A Beginners guide

[Mike the Pike]

It seems there is suddenly a lot of interest in FOW on this site (Yeah!) so I thought I'd do a wee follow up to my initial 'Beginners' Guide'. If you haven't already checked it out check out the link below:

Step 1): http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... ?f=11&t=38

Step 2): Follow the link at the bottom to the FOW Bootcamp at the official FOW site.

Now that your head is filled with images of Panzers, Shermans, GIs, Kommisars, Stukas and all kinds of other cool stuff there are few other things to be aware of.

1) We are currently playing during the Late War period (1944-45) so our (actually just Prim and Mine) armies are geared towards that period. That's not to say we won't play Mid or Early sometime in the future though. I hope that doesn't sound too arbitrary, but that's the period I was most interested in when I started getting into this.

2) The games we have played so far have mostly been 1750 pts. On the official FOW forums (well run and supported BTW) most armies seem to be about this size or 1500pts.

3) All the basic generic formations for the late war (for the US/UK/Russia/Germany) are in the book Fortress Europe, which besides the main rule book is all you really need to play. The various sourcebooks, Cobra, D-1, River of Heroes etc contain separate army lists for specific Historical formations. I have about 8 of them and while they are nice to look at, generally they aren't that useful. If you are really interested in one of the battles (e.g. Ash + Pegasus Bridge) then they are OK but most of the time 'Fortress Europe' would be a better investment IMHO

4) There are also more variant lists available for free on the FOW website. These organisations are can be even more specific than the source book ones. For example, Prim is currently using one which represents a Division recruited from his home region in England. It isn't hugely different from the British Infantry company in 'Fortress Europe' but does have a few more restrictions on support choices than the generic list. There are also lists from everything from Nisei Japanese fighting in Italy, to Brazilians to Finns.

That's all for now. Any questions?

P.S. If a certain Madmiral strays even a hairs breadth off topic on this thread he will only allowed to play EW Polish Cavalry while the rest of us play with King Tigers!

[Admiral-Badruck]

thanks for the info.. If Prime stays on target I will be good I promise

So if I understand you correctly.

I need 1500-1750 points worth of Late War models + a book Fortress Europe... seems like a good start...

how much will all this cost? I was having a bit of trouble calculating the price. If you can give me a good estimate then I will know how much money I will have to loot from the wife to buy this game...

on other thing I would like to know is how fun or not fun the game is... in the August Kamimaizu event can I get a demo game from someone?

[Colonel Voss]

base price of the fortress europe book is $48. The 1500 pnt army I put together came to about $200 (none of this is with discounts) but it'll vary based on what you get in all.

[Primarch]

I think we're all bringing fantasy in August, but maybe you can sneak a game in.

Generally artillery and field guns are very expensive for their points. Tanks and infantry are more reasonably priced. A rulebook and the starter box (3 shermans and 2 german stugs) will run to about 20 pounds from one of the UK sites. Fortress Europe is another 18 but as Pikey says, there are free lists on the FoW forums.

Assuming you're going with the Sherman Tank Company, you're probably looking at 100 pounds for a couple of platoons of shermans and supporting units, but it depends what you buy. Looking at my own list, I can get 260 points of shermans for 18 pounds, 175 points of infantry for 11 pounds, or 150 points of anti-tank guns for 20 pounds

Tanks => 1pound = 14 points
Infantry => 1 pound = 16 points
Anti-Tank Guns => 1 pound = 7.5 points

So you get more for your money with regards to infantry than tanks, and infantry and tanks than artillery. That said, artillery is pretty sweet.

Oh yeah, and if you're buying yanks, you cant play me or ash.

[Mike the Pike]

At some stage I want to run a starter event, possibly in September. I should have enough stuff painted and ready to go for 6 x 1000pt Armies by then. I guess folks wouldn't appreciate it if we hi-jacked the regular games day to do so I might try and hire somewhere. Who would be interested in something like that?

[Primarch]

#raises hand#
Me, me, me!!!

[Colonel Voss]

I would if conveniently located

[job]

Maybe here, too.
By the way, how do you guys organize for the gaming space in Nagoya? Do you split the cost of renting space? or is there a convenient gaming store?

Also, one other thing occurs to me, are you guys using the metric or inch system?

[Primarch]

Maybe here, too.
By the way, how do you guys organize for the gaming space in Nagoya? Do you split the cost of renting space? or is there a convenient gaming store?

Also, one other thing occurs to me, are you guys using the metric or inch system?

There is a store in Nagoya which rents out a room to us once a month. There are usually 4 gaming tables available. We split the bill between us (500 yen per person). There is a gaming store in Nagoya but they only really have space for card games. When we organise a bigger event we rent out a community hall.

Most of the non-Japanese players use inches in their games, whilst the Japanese players tend to use cm amongst themselves and whichever is most convenient when they play against foreigners. So long as you and your opponent aren't using different systems, both are ok.

Oh its very difficult to buy tape measures with inches on them over here. You might want to get one from back home.

[me_in_japan]

Oh its very difficult to buy tape measures with inches on them over here. You might want to get one from back home.

A very important point, that. If I were you, id get two, just in case one breaks. (it happened to me. Once the end falls off your tape measure, it suddenly dawns on you that there will be No More Gaming for several weeks till you can arrange for someone back home to go buy you a replacement and send it to you. Its poo, lemme tell ya...)

I'd also recommend bringing some blu-tac or similar stuff, as again, its buggersome hard to find over here.