FOW How to Start?

[Friedrich August I.]

Gentlemen,

many Years ago I planed to raise German Armed Forces for WWII. I started with 1/300th HR and buyed plenty of it All together about 400 tanks and lots of support vehicles.
As my eyesight lost somewhat on sharpness I would like to revive the troops now but in a larger scale.

My question is what scale is the most suitable for FOW? 15, 20 or 28mm?
Currently with my subscription of the WI-Magazine I got back in touch with FOW/WWII .

So if any of you points me in the right direction it would help a lot.

All comments are welcome

Günter Heim
(If someone like to google my family name he will find a Lt.Gen. Ferdinand Heim, my great granduncle )

[obriendavid]

Interesting story Gunter and he had a lucky escape of avoid capture at Stalingrad, I assume you are going to model your force on 22nd Panzer?

Unfortunately I can't offer any advice about FOW as it's a rule set I don't use/like but I'm sure Barry and others can offer lots of advice.
Cheers
Dave

[CoffinDodger]

Günter,

I play FoW. I have two fairly large mid-war German and Russian armies. The game was made for the 15mm scale and works best in this scale. I've seen it played in 20mm, 28mm and even 10mm but a lot of rule conversions were needed.

If I can answer any other questions, just ask.

Regards,

Jim

[BP]

I have more 15mm FoW stuff than I know what to do with.

There are various rules mechanisms that are a bit clunky/contrived but its ok. Its Igo/ugo so no opportunity fire which can put people off.

Its the game of the movie of WWII, probably the best description I have heard of it.

Bill

[Friedrich August I.]

Jim and Bill,

Thank You both for your input. I will take the advice of the MW's=Motherwell Warriors

15mm seems large enough. I take it that FOW is played by Armies based on pointsystem
Not quite the way I like it but who knows eventually I can live with that.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Günter

[Friedrich August I.]

Barry,

I wanted to look at the Warchest for WWII scenarios but when I trie to open the Stolchnyek June 28 1944-Scenario I get an error message telling me the file could not be found on the server. Has it been removed?

Any chance to get a look at it?

Thanks

Günter

[j1mwallace]

i've been playing FOW since it first started and enjoy the system. Its not so in depth as some but is fast and straightforward. Its an outcome based system where the end result is usually a kill or pinned or no result. i.e a miss.
The battle are usually a points system. The army lists are usually in the form of specific books. A good one to get hold of is Fortress Europa. It gives late war lists for all of the major forces involved.
You really need to decide which part of the war you wish to re-create.
Battlfront have split into early- mid and late war.
Battle front do their own dedicated range of figures but they are a bit expensive. There are some nice new Plastic 15mm and Peter Pig do a nice range of WW2.
Forged in Battle are also a very nice range of miniatures.
The rule book should cost £25-£30, is hard back and is nicely illustrated.

[Friedrich August I.]

Jim W.,

Thanks for this. It helps a lot as I allready noticed the price for the minis I will take a look at the companies you mentioned.
The timeline I prefer is Kursk to Berlin (1943 to 1945) not because of the available tanks but the possibility to fight against allmost all Nations who were involved in the European Theatre of War. The early period is a onesided fight . Besides, I would tend to Panzers and PzGren also to the more Elite units the Waffen-SS like units of the II.SS.Pz Korps or units who fought in Italy under Kesselring. I think that would be covered by "Fortress Europe"?
Thanks again for the Insights Jim

Best Wishes,

Günter

[BP]

If interested in Italy, then your in luck, as they have started producing supplements for late war Italian theatre. Devil Dogs and Monte Cassino iirc.

After buying lots of FoW supplements, I made a decision to only buy the hardback books they release as generally they will release lots of books in softback, then amalgamate them into a hardback release. The hardback usually has points reductions to entice you into using them. For example take a look at the SS Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier company lists in one of the softback supplements(cant remember the name sorry) compared with the same list in 'Earth & Steel' (hardback version of the Normandy lists). Significantly cheaper points wise and you get extra lists in the hardback books. I am strangely taken by the Beutepanzer company list from 'Earth & Steel' (1940's French tanks used against the allies - it can only end 1 way )

The plastic shermans recently released by Plastic Soldier compare favourably with the Battlefront ones size wise and detail. I bought some Zvedza Pz II's to compare with my Peter Pig PzII's and the Zvedza ones were quite a bit smaller.

I believe Plastic Soldier will be releasing plastic kits for StugIII/G/H in a combined kit, along plastic Pz IVH. There are also rumoured plans for plastic Panthers and Sdkfz251.

If I was starting out now in 15mm I'd definetely be buying the plastic vehicles for all the workhorse units.

Bill

[julesav]

My group have palyed FoW in 15mm, 10mm amd 6mm scales.

We made no alterations to the rules at all and grouped the same number of infantry figures on the 'official' size bases. We based all our vehicles too to stop the 'track to track' AFV phenomenon seen in most FoW games.

In my personal opinion the games we played in 6mm looked the most 'realistic' WW2 games I've seen or played - they looked just like the aerial photos I've seen of AFVs in the Battle of the Bulge!

However, for painting etc my favourite scale models are my 10mm Pendraken ones!

cheers

Jules

[Gary]

I recently went through this process.

The main issue I had was not one of scale but of exactly what to collect from six years of varied, worldwide conflict that saw such rapid weapons development.

In the end, I simply went with a particular formation, in my case, 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich". I knew a bit about their history and stuck with that. Nothing else gets a look in, which is something of a miracle given that I will normally buy and paint anything!!!

I have also limited my interests to the Kursk to Berlin period of the war.

I would recommend the approach to anyone, if not this particular unit.

Gary