Flames of War General /fowg/

Where the hell are you getting 15mm fantasy minis? Do you have a bunch of Warmaster figs sitting around?

checked

I recommand wait for plastic, because many of metal RPGs are broken.

I recently bought a Zvezda Panzer because it looked really cute and I thought it'd be a lot of fun to paint up, and now I'm considering buying into this scale. Is FoW worth getting into, especially if I'm pretty ignorant about the history of WW2?

The perk of historicals is that 15mm Panzers are 15mm Panzers. You can use them for more than FoW, so they're a safer investment than perhaps buying minis from they-who-shall-not-be-named. If Flames went tits up tomorrow, you could just start playing Battlegroup or some other WW2 game.

But yes, FoW is still going strong although right now 4th Edition is being rolled out in stages. As such, there is (to no one's surprise) an edition war going on between people who say that V4 is fine and will only improve as they put out books for the other nations and eras, contrasted with people who say that V3 is better and V4 is a dumbing-down of the game and is the end of Flames of War. This same discussion happened when V3 was new.

Also, if you like cute vehicles, clap eyes on this tiny fucker.

Not that user, but there's a lot of 15mm scale fantasy out there. Not that anyone would want to.

It'll be about as accurate as BFs handling of anything communist.

The v3 switchover wasn't like this. BF openly stated recently they're going for stuff that sells rather than accurate lists, so one of the only good points in BFs favour is going away, namely that they had the broadest range. I'm feeling very, very nervous and if you love flames you should be too.

Where did they state that?

Why can't you just get it that Commies are shit at everything.

"[I] asked Phil about the 37mm guns and he said: "in the end it came down to playability. Having a single gun in an infantry platoon introduces a pile of complexities that are just not worth it. Instead, we decided to go with the option often followed (and formalised in the 1943 TOE) of grouping the 37mm guns into a company AT Platoon. This is both simpler in play, and gives the advantage of providing enough punch in the critical place to be significant while not burdening mobile operations with cumbersome guns."
"As for the GMC this came down to miniatures range and popularity. We have been making some conscious decisions as a company about how big the supporting releases will be for each book, trying to ensure that we have a good range of options for players whilst still keeping it manageable for retailers. The Flames Of War range has grown to the point where it is too wide for the majority of retailers to stock effectively and if they cannot stock it, customers cannot easily get it.
"In the case of the GMC we looked as the sales of it over it's lifetime and the reports from play testers about how it was performing on the table relative to other options and it was decided that we would not include it in the book. Moving forward we are going to have to continue to make tough choices about what is in the books and what is not. We don't make them lightly and we (as a team) definitely have robust discussion before committing to leaving anything out a book."

So all you've got is some guy on a forum claiming he talked to Phil? This is a big problem with Battlefront - they don't communicate well so people just start taking community rumors for truth.

Do you believe it now or do I need to have Phil come to your house and whisper it in your ear?

As far as I know they are going to keep selling things like Dianas and M3 GMCs. They just won't be supported in the books.

/NVA/
youtube.com/watch?v=1mG3BvkT6YQ

You forgot your cheers,user!

At least for now. Expect to see them quietly retired over the next year or two.

I imagine what they retire will depend on sales. I mean if they have the mold and the kit is selling, why not keep it around? Though shit like the SU-76i or some random Romanian bastard tank... rip

>mediafire.com/?8ciamhs8husms

I think they will keep most of them as 'special order' items. It is still a silent cash cow, especially if they do production in Asia. There must be somebody able to redo the worn out casting moulds over there?

Speaking from a "We just put our first order in with BF in ages:
They won't sell the Chaffee box, the Panzer IV/70 V box is discontinued, and the T-35 box is also dead (they said they might be able to find one in England and ship it across the pond, but we're not getting our hopes up). They are very much killing SKUs off already, and not necessarily for niche shit.

Panzer iv/70s aren't really a niche tank, they're in a lot of lists.

It'd be great to see them in plastic but of course battlefront might just decide to cut them out entirely.

The fucking chaffee? Jess Christ BF must want to lose players. Are they hoping there's some huge market of historically illiterate people who want to play the fucking desert, a theatre most people don't know existed?

Are those what i think they are, or it is a joke?

Yeah, that was our reaction. The Chaffee still comes in blisters, and you can get the IV/70 (A) blisters, but we can't order the boxes for either. Which is bit of a problem when the locals want them. At least we can get Zvezda from our other distributors so the guy that wanted T-35s can still get some.

Those are T-64BV as the image name says.

>Chaffee box, the Panzer IV/70 V box is discontinued, and the T-35 box is also dead

I want to belive they are going to re-release them...

At least the Chaffe and the Panzer IV/70, right?

From PSC?

Armies Army

Oh nice those guys make ASU-85s

>entire selling point of BF is that their rules and model line are the most comprehensive out there
>dump everything to make melted plastic mans
I understand how hard it is to keep shit in stock with such a large line, but wouldn't it make more sense to simply make all the niche lines on demand? Even if prices have to go up a bit to support that, where the fuck else am I going to get a 15mm Romanian army? There are no good competitors for a lot of the SKUs.

I don't think they'll be dropping entire nations. That seems unlikely to me.

What I do think is that they're probably taking a good hard look at their supply and demand issues and trying to figure out what is actually selling, and in what amounts.

It's a purely mercenary way of looking at things, but I can't blame them for wanting to cut costs, or eliminate money-sinks.

If very few people are buying Items X, Y, and Z it doesn't make sense to mass produce them at whatever cost, and store them in some dusty Indiana Jones style warehouse at another cost, until someone decides that they might need just one or two in their force.

Instead they *should* be focusing on items A, B, and C, which are selling really well, because they are the backbone units for whichever nation.

But what they should consider is something like production-on-demand for those units that people might only ever need 2 or 3 of. With the caveat that it would take however long to produce and ship based on their current production capabilities.

Bump your paints.

Ded gam

roger that, went down to the lgs today and a guy showed me the models. The metal looks trashy, resin stuff isn't too bad.

im a noob, were those plastic kits they don't sell or is it possible theyre recasting and repackaging them?

spot on. I think the confusion everyones having is just BFs poor communication, but they at least post hobby articles still unlike GW (they used to have so many terrain, painting and converting guides for literally every army and now thats all gone :'( )

damn those boys look sunburnt

Does anyone weather their tanks? If so what techniques do you use

Drybrush is all I do at 15mm.

Resin and metal. BF tend to stop producing boxed sets after a while and sell the models as blisters.

Right on, brown for mud and dark orange for rust should be good enough?

>rust
I literally just drybrush on a light brown. I do it over the whole vehicle but I go a little heavier on tracks and the bottom. Less is more at 15mm.

ill give it a shot! thanks

>pigments
>sponge chipping
>drybrushing
>washes
>filters
>gw technicals
>streaking
>oils
>stipling
>fronding
>thread feathering
>graphite pen
I got all sorts of game when it comes to weathering.

What are some basics I can try? Looking for rust streaks, mud, exposed metal/chipped paint and battle damage

My personal view is that you shouldn't really do rust on a lot of tanks. Most tanks didn't sit around long enough to start rusting. Chipped paint is easy enough if you get a bit of foam, usually from the BF Blister, dip some of it in silver paint and then use it to scrape some of it off on areas that would get scraped up, like track guards.

If you're doing German tanks, then it's important to remember that they had Red Oxide Primer, so a lot of scraping will expose that.

I drybrush everything with a small amount of vallejo iraqui sand, works great to give a bit of dustiness and accenturate edges.

You can also try sponge chipping. Take a small piece of sponge from a blister, dip it in dark brown and stiple it on paper/tissue until most of the paint is gone. When it leaves a suitably spotty pattern, carfully stiple the midel on raised edges and flat surfaces where wear would be natural. Just up and down, don't move the sponge sideways or the spots will smear. Remember, less is more.

GWs stirland mud is great for wet mud effect.
Agrellan earth for cracked and dried mud.

you're 100% right, been looking at historical pictures and it looks mostly like dirt and dust (which i mistook for rust)
I didn't know that about the kraut tanks! I'll have to sponge on some rust color on my panzers. Thanks
Just tried it, looks great! I thought people used really fine brushes for chipping, the sponge technique is awesome

I can't believe I've never thought of stirland mud, I was thinking of painting gloss over dryad bark but the mud technical looks way more realistic

Plz post pics of your work, friendo (if you feel like it)

Will do, Ill post them in about an hour

Actually, that's the 3d model of Khurasan's one. Made by the guy that does Army's Army stuff though.

My friend is wanting to make a late war v4 3rd infantry division rifle company. Any advice?

flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&art_id=5731

New changes to mission rules and battle plans to help cut back the shear number of mutual losses.

>3rd infantry division

Assuming you mean the US 3rd Infantry Division, you have several options.

They fought in Italy, eventually in France (although not until about a month after D-Day), and fought into Germany in the winter of 1944-'45.

An American Rifle company from the source books for any of those campaigns should work pretty well.

Those would be "Road to Rome", "Overlord", and "The Battle of the Bulge".

The OP has a link to a scans database with those books and many more.

Take a look at those and see what you like.

There could possibly be a specific 3ID list in one of them, but the generic Rifle Company lists are fairly good already.

Imagine, in 2020, we might yet get LW products.

That jeep doesn't have enough guns. Add more guns.

for those who didn't get a chance to vote in my last poll:

strawpoll.me/13709010

my original post had more details on how the poll runs. yes it's not 'complete'.

thank you!

>you win if you kill everything in 4" of the objective
This pretty much locks in shitty assault rules.

Yep currently Facebook is focusing full effort into determining how you can break the system.

Overall though I think it's a decent change for V4, but will further exacerbated Macross Milan Spam in Team Yankee. Just camp up on the objectives and survive 6 turns. Fire your batteries of AT 21 missiles at any vehicle within 8" of an objective. Keep your light APCs around to machine gun any infantry that happens to be moving in.

Can you feel it, tovarish?

Those poses look like an angry mob. Peter pig? I can see the o-face.

>I understand how hard it is to keep shit in stock with such a large line, but wouldn't it make more sense to simply make all the niche lines on demand?

What makes you think they won't? Some salty cucks on Veeky Forums? They will still sell their old shit on demand, that's what GW, Warlord games and what everybody else in the industry does.

I also don't see them removing old models ruleswise, it doesn't take much to make a PDF.

>Looking at EW british starter box at our shop
>Realize it might be able to take some of the french crap we have as support
>Check the book
>It can use the Fusiliers blister we have taking up space!
>...But still can't use the three goddamn SOMUA S35s that have been taking up shelf space forever
Goddamnit, so close to being able to offer all that shit in a single bundle.

>remaining loyal to a formerly respectable game as it dumbs itself down and dresses up prettily to draw in younger more attractive players with more money
Sure you want to be calling people cucks, m8?

V4 attempt at Comets:
HQ of 2 Comets & 2 Cromwell CS 435
Combat of 3 Comets 435
Combat of 3 Comets 435
Support of 4 25pdrs 185
Support of AOP 25
1515 points

Has 8 tanks with mobility & AT 14 shots then two bombardments to deal with stuff lacking armor. For Reserves missions put the HQ a combat and the AOP on.

8 Tanks with Front armor 7. Your other two are front armor 6. You are gonna get fukt by medium tanks or AT guns. You will be frustrated by Vet Germans who can truffle shuffle behind hills while popping shots at you with full RoF. Assaulting infantry off an objective will be tricky. And you are absolutely fucked against any list with cannon planes.

I am not saying that your list will never win, but you will have to use your movement to expertly position your tanks every turn. Comets are just horribly overpriced.

1515 is the point standard for tournaments this year?

How does that break down as far as the 60-40 on-table vs reserves split?

60% would be 909, so do they make that an even 910, with 605 for reserves?

Per rules as written, you get up to 60% on the field (909). Since 910 would be over and everything is in 5pt increments, you effectively have up to 905 points on the field.

V4 conversion is shiiiiit

Because of the 60-40 reserves split?

It's far more fair than the front-loading you used to be able to do with the old reserves rule.

Because by keeping points the same stuff like the above happens, arbitrarily causing problems at certain levels.

Same thing happens in MW if the points aren't a multiple of 5. For example: 103 = 61.8 points, so you only get 61 on the field. This isn't some magical arbitrary problem with the same points. It's that you want things to round and the game doesn't.

That's a really obvious fix that should be in the game, though. It's just like every other "Oh we won't explain this, everyone knows what we mean" thing.

What? "You can bring UP TO 60% of the game points limit" is unclear to you? It's exactly the same way "up to half of the platoon..." upgrades and stuff worked in V3. There's plenty of completely legit issues with V4, this is just baby bitching because it rounds a different way than you want.

...

What should I call them then? How about fucking idiots?

i like 'fucking idiot'. it's utterly accurate as an alternative to 'cuckold' i'd say the term is synonymous, literally speaking.

CYKA I'M FEELIN' IT!!!! I'M FEELIN' IT! *drops the capitalists*

so, any one see this?
>pic related
Team Yankee version of Open Fire soon, i hope.

i hope...

That would make an awesome band name.

...It is a band name
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HammerFall

>54927037

Is there a team Yankee/ flames of war approved metal?

youtube.com/watch?v=lrSKG3TS0uE

Since nobody seems to want to post it: wwpd.net/2017/08/fighting-first-command-cards-review.html

didn't even look there...thanks!

>that video
even in metal, we must slav-squat!

Yes indeed. Top ones are the WW2 Russkies, and the bottom are the WW1/RCW ones. Going to do some headswaps and use them for the "ran out of ammo" part of the battle for the Brest Fortress.

Just tried out the new mission rules for V4.
Highly recomended.
The way you can win if you push the enemy off an objective, the same turn you do it really shakes things up.
So from me, a really heartfelt Cheers!

I shall have to take a look at those.

What are the major notable changes?

Any clue yet about what will be in Hammerfall?

I second this, I'd really rather start playing TY at this point. My closest LGS is primarily playing it now and I'd like to start playing before next year and this seems like something worth waiting on.

Here is hoping the America book comes out soon after The Russian one that's been shown. I'd really like to do a Battlegroup with the Rangers pretending I'm running my Uncle's unit in this timeline, would be great.

Anyone here order their TY stuff online (Canada preferably)?

My LGS isn't interested in carrying it (they sell bolt action and apparently they make more money on that trash)