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I've recently bought the Open Fire set to decide if I wanted to start Fow. I think i'm probably going to go with a Us force and wanted to know were to start. I've read the guide here http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Starting_a_Flames_of_War_Force for the American Airborne Force and i'm considering following it and getting a box of Airborne Artillery and AT. Will I still need the Parachute Company set or will the troops from Open Fire be enough? And If I don't go with the paratroops what would be a good list to start off a armored Company?

First off, if you want to look at lists, but not buy the books, look at Easy Army.com it has for a few dollars the lists there.

The books with Late War US Paras are Turning tide, Nuts and there will be some in the new market garden compilation.

You'll likely need the para company box, as you'll be lacking options from the Open Fire box and other things like a CO and 2IC

As for what else, well I think artillery is a good shout, as are some mortars for smoke and then you can flavour it with recon, tanks, and tank destroyers etc.

If you want US tanks, my bet would be any of the 'Bulge' books, so 'Blood Guts and Glory' is my first choice but also look at Nuts and Devils charge

Hope that helps

If you want some ideas, check out my blog below, one of my mates is doing US paras

I might change the Guide to include the newer American Armour boxed sets.

The reason is that Tanks are much easier to learn and use than Infantry. And therefore are simpler to learn and implement, including easier to paint and cheaper than Para-Troop list with all the trimings (E.g Artillery, support Weapons etc).

My honest recommendation would be this...USAB03 7th Armoured Division



http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=3579

you get the Decals, Dice and tokens as well as the models..

I know it's like $180 Dollars, but you get everything. If you buy it all seperately, you may *Repeat may* get it cheaper but I doubt it. If you buy it from different suppliers or off someone locally/ Bartertown or whatever you will be able to find a good deal. It looks expensive on the outlay but it has everything you need, so call it an all up expense.

US PARA's are great but you need to get to grips with Infantry which is a pretty steep learning curve compared to other games.

But for cheapness, if you can buy a few Platoons from the Open Fire Boxed Set on Ebay, I reckon you could buy a full Para-force for like $90. Especially if you use Forged in Battle.

IMHO, see if you can borrow an army off a player and have a few games to get a feel for it, and how you play and what you like. Experience is the best way to learn the game and what you to collect as a force.

There's always plastic soldier company too. They have tanks for about half the price of battlefront's stuff and imho it's some pretty good quality stuff. I personally own their t-34 and tiger sets and have been impressed with how nice they are. The easiest place to get them in the US is through the war store's website http://www.thewarstore.com/theplasticsoldiercompany.html It ends up being around $24 for 5 tanks, so that's a good deal. They are plastic, so they aren't as heavy as the battlefront stuff, but that has never bothered me. Good luck starting out!

PSC are very good, they can be on the light side, so you need to be aware that they aren't probably as hardwaring as say the Metal & Resin Vehicles of BF or others.

Several things to bare in mind, in the BF boxed Army sets, you get the Rare Earth Magnets, the Decals, the tokens and the dice. Usually you get a little list / booklet too. This includes any small infantry bases (such as staff or command teams for Artillery).

If you buy elsewhere (and you can / should as you progress through your FOW playing), you will find that PSC is great but doesn't give you everything you need and this means when buying things like this it looks much cheaper, but then you have to add in all the other incidental expenses which actually do begin to add up. That said, when you are doing large armies of Mechanised German Infantry buying 3 boxes of 251's (15 in total) is massively cheaper than buying them from BF. So it depends on the force, the requirements, and what your personal preferences are....No one says you need decals, it's just a nice aesthetic thing.

You just need to plan your purchases carefully. If you want a simple all up approach, which you can slowly add to, I think the BF boxed sets actually take a bit of beating.

Just a quick question.
Are battle front going to release a PLASTIC US para company. Using the excellent plastic minatures from the Open Fire set?
(They might be a bit cheaper than the metal ones perhaps?)

I agree that the big boxed sets from Battle front are good value for money. If they contain exactly the units you want to field, as its a one off with all you need.
(But why not include 2 more usable vehicles , rather than the 2 objective markers?)

 mwnciboo wrote:
PSC are very good, they can be on the light side, so you need to be aware that they aren't probably as hardwaring as say the Metal & Resin Vehicles of BF or others.

The 'light' feel of psc is easily solved during the assembly process. As the models are hollow you can fill the insides with something to give them some more weight. I just used bog standard poundland filler, which I fill the bottom half of the tank with.

Or you can do what i do buy both. Buy psc for your normal units and buy BF for command. purchase BF bases for 12 dollars and PSc makes a nice set of bases also.

There is also old glory's command decision line. Their infantry looks pretty nice (I have a ton of their soviets) and are more realistically proportioned. This means they are thinner and look slightly different, but it isn't that much of a difference, especially when they are all painted up. I prefer metal models over plastic because I enjoy the feel and there are usually more varied with poses. Mount them on bases and you'll be good to go.

Encoded wrote:
I've recently bought the Open Fire set to decide if I wanted to start Fow. I think i'm probably going to go with a Us force and wanted to know were to start. I've read the guide here http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Starting_a_Flames_of_War_Force for the American Airborne Force and i'm considering following it and getting a box of Airborne Artillery and AT. Will I still need the Parachute Company set or will the troops from Open Fire be enough? And If I don't go with the paratroops what would be a good list to start off a armored Company?

So a new fellow American PAra player,I play the 101st Airborne and 327th Glider Infantry.
I think for the starting player i would suggest a Intel book. Their are three for late war and one for mid war. Next would be decieding on what Division you are wanting to field.82nd Airborne or !01st.
Here is some quik info for the intel books.
Nuts LW 101st.Airborne. Special warriors,very Artillery heavy and may use HEllcats and HAlftrack arnored rifle plattons.So far probably the best list.
Hells highway 101st and 82nd lists. LW Good book for warriors and you may use British armor .Also this the book the the new Starter set is based around.
Turning tide LW 101st and 82nd lists. 101st get .50 cals and the 82nd gets M10 tank deystroyers. Overall a very good book.Also has the British in it also.

For mid war all that i have seen is the 82nd list in north Aferica book.Pretty Vanilla except for the 75mm howitzer battery is six guns

I guess for me if i was starting out. i would pick up the Airborne company set,plus a few other things that are not in the set but used to be in it.Snipers. and a path finder.The pathfinder represents the paras deploying from reserve in missions that do not allow it.Special PAra ability.
Here is what i would get if i was starting with the NUts book. HQ i would pick up a para warrior model so that you do not have a common models for the COs representation on the table.
I would suggest some Hells cat but starting out you already some Shermans maybe brit but big deal they are still Shermans.
Glider 105 Light Arty battery,75mms are good at taking Infantry out, but not so good at taking on tanks.Also for Support you may field 2 155 batteries.81mm Mortars are always handy too.

But if was going to use hells Highway i would just pick up another starter set and trade off the Germans for more allie stufff then pick up some Zveda Brits stuff.

I hope this helps you out.