This month I start my new wargaming project from none other than Flames of War (FOW). I haven't played a historical wargame in a very, very long time, so you can understand how eager I am to start playing. I had the 3rd edition rulebook but never got around to playing. With the end of GW's Specialist Game support it is very hard to find any players in Epic or Warmaster - so it was time to move on.
In the end I decided to go for Germans, especially after seeing the FOW FTW episodes on Beasts of War. I was going to start a tank company straight away, but thought better to begin with a Grenadier kompanie or a basic infantry company and then expand later on.
I chose the briefing (army lists in FOW gargon) from the Open Fire starter box. I did not buy the box, but you can download the Quick Start rules here for free. As you can see below, in order to build this army, I needed an HQ and a minimum of 2 infantry platoons - shown as black boxes. The rest in gray boxes are optional.
I decided to build all 3 infantry platoons. This would give a a strong core army. I also have the options of adding a panzer platoon of 5 Stugs or panzer IV and a platoons of heavy tanks taken from either King Tigers or Tigers. I chosen a platoon of Stugs and Tigers for now. This way I will still get to play with tanks. I can always build a tank company based around Panzers and Panthers later on.
As models go, I went primarily with the Plastic Soldier Company products, at least for my infantry and certain tanks as they are relatively cheap yet well detailed. I will be posting a review of them next week.
As rules go, I will focus on the quick starter rules for now. At least until I get a good grip with the basics. Then I will move on to the main rule book.
As for the Open Fire box set, I have decided not to buy it for the time being. Not because it is not worth it, in fact it is great value for money, but since I already have the rule book and do not want to build and American/British force for now, I would do better just to buy some box sets. Maybe in the future I might encourage someone to buy a box with me and we can share the contents.
Farewell and good health,
NR