Hi, All.
Work and an increasingly pregnant Mrs Drax have conspired to make hobby time a rarity, but I'm delighted to note that I've now finished my basic Flames of War force. It's the bare bones of a rifle company, and although it's been slow going, I've really enjoyed painting them!
Presented here are the company command and a range of shots of both the (new) second platoon and the whole lot. There are a couple of 'painting table' shots too. No time to write more, but here you go:
Keep well,
- Drax.
Hi All,
Last month, Dai asked me, in essence, why I got into Flames of War. This lengthy post is by way of something of an explanation, in no particular order, for Dai (certainly), myself (probably), and anyone else (unlikely). I'll number my points just in case anyone feels an urge to respond to or query anything.
- I reached saturation point with GW. I've about 7000pts of Guard, most of it painted, and I fancied a new challenge. Being the only earner in the household and with a child (soon to be two!), I have no spare money, really. That meant a second 40K army was out. I already have a small, secret Tau army, of which I'm really very fond, but expanding a Tau army would be hideously expensive and almost fruitless with the current codex/before a new codex. At the moment I'm resisting the urge to sell the Tau (but I'm open to offers!).
- I've tried Warhammer Fantasy but it's never stuck. Again, WAY too expensive to expand.
- That left casting around for a new game. I'd seen FoW a your earlier and been impressed by the gameplay enough to buy the 15 rulebook, simply because I love different wargame rules mechanics.
- I bought the A5 rulebook and FoW templates on ebay for just £7. This was 2nd edition.
- I fell in love with the rules. Hook, line, sinker and copy of The Angling Times. They're not to everyone's tastes I know, but by God they're refreshing after two decades of GW.
- The new (version 3) rules are even better and the rulebook is a pleasure to behold. It's beautiful, well written and thoughtfully designed in the way that the AD&D 3.5 rules were. Sublime.
- Casting around on the FoW website, I discovered the following things:
- A forum which is pretty damned open and VERY welcoming to newbies AND frequented by the actual FoW Powers That Be, and
- Free Army Lists ('Briefings') to download as pdfs and use. For free. pdfs! Who'd'a thought?!
- There is (usually) no official requirement to play Flames with Battlefront miniatures (except in some official tournaments) AND if you decide against the FoW rules you can...use their miniatures to play one of many alternative rulesets. Genius.
- By this point I'd realised that I could create and amy for the simple cost of...creating an army. And I could start small. And I could shop around.
- I then discovered the Plastic Soldier Company sells 5 British Sherman/Firefly tanks for about £16. I could make a basic, legal, playable army of HQ + 2 tank platoons with just ten vehicles...or in other words a playable army for just £32. A good starter army too.
- For some idiotic reason, given my entrenched dislike of painting infantry, I chose instead to go for an infantry company, which I got for just £31 on ebay, brand new. This actually makes more than a basic playable army, with an HQ and 3 rifle platoons.
- The infantry company came with a couple of free extra minis - just in case. What a brilliant idea: it's easy to lose 15mm infantrymen.
- Many of the units I have bought or can buy to expand my infantry company cost only around a tenner each: mortars; heavy mortars; machine guns...but not all. Artillery, for example, is rather pricey. but it's not completely essential, especially with good mortar support. Vehicles can be pricey too
- The minis are pretty good. Not as clear or crisp as GW, sure, but great for what they are. The new plastic stuff is great though (and the Plastic Soldier Company Shermans are an amazing example of what a plastic set should be!).
- Flames of War armies are finite. The company may release new models, and open new theatres of WW2, but they cannot suddenly invent a brand new unit *coughStormTaloncough* or make old stuff obsolete! The WW2 setting is deliciously self-limiting, therefore if all I want to play is 11th Armoured Div in north West Europe, I can slowly build up a fighting force safe in the knowledge that my army can never be obsolete!
- It's fun to paint. Time-consuming maybe, but fun. Easy too, at that scale!
- It's fluffy almost by definition. Sure, maybe some of the German players get too excited and field a disproportionate number of King Tigers, but at least you can always kid yourself that it could have happened!
- Some of the boards really really are amazing. Check these bad-boys out (not mine! - stolen from the FoW forum. Sadly I can't link to them, as it's members only):
So there you go. Just some of my sprawling thoughts.
- Drax.
Hullo, All.
A painting update for once! I've finally got round to painting up another 3 hardened veterans that'd been lying around for yonks, having decided now that each new veteran will essentially be a chance for me to try out a new camouflage. In this case, I'd played on a red table last week (albeit without my veterans) so in honour of this I tried two variations on a red hint:
The simple one is far less effective yet more time-consuming. Figures.
Until next time (there's some bits and bobs in the pipeline, I promise!), keep well,
- Drax.
