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So I haven't wargamed in about a year and a half but am looking into getting back into it with something new. I'm really used to playing 40k and WHFB the most but I'm kinda tired of GW in general. When Flames of War first came out I had a large Italian army and really enjoyed the game. But it fell off at my local shop rather quickly. I have found another place where it is played and went to get back into it as I love WW2 history and such. I have some questions about getting back into FoW and I would like some tips or some advice because the last time I played it was within the first 6 months the game was out..... I have done a demo of it last week and I think I'm definitely going to get into this game again.

Just some questions though. I do not want to do an Italian army again. I would prefer to do something new. I looked over the models line and have really fallen in love with the possibility of fielding a Polish army. I would like to know if fielding a Polish army would be any good on the table top and would I need a deep pocket to field one? I really would not like to go down the route of playing the typical armies and I really want something different on the field that represents me. (Polish family lineage....... lol)

Would a Polish army be a viable option in FoW both on the table and money wise is the question for you FoW vets.

Read this...

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

Grab yourself a book, or unlock one on Easy army.

With regards Viable, this isn't 40 k or GW so over-powered-flavour-of-the-month-characters-are-not-what-this-is-about.

It's very well balanced so you don't need to worry about "Competitive" or viable, more along the lines of "Do I buy more AA, or AT or Tanks or Infantry, not super-uber-units and Characters".

Hi Spartan.
If you look on the Battlefront website there is a FREE to download PDF, for 1st Polish Armoured Division.
(Covers Armoured, Armoured infantry, Armoured Recon, and Infantry .)
(And can be accessed FREE on Easyarmy .com for list building.)

If can get access to Plastic Soldier Company kits, they do 5 Sherman V(option for VC) for £18.50.
Also they just released the M5 Half track too.Stuarts should be soon too!

The new starter set 'OPEN FIRE' has the new rule book and lots of minatures, (ShermanV and VC ) in it.
It may be worth picking up if you dont have the new rule book?
For £45 it is awsome value IMO.

I think the referenced intro is brilliant.

I would not recommend a Polish Home Army force as your first army. Polish paratroopers should be ok, but I make that comment without the book handy.

In FoW, your training level determines how hard you are to hit. The PHA is conscript, and will die in droves. This is ok if you are used to it, but as a first army I would not paint a conscript army.

If money is a factor, take a look at what is available from PSC (short version, Americans, Soviets, Germans) and pick one of those. You cannot go wrong with a late war choice from any of the three, and Soviets/Germans will be easily morphed into mid-war.

I've been painting up Soviets, you can put an eyeball on my blog for a mix of Battlefront, PSC, and FIB tanks and infantry if you are curious/concerned about mix and matching.

http://www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/
http://jackdethplays.wordpress.com

 mwnciboo wrote:
Read this...

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

Grab yourself a book, or unlock one on Easy army.

With regards Viable, this isn't 40 k or GW so over-powered-flavour-of-the-month-characters-are-not-what-this-is-about.

It's very well balanced so you don't need to worry about "Competitive" or viable, more along the lines of "Do I buy more AA, or AT or Tanks or Infantry, not super-uber-units and Characters".

Thank you for the responses its been quite a long time since I've had an FoW army. (First was the Italians and I just never really liked them or got into them)

I will look at the pdf's mentioned as well. Thank you for all the advice from everyone. Cheers

What Poles are you interested in?

You have the 1939 Polish army, British equipped Polish Paras and Armoured Squadrons, The Polish Home Army (basically partisans) or the Soviet equipped Polish Armies to choose from.

These will all play very differently on the tabletop but all are viable.

I'm really interested in the Polish Paras and the 1939 army the most.

Polish para's are solid (they're in the market garden book - 1944) very solid list

Its probably best to start with Paras then. They have a much smaller model count and as late war is the most popular period so you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding opponents.

Early war Poles are good as well, you will just need a lot of them

 Spartan 117 wrote:
Would a Polish army be a viable option in FoW both on the table and money wise is the question for you FoW vets.

Really depends on the gaming paradigm where you are. The only real problem with the poles is that they are only available for play in the Early War period. So if you have plenty of local players who do Early War then you are in luck. If they, instead, play late war almost exclusively like a lot of groups do, you would be out of luck. I love the EW period, because the really heavy tanks, like the Matilda II are too expensive to be prevelant much at all, and most every gun has a chance of taking out armor. Keeps things a lot more balanced and means that forces full of light armor, like armored cars, are more viable and effective as well.

{Edit} Completely forgot the LW polish airborne and armored lists they have now. Haha...oops...Polish airborne are rock solid infantry and when dug in are hard to dig out. Polish armor suffers from the usual quality of quantity issue that allied armor at the time had with the shermans just needing to be massed to deal with heavier german armored companies.

As others have said, this is not a GW game so there is not the "latest codex" syndrome of everyone playing a certain army because it got the most recent codex and has all the uber powerful toys. Every army in the game is balanced for points cost, so the Poles are just as useful as the germans, british or French in Early war. Of course army composition does play a big role still, so if you have all infantry stands and no anti-tank guns you will have a hard time against enemy armor. Flames of War is a game that rewards combined arms forces significantly. A balance of infantry, guns, artillery and vehicles leads to the best success in the game than any force that focuses on any specific type of unit.

The Poles get access to the awesome armored train models that were released, though your opponents will likely not want to *always* play with a train scenario.

Skriker