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Hey all,

I have been looking at starting war gaming again after many years out of the hobby. I used to play a lot of gw stuff, but the prices of their stuff is staggering now plus I think I had my time with it.

I really fancy going the world war 2 route and flames of war has grabbed my interest. I have read as many newbie threads as I can but an still unsure on where to start.

Firstly rulebooks...will I be missing out just grabbing a copy of the mini rulebooks off ebay ? Or would the open fire set or core rules be better? I can't seem to make up my mind. I don't want to play either of the forces in open war to be honest either but thought the tokens could be useful.

I think I have an idea of two nations I'd like to try but wondering which extra books I'll need for the information on these. The two I quite fancy are Poland or Finland. There is loads of books out there covering different periods, so can anyone point me in the direction of which books covers these countries?

I find the idea of this game really exciting, a buzz I haven't had for a long time about the hobby. Hopefully I can get involved!

Hi Plampers.
I think the Open Fire starter set is a great way to start FoW.
The amount of content ;- minatures counters, card terrain , mini rule book, starter book and lists etc. make it excellent value.
(Me and my teen age sons played the Open Fire starter for months and had a blast every time.)
And they give you a good start to a late war Polish Armoured Division,(PDF List.)
And any mid to late war German infantry list.
There are lots of free army lists on the battle front Website.(Listed under 'Briefings' in the Hobby section).
if you look on Easyarmy .com (A great army building site for FoW .) there are some of the PDF lists you can access and practice with for free to get the hang of it!

Also be aware of the alternative suppliers of 15mm WWII minatures, Plastic Soldier Company, Forged in Battle , Command Decision.etc.

Hope you enjoy FoW as much as the rest of us!

I picked up the starter set and have had a few games from it an enjoyed every one. So far it seems a lot more balanced than 40k with the victor having to fight hard for the win.

I would recomend the PSC stuff its really good and much cheaper than the BF models. Although BF have just started to do their own plastics so keep an eye for them too!

You can now buy the mini rulebook separately if you want to get a sense of the game without buying the full Open Fire box. If you think you might want to play Americans, British, or Germans, however, I think the plastic minis in the OF box are well worth the purchase price!

Finns are available in Grey Wolf, Rising sun, and I think Eastern front as well.

Rising Sun covers the Finns during the Winter war that everyone knows about at the beginning of the war, in the 'Early War' period.

Eastern front, if it has them, would cover 1942-1944, aka the continuation war. This is mid war.

Grey Wolf covers the Finns till the end of the war, covering the massive summer invasion in 1944 and Finland eventually kicking the German forces out after the Russians and Finns signed a peace agreement. This is your "late war" period.

As for Poles, I know they have some PDF lists covering the armored and paratrooper devisions that fought alongside the British later in the war, as well as the German Blitzkrieg at the start of the war

There are also quite a few LW PDFs for polish and Finnish forces which are free.

You have the polish 1st armoured PDF which has a polish Sherman, Cromwell and infantry company in Normandy and there is a poles in Italy PDF too

The Finns get 'Finns in the lap in sota' PDF for lw

Brilliant , that's the sort of information I was hoping for.

Also thanks for the names of proxy miniature companies.those plastic soldier bits look great value for money.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/Mid-war/Finnish-Jaakarikomppania-Mid-war.pdf This is one of the free lists from the Battlefront Website. Its for mid war but in reality the majority of Finnish troops and equipment are usable from 1939-1944, all that really changes are the points costs and the equipment gets (slightly) better towards the late war period so its a good indication of the list itself.

I play Finns myself and they are one of the best pure infantry lists in the game.

Something that I find extremely useful is http://easyarmy.com/; this is a Battlefront sanctioned website with an integral army builder. It has all the free .PDF lists that Battlefront publish and you can buy individual books such as grey Wolf for $2 each (compared to the £30 or so that a hardback would cost you). It's a really good resource.