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.