I've been looking at Flames of war on their website and considering getting the rulebook and a few mini's

Does anyone have any experience of the game and/or the products (mini's etc) Also what scale are the mini's? I like the look of them as they seem a perfect size for a reasonably large game whilst still having a good amount of detail for me to get stuck into as a painter.

Basically is it any good? I'm totally new to the WW2 gaming scene but liked the look of this one.

I am aware, however, that I am a sucker for a shiney website so I thought I'd ask and see if anyone had actually played it.

FOW is awesome if you like 15mm WWII combat. One of the guys at work plays it and he has demo'd it for me and we've played a few quickies at lunch. I do like it, I like how the rules mesh and attempt to simulate combat. What I don't like is 15mm...... I have a hard enough time painting 25mm stuff... But the rules are very well done and lots of People play FOW so it should be hard to find people who want to play.

Hope this helps.

CCotD'

Thanks for the advice. I don't normally go for 15mm as I always said I'd never be able to paint that small. Then I went and started a goblin army for Warhammer. The scale may be 28mm but the actual figures are closer to 15

I'm definitely warming to the idea of giving this game a try.
The vehicles appeal to the painter/collector in me

15mmm is way easer to paint than 25mm+... why you ask....

well.... ask already....

because you don't to do alot of detail, shading and the like to make the minis look good, plus most people don't expect 15mm to be painted to the same lavel as 25mm+.

Here are my first FOW minis.
Basic steps... took my about 6-8 hours over a weekend for all five, i went for a fast approach as i want to get an army finished so i can play......
1 Primed White
2 Air brushed green/brown camo pattern.
3 seipa ink/water 50/50 wash
4 dry brush brown,
5 paint tracks grey
6 black wash
7 light grey dry brush
8 pastel chalk black exhaust
9 matte finish
10 decal










At some point in time i'll go back over them and weather them more... but they are ready now....

I must admit it's a game I want first and foremost so it looks like it will suit me down to the ground.

I imagine it would be possible to build a couple of 'Historically accurate' forces and use them as set armies against each other to give better accuracy.

It was the large variety of very good looking miniatures that also appealed. The ones i've seen selling on ebay as painted lots look excellent. As do the ones in the photo's above. I'm not saying mine will look this good straight away but I'm a reasonably able painter so it's definitely something to aim for.

I'm looking forward to getting the rulebook. The trouble is I;m already getting the same problem I have with Warhammer, I want ALL the armies.

The minis aren't bad, though you will want to buy various sizes of brass rod/wire... When it happens, you'll know. Also a common packing smeg-up is to pack two of one side track and none of the other. I can solve this by buying locally so I can simply go back and get a new track if this happens, also I can look into the blisters before purchase.
Haven't played yet, am slowly building up a force of US.

As far as packing errors, I have had fairly good luck with getting replacements from the company in New Zealand. And I understand there is now a distributor in the US that will help with that issue. I had several issues, and since I am not the purchaser but the contracted painter, I had to contact the company directly. If you dont contact them during the holidays, around Christmas, they are very prompt shipping things out. I contacted them in late November and got the parts in mid January, so was a bit miffed with them, but the rest of the time, they were very responsive. But, I have had the wrong hull for a Panther model in addition to wrong tracks and stuff, so sometimes it is a little bit beyond just packing a wrong piece. The packers are just in too big a hurry.

Tom

I'm with you two. I like a little historical knowledge but it won't be the be all and end all for my ww2 gaming. It's the way FoW lets you create reasonable units with no historical knowledge that appeals to me.

Another nice touch is the fact that they allow you to play in FoW sanctioned tourneys with other manufacturers mini's in your army. That said though, their mini's are so nice I can't imagine wanting anyone elses.

Rulebook is ordered, unfortunately my local shop in Plymouth doesn't have the resources to stock miniatures based games so it's had to be mail order, which means waiting for it to be delivered.

Still can't decide what force to field but if my Warhammer experience is anything to go by I'll end up with a little of most of them anyway.

Carefull packaging for transport seems to be the order of the day. It's good to hear people's views on here and the FoW forum and be forewarned, rather than not think of it and turn up for the first game with some seriously odd looking hardware.

, now thats the type of WWII I'ld like to see played out.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

You guys are missing out Just played an awsome (Rapid Fire) 15mm Bulge game, and it wouldn't have been as fun if I couldn't argue that my "green" infantry had a medal of honor winner (posthumosly) that could in fact (and did) charge tanks. The GM acknowledged and picked out said hero, and even knew his name (unfortunately, he was hit by artillery before I could even see a tank
And our pleas for air support could only be answered by the GM's actual knowledge of the weather conditions that day (it snowed, no P-47's to save us).

Guess I would be one of the history nerds, but that was a part of the game to me. If I get something new, I have to have the books to research it before I can just throw some paint on it. But then, when somebody tells me a uniform or color isnt right, I can usually point out that the word "uniform" is really only valid for these things when they leave the factory or basic training. On campaign, they do whatever they can just to have the vehicles painted and clothes on their backs. Hundreds of photos and diary entries support me.

I was an instructor of military history, and I think part of people's lack of enjoyment for history is lousy teachers, who also dont really enjoy it. My students at the Army Chaplain School always found something new and interesting in my method of teaching it, and since I learned as a hobby, not as a college kid, I approached it a lot differently than the professor types. In my 50s I'm still learning and enjoying, and the best part of my day is when I get a chance to teach somebody something new to them. I have been a volunteer at the US Air Force Museum, took a break from it for a few years but am getting ready to go back.

Play the game for enjoyment, but dont close your minds to a few lessons that you will learn by accident as you go.

Tom

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy history. I re-enact the English Civil War several weekends a year with the Sealed Knot society in England and have spent some time making sure kit etc is up to scratch.

I also enjoy researching the 'correct' colours (I take your point Thomas about campaign reality) to paint my troops and armour. The armour reaserch will be fun, I'm only a 3 hour drive from the Bovington Tank Museum.

Sometimes though I enjoy a game for the game's sake. It's nice if a rule set allows a reasonable representation of historical reality but I'm also looking forward to fighting German on German just to see what happens. From what people have said (I don't have the rules yet so can't give my own opinion) FoW allows a reasonable level of realism but has made some pretty large compromises in some areas in the name of playability.

Ironic that the battle of the bulge was mentioned, I've just finished watching a programme on the seige of Bastogne where the horrendous weather was mentioned as the reason no air support was forthcoming for a week.

I guess recreating the Ardennes could cost a lot of money in 15mm scale trees.

What rule set(s) would people recommend for more hardcore historical accuracy. Once I've built a force for FoW it would be nice to try something more accurate.

Well, once you have your FoW army, you can actually use it for many other rules sets. With the infantry based like that, you could go with Piquet's Point of Attack: Blitzkrieg. There are nearly as many rules sets out there as there are minis makers. I happen to love the Piquet rules as they leave the least amount of control over what happens as any game. The one thing common to minis gaming is termed the helicopter aspect - we see things no general could ever see and we make decisions and act on those things. In Piquet, you have to wait for a card to come up allowing you to take an action. The time may pass, the enemy may move, and it represents your commanders on the ground not being able to see what you, the player, saw.

I have lightened up a lot since I retired from the Army. When I was in uniform, every game had to teach me something, to improve my soldiering skill, or my leadership skill. I play now for enjoyment, but still very much to learn something new.

I got to tour the Bulge grounds during my tours in Germany. Went to Bastogne during my first tour, taking the family through the town there. My second tour, I had the opportunity to take a battlefield seminar to the "north shoulder" of the bulge, to see Malmedy and some of the villages that were fought over. I loved the story of the German leader, Col. Oesterholt, who, during the fighting, was said to have picked up a bottle of a dark colored beverage they came accross after taking an American position. The story is that the weathered old veteran knocked the bottle neck off on a rock, took a drink, and spit out the vile liquid, asking how anyone could stomach such a drink. After the war, Col. Oesterholt became the CEO of the German extension of the Coka-Cola Bottling Company. The beverage in question was a bottle of Coke that had been brought up to the lines by a USO program. Amazing how such things happen.

Anyway, take a look at some rules if you get a chance. There are some great ones out there you can try out, even some free ones on the web, and you wont have to change anything about the army you make for FoW.

I dont mean to come down on gaming for gaming sake. I just hope that folks dont close themselves off from learning the interesting little things that come out of knowing what was going on behind the scenes of our games.

And some day, I hope to get to that Bovington museum. I spent as much time as I could at the Auto-Teknik Museum in Sinsheim, Germany, and if you get a chance to go there, just between Heidelberg and Stuttgart, take advantage of it. Military and civilian equimpment of every kind. I never pass up a museum if I can help it.

Tom