Well, it's time for another Rulebook Rumination. Now, you guys know I never review a book as it is released...best I've ever done is blog my thoughts few months after it becomes available. The reason for that is that I only review books that become relevant to our club, when they become relevant. Now, our Flames of War inaugural campaign is over, and I just want to take a moment to share a few thoughts about the 3rd Edition rulebook.
While this was our first campaign, we've been preparing for WWII for well over a year before the commencement of the games. I bought a hardcover copy of Flames of War, 2nd Edition before 3rd Edition was even announced. It's been a little over a year since this new book was published, and there was basically nine months betwixt the time we got the book and when the tanks started rolling out of Moscow. We've put this engine through it's paces.
The main thing I want to draw attention to is the mentality of the rules, if that's the correct word. The phrasing of items is hard to wrap your head around if you're used to the conventions espoused in a lot of wargames, yet the mechanical conventions are very similar. In this way, the game is both much alike and very different from most of the games we play. In practice, a lot of these items are very simple, yet when you read them for the first time it's hard to connect all the rules. We've seen this in other manuals before, in almost every game you've ever played - but the disparity between this system and some others makes it hard to study from the book. However, the simple concepts make it very easy to teach.
Most of the rules are clear and concise, and due to the way things are set up there isn't a lot of room for "random events" you might see in other games. Not a ton of special rules that are spread out over twenty plus army books. To contrast, in Flames of War, most situations have specific methods of resolution. Special rules don't override the basic flow of the game so much as provide an advantage or disadvantage regarding the basic rules. What this means is that once you have the basic flow of the game down and how the resolution systems work, it's very easy to assimilate ALL the special rules, and further - they don't bog down the game as much. Combine that with a system that uses less rolls rather than more rolls or book keeping and you have a very lean combat simulator that's expressive enough to cover the entirety of the second World War.
We have both the smaller softcover version, and I can't say I'm really a fan. The book is thick and the binding isn't that great...in fact, ours has a lot of pages falling out after one campaign's worth of being used. The version I bought for myself was the large hardcover rulebook (you guys know how much I like hardcovers) and it's money well spent - it's a powerful tome that can stand up to some serious use. Get the hardcover, and skip the softcover. Or, if you decide you want the minis from one of the beginner sets, do yourself a favor and buy a hardcover as well. The two extra guides that come with the hardcover are great as well, being a guide to the hobby and having a smattering of late-war armies that can be fielded (no lists are described in the rulebook by itself).
All in all, Flames of War is shaping up to be the Season 4 flagship here at the Wargate. The game itself is grounded in reality, and draws a different sort of crowd than the standard Robots & Cannons or Swords & Sorcery battle games. It doesn't require more than a handful of dice, so the conventions are easy to keep track of. Armies aren't that large, and although you can find lists that require a lot of expensive pieces you can also get a 2000 point army for a little over $150 or so. Best of all, the game is super easy to teach to new players - which is something every game club should be quite interested in.