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Hi
I'm thinking of getting into FOW and was going to try and convince a freind. I was looking to start with the Soviets. Now I know 3rd edition is coming soon so I was going to buy some minis/ expansions and then buy the rulebook when it comes out. So what would be a good way to start with the Red army (I was going to use battlefront or Plastic soldier company minis) Is this a good way of starting now?
And how much in points is included in a PSC 15mm red army box (ie company,platoon,Battalion)
Thanks

I'd say you're looking at around 350pts per box set from PSC- one company of rifle/mg platoons and a command section. What other armies class as a platoon, soviets class as a company, so basically in 40k terms it's one troops choice comprising about 90 men on 22 bases. My friend bought two or three boxes and fields two rifle/mg companies and one smaller SMG company.
A good place to start when it comes to PSC is two boxes of infantry and one of t34's. If you can get hold of zvezda miniatures then you can do a motorstrelovky kompanie and have some KV-1's also for the cheap.

The points for T34-85s can be found here: http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2990 PSC sell them in boxes of five for about £15.

One box of PSC infantry will give you enough infantry to two platoons of Rifle/MG and one platoon of SMG Strelkovy with spares. That's enough infantry for any combined arms late war force.

Strelkovy has gone up in cost in the new Red Bear book. I don't have it yet so I don't know the points costs but 300 points is probably a good ball park figure for a full (three platoons) company of (moto)strelkovy.

I'd recommend getting the Red Bear book. Seeing as how its compatible with version 3. Also use this website http://easyarmy.com/index.aspx it is great for build armies.

So if my freind were to get, say a panzergrenadier platoon,
Would a box of PSC Soviet infantry be roughly the same size (ie a platoon)
Also Is the strekolvy batalon box by battlefront an alternative good way to start?

templarsandorks? wrote:So if my freind were to get, say a panzergrenadier platoon,
Would a box of PSC Soviet infantry be roughly the same size (ie a platoon)
Also Is the strekolvy batalon box by battlefront an alternative good way to start?

Yes the PSC Soviet infantry box and the BF (Udarny) Strelkovy box both contain roughly the same amount of troops, approximately one Soviet infantry Company. The BF box also contains PTRD and sniper teams.

Personally, I like BF infantry models much more than PSC, but by all means buy PSC tanks. PSC tank look great and you can't beat the price. Don't forget PSC boxes don't come with bases, so that's an added cost folks forget about.
Here's a thread with pictures of the PSC russians http://wwpd.freeforums.org/plastic-soldier-company-soviet-infantry-updated-w-pics-t265.html
When I was a new player I read through the books before finding a force that really stuck out for me, so maybe buy Red Bear and read it though before taking the plunge.

Coming form playing "competitive" 40K, Flames of War has been such a refreshing gaming experience. I'm sure you and your friend will love it

So the PSC minis dont come with BF bases? Which bases does it come with? Could I use plasticard to make my own?
I am fairly sure about the soviets. I have been having a bit of an obbsesion with soviet history at the moment and I also like hoard armies.
One other thing, I was thinking of getting fortress unit as well as the BF strekolsy box. Would this be a good idea for the eastern front?
We were probably going to play mid or late war

templarsandorks? wrote:So the PSC minis dont come with BF bases? Which bases does it come with? Could I use plasticard to make my own?
I am fairly sure about the soviets. I have been having a bit of an obbsesion with soviet history at the moment and I also like hoard armies.
One other thing, I was thinking of getting fortress unit as well as the BF strekolsy box. Would this be a good idea for the eastern front?
We were probably going to play mid or late war

IIRC they don't come with any bases. But, you could use balsa wood, or Masonite.

I have just watched 'A bridge too far' and now I sort of feel an urge to collect the British paratroops instead. I have a couple of questions (again).
Firstly, Could I use British paratroopers with Armoured support (ie tanks shermans cromwells ect)
Also What book would I need to use these?
As usual any feedback much appreciated

Yes the brits can get tanks. Depending on what book you use. IIRC Hell's Highway (Operation Market Garden), and Turning the Tide (The battle for Normandy) have brit paras. You can check it out here easyarmy.com. They have all of the books, and there lists available digitally (it is approved by BF) for a dollar or so a book.

Keep in mind, the tank support that paratroopers gets tend to be limited.

I play Brit Paras and honestly, it's not that big a deal.

You can only get one platoon of tanks from a choice of 3 types of armored platoons. First is the Tetrarchs, which is a light tank, very fast, but minimally armored, less so than even with Stuart, which it's mostly the same as. These are the only Veteran tanks you can get.

Second is the Centaur platoon, basically overloaded Cromwell chassis with a 95mm gun meant to be an assault gun. These are Confident Trained compared to Fearless Veteran, I probably won't use these until V3 rules come out to give them Breakthrough Gun.

Lastly there's the DD Sherman platoon, which are Shermans fresh off the beaches with their swimming skirts still on. They lose a hull machinegun because of that, but at least you can add a firefly to the platoon. But they're only Confident Trained so they get hit a lot, and being Shermans, most of your opponents will have guns that go straight through the front armor. In the off chance you get bailed, they'll only get back in 50% of the time. The firefly is nice, but at RoF 2, most of the time you only hit 1 time with it before the entire platoon is blown away in a round of shooting.

Unless you have a lot of them, and some 76mm guns, Shermans are pretty crappy in Late War, there's a reason why very few people use them, especially at tournaments. That's not to say they can't help support the Paras, but you have to use the so defensively they might as well not be there.

The Tetrarchs are the best bet, able to zip around the battlefield and be where they're needed. Despite having low armor, being so fast allows you to avoid most enemies seeing you, and the gun is decent for a light tank and all you need are side shots which are easier to get when your tank is that fast. They're also Veteran tanks, so they get hit much less often.

There are no British Paras in Hell's Highway, just American Airborne with British Armor support.

Vertrucio wrote:Second is the Centaur platoon, basically overloaded Cromwell chassis with a 95mm gun meant to be an assault gun. These are Confident Trained compared to Fearless Veteran, I probably won't use these until V3 rules come out to give them Breakthrough Gun.

Is this for certain? I heard the cut off was 100mm.

I'm trying to think of something in the German or Soviet armoury that is 89mm to 99mm so that I can confirm this for you.

Eh, it probably won't get Breakthrough Gun since the SU-100 doesn't have it, but I can hope.

Right now, there's no real reason to ever use Centaurs.

Cut off may be 101mm then. German 105s (in their many guises) get Breakthrough Gun.

I wonder if we can get a glossary entry for BTG = Breakthrough Gun to save typing.

George Spiggott wrote:Cut off may be 101mm then. German 105s (in their many guises) get Breakthrough Gun.

I wonder if we can get a glossary entry for BTG = Breakthrough Gun to save typing.

Conversely the US 105 sherman doesn't have it I don't think

It doesn't have it because the rules didn't have it back then. The 105 sherman will definitely get breakthrough gun in later books and probably corrected in an errata for V3 since it's expressly designed for that kind of work, and every other 105mm gun in the game has breakthrough gun.

I think the cut off is still around 100mm, however, to get Breakthrough gun, the gun has to be firing powerful HE towards entrenched infantry historically.

There's 2 100mm guns that the soviets have that don't have Breakthrough Gun and both of them have a very high AT rating, meaning they're probably firing AT rounds.

This means it's still a possibility that the 95mm on the Centaur gets Breakthrough Gun since it's designed for high explosive anti-infantry work.

Vertrucio wrote:

This means it's still a possibility that the 95mm on the Centaur gets Breakthrough Gun since it's designed for high explosive anti-infantry work.

There's got to be some reason the brits used it over upgrading to a 105mm howitzer. However it is only firepower 3+.

2+ firepower is probably the cutoff for BTG (edit: with some exceptions for high velocity anti tank weaponry)

Vertrucio wrote:There's 2 100mm guns that the soviets have that don't have Breakthrough Gun and both of them have a very high AT rating, meaning they're probably firing AT rounds.

If a gun only fires AT rounds then it has the 'NO HE' attribute.

Some guns are designed for anti infantry rwork but just aren't big enough to (pass the arbitrary mark to) get the rule, such as the German 75mm infantry gun. I'm not trying to declare an outcome either way for the centaur BTW.

The 95mm howitzer has a wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_QF_95mm_Howitzer

The SU-100's gun has an AT rating of 16. I'd say that's an AT round.

Vertrucio wrote:The SU-100's gun has an AT rating of 16. I'd say that's an AT round.

When it fires at infantry, transports and gun teams it is assumed to be using HE.

I would recommend looking at the PSC Company deals, I know they do good German Panzergrenadier box sets. They may also do the same in Russian Infantry and tanks. I would buy 2 x boxes of T34's and build it from there as Tanks are easy to learn and infantry take alot more skill and experience to use. A Tank army is like a Space Marine Army in 40k, good for beginners.

Brit Para's take a fair amount of skill because they are infantry (in the main) with some nice armour addon's, but generally it's the footsloggers that do the business. So you would need to buy Brit models from BF or Peter Pig but PSC has not branched out into the Brits just yet.