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So I'm starting to get FoW stuff after enjoying 40K. What's the primary difference between the two games? Can I still paint my armies custom colors like vanilla 40k? Any other special things I should know about, such as major rules differences? One guy at my FLGS told me they pretty much had every country represented in the game. Is this true? Can an early war army play a late war army and so on?

FourCartridge wrote:So I'm starting to get FoW stuff after enjoying 40K. What's the primary difference between the two games? Can I still paint my armies custom colors like vanilla 40k? Any other special things I should know about, such as major rules differences? One guy at my FLGS told me they pretty much had every country represented in the game. Is this true? Can an early war army play a late war army and so on?

Paint: FoW is not nearly as historically accurate as many historicals, so there's a lot more leeway. Still, you need to think '20th century military' not '40th millennium' so there's a bit of difference. In general, most units will be some mix of green, grey, brown, tan (desert), and white (snow) as the primary color scheme. Depending on the list used you might feel a bit more constrained: Doing a list from the North Africa book in winter camo would be... odd. Still, unless you want to replicate a real-world historical scheme, you're fine.

Rules: The rules are similar in 'philsophy' but the actual rules set is very different. I think from a read-through FoW handles lots of vehicles better than 40k, for one. Overall, it's a bit more abstracted (in most cases, a stand of guys is effectively the same 'impact' as a 40k individual model) and of course close combat isn't quite as big a part of the game (although it's still there, and pretty common from what I've seen.)

Lists: FoW does support an impressive number of variant lists. There are differences between eras: for example, no US in Early War. Battlefront also does a lot of tournament-legal web briefings that help 'fill in the cracks.' Additionally, some of the lists are very flexible. For example, the British list in one book I have can be used to represent several forces from several UK holdings including Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc.... Each has some slight differences in troop options, special rules, and often vehicles.

Early War vs. Late War: In general, no. The FoW guys do not balance between eras. However, rulebooks set in the same era can be mixed, so a midwar force built for Italy can fight a force built for northern Europe.

FourCartridge wrote:So I'm starting to get FoW stuff after enjoying 40K. What's the primary difference between the two games? Can I still paint my armies custom colors like vanilla 40k? Any other special things I should know about, such as major rules differences? One guy at my FLGS told me they pretty much had every country represented in the game. Is this true? Can an early war army play a late war army and so on?

Painting: Well, it's a historical game. It draws the attention of a lot of historians, so painting your fallschirmjagers bright pink may not be the best idea. Battlefront does sell paint sets that, for around $20, gives you everything you should need to accurately paint your models. They even have guides on the back of the package!

Rules: A major difference is a general lack of charts. Actions are done based on Training - with Conscript (rolls of 5+), Trained (4+), and Veteran (3+) - and Motivation - with Reluctant (5+), Confident (4+) and Fearless (3+). Infantry always get saves, as it represents their ability to take cover during a firefight. Modifiers can make it harder or easier to hit enemy teams.

Vehicles are handled excellently in this game, much more so then 40k. You can actually field Tank companies, and thus have nothing but tanks!

Countries: Well, it depends on what you mean by 'every country'. In Late War, you're going to see a lot of U.S., Britain, Russia, and Germany. But you can find PDFs online (which are free, by the way) so you can play as the Finns, or the Scottish (which is my current army). Early War has Britain, Germany, France, and Poland and the moment. I'm not sure about Mid War, but you see a lot of U.S., Britain, and Germany in Africa.

EW v. LW: I believe the rulebook has a way to 'balance' armies of different eras, but it's highly discouraged. A German Panzerkompanie in Late War will absolutely devastate anything in Early War, and the same could most likely be said for Mid War as well.

It should probably be mentioned that many of the PDFs Battlefront releases are considered 100% tournament legal, so that should deal with that one guy who hates anything outside the main book even if it's a list with a lot of issues that is underpowered, if anything.

I'm not sure about Mid War, but you see a lot of U.S., Britain, and Germany in Africa.

In Eastern Front for Mid-War, you have Germans (of course), Italians (8th army), Romanians, Finns and Hungarians all against Russia of course.

In North Africa, which includes Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, it's British Commonwealth Forces (Brits, Irish, Scotts, Canadians, South Africa, Aussies, New Zealand), and US forces
against Germans (Afrika Korps) and Italians.

Early War is their Blitzkrieg release which has the Poles and French forces against the early-war Germans.

Late War has a number of supplements, one which was just released as a boxed-set from December, the Turning the Tide and Earth & Steel (now thos ebooks are sold seperately), which is D-Day landings and the battles for Normandy and some of the coastal areas in France. This is a more historical book as far as units/lists go as you can run one of the units that participated
in those campiagns. It's Brits, Americans and Free French forces vs Germans on the western front.

Stalin's Europe is a LW book centered around the battles for Hungary, Romania and Southern Russia (Odessa I believe) and has Germans and Hungarians vs Russians and Romanians (after their switch from the Axis).

So, it's basically, you choose an era (EW, MW or LW) and kind of go from there.

in general, as long as you stay in the same period you will be ok. even mixing Mid War and Late war is ok, sometimes.

one thing that doesn't work well is having Allied or Axis forces play against something from the same historical side. a U.S. armored Company will have a tough time against Russian Tank Companies because the Russian Tank lists are balanced against German lists. an army is only balanced against the opposing side, unlike in 40k where armies are meant to play against every other army(even the same army)


the Rule set is alot simpler. you will never roll more then one dice for each shot. no multiple D6 stuff.

the game uses alot of modifiers. terrain reduces your ability to hit the enemy along with other things. if the roll goes above needing 6s you can't hit anything at all.

the way vehicle armor works is similer to 40k. if the tank gets hit you then roll a dice for each hit. if the roll plus the tanks armor rating beats the Weapon it was hit by's anti-tank rating, the shot bounces off. if it ties the Anti-tank, the attacking player rolls a firepower test. if the test is passed, the Tank is bailed out(meaning the tank can't move or shoot untill the tank is remounted) if the roll doesn't meet or beat the Anti-tank rating then the weapon makes a fire power test. if passed the tank is killed, if failed then the Tank is Bailed.


the other change in FoW is that the game usually doesn't have a specific number of turns. the game ends when either one side is destroyed/runs away or the Victory condidions are fulfilled.

Objectives are different too. you just have to hold 1 objective, out of several, for 1 turn to win the entire game when present. hence why i hate objective games.