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Hey everyone, i am still on the fence about starting flames of war, and i am not sure if it would be better to just roll with the ww2 FOW stuff or to maybe start with the vietnam version? i already have a rough idea of what i will do with the ww2 FOW ideas i have formulated, but i was also very interested in playing the vietnam version, would it be better? ( i am currently doing the research on it also) if i do the ww2 route, i will just start with the OPEN FIRE! set, see if i like it, then decide on any further purchases. But if i go the FOW vietnam route, i was thinking that maybe just buying the TOUR OF DUTY rule book, and a rifle platoon of US soldiers and a platoon of VC soldiers i could try it out like that. Still not sure which though, and im not really around many FOW players so i usually have to wait to ask or try finding someone who actually knows his/her stuff.

THANKS!

I’ve not played the Nam game so can’t comment on whether it’s any good or not, but the obvious advantage of the WW2 version is that it is much easier to find opponents. I've yet to see a games of FoW Nam being played at a club or show anywhere near me. But then again I am in the UK where Vietnam is going to be less popular than WW2 for gaming due to the fact that we were never involved. In America it may well be easier to find people who are interested.

The best bet is to speak to the people who you are likely to be playing against and what they are interested in. Even if they don’t want to commit at first you may be able to get them to play with you if you collect two armies. If they enjoy it they will sooner or later buy their own.

ok, thanks

Yeah, WW2 is the way to go. Plenty of people playing it pretty much everywhere. Vietnam however is pretty good in my opinion, but it feels to much like WW2 with a Vietnam skin (pretty well made Tank lists even though there was only 1 major tank on tank battle in all of the Vietnam War).

Agreed, FOW Vietnam is kind of limited, it's a specialised and narrow form of FOW.

I would go with WWII...I played it for like 30months, and now I have a thing about Cold War 15mm stuff.

But I still get the WWII stuff out once a month or so, for massive Team based games like 6000pt 3 vs 3 , D-Day, Market garden, Eastern Front.

 orkkiller21 wrote:
Hey everyone, i am still on the fence about starting flames of war, and i am not sure if it would be better to just roll with the ww2 FOW stuff or to maybe start with the vietnam version? i already have a rough idea of what i will do with the ww2 FOW ideas i have formulated, but i was also very interested in playing the vietnam version, would it be better? ( i am currently doing the research on it also) if i do the ww2 route, i will just start with the OPEN FIRE! set, see if i like it, then decide on any further purchases. But if i go the FOW vietnam route, i was thinking that maybe just buying the TOUR OF DUTY rule book, and a rifle platoon of US soldiers and a platoon of VC soldiers i could try it out like that. Still not sure which though, and im not really around many FOW players so i usually have to wait to ask or try finding someone who actually knows his/her stuff.

Really depends on where you are located and what others play, but Vietnam generally gets a lot fewer followers than WWII. Vietnam is growing a bit more with the release of Tour of Duty and the addition of armor for the North Vietnamese and full ARVN and Anzac lists added in. The Vietnam models are beautiful, but all the games I've watched tend to play the same way: Constant waves of North Vietnamese infantry flooding the table to be wiped out by over whelming fire from the free nations side, only to swarm in again next turn and so on. While I love the minis, the games themselves have left me cold. Have to admit I haven't seen any big armored engagements with the north's armored forces yet, so that might change the paradigm for me. There are also some rules changes from the baseline FoW rules. Some are interesting and others have left me scratching my head.

It should be much easier to find opponents for World War II. Most areas you can find a FoW group running WWII usually in LW. Check your local area and you can get a better idea of what will be most advantageous for you. If you are isolated without a local store that already has a FoW contingent then you can be the trend setter yourself and go with what you prefer. Makes it easier *and* harder at the same time of course.

The Open Fire boxed set is not a bad place to start for WWII, though depends on what forces you really want to play. Germans are set up fine in the box, but the allied side is a combined force of British armor and US paratroopers which limits their usability to lists from the Market Garden book which was the only real operation where US and British forces worked that closely supporting each other. You can use the baseline shermans to play a US armored company with paratrooper support, though the US didn't have or use Fireflies, instead having multiple different upgunned/uparmored versions of the sherman instead. So it is a starting point, but to branch out to different lists you'll just need to bulk out your allied figure collection more sigificantly than you will the german side, as the german minis can be used to simulate a multitude of different lists from different books. Of course if you want to play Russians, or Italians or some other force then the Open Fire box will be a waste for you.

Skriker

ok, so yeah, i kinda did have a feeling that the fow vietnam was very limited and not many people who play it, so i will probably just roll with the ww2 version, but 1st just buy the OPEN FIRE! set and see how it all works, would that be a wise choice? or should i also buy an extra unit to add on?

 LuciusAR wrote:
But then again I am in the UK where Vietnam is going to be less popular than WW2 for gaming due to the fact that we were never involved. In America it may well be easier to find people who are interested.

I'm not sure thats valid... I've been told that the American Civil War is more popular in wargaming communities in Europe than it is in the states...

I have been playing Vietnam wargames in the UK for the last 25 years...

Always been quite popular as far as modern gaming goes... Its no WW2 though.

chaos0xomega wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
But then again I am in the UK where Vietnam is going to be less popular than WW2 for gaming due to the fact that we were never involved. In America it may well be easier to find people who are interested.

I'm not sure thats valid... I've been told that the American Civil War is more popular in wargaming communities in Europe than it is in the states...

I just went to a Gettysburg reenactment, and 75% of the reenacters weren't American. Never quite understood what made people from Israel (of which there were quite a few) for instance want to wargame an American-Only war.

Ok...........well mostly ALL eras are popular in wargaming, and they are popular with all kinds of people, could we just leave it at that? Maybe? Idk....but yeah, So if im the only guy really in my area that plays, besides a guy i heard of that has FOW stuff but i guess hasnt played in a long time, could i maybe start off with early war? Because if i did that, i would just have to buy a couple rulebooks or....wait...just the set of them, and they have a Polish boxed army at my local/best option (for any hobby stuff around here) store, maybe i could just roll with that....but then i couldnt really introduce the hobby to others....since i would be the only person who would really have an army........so im guessing the OPEN FIRE would be the best so i could rope in others?

 washout77 wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
But then again I am in the UK where Vietnam is going to be less popular than WW2 for gaming due to the fact that we were never involved. In America it may well be easier to find people who are interested.

I'm not sure thats valid... I've been told that the American Civil War is more popular in wargaming communities in Europe than it is in the states...

I just went to a Gettysburg reenactment, and 75% of the reenacters weren't American. Never quite understood what made people from Israel (of which there were quite a few) for instance want to wargame an American-Only war.

The Civil War does have major historical military significance, not just for Americans.

It was the first war in which railroads played a major part, the first clash of ironclad warships, and the use of weapons with multiple shots before reloading. It was where trench warfare was first seen IIRC.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 washout77 wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:

 LuciusAR wrote:
But then again I am in the UK where Vietnam is going to be less popular than WW2 for gaming due to the fact that we were never involved. In America it may well be easier to find people who are interested.

I'm not sure thats valid... I've been told that the American Civil War is more popular in wargaming communities in Europe than it is in the states...

I just went to a Gettysburg reenactment, and 75% of the reenacters weren't American. Never quite understood what made people from Israel (of which there were quite a few) for instance want to wargame an American-Only war.

The Civil War does have major historical military significance, not just for Americans.

It was the first war in which railroads played a major part, the first clash of ironclad warships, and the use of weapons with multiple shots before reloading. It was where trench warfare was first seen IIRC.

True, true. But influential enough that 3/4 of the couple thousand people reenacting the battle flew in from the other side of the world for 3 days for it? Apparently so...

SO WHAT IF THEY WERE THERE JUST FOR THE 3 DAYS!, MANY PEOPLE find the Civil War interesting, and it shouldnt matter who it is that does, we are WAY off topic for this thread........ now....... just buying the OPEN FIRE! set, and MAYBE an extra para rifle platoon or something else small like a blister pack of something, should be a good way to start off? and play with those before i make the big decision to go further with the game?

 orkkiller21 wrote:
SO WHAT IF THEY WERE THERE JUST FOR THE 3 DAYS!, MANY PEOPLE find the Civil War interesting, and it shouldnt matter who it is that does, we are WAY off topic for this thread........ now....... just buying the OPEN FIRE! set, and MAYBE an extra para rifle platoon or something else small like a blister pack of something, should be a good way to start off? and play with those before i make the big decision to go further with the game?

If you want to evaluate before you invest too much I would suggest just buying Open Fire. You can play out some battles using what is there in different combinations and get a feel for how the game works, the roles armor and infantry play in the game and can go from there. That way if you decide you prefer a different time period you haven't wasted too much money on LW.

Skriker

Ok, thanks! thats exactly what i was sort of thinking also, and a very kind and informative employee at another good store in my area sort of explained what i should do to start out also, THANKS!