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Hi

Looking onto other games at the moment and a bit confused with Flames of War. I believe third edition has just come out and there is also the New Open Fire Starter Set at the end of the month which has the mini rule book.

But looking round there are loads of other rule books/add ons, I was wondering if someone could explain how they work and if they are compatible with third edition.

Cheers

The other books you see are similar to a codex in Warhammer. They contain the lists for the forces that fit into their theater/period (Eastern Front, Late-War, for example). Basically, you get the main rule book and the book with the corresponding period and theater for your force.

All books produced for Flames of War can be used for V3 (Battlefront doesn't invalidate old book when they release updated versions like GW), but the older ones tend to be a little weaker.

The new 'plastic' Open Fire has a 3rd edition 'travel' rulebook. There are a lot of supplements, it would be best to narrow down what you're interested in rather than attempt to list them all.

The most uptodate "supplement" books are:
- Grey Wolf for Axis lists (Germans, Finns, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians)
Red Bear - Soviets, Polish
Blood, Guts and Glory - Allied lists, and several German lists of minor relevance as well

Nuts - Yanks and Brits again (stand to be corrected but I guess there are couple of German lists as well???)

If You are into Germans, then Rulebook (or mini-rulebook from starter) + Grey Wolf makes You pretty much settled for Late War.
Otherwise, Fortress Europe was pretty solid book with all main factions for the last half of 1944 IIRC - but keep in mind that point costs in Grey Wolf are cheaper than in Fortress Europe - you get to field more mechanised panzergrenadiers in halftracks now.

Good news are that You can pit army lists from different books against each other without almost no issue, even if the book is pretty old - the only rule is that You should not fight cross-era battles (Desert Rats v. Late War German Heavy Tank Company for example), since armies are balance within their respective period - Early War, Mid-War or Late War.

Thanks for the help I need to get my head round the Early War, Mid-War or Late War thing but I'm sure that will work itself out if I decide to go ahead with this game.

I'm looking at a number of different games to start next, I always want to try all the options when I get into a hobby, just not enough time and money.

Yes, Nuts has a few late-war German armies.

I'm finding that if you are smart about your purchases, you can build your army in such a way that'll play in both Mid-war and Late-war with just a few substitutions. You'll need two different source books, but you can even reduce that cost by using http://www.easyarmy.com

You can pretty much combine Mid-Late War armies with only a little extra cost, but I believe that Early-Late is next to impossible - unless you are running infantry hordes...

Btw, You can also design your list within particular era in the manner that you can switch out between different army types with little fuss and extra expenses - for example switching between mech.infantry and tanks is the most simple one, since you only need a little bit more tanks (unless you are soviet player and need 10 extra t-34's ) and you are into tank company list with infantry support.

CainTheHunter wrote:
You can pretty much combine Mid-Late War armies with only a little extra cost, but I believe that Early-Late is next to impossible - unless you are running infantry hordes...

Not if you play Italians. The Semovente 75/18 and Lancia da 90/53 are pretty much the only new equipment in Mid-War.

Not if you play Italians. The Semovente 75/18 and Lancia da 90/53 are pretty much the only new equipment in Mid-War.


Even they are only available in certain locations. The Semovente 75/18 was only used in the desert and the 90/53 was only used in Sicily.

Course, the good point with that is that it is relatively easy to adapt your Italian army to any period and any location, as there is virtually no difference between them

Vanders wrote:
Not if you play Italians. The Semovente 75/18 and Lancia da 90/53 are pretty much the only new equipment in Mid-War.


Even they are only available in certain locations. The Semovente 75/18 was only used in the desert and the 90/53 was only used in Sicily.

Course, the good point with that is that it is relatively easy to adapt your Italian army to any period and any location, as there is virtually no difference between them

Of course the point here is moot since there are currently no existing Italian Late War lists in any of Battlefront' books anyway. So there is no need to go from Early War to Late war with the Italians.

Skriker

 Skriker wrote:

Vanders wrote:
Not if you play Italians. The Semovente 75/18 and Lancia da 90/53 are pretty much the only new equipment in Mid-War.


Even they are only available in certain locations. The Semovente 75/18 was only used in the desert and the 90/53 was only used in Sicily.

Course, the good point with that is that it is relatively easy to adapt your Italian army to any period and any location, as there is virtually no difference between them

Of course the point here is moot since there are currently no existing Italian Late War lists in any of Battlefront' books anyway. So there is no need to go from Early War to Late war with the Italians.

Skriker

There are none in books, but there is the Italian RSI briefing online: http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=217 (currently under review for V3).

 General Seric wrote:
There are none in books, but there is the Italian RSI briefing online: http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=217 (currently under review for V3).

Damn online briefings...someone always has to whip one of those out!

Skriker