, british tank) one player is going for US Tank next month and one hasnt decided if he goes russian or german tanks. We have around 20 people in the club.

My FLGS runs starter games of FOW at 1000pts. Enough to have a bit of everything on the table , but easy enough for new folk to grasp with a bit of assistance and encouragment..

(The new Open fire starter set gives you about 1000pts armies.Depending what list you use)

Lanrak wrote:
My FLGS runs starter games of FOW at 1000pts. Enough to have a bit of everything on the table , but easy enough for new folk to grasp with a bit of assistance and encouragment..

(The new Open fire starter set gives you about 1000pts armies.Depending what list you use)

I purchased Open Fire. The two armies in there are 790 (german) and 820 (brits) and are balanced against each other. Only thing is that the russian army i fought on that points level just had no chance because they didnt have the option to include long range anti tank and thats one problem on those low points levels. He had 5 T34 which were shred early in the game by my fireflies. After that it was a slaughter. We will go for 1000 points for starter games in the future to avoid problems like this. This enables him to take some anti tank guns.

1000 points (Skirmish for learning how to play)
1500 points (a decent sized Game)
1750 points (the Standard around Tournaments and club play)

I'd also add 600 point games to that. Played with just one combat platoon with support. Ideal for quick starter games or expanding leagues.

For me at the shops, i have played at 1750 is the norm. but when i game at one of our house we usually play 2000 or 2500.

2000 points is nice because you get a fair whack of stuff without too many really powerful units. Played in about two hours depending on setup time.

Russian in particular struggle at lower point levels. Because each element is a company rather than a platoon they end up paying a lot just to fill out their compulsory units, and any extras usually cost a fair whack again due to the numbers they must field.

Give it some time and you and your group will find FoW is actually a very well balanced game.

Frohe Weinachten :>