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Okay, so I went up to my local gaming store and took a good look at the Flames of War part; they didn't have much but said that I could request getting some stuff in. I wanted to know:
-the "buy in" to start playing
- Armies
- this early, mid, and late war stuff
- How to play
- How much do I actually need to start playing
- General tips for a "conscript" so to speak.

I'd appreciate all advice you guys could give!

To star playing choose a nationality - the easiest are UK, USA and German.
You also choose a period, that depends what others play but late war Is probably the most played and has the up to day books.
You want to look at easy army you can get army lists (from the books) there really cheap + PDFs you want to aim for about 1K to start.

Tanks are easier to learn than infantry IMHO, and you get cheaper tanks from companies like 'plastic soldier company'

As for how to play, find someone who knows is my advice, the rules are not too complex but showing is easier than writing, the flames of war website has some good videos to help learn

Well, I am in the united states, so the shipping for stuff from plastic soldier company could be a problem. I don't mind the U.S. army at all, but I wanted to go for Japan. There also aren't any Flames of War players around me that I know of.

Well there are US importers of PSC.

Japan limits you to early war as there are no mid/late war books on them

The Warstore has PSC.

If there aren't any FoW players, it's up to you to generate interest. I do it all the time for the shiney things I run across the internet or Dakka.

I was in the in same position a few months back, I would advise just buying and painting Open Fire. It is one of the very best value box sets in tabletop gaming at the moment, and gives you enough for 800 points or so a side, plus the lists for the 2 sides and the mini rulebook (which is precisely the same as the big one, except in size).

You get all this (except the battlemat and appaling photography skills)

it's fortunate that I have a battlemat then, plus some terrain. Now I just need to find some victims.

On a more unfortunate note, it's too bad that Japan doesn't have late war, I love those little slant eyed f*cks. (i'm Asian for anyone about to pull the racist card.)

Taboggan wrote:
it's fortunate that I have a battlemat then, plus some terrain. Now I just need to find some victims.

On a more unfortunate note, it's too bad that Japan doesn't have late war

Buy Open Fire, it's the best place to start. If you don't like Flames of War after buying it, you're out 70 bucks (35 if you split it with a friend). Also I'm not pulling the racist card, but you can still be called a racist against Japanese if you hail from some other part of Asia, you may want to edit that comment...

 Alfndrate wrote:

Taboggan wrote:
it's fortunate that I have a battlemat then, plus some terrain. Now I just need to find some victims.

On a more unfortunate note, it's too bad that Japan doesn't have late war

Buy Open Fire, it's the best place to start. If you don't like Flames of War after buying it, you're out 70 bucks (35 if you split it with a friend). Also I'm not pulling the racist card, but you can still be called a racist against Japanese if you hail from some other part of Asia, you may want to edit that comment...

Sounds good enough, the deal looks pretty awesome and so do the models. As for the racist thing, if anyone is butt hurt enough to start an argument over that, they don't deserve attention that would simply fuel the flame.

Japanese forces will undoubtedly be getting Mid War and Late War love in the near future, so I wouldn't despair too much. I have to second everyone that recommended the Open Fire set, it is absolutely astounding value for the money and does a great job getting you started.

Well Late-war Japs will be the same... Not like they changed the army during the war!

Big P wrote:
Well Late-war Japs will be the same... Not like they changed the army during the war!

Me and my brother had a good conversation about them.He is thinking of playing them. He agreed with what me and you discussed before.The JApaneese were mostly Infantry and Artillery based. and that they are pretty much a Infantery horde Army.Also one good thing about picking them up now is that eventually you will be able to field them in all eras. we are kickg around the idea of even using them in late war and just using the NAtional rules and just throwing out the the whole pt. thing forthem and just say looks good enough.but i already have a ew Army my Fallschirmjagers and we can always pickup some EW brit goodies from Zvevzda for one of our players or they could just use his Soviet models.

The open fire set is a good way to go,especially if you do not already know of any other players in your area.So that way you get 2 starter forces and then all you neeed is a friend to play.
i guess i am lucky that my group lets me usually pick the game then we vote.Me and my brother already had 40k armies but was just sick of that game after way to long of playing it.But wanted a wargame on a Company/regiment level to play.Also that was not to expensive for players to get started with.I put my brother Russian tank horde core together for under 200$ .withthat he really did not have to buy much else.But then their is our Pastic Crack habit kicks in.now myGerman army is starting to retardly large,i think i have over 10,000 pts now. kinda funny when i started out with FOW that was my goal and are Americans are atleast a combined arms thing so it is now spread out over 2 players.
If you do not deciede to buy open fire i say go ahead and play the JAps because they will evolve into a LW army and have your oppents colllect the possible Soviets and Fallschirmjager(german PAras) So that they may have force that you can play in alll eras.One good thing about the open fire set i that if later on you decide to collect a different army the models always have a decent resale value.me being a player who is always buying up the models from the set on ebay.