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Yeah, I know. There's a lot of these posts. I've read through most of them.
The only question I have is what kind of army should I buy? I am kind of leaning towards a german tank company, but I also am open to suggestions.
I'm not looking for a highly competitive army that can win tourneys regularly. I want an army thats fun to play and to paint. I'm going to be spend lots of time between 40k hobbies putting love into these models.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FEARLESS VETERAN armies tend to be cheaper in the long run as their points costs are quite high. SS have some of those troops in the Tanks dept too I believe.

I play Fallschirmjager. Which is the german paras.. They are tough as nails and arent afraid of anything... =]

Late war I'm assuming? Heer Panzerkompanie is actually quite fun, cheapn and easy to put together. Buy two boxes of Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IVs, assemble them as Ausf. H - this gives You mandatory 2 HQ and 2 x 4 Combat platoons. You only need two more tanks to bring them to full size. Then add some infantry support, cheap recce (8-rads or Light 221-222's). Some StuGs for the taste and You are free to roll.
If You can convince someone in your local group to play Allies, then grab the new starter set which will give you infantry and StuGs.

I actually don't know what era I should do. Whats the most popular? Late War?
BTW, all that jargon of "recce", "rads", and "StuGs" went right over my head man. haha. sorry. I'm a FoW noob completely.
If its not too much trouble, could you explain the basics for the FoC (or w/e its called in FoW) so I know my options when picking units?

Late war is probably the most popular but the other two (early and mid) are also very popular however the factions vary wildly between the eras. For example an early war German tank company will have large amounts of light(ish) tanks with good air support and large blobs of infantry support. That same company in late war will likely be short platoons of high quality tanks, with scattered infantry in support and absolutely no air cover. That's a very general idea of what to expect, obviously there's plenty of exceptions among the dozens of different army PDF's available.

recce = reconnaissance
rads = a type of German recce vehicle, lightly armoured and fast but easy pickings if caught in the open
StuG = German shorthand for their assault guns, the chassis of a panzer without a turret and it's main gun mounted in the hull (think vindicator from 40k)

Someone suggested Fearless Veteran for armour, to be honest you don't need Fearless rating for armoured units so you'd be better going for Heer Panzerkompanie with Confident rating, they're Veterans too but you don't pay the premium for having the higher - and largely unnecessary - motivation rating.

Edit: FOC for FoW is pretty similar to 40k. You need an HQ (leader, and an optional 2IC) and usually a minimum of 2 'Combat' platoons. For armoured companies these are usually 3-5 medium tanks (soviets get more). Other than that you're free to spend points anywhere on your chart (each army list has it's unique chart shown on the first page). Support comes in the form of 'Weapons' platoons (usually light guns, HMG platoons, etc) and 'Divisional Support' (units loaned to your company by the division or corps) this is where some big units are available, for Germans this is where you'll find Tiger tanks, Jagdpanther heavy tank destroyers, heavy artillery etc, you can end up spending a LOT of your points in divisional support but generally it's your combats that will win you the most games.

Thank you! That was really helpful. I just spent the past hour and a half also watching the Boot Camp, which definitely helped me get the basics down.
My only question left would be where I can get my hands on all the Company lists. Are they just in the rule book? Or spread out between different books? (FYI, I think I'll do Late War if it is generally the most popular.)
Also, would it be worth it to wait and save up for Open Fire if I'm likely to run German tanks? Would that rule book have all the Company lists? Or would I end up having to pay to get the rest?

http://easyarmy.com/

Version 3 lists are for free as soon as You register, other lists are available for a small fee. If You are interested in Late War Germans, I'd suggest You to pay ~1,5 - 2 USD and unlock "Grey Wolf" book, which is currently the most comprehensive Axis book.

Most important, easyarmy works as an army builder, where You can play around Your lists and see the points values.

if You are into tanks, go grab a couple of Plastic Soldier Company German Panzers IV, because the new Open Fire set will only have assault guns (StuGs). StuGs work for tank companies too, but I'd suggest that You pick Panzer IV H for Your Company HQ. Of course, You can always go cash heavy and buy 2-3 Open Fire sets, which will basically give You option to field StugKompanie from Grey Wolf, but IMO generic Panzerkompanie is better for learning the basic rules.

Btw, if You are goind for casual play, disregard my advice about buying PSC products, since for official tournaments You will need official Battlefront products only and there are some issues between BF and PSC currently. But if You are casual gamer like me, then PSC is the way to go with tanks, assault guns and transports for mech.infantry.

Wow, thanks for all the help guys. Here's my next set in never ending questions, haha:
I picked the basic Panzerkompanie (Heer) from the Flames of War 3 book. I noticed that there is a HUGE point difference between the IV-H and the A. Why is that? I can see that the A has much higher armor and better anti-tank, but is that it? Is it typically worth it for over double the points to take the A over the IV-H?
My other questions is this. I chose to take the IV-H at the moment, simply cause it was cheaper (but if there's a good reason to take the A, I'll switch). I've got an HQ and 2 full platoons of IV-H, which puts me at 1080. I know the typical size of games are 1750 points (right?). So, what should I take? I debating between some mech infantry, more typical tanks, or a platoon of heavy tanks.
If I took some Tigers, that's pretty much the end of my list right there.
If I took the Panzergrenadier Platoons, I could take 2 full platoons and still have 230 points.
If I took more IV-H, I could take another full Platoon and still have 220 points left.

Suggestions?

I think I can give a little insight here, but keep in mind that I'm still fairly new.

Infantry has been very very helpful for me in the few times I've played in a tourney setting. They hold objectives very well against most things which leaves tanks for other things. I haven't tried using them too much in a offensive role however so I'm not sure how useful they are there.

Tigers imo are fun but not always worth it. If you are playing other newer players they are fun because of how intimidating they appear to be. Against more experienced players they are almost useless. There are many tactics that can be used to get rid of them or even to just avoid them. That being said, I usually have one, rarely do I take two.

Sadly, I've never used standard panzers so I can't comment on that. I use hotchkiss tanks which are a whole different play style I think so my experiences won't help you.

The Panther A's superior profile makes it the better tank a lot of the time if you're planning on dueling opposing armour at range. AT14 is death to nearly every tank out there and front armour 10 makes you invincible from the front against standard guns and a decent chance vs the bigger weapons.

That said, being able to take more Panzer IV Hs also has it's appeal. You have more tanks to cover more area on the board. The AT11 main gun is enough to kill most standard tanks out there and you get more shots for your points there. They're also better in assault as Shurtzen helps block incoming Bazooka shells and the more tanks you have, the more infantry you can squish with them.

It all depends on your playstyle. Neither option is wrong and you can mix platoons, say 5 Panzer IV (+2 HQ tanks) and 3 Panthers. In either case, you must (MUST) take a recon unit of some sort to alleviate ambushes. Smoke and anti-air units wouldn't be terrible either.

If you're taking Panthers, you probably won't need Tigers as well. Proxy out different armour combinations and see how each one works for you if possible.

Agree, Tigers and Panthers are great but don't take them together, they don't compliment each other very well.

Panthers are better in armoured lists as they are combat platoons and are as fast as the smaller IV-H

Tigers I find suit infantry lists better, they're slower but fit very well into supporting role. Their higher top armour means they can go into the assault with the grenadiers.

As a LW German player it's never a bad idea to put aside 150pts for decent AA support. At this point in the war the Luftwaffe is pretty much gone and the Allies have all kinds of nasty fliers and in great numbers. Even if they don't bring aircraft the AA doubles as a pretty powerful anti-infantry/light vehicles choice.

Thanks guys. I'm thinking about starting a german FOW army soon, and you've answered a lot of my questions.

I've started listening to What Would Patton Do?, and I've heard a lot about recce and ambushes. Can anyone give me an idea of how recce protect from ambushes?

Also, things are pretty well split between mid-war and late-war in my area. Any ideas on expanding the new starter for playing both?

 Anpu-adom wrote:
I've started listening to What Would Patton Do?, and I've heard a lot about recce and ambushes. Can anyone give me an idea of how recce protect from ambushes?

You don't have the rulebook yet, don't You? The idea is pretty simple - You run recce platoons ahead of Your tank columns to create the bubble - the opponent either has to reveal that he has an ambush there (but if You've measured correctly, he won't have the range on tanks) and You can disengage with recce (taking only one shoot from each team) and he is generally left in the open. Or he will decide not to reveal the ambush there and spring it elsewhere (which can again be counter by the previous tactic). Without recce he will just teleport onto the table and take potshots on tank side-rear armor.

So, he literally won't have the models on the table... interesting.

No, I don't have the rulebook yet. I'm waiting for "Open Fire!"

Yes, You won't be able to spot them on the table - but You should try to identify possible locations for good ambushes and try to avoid them or send the recce for scouting if You cannot avoid going there.
Compare it with deep-striking in 40k or IG Marbo - it's essentially the same - the models are suddenly on the table and they can shoot You too.

A good option for something that can double for Mid and Late War would be the Fallschirmjager. Specifically, if you choose them from the Cassino (Late) book, you will paint them in a really similar scheme to the mid-war North Africa campaign Fallschirmjager.

FJ for the win!