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Sorry, don't mean to intrude, but I've noticed a lot of discussion about mid/late war and pretty much zero about early war. I'm not really all that familiar with this game, but is that because there aren't as many options/as many good units so nobody plays it? I assume the "war phases" are basically like different armies using the same ruleset (i.e. you could fight any mid war force against any other mid war force but not against an early war or late war force).

I personally think that playing with leftover WWI tanks, useless cavalry units, and units with a low standard of training in general might be fun every once and a while (although not all the time I guess...might have answered my own question come to think of it).

Ew is good,but the main reason why i play LW is the Fact that it has the best tech and it was the American Armies prime for ww2.

Early war is actually my favorite period to play as there are little to no super weapons on any side. Sure an 88 is devastating but is pretty much a waste of resources when a 37mm stops the vast majority of tanks dead. Infantry are in their heyday so to speak but still very vulnerable. I just do not think there is a lot of interest in the early war because of the Germans being supreme. I kind of equate early war WW2 to playing early Napoleonics where facing the French are the equivalent.

 dementedwombat wrote:
I personally think that playing with leftover WWI tanks, useless cavalry units, and units with a low standard of training in general might be fun every once and a while (although not all the time I guess...might have answered my own question come to think of it).

There are very few WWI era tanks (and only the French and Poles have access to them, possibly the Finns now as well) while overall the tank Vs AT gun battle is about the same throughout the periods (ignoring heavy tanks and AA guns), there are a lot of highly trained armies, nearly as many as are in late war, and cavalry units aren't all that common (aside from certain armies). Basically early war is similar to the other periods in terms of how games play out. Infantry actually have a harder time against tanks in early war due to the lack of integral AT weapons (aside from the odd AT rifle) and hordes of light tanks that most armies can field.

Germans aren't supreme in early war; their infantry and especially their armour are merely average and some of their lists have some significant weaknesses. FoW is a company level tactical wargame, the Germans real advatage was at the strategic level.

Yes.. from what I have read the French are one of the toughest armies to be in EW, their tanks are pretty nasty (and better in a lot of cases than the Germans).

Agree though, EW looks like a lot of fun - the more random tank designs (am I allowed to say, more 'cute' tanks? ), the big variety of countries and other things..
I did read that Battlefronts focus will return to EW/MW once this round of late war stuff has been released, so will be interesting to see what comes along. Certainly, compared to the other periods there are a lot of other things they could cover.

I skipped early war for early early war (Spanish Civil War).

Its probably because there is a lot of compatibility between Mid and Late war models but not really as much for Early war.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Sorry, don't mean to intrude, but I've noticed a lot of discussion about mid/late war and pretty much zero about early war. I'm not really all that familiar with this game, but is that because there aren't as many options/as many good units so nobody plays it? I assume the "war phases" are basically like different armies using the same ruleset (i.e. you could fight any mid war force against any other mid war force but not against an early war or late war force).

I personally think that playing with leftover WWI tanks, useless cavalry units, and units with a low standard of training in general might be fun every once and a while (although not all the time I guess...might have answered my own question come to think of it).

The different war periods in the game are based mostly on technological advancement more than anything else. Most early war guns will not penetrate tanks in the LW period. There did used to be rules for using Midwar armies in Late war, something close to doubling the points of your force to make a midwar army viable in latewar...and viable didn't always equate to effective either.

Late war gets most of the press because it has ALL the coolest WWII toys involved. I far prefer early war for gaming, though. In early war most of the forces and their abilities are fairly balanced. Not really any forces are incapable of dealing with the average armor threats of the period. In fact a lot of armor can even be touched by units only armed with small arms, so it makes the game much more accessible to all armies. Some of the french tanks have heavier armor, but their limitations make them a bit less of a threat. The british actually have 3 heavily armored tanks in EW. The Matilda I is only armed with a single machine gun, so has no use against enemy armor. The Matilda II can't be touched by most AT guns, but can be easily stymied by dug in enemy infantry which it cannot use its main gun on because of its lack of high explosive ammo. The Valentine has slightly less armor than the Matilda II, but suffers from its same issues with its main gun. All 3 are also stupidly expensive pointswise as well, So ultimately nothing is so overpowered that games get annoying.

Skriker