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Hey all,

Me and my mates are thinking of getting into a bit of FoW, and I was wondering, what is the average army size?

Thanks,

Doop

Late War usually settles around 1750 pts while Mid and Early tend to hover around 1500

Right, but how big is that?

That depends entirely on what army you're playing. If you've got a primarily veteran or fearless army, the units will cost more and naturally you have less on the table. Then it also depends on the era, since certain things will cost more or less depending on early, mid, or late war. In early war, you tend to see a lot of larger tank swarms since the light tanks are much cheaper and they tended to field tanks in larger groups.

For Vet infantry armies, you'll see about 2 platoons of around 5-7 stands. Some support weapon platoons and 1-2 medium tank/vehicle platoons.

For confident/trained or specialty armies you're looking at 2-3 platoons of about 9 stands, a lot more support weapons, and vehicles.

Soviets tend to field a full third up to double the amount of stuff other armies field, but that stuff also dies faster.

Of course, if you take the expensive or rare stuff, that will eat up points as well.

Just do yourself a favor and go to easyarmy.com and see for yourself.

This link is a little outdated, but may be of use for you. It shows some sample 600 pt armies and what they cost in terms of $$.

http://www.fantasybooksinc.com/Sample%20600%20point%20Forces.pdf

I can get about 100 stands of stuff on the table for 1750 as soviet infantry. I could probably get even more then that, but it would mostly be little ivans and not very effective.


I highly suggest trying Plastic Solider Company and Zveda's operation barbossa vehicles for mini's since they are way cheaper than battlefront and look quite sharp.

Zvezda are meant to be miniatures so the gun barrels are true scale, IE, will break if you are not super careful. Thats one of the benefits of BF miniatures, solid, rugged barrels compared to the other manufacturers.


As for model/army size.. Conversely, you can run 3 Tiger IEs and 1 platoon of men for 1500 points Mid War. This will run you less than 80 bucks. In late war, the King Tiger is a bit less on points, but is more indestructible to front-shot weapons.. however, artillery and assaults are its bane. You can run 4 King Tigers in 1500 pts, and this will cost also around 80 bucks.

Whichever route you decide to go, learn with tanks first. There is a reason the open fire set has just tanks. So for Germans, grab yourself 5 x Panzer IVs, if allies go with 5 x Shermans or T34s as yoru first purchase and have some fun. Later on, you can see how dug-in veteran infantry are virtually immune to machine gun fire

Matt's right - Tank companies are often the best way to learn in the game, since you don't have the more complex rules that you get when dealing with infantry.

Speaking of Tank companies, here's a 1750 pt Irish Guard force from the 'Hell's Highways', from Dakka's own legoburner:

^
I like the flowers on the base of his infantry.


Back to the subject, what I really like about Zveda is that I can buy the tanks for like $3.49 each from The War Store. I dont plan to actually ever use my KV-1's in combat unless I do a total war game, so mostly I just use them as objective markers. I font really find that they have very brittle barrels, if anything I could probably chuck the model accross the room and a little chipped paint would be all I would have to fix.

With battlefront the Resin models to have some heft to them, which I enjoy. But I would not say they are more sturdy. Also if you are really big on customizing your armies, and I am, the blank slate of the plastic solider company or zveda is nice because you can add your own details to the miniature. With Battlefield you typically get five different sculpts in a box of tanks, most with some individuality, but unless you want 1 in 5 tanks to have a log on it, you don't have as many options in the direction you go. I also enjoy that with PSC I get the turrets for both the T-34/76 and the T-34/85. Its the same with their Shermans and panzer IV's.

Both miniatures have their merits, I suppose. I do hate battlefronts infantry with a passion though.