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Basically got a £15 voucher from Wayland, and after having a little look around the store was drawn to the Open Fire box, as FOW has always been something that sorta had my interest, but was a no go because Aura (my wife) had zero interest in WWII games. However my nine year old lad who is studying WWII at the moment at school is obsessed with the period and is into wargames, so I thought why not.

My queries are, do I need to get a rulebook of some kind to go with it, or is it all playable straight from the box?

When I do decide to upgrade (if we like the game) what books would folks recommend we get, I think we'll be playing games Normandy onwards?

What scale is the game/terrain, and is there any good stuff out there to buy for battlefields?

Any other advice in general?


Thanks in advance to anyone who stops by with some info, and looking forward to receiving the game, hope it is as fun as it sounds.

The Open Fire! set is a REALLY good deal for what it comes with, 2 ~800 point armies (and good, legal armies too), rulebook, dice, TERRAIN (yeah, it comes with paper terrain which I found cool and original. Gives a nice vibe), and quick start guide (this thing is so useful! It has some "solo" things you can do to teach you mechanics with, and it does a great job of explaining said mechanics before you dive into the rulebook). Trust me, it's a steal.

1) All playable, straight from the box. Comes with the book

2) It comes with Brit Tanks and German Infantry. If you guys want to expand, what do you want to do? I know the most about the Brits rather than the Germans, and honestly the British Armored Company list that is given in the rulebook (you wont have it since it's a small book, but Easy Army has them) works just fine, and it's free

3)FOW is 15mm scale. Model wise, there are a TON of great companies out there. Plastic Soldier Company is a great one that springs to mind. Terrain wise? A lot of Battlefronts kits are good, but I find that model train stuff has cool themes to them and scales nicely

4) Don't worry too much about what is good and what is not. FOW is great because everything is balanced much better than in 40k or other games. I can honestly say there are no really "bad" units, everything has some sort of purpose. But just remember, have fun with it. It's not a "Historical Game", it's a "World War 2 Themed" game. Sure, the US and Brits might have never fought, but the fun comes from thinking up a situation where they might have.

Also, what interests you? If you like large groups of Infantry where your basic selection (platoons) are bigger than most other armies entire company, than go with Soviets. If you like elite, fearless tanks and men, try out the Germans. Trust me, there is enough variation that you will be able to find some sort of army you like.

Have fun!

Took to long to post and someone replied before me.

For your army lists it sounds like you'll like the D Day collection books, and the ones following it (Blood Guts and Glory, Devils Charge, Nuts, the newest book collection)

Or go with fortress europe. Good for generic lists for the big 4

Or use the ones in the rulebook, not bad for a start

 washout77 wrote:
I can honestly say there are no really "bad" units, everything has some sort of purpose.

Unless you're running a lot of Beute Panzers in late war, good luck with that!

I have stopped buying physical FoW rulebooks now, too frequent minor updates for too much money. I buy them from http://easyarmy.com/ instead, its only about £1 per book and its endorsed by Battlefront.

All you really need though are the lists that came with the hardback V3 rule book, they are free on easy army and you will be able to create a standard late war army for any of the big 4 nations with them. This is especially true if you are just playing casually with your son but if you ever want to play competatively the newer books would be better as they tend to have small points reductions and more options.

The main manufacturers of 15mm aside from Battlefront are:

http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/

http://www.forgedinbattle.com/index.php?cPath=22

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/range8.htm

http://www.skytrex.com/page151.html

 kenshin620 wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
I can honestly say there are no really "bad" units, everything has some sort of purpose.

Unless you're running a lot of Beute Panzers in late war, good luck with that!

*shrug* Hey, im not a German I run mostly Soviet and Brit Infantry, and im actually not sure if I have enough AT to kill spam list of 'em

I really want to try a Finnish T-26 army in late war, it will get slaughtered of course.

Palindrome wrote:
I really want to try a Finnish T-26 army in late war, it will get slaughtered of course.

Fearless Veteran will not save you from even the basic T34!

But aside from outdated tanks, most units have a use. Just dont go too overboard (like 6 king tigers, and thats it)

Read this

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Starting_a_Flames_of_War_Force

*Why don't people read the Online Resources sticky at the top of the board *

 mwnciboo wrote:
Read this

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Starting_a_Flames_of_War_Force

*Why don't people read the Online Resources sticky at the top of the board *

I've learned that no one reads stickies, or at least on Dakka

Psst. mwnciboo, if you note the time I started the thread, I think that might answer your query.
Could barely coherently type last night at that time of the morning, never mind notice the thread above.

Although saying that, its nice to get some direct answers quickly, rather than wade through a huge thread sometimes and this one will quickly drop to its death off the first page,

No need to worry.

psst....your supposed to be one of those god-like beings known as MODS, you know the guys who live on the internet and never need sleep

 kenshin620 wrote:
For your army lists it sounds like you'll like the D Day collection books, and the ones following it (Blood Guts and Glory, Devils Charge, Nuts, the newest book collection)

Or go with fortress europe. Good for generic lists for the big 4

Or use the ones in the rulebook, not bad for a start

 washout77 wrote:
I can honestly say there are no really "bad" units, everything has some sort of purpose.

Unless you're running a lot of Beute Panzers in late war, good luck with that!

sorry to hijack...

i was thinking of collecting a soviet late war army but i'm a little stumped about what books to use...

i know of fortress Europe and Stalin's onslaught, but i'm not sure on the others- i'm looking to cultivate multiple force options you see

comign form 40k this is a little bit of a muddle

Red Bear is the latest book, failing that use the Tankovy list in the V3 rulebook, its free on Easy Army..

Hmm, actually have a question not answered by the article (well I couldn't see it anyway.)

Regarding the Market Garden box, am I reading that right, a load more mini's etc. Is it all the same scale as the rest of FoW and I'm assuming that is another good buy?

Yes 'open fire' mini's are designed for FOW

Market Garden is a campaign box and the miniatures that it contains are only tokens http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1887

I haven't used it myself but it probably isn't that useful to buy right away.

Ah good job I checked, from the little info I could find, it wasn't overly clear.

Will skip that then. Oh and woot, Wayland has shipped Open War.

Art_of_war wrote:

 kenshin620 wrote:
For your army lists it sounds like you'll like the D Day collection books, and the ones following it (Blood Guts and Glory, Devils Charge, Nuts, the newest book collection)

Or go with fortress europe. Good for generic lists for the big 4

Or use the ones in the rulebook, not bad for a start

 washout77 wrote:
I can honestly say there are no really "bad" units, everything has some sort of purpose.

Unless you're running a lot of Beute Panzers in late war, good luck with that!

sorry to hijack...

i was thinking of collecting a soviet late war army but i'm a little stumped about what books to use...

i know of fortress Europe and Stalin's onslaught, but i'm not sure on the others- i'm looking to cultivate multiple force options you see

comign form 40k this is a little bit of a muddle

I have been running this list from Red Bear,i played against it last week and it turned out to be quite effective,Forward detachment Tank Company. page 76 red bear.