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Well, not really fear, but holy crap are there options. I keep looking at the nations involved, but the tanks available and their variants is a bit overwhelming. Can someone point me towards some resources to clarify historically or gameplaywise just to calm my mind over the this?

Is there a particular faction that appeals to you? That's where you need to start.

Is there a particular time period you are interested in?

AndrasOtto wrote:
Is there a particular faction that appeals to you? That's where you need to start.

Is there a particular time period you are interested in?

Probably US 3rd Army under Patton or Germans. I also have a weird fondness of churchills for some reason which draws me to Brits, but probably not as much as the other two. As for period, I'm really up in the air still. There's just a lot to dig through and figure out. I've been watching batreps on youtube, but they're all over the place in terms of quality and information.

The best thing to do is see what your local group plays, if they all play mid war and there isn't a British player for example then a mid war British list would be a good choice.

What interests you on the table top? Elite armour, mass infantry, artillery, commandos? Once you decide what sort of list you want to collect and play then its quite easy to find a specific list and nationality to fit your prefered play style.

I'm probably going to be the one starting the community. In my area, there's a GW and then nothing for like 30+ miles.

As for table top, I want something that is fairly representative of historical accuracy. Probably infantry with tank support or a more tank heavy list.

If Churchill's are your thing (definitely mine ) there are some free Pdf lists on the FoW website - one that covers Mid/Late War Italy and another for Late War Northern Europe. Quite tough in a slow grinding type way. PSC are due to release a Churchill kit in the near future by the way - BF's big lumps of resin and metal can be pigs in my experiences.

What ever you do don't fall into the classic that looks pretty wargames trap at sale time and buy more stuff than you can handle. I did this and am now sitting on US/UK/German and Russian forces with little time or energy to paint them!

As a general tip the Starter pack (if you don't have it) looks like a good starting point in your position, simply because it has a set of generic lists for all forces so yo can better gauge what you want.

 Surtur wrote:
I want something that is fairly representative of historical accuracy. Probably infantry with tank support or a more tank heavy list.

I would suggest finding a unit that you are interested in (via a family connection, its a local unit, you like the unit flash or whatever), doing some basic research to give you a rough ORBAT for that unit and construct a list that would give a fair reflection of that unit on the table. As you are trying to start a FoW community from scratch I would also suggest making an enemy list for your chosen force so that you will have something available for demo games.

http://easyarmy.com/ This is an excellent resource for army lists, it has all the .pdf lists as well as the lists from the V3 rulebook available for free and the other big book lists can be bought for the price of a medium bottle of coke.

Pick something you will enjoy painting!

Thats generally how I choose what armies to do, I just go with whatever interests me the most to paint! At least that way you dont get bored of doing it!

 Surtur wrote:

AndrasOtto wrote:
Is there a particular faction that appeals to you? That's where you need to start.

Is there a particular time period you are interested in?

Probably US 3rd Army under Patton or Germans. I also have a weird fondness of churchills for some reason which draws me to Brits, but probably not as much as the other two. As for period, I'm really up in the air still. There's just a lot to dig through and figure out. I've been watching batreps on youtube, but they're all over the place in terms of quality and information.

If you want to do a 3rd Army tank company, it's pretty easy

Book Blood Guts & Glory
1 box of M4A3(Late)
1 box of M4A3(76)
1 box Armored Rifle Platoon
1 box Armored Artillery w 3 M7s and Observer Sherman
1 Box Tank Destroyers (M18 or M10)
1 Blister Tank Destroyer Security Section
1 Blister Cav Recon
AOP

Split the Tanks so you have two 76s and two 75s in each platoon, with the 1iC and 2iC the left over tanks

7th Armored Tank Company (Trained)
Compulsory Tank Company HQ - 1x CinC M4A3(Late), 1x 2iC M4A3(76) (190 pts)
Compulsory Tank Platoon - 1x Command M4A3 (Late), 1 M4A3(late), 2x M4A3(76) (375pts)
Compulsory Tank Platoon - 1x Command M4A3 (Late), 1 M4A3(late), 2x M4A3(76) (375pts)
Trained Corps Tank Destroyer Platoon - 1x Command .50cal Recon Jeep, 2x M20, 4x M18 Hellcat GMC (late) (315 pts)
Armored Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 5x Rifle, 5x Bazooka, 2x LMG, 1x 60mm Mortar, 2x M3 with .50cal AA MG, 3x M3 with AA MG (225 pts)
Veteran Cavalry Recon Platoon - 1x Command M8 Armoured Car, 1x Mortar Jeep, 1x Recon Jeep (90 pts)
Trained Armored Field Artillery Battery - 1x Command Carbine, 1x Staff, 1x M4 Sherman OP, 3x M7 Priest HMC (170 pts)
Air Observation Post - L4 Grasshopper AOP (40 pts)

1780 Points, 6 Platoons

If you replace the AFAB with a 105mm Field Artillery box set you are at 1750pts


For the M4A3 Sherman's you can get two boxes of PSC M4A3s which come with the parts needed for the 75s and 76s, you can even built a 105mm if you want the optional gun (one per company)

Big P wrote:
Pick something you will enjoy painting!

Thats generally how I choose what armies to do, I just go with whatever interests me the most to paint! At least that way you dont get bored of doing it!

This, plus if you can buy a boxed set do so....

Don't get drawn into the idea that you can do it cheaper, looks can be deceiving. Getting the boxed sets gives you a discount, as well as the Rare Earth Magnets Decals, Objective Markers, Tokens, dice etc.

I've often tried to do it on the cheap and then when I've done the Analysis I should have just bought the boxed set. It looks expensive, but actually sit down and work it out and you will not be able to match it for value. It looks like a massive all up cost, but compared with some Systems FOW is cheap...











This one is probably the most expensive......



You can even find older Boxed sets out on the Web which maybe cheaper or more suitable.



Search around...There are bargains to be found.

As you are starting your local meta, a word of warning.


While tank heavy lists are a quick and cheap way of getting a good sized force assembled, if you have a meta with mostly tanks and then someone comes in with an infantry focused list(especially veteran infantry) you could have problems with the infantry beating up all the tanks.

Encourage your players to focus on combined arms lists. Take armored lists if they want but make sure they bring infantry. Otherwise you could end up with an unbalanced meta like we had here. It was almost completely tanks with very little infantry, then I decided to get Fallschirmjager and things quickly became pretty predictable.




As for keeping track of different tanks and such. I'd recommend getting a couple books first and just reading about the different forces in each one. Grey Wolf, Red Bear, Earth and Steel, Devil's Charge, etc...

Which ever book's era of the war appeals to you. Then pick a force you like and collect from there. Its less overwhelming once you've started.

If he started with the US 7AD company I posted above, just getting a second ARP and Company command blister will give him a Veteran Armored Rifle company

4AD ARC (Veteran)
Compulsory Armoured Rifle Company HQ - 1x CinC Carbine, 1x 2iC Carbine, 1x Jeep, 1x M3 half-track with .50cal AA MG (25 pts)
Compulsory Armored Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 5x Rifle, 5x Bazooka, 2x LMG, 1x 60mm Mortar, 2x M3 with .50cal AA MG, 3x M3 with AA MG (295 pts)
Compulsory Armored Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 5x Rifle, 5x Bazooka, 2x LMG, 1x 60mm Mortar, 2x M3 with .50cal AA MG, 3x M3 with AA MG (295 pts)
Veteran Tank Platoon - 1x Command M4A3 (Late), 1 M4A3(late), 2x M4A3(76) (375pts)
Veteran Cavalry Recon Platoon - 1x Command M8 Armoured Car, 1x Mortar Jeep, 1x Recon Jeep (90 pts)
Veteran Armored Field Artillery Battery - 1x Command Carbine, 1x Staff, 1x M4 Sherman OP, 3x M7 Priest HMC (220 pts)
Trained Corps Tank Destroyer Platoon - 1x Command .50cal Recon Jeep, 2x M20, 4x M18 Hellcat GMC (late) (315 pts)
Air Observation Post - L4 Grasshopper AOP (40 pts)

1765 Points, 6 Platoons

 Grey Templar wrote:
Encourage your players to focus on combined arms lists. Take armored lists if they want but make sure they bring infantry. Otherwise you could end up with an unbalanced meta like we had here. It was almost completely tanks with very little infantry, then I decided to get Fallschirmjager and things quickly became pretty predictable.

One of the reasons I like FoW so much is that it greatly benefits the players to use combined arms forces. Tanks are good on the attack, but too easy to take out when it comes to defending objectives. Infantry hold tight to objectives when dug in, but don't move fast enough to give a solid offensive thrust on their own. Guns are good for defense and being dug in around important points, but are really lousy on the advance. Artillery is always useful for keep opponent's honest as well.

Skriker

My advice, is that a Tank force is easy to learn. Combined arms is the best way, but it is a steep learning curve to do it effectively , like playing EVE ONLINE level learning curve.

Tanks allows you to learn gradually, incrementally. Infantry is a very difficult beast to get right from day one. You need lots of experience in order to learn how to use Infantry effectively, the same with artillery and Transports, Airpower and Recce units.

The key advantages with a Tank force, are that they are cheap, quick to paint and get you into the game quicker.

You can then round out your force, with infantry and other units as you gain experience and learn how to use them.

I would always advise a new player to go with a Tank force, because it's easy and you will always be able to use the tanks in future, in other lists.

Cheap Tanks = PSC or the Open Fire Tanks or Tigers Marsch or whatever.

Grab two boxes of PSC one of Panzer IV's and the other Panthers for like £35 and you have a 1400pt force....

2 Panther HQ
3 Panther Platoon
5 Panzer IV's

1385pts. Start playing....It's super cheap.

4 x Plastic Tiger Tanks are £19 = thats 860 points in one BOX!!!

If they are SS that increases to 960points!

Buy tanks, grab your dice start playing and learning. Then buy what you want as you learn about the game.

Yeah, the real issue happens when people don't graduate from running Tanks and those who do start running riot over the tread heads.

Look at what time period you are interested in, and what you like.

In FOW everything is fairly well balanced, so you can focus more on what you enjoy painting and looking at rather than what is powerful because everything can get the job done if used right. Most people suggest Tanks to start as they are cheaper to collect and easier to learn rules for. Look at mwnciboo above, his advice is good.

I personally went with Soviet Infantry (with Tanks of course. T-34 was my favorite tank of the war) as my first army, as I loved everything about the eastern front (and the waves of human bodies was just appealing to me. I also play Imperial Guard in 40k, I like sending a hundred men to die and still have a thousand more to give. Call me cynical *shrug*). My second was Brit Infantry.

if you don't mind me jumping in, what would be a good way of starting an armored USA army? I want to start a US army. and it seems pretty convincing to start with tanks and them graduate to infantry, but what I'm I going to need/want to buy? I like the starter set but it seems that it would more evolve into german and british collections, rather then trying to squeeze something American out of it.

For books, either Operation Cobra or Blood, Guts, and Glory.

Blood, Guts, and Glory is both the newer book and later in the war. But that can lead to upgrade/option ADD.

 WarlordEXE wrote:
if you don't mind me jumping in, what would be a good way of starting an armored USA army? I want to start a US army. and it seems pretty convincing to start with tanks and them graduate to infantry, but what I'm I going to need/want to buy? I like the starter set but it seems that it would more evolve into german and british collections, rather then trying to squeeze something American out of it.

The market's pretty much awash with shermans of all shapes and sizes so starting a US mechanised should be pretty cheap. Look for cheap stuff on eBay and Plastic soldier company shermans and halftracks (the PSC Sherman boxes have 75, 76 and 105mm options). In the UK I could get about 15 PSC shermans for the same price as the starter box which is a solid core for a armoured company.

My preference is to go to battlefront for infantry and most of the other support options.

 WarlordEXE wrote:
if you don't mind me jumping in, what would be a good way of starting an armored USA army? I want to start a US army. and it seems pretty convincing to start with tanks and them graduate to infantry, but what I'm I going to need/want to buy? I like the starter set but it seems that it would more evolve into german and british collections, rather then trying to squeeze something American out of it.

Look at the post I made on 5/31. It has a shopping list and force structure for a tank force.
You can buy 2 boxes of PSC M4A3 Shermans to save $56 instead of the individual Sherman Platoon boxes from BF.

Have you bought a book yet? Blood Guts & Glory is a good place to start, though BF is going to release a new Normandy book in a few days.