Any opinions on Flames of War?

[Adunaphel]

Hello fellow B-towners,

I went with my son to the local Hobby Shop and happened to spend some time in front of the Flames of War racks.
I was wondering if any of you resident FOW guys could let me in on your opinions of the game. How does it play?

I am grounded in Avalon Hill board games and (of course) GW's stable of games, so I would like to know how the mechanics of the game differ. And just general comments of pros and cons would be nice.

Thanks.

Karl

[JohnHwangBT]

Flames has been described as Warhammer WW2. d6-based mechanics with faction books and boxed/blister sets to simplify collecting. I think it's a great thing that there's a more-accessible WW2 game out there that's actually focused on fun.

You know, for the kids.

[THEMAN__OSS]

The Miniature games I have played are WHFB, Warmachine/Hordes and Flames of War. Of them FoW of has the simpilest rules and most balanced game play:
-The use of a d6 keeps the calculations straightforward
-There are very few modifiers to the rolls
-LoS is WYSIWG
-Front arc is 180 degrees, not 90 degrees
-Pre-measuring at anytime is allowed
- it is skirmished based allowing for lots of terrain to be employed

All this leads to simple and fast game play. It is also grounded in history so the models each army gets is already decided on, even if they havn't published that particular timeline yet. They are currently up to 1944.

The knocks against it, imho, are:
-It lacks the explosive combinations found in fantasy games like Warmachine "My caster stops time, my troops rip you a new one wth super-uber buff up, and then my warjack picks you up and tosses you into the cloud of doom causing mega damage to your caster, are you dead yet?". This can also be seen as a plus as there is not an seemingly infinite number of combos that can be put together. It's tanks, artillary, recon, and infantry with their guns.

- It costs more then Warmachine but still less then WHFB. You will spend around $350 getting a good competitive army for play, then do it all again as you want to try more stuff.

- Putting the models together and painting 15mm men is time-consuming. You need to enjoy that kind of thing.

At the end of the day I play it because I love reliving WW2 battles and the 15mm scale allows for large scale battles.

[warlordgarou]

Regarding the cost - I think you can put together a reasonably competitive 1500 pt list for less than $350, actually. Some of the basic army boxes are fairly competitive (from what I have read), and they run about $200-$250 (or less, if you are lucky). I have heard that the SS infantry box, 2 Tigers and a Nebelwerfer blister isn't bad, and that is only about $100. Of course, if you go that route, you don't have any options in what you choose - you use what you have.

Now, if you go the Soviet Strelkovy route, then yeah, the costs run up pretty quickly. And you get bloody tired of painting infantry.

[GrimDog]

love FOW.

on cost, i would like to 2nd the cheapness of SS

60 Bucks for the panzergrenadier ss box gets you the core of the army and the hq
$45 for 5 panzer iv's

and you are done


not the most balanced, power gamey army but a solid 1500-2000 pt army for 105 bucks.

[Adunaphel]

Grimdog, what do you love about it?
Is there anything you don't like about it?

Karl