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I discovered the other day there is a small but growing Flames of War group in my area. I had heard of the game years ago and it looked interesting but I never saw any interest. So I'e been looking around for information now and will probably reach out to the group for a demo game in the near future.

Needless to say, I have a couple of questions:

1) 4th edition is the current edition, right? Are there the various sourcebooks as well for it, like the equivalent of GW codexes that have the army lists? The Battlefront website is a bit difficult to navigate and has a lot of information from older editions so it's a challenge to figure out what is current and what isn't and which books are for 4th edition.

2) Is there a starter box or would I be better off getting the rulebook and purchasing an army? I know the group is mostly Mid War, but might be dabbling in Late War. I see a few boxes, but not sure which ones are current. I have seen El Alamein, Open Fire (I think this is from a past edition), one I can't recall that was I think Stalingrad or somewhere around that area, and I think one more. Which, if any, of these boxes, are current and are any of them worth picking up to start? I also see that Battlefront has a bunch of "boxed armies" but I think these are Late War?

3) Just from a rough thought of period I am thinking the Eastern Front, mid-1942 to 1943, around Case Blue and in/around Stalingrad since I'm interested in both the Germans and the Soviet forces and will likely have a force of both so I can play Axis v. Allies and vice versa. I haven't decided if I'm basing the army on an actual army in that period or a generic force that can be any one of the German and Soviet armies involved. My idea was to pick as close as possible to a "generic" themed force so I could participate in various battles although I was originally considering the DAK, however, that really limits me to the Africa campaign.

4) I was pointed to alternative figures than the ones Battlefront sells, in particular, Plastic Soldier Company. Scale-wise are these equivalents? They say 15mm (1/100) but I am guessing they would look out of place mixed in and I should have one or the other. If I go with PSC, I have read a bit that their figures have different types of bases and don't come with the rectangular unit bases; can I buy these elsewhere or use something comparative? I am thinking of sticking with Battlefront just for that purpose so I don't have to hunt down things, but part of me does like having alternatives and the PSC models have pretty good reviews (although a quick look on their website shows several theater-appropriate kits for Russia but the German ones all seem to be Early/Late). However, I'm not sure of retailers in the US for them and since they aren't built with FoW in mind it seems like it would take some effort to set them you pin the same way.

1) 4th ed is the current edition. As far as sourcebooks, for MW there is Ghost Panzer, Afrika Korp, and Iron Cross for the Germans, Enemy at the Gates and Red Banner for Soviets, Fighting First for US, Armored Fist for UK, and Avanti for Italians.

LW is just getting started with Fortress Europe which covers the period between say Kursk and D-Day. The idea being that Fortress Europe allows you to bridge your MW armies in LW armies. The US D-Day book is out, Germans will be next with the British and Soviet time period books targeted for early 2020.

2) There is a starter box ( Hit the Beach) and to be bluntly honest, if you are interested in Germans or Americans, its an amazing value. The boxed armies are also good, though I don't think they scale points equally. None of the box sets are what I would call a "bad" purchase, but like all games I would personally pick up the "codex" I was interested in first and then build from there.

3) That's a completely valid approach. I also know people that build unit specific lists. Best approach is to just make sure that you and your gaming group don't move on different pathways.

4) PSC makes some solid kit that looks fine on the table. You will find that when you compare different manufacturers you will find some differences. As long as you keep the same manufacturer in the same unit, they all look fine on the table. I will say with BF, you get the bases and cards that you will have to source if you go that route.

Reference alternative models,especially vehicles

https://themodelwarrior.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/15mm-tiger-tank-reviewa-tale-of-six-tigers/


Hope it helps. Basically everything looks the same once on the table.

Also spot the difference once painted up

https://themodelwarrior.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/15mm-tiger-tank-competition/

So quick update I had the demo yesterday and it was a lot of fun, even though it was just a few tanks (might arrange a larger demo next week). So I think I'm sold on the game.

I'm still thinking of a theatre. I'm now strongly considering Africa because I don't know a lot about that part of the war; most of the video games I enjoyed playing ignored that so it's fairly new to me. Also, my mindset is that if I do Africa (I'd most likely do DAK) it allows for fighting UK and USA, while Eastern front is only fighting Russia. Granted games will be against whoever (and it's not like I couldn't also build a force to play on the east. Maybe I'll do a soviet force and find a german player for that) but in my mind a more historical variety of opponents is better.

If you go for North Africa a lot of the British forces can be shipped over to Crete and you can fight the battle for Crete. All you have to do is get some Fallschirmjager.

So one more question. Most of the boxed starter sets (El Alamein, Stalingrad, etc.) come with a mini rulebook. There's also the big hardcover rulebook. Is there anything in the big rulebook that's not in the mini rulebook that I might need? I mean I'm sure it has background material but this is World War 2, I can just search for background information online or buy a reference book (which I'll likely do anyways). Granted the hardcover book is pretty cheap but if I don't need it I can put that money towards getting a forces book.

Mini rule book will have all you need.

I enjoy my DAK force, but I also picked it up as probably my 12thteenth army.

Only word of caution I would have in selecting DAK is make sure you have an opponent base that is open to NA, or make sure you are comfortable playing your desert uniforms against soviets. Personally, starting out, if I wasn't sure of my opponent options and limited on funds, I would likely start my germans out of one of the two eastern front books. The uniform and kit would allow for a fairly easy transfer from mid war to late war with a minimum of new model purchases. Late War has tended to be the more popular area for the player base, so I imagine as the books become more fleshed out, you will find more players looking for LW match ups instead of MW ones.

My group seems to be set on MW, they explained because the war wasn't decided by then. Most of them seem to have forces around that theatre so I should be fine, there's a guy with Soviets but I could always do another German army for the Eastern front, which is what I was originally going to do (around Citadel) for the MW->LW transition.

The big reason I picked DAK was that in the mid-war period that's where a lot of the variety seemed to be, while otherwise, it'd just be the Eastern front. I expect us to move to LW at some point but for now, everyone seems to prefer MW.

I also went ahead and ordered the "Rommel's Afrika Korps" boxed army (the one with the tanks and two 88s) as well to start. Given how cheaper this seems than 40k I don't think I'd have an issue (and more importantly my wife wouldn't have a problem) with doing a couple of armies.

Mid-war in general has always seemed more popular than Late War for some reason. I enjoy both myself in Late War I mostly play Germans or US para's. In Mid War it's all about those crazy eye'd-talions.