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Right, I picked up Open Fire, as it was going cheap, and I found a nice deal on a US Rifle company boxed set which I've ordered. I'll need to build up some Axis forces in order to have enough to get a small game going with some mates. The simple option would be fallschirmjager, as they have a company set available, but does anybody else here have any good ideas for getting a small Nazi force together quickly?
Also, the contents of the Rifle Company set are listed as including some snipers, but the only Intelligence Handbook I have, Fortress Europe, doesn't seem to have any listing for snipers. Have I missed something, or are these models spares that I don't need right now?

First: Easy Army. Go there, get a profile, purchase Turing Tides and Earth & Steel. You'll have all the nice D-Day lists for $2. You can get sniper teams in both the 1st I.D. and 29th I.D. lists.

For a small German (or Axis. Don't call them Nazis) force, I'd recommend the Grenadierkompanie. The Fallschirmjagers suffer from being Fearless Veterans, as opposed to your Confident Veterans/Trained, so they'll be at numbers disadvantage. It really hurts at lower points values.

A small force in FoW is 600 pts, and you'll need:
HQ
1 Combat platoon (instead of the normal 2)

The rest can be spent on weapons platoons and divisional support. My friends and I started at 1000 pts, however, so a standard list for us looks like:
HQ
2 Combat Platoons
1 platoon of armored vehicles, for mobility
1 platoon of man-packed guns, for defensive positions
1 platoon of some kind of artillery, which is mostly used for either laying smoke or (if your like Me, a Brit player, and have light mortars in your combat platoons) pinning down platoons.

Thanks, that's very helpful. I liked the Grenadierkompanie list in FE, but was veering away from it due to the lack of a quick and easy boxed set. But if it's a better way of making a playable game then I'll plough on and deal with it.
Also, cheers for the heads-ip on ettiquete.

Buy the way if you are buying new forces I got an email from Wayland Games today advertising their new FoW bundles, worth a look especially if you are starting out.

linky

Oh, they look nice. But a bit more cash than I can splurge in one go.
Time for a good lottery ticket.

Also I don't know if you have hobbycraft stores there but they are currently selling allot of FoW stuff at anything up to 30% off.

They have allot in store but limited items shown on their website.

There are no Hobbycraft stores over here, but I'll check out their website.

Right, time for another beginner question.
The Rifle Company boxed set arrived today, and there really are a lot of them. Does anybody know of a good online guide to which models should be used in which teams; or do I just guess, glue things together and repent at my leisure?

For the most part, you will be putting the basic weapon troops mixed together on the rifle, rifle/mg, and mg bases. Stuff like rifles, smgs, and light MGs all get averaged out in the rules.

Any SMG teams should all have SMGs of course.

Bazooka teams are on a small base with the bazooka gunner and usually someone with the ammo for it.

Also find the command models first. Usually the platoon command will be standing with a pistol in the air, a common pose for them.

Overall look at what battlefront does. But one thing that's common is people use only four men on a base regardless of total squad size if only to stretch the number of minis used, leaving some for other uses and to replace broken minis.

Thanks, Vertrucio. Are the other two models on a command base just random troopers?

Green Army wrote:Thanks, Vertrucio. Are the other two models on a command base just random troopers?

Depends. Germans often have the option for a panzerknäcker in their command squads, so then you use that fig. If your command squad is an SMG team, then two guys with SMG's is fitting. My italian command bases use some "rare" figs that came in the box, like a local scout and a messenger boy and then I fill in the rest with normal guys. Make them look cool

If it is a midwar US rifle company, then your platoon commanders are just rifle armed. Your company HQ is carbine equipped

Look out for flamethrower miniature too, not sure if one comes in that box, but if your box does come with one, then it will be one mini in a giant pile.