Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi, my brother and I are coming over from Warhammer (fantasy and 40k) and have decided to start with the Open Fire Box set. Seeing as he is big into German Militaria and such I will be starting with the Allied force. We both want to expand on this force to a reasonable sized army without spending a ton of money right off the bat. What could we both add to get us to around 1250 points that wouldn't cost more than $100 each.
Note: I want to do Irish Guard in the future so anything that puts me in that direction is ideal.

Not sure of pricing over in the States but for another $100 on top of Open Fire your brother is probably going to be closer to 1500pts than 1250. Heck, he could buy a box of panthers for less than that adding ~1000+ points to his total.

Pricing over here is a little less than NZ. We want to get to 1250 to start with $100 each being the most we want to spend after Splitting cost of OF Box. He mentioned he wanted to add some tanks and since my name is Stuart, I was thinking of finding a way to add some of those into my list.
What books would we need to buy to get in some good lists and gameplay early?

FenrisianStuart21 wrote:
Pricing over here is a little less than NZ. We want to get to 1250 to start with $100 each being the most we want to spend after Splitting cost of OF Box. He mentioned he wanted to add some tanks and since my name is Stuart, I was thinking of finding a way to add some of those into my list.
What books would we need to buy to get in some good lists and gameplay early?

There are some new books coming out about Market Garden which will feature newer Brit lists. For now Hell's Highway might be your best bet. It will be more cost effective to utilize the US paras and Sherman V to make US list. But if you want to go Brits you could try something like this.



BR172 Sexton x4 ($50)
AC005 Typhoon ($17.50)
BR722 Rifle Platoon ($23)
Misc Other ($25) to round out your command and staff squads.

You could swap out either the Sextons or Typhoon for some Stuarts.

I would prefer going American out of the box, but was under the impression it would be easier to go BRITS. Speaking in terms of cost what kind of list is possible cheap plus Open Fire for the Americans?

The Sherman V can be used for a M4A1. So you would only have to buy the following.

UBX26 M4A3E8 Easy Eight ($58)
AC007 P-47 Thunderbolt ($17.50)

Both of these list are a little dangerous since you are running so few platoons.

Talked to my brother a little bit more and he wants to run a balanced list, But wants to incorporate Tigers (favorite Tank) into his list. Anyone know cheap ways to accomplish this?

Cheap Tigers are either the Plastic Soldier Company box or Point of Contact pre-painted die cast Tigers. The latter tend to appear on e-bay from time to time and cost about 20 USD for a pack of 5.

Hi.
You can look at the free to down load Briefings on the excellent Flames Of War web site.(Battlefront.)
(To give you an idea of points and army structure,also Easy Army .com is excellent for list building.(It has the Forces lists free,and the free PDF lists too!)


Have you thought about buying 2 Open fire boxed sets?

This would give you plenty of Sherman V and VC for 11th Armoured div, Guards Amoured div, etc.
With US paras for infantry support..
Either a Stuarts or Universal Carriers for recon unit(s) and Priority Typhoon for close air support and to counter any enemy aircraft..

Should be enough for 1500 to 1750 army (For very little outlay.)

The German infantry can give you quite an impressive force with the addition of a German Heavy Weapons box, and a box of Tigers from Plastic Soldier Company.
The only extra units I would take on top of this is SP AA units, and perhaps a Nerblewefer Battery to replace the heavy mortars at 1750...

I would buy another box set and use the left over money to buy models from the warstore.Right now everything is 25% percent off.Look at some of the Zvevzda Models 3.49 each and some PSc sets.For spending around 40$ you can pick up a PSc tank set and a BAtttlefront command Vehicle.Since i went the cheap route for my xmas present this year.My wife spent around 20$ and got me three Arored Cars.2 Zvezda 222s and a BF 223. As for buying another set. I would sell or trade off the extras to get more goodies. Also i play the101st. Airborne i would look into getting me some Willys Jeeps.Great for harrassing enemy AT guns.

Just have patience, the new books are already on Pre-order.
Once these go live, grab them because they will be the flavour of the next 6 months.

This means more model releases, more opponents and a chance to collect the latest lists. It also means people will be getting their forces out, that have been gathering dust and possibly selling or updating their forces. It's a good time to collect a force based on these lists.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

FenrisianStuart21 wrote:
Talked to my brother a little bit more and he wants to run a balanced list, But wants to incorporate Tigers (favorite Tank) into his list. Anyone know cheap ways to accomplish this?

Cheap Tigers are easy....Getting a Balanced List with Tigers is a problem even a pair of Late War Tigers will be costing Just under 500 points although you can get cheaper one's but these are usually less dependable in battle. You've got to trade off alot of points to get Tigers. If he wants a really balanced List, buy Panzer IV's and run a Panzer List or any other list with Panzer IV's. The Panzer IV is all round the best tank in the game. Tigers is a specialist build...If he really wants this I would buy this boxed set, in the Hands of an experienced Player Tigers Marsch is very competitive. It's not great for a beginner but for the Price you cannot beat it, add in some AAA and a Recce Unit and you are sorted.

TIGERS MARSCH GBX15

http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=452

So for $72 dollars you have the dice, the booklet, the decals and 5 tigers. should keep your brother happy and give you a real battle on your hands with your Future Tanks.

Plastic Soldier Company are releasing various things (like Cromwells) which makes Guards Armoured Units cheap to collect. The good old Irish Guards Unit is a good build but takes alot of tanks to get to 1500 points or whatever so just bare in mind that you are looking to have to pay alot more than your German playing brother.

Also Check out our Guide here, alot of us work together to make this.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Starting_a_Flames_of_War_Force

Try the plastic soldier company.

£15 ish will get you 5 15mm shermans instead of £30 for flames or wars' shermans, and the moulding/detail is superior, oh and their plastic, not resin.

hey have loads of other stuff too, including german, worth a look.

I'm seeing a lot of people referencing Plastic Soldier Company as an alternative to the Battlefront models. Will definitely have to check them out!

@mwnciboo- Thanks for the article reference. Very informative and answered some of my lingering questions.

SO I think that I have decided to go British just because I think it will be a more enjoyable army to paint and play than the Americans just because, well, I'm American. Nice little switcheroo.
Late War also seems to be the starting Era for us just because we can incorporate some of the models we really want early on, most likely adding the the experience and allowing us to really get hooked.

SO my next question is, and I hope I'm not repeating myself with this is, What are some good Late War style British Armies that I could play, outside of Irish Guard which I have already decided to build a little ways down the road.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm going British and am going to buy the Hell's Highway book, what book would my brother need to buy for his Germans?

Hells Highway has German lists in there as well, so it should be able to cover both of you.

FenrisianStuart21 wrote:
I'm seeing a lot of people referencing Plastic Soldier Company as an alternative to the Battlefront models. Will definitely have to check them out!

@mwnciboo- Thanks for the article reference. Very informative and answered some of my lingering questions.

SO I think that I have decided to go British just because I think it will be a more enjoyable army to paint and play than the Americans just because, well, I'm American. Nice little switcheroo.
Late War also seems to be the starting Era for us just because we can incorporate some of the models we really want early on, most likely adding the the experience and allowing us to really get hooked.

SO my next question is, and I hope I'm not repeating myself with this is, What are some good Late War style British Armies that I could play, outside of Irish Guard which I have already decided to build a little ways down the road.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm going British and am going to buy the Hell's Highway book, what book would my brother need to buy for his Germans?

You should be able to pick up hells Highway dirt cheap in January and it will cover both of you, as the New books launch and are superceeded (But remember you can still play the old books this isn't like 40k where the old codex gets ignored).

The British have 2-3 major advantages

1, Infantry British Units are pretty nails and dogged, with BRITISH BULLDOG, CARRY ON SERGEANT, and also the under used HMG BOMBARDMENT which can still pin units and is more useful than you imagine equally NIGHT ATTACK is overlooked.
2, British Cruiser Tanks are speedy and I mean speedy, the Cromwell can shift 16" and considering it sports a 6 pounder that's not bad, zip around and get those Side shots on enemy tanks and you will even be able to smash heavy tanks.
3, British Artillery is pretty damn good, the rules benefit you have COMBINED BOMBARDMENT and MIKE TARGET.

Don't forget you don't just have to be Brit's any other Common Wealth Force can be very Good, like the New Zealanders or the Canadians as well as others. Any List where you can get all three of these into one list you will be maximising your impact.

If you want a small Elite band of Ninja's that will make everyone cry, then go COMMANDO (and no i don't mean avoid wearing underwear). The Commando lists are absolutely insane. They make Brit/ US Airborne look like a rag-tag bunch of amateur militia-men. These Guys are made up of the most dedicated professional soldiers they get a boatload of extra special rules lots of options, they generally lack armour or heavy support but can rip apart tanks with their bare hands. They do get "Naval Gunfire support" otherwise known as "Artillery Rape". Best of all in the New Market Garden Book they get some new Commando Lists!!!

SAS/LRDG is a specialist build in North African books, and I wouldn't recommend it, although BFwill probably do more SAS stuff in LW for Northern Europe (Jeep based before and during D-day and everything after).

Brits are good, but you have to build your list around maximising their impact / use of their special rules in order to get the most out of them just like most of the other lists.

Hell's Highway sounds good. Another chance for us to split the cost in the early stages!

I know that since we're starting with the Box Set that I'm probably going to run an Armoured Division first, just because It is what I will have the most of right off the bat. Not looking to dive headfirst until I know if the water is deep enough.


I keep playing around with Easy Army but I can never make a fixed decision on what direction I want to go.

It's no bad thing to be non-committal. You might completely change direction after 3-4 games, I certainly did.

 mwnciboo wrote:
It's no bad thing to be non-committal. You might completely change direction after 3-4 games, I certainly did.

I'm already debating changing direction after 1 official game lol >_< The system is fun. I love my armoured division, but I'd like to try a rifle company lol

Depnds, if you want to go for armoured, the british 8th armoured is the most famous armoured regiment in ww2, plus they get to use shermans and cromwell tanks

If you add 2 Fireflys to the Brits and 1 box of 5 PSC PzIVs to the Germans both sides are 1220pts. (Hells Highway and Grey Wolf. No Tigers though)

If you give the Germans 2 Tigers instead it's 1245pts from Grey Wolf, w/o HQ any upgrades.

We're having a lot of fun toying around with lists on Easy Army, which I highly recommend to anyone. So far I've created a few Armoured divisions, some Rifle Companies and even a motorized company.
What we have decided to do though, is to buy 2 Open Fire Box Sets and the Hell's Highway book, along with the required paints and start there. After Market Garden comes out and we have some games under our belt, we will decide what we want to build towards next.
If anyone is looking to get rid of any FOW in exchange for 40K, DM me and let me know what you're looking for I may have it.