Saturday, July 7, 2012

Getting Started In Flames Of War

by SandWyrm


Someone posted another good Flames of War question over on the 3++ Forums. Here's my answer.


Bit Said:
"I've seen FoW boxes here and there, but I've never actually seen anyone playing it. The "angle" of the game seems right up my alley, though, so I thought I'd ask a couple questions here (I tried looking at the official website, but was quickly overwhelmed).

1) Are there any resources available to find active FoW communities?

2) How do armies work? I see a ton of books available--how are these set up? Are they like Warmachine used to be in that there is a "big" book and a bunch of expansions (but no "army list" books) or is it more like 40k?

3) How flexible is army creation? Say I want to make an accurate 200th Division Tank Division (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200th_Division) Would I be able make this list that used the tanks in the 200th (T-26, B-5, CV-33) -- either through official means or "proxy" -- or am I stuck with only having specific units playable in specific armies?

4) What affect does the whole early/mid/late war ...umm...mechanic?...have on playing the game?

Thanks for your help!"

Sandwyrm's Reply:

1) Are there any resources available to find active FoW communities?

As far as communities go, the best one that I know of is probably What Would Patton Do.

http://www.wwpd.net/

They have several updates a week, including battle reports. And are running an invasion of England campaign right now with some support from Battlefront.

2) How do armies work? I see a ton of books available--how are these set up? Are they like Warmachine used to be in that there is a "big" book and a bunch of expansions (but no "army list" books) or is it more like 40k?

It's a lot like the Forge World Imperial Armor books. There's a main rulebook and a series of campaign books that cover specific WWII theaters or battles. These are split into 3 main time periods. Early War, Mid War, and Late War. All of the books in a given time period are compatible with each other. So you can play Eastern Front Soviets vs. North African Americans if you want to.

Within each campaign book, there will be multiple lists for each faction. So the Mid-War North Africa book, for instance, has various lists for Germans, Italians, British, and Americans.

There are 3 basic kinds of lists. Infantry, Mech Infantry, and Tanks. Tanks Always attack Infantry or Mech, Mech always attacks Infantry. So you decide on the kind of list you want to play and then pick a specific list of that type.

If you're a German player in North Africa, there's a Tank company made up of medium armor for Egypt, another for Tunisia, and a heavy tank (Tigers) list for Italy.

If you want an example list, there's a free PDF of a Tiger list for Tunisia here:

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&art_id=1629

(There's a good number of free lists on the Flames website if you look around.)


The Tunisian Tigers Force Org
The LTC (Chafee) Company Force Org From The Upcoming Devil's Charge Book




When looking at a list, you have to take one platoon from each black box. After you take the required platoons, you can pick up to one platoon from each grey box.


3) How flexible is army creation? Say I want to make an accurate 200th Division Tank Division (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200th_Division) Would I be able make this list that used the tanks in the 200th (T-26, B-5, CV-33) -- either through official means or "proxy" -- or am I stuck with only having specific units playable in specific armies?

Army creation is pretty flexible overall, and there are a LOT of lists to choose from. Particularly if you're Russians. If you just want to recreate some historical force, there's probably a list that you can start with. I know that the Russian tank companies can field everything from lend-lease Shermans and Stuarts to Grants, Crusaders, Valentines, and all of the Russian types.

Heck, they can even field captured German equipment. While some of the German lists let you field captured T-34's crewed by SS troops. I don't know if any of the lists have CV-33's, as the Chinese aren't in the game.


4) What affect does the whole early/mid/late war ...umm...mechanic?...have on playing the game?

It depends on the faction you're playing. For Germans, all of your equipment is different in mid and late war. So you have to buy new models to play a new time period. Whereas Americans don't change all that much from mid to late war. British CAN take equipment like Shermans that are used in both periods, but if you want that early North Africa force with Grants, Valentines, Crusaders, and Churchills, then you're going to be out of luck when the British army switches to American equipment later. There are some armies, like the French, that can only be played in one time period.

Other than that, you just have to be able to play the period that everyone else in your area plays. Around here, it just depends which national tournament is coming up. :)

10 comments:

  1. A great response!

    Even with the advent of VIth Edition 40K my Summer Holidays projoct is still likely to be getting my Flames of War company up-and-running...

    Keep the FoW stuff coming, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank the Emperor. I've send word ahead to the makers of Flames of War for them to make sure that they done leave in ambiguity in their weapon rules. The entire community is concerned where you spend your dozens of dollars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're going to troll, it helps if you use proper grammar.

      Delete
    2. If you're going to complain about every little thing it helps if you don't do it on the internet

      Delete
    3. You're a very mediocre troll.

      Delete
    4. You've become a mediocre blogger, you used to be very good and were in fact one of the first blogs I followed regularly but in the last few months you've really gone downhill. I still read because I like your writing style and your FoW content is quite interesting and is making me think about starting it up. Please though just read some of the 40k posts you've put up lately and pretend they were written by someone else, would you want to read that? There's also the matter that your major issue at the moment is quite a minor one, you don't know what to class your weapon as in the first week of an edition release. Try being a tyranid player we don't even have any reliable method of taking out flyers.

      Anyway long story short it's frustrating watching a blogger you like slowly degrade into a someone who only produces 50% good content while the other 50% is just whining.

      Delete
    5. So what is it that you don't like? That I'm not excited and enthusiastic about 40K right now? Sorry, but I'm not that guy anymore. I'm what I am now. GW made me that way.

      If you think that I'm being whiny, that's fine. I can accept that. It comes with seeing trends and patterns that others have trouble comprehending and then pointing out things that they don't want to hear. Now wait 6-12 months, look back at the state of the game over that time, and see if I wasn't more right than wrong in the end. Because I usually am.

      I don't know sometimes if that's a gift or a curse. But I'm used to folks calling me crazy and then apologizing later because I was right. It happens all the time.

      I feel for Tyranid players, I really do. But at least you can play the game without arguing about the basic combat abilities of your assault-based army. Imagine if a poorly worded rule left it ambiguous as to whether your Nids counted as having assault grenades or not. Wouldn't that cause arguments that you wouldn't want to go through each and every time you played?

      I just have to shrug and wait for the mess to be sorted out, that's all.

      Glad you like the Flames content. There will be more coming as my Flames-foo improves.

      Delete
  3. Admiral Drax wrote:
    "Keep the FoW stuff coming, eh?"

    Agreed, while I have always checked out this site for 40k stuff, I find myself here more often since you have been posting on FoW. I have found 6e to be a little wanting and so I have been getting into FoW. It's good to have a somewhat local source (I live in the Dayton, Oh area) to reference for tournaments and what not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it's overall a better game. Not perfect, but better. It also helps that I'm genuinely excited by it instead of cranky. :)

      Judging by all of the members we've picked up lately, I'd say that there is interest in the game, or at least 40K alternatives in general.

      Delete

out dang bot!

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