Flames of War... what to expect?

[NTM]

Head swaps in 15mm! Thats insane but I can understand why and may even give that a try especially on drivers/officers.

Surprisingly easy using the Peter Pig heads, use pliers to twist the existing one off the figure, drill the neck then glue the new one in place. If I can do it almost anyone can.



Figure on the left has helmet replaced by field cap.
I'm also using them on Essex miniatures figures as their representation of the German helmets not great, no pictures as yet though.

Second the recommendation of Ironclad Miniatures buildings.



Red Vectors from Minibits has a nice Russian village set in mdf.

I'm also a fan of Battlegroup but picked up Rapid Fire Reloaded recently which looks good for quick simple games so plan to give it a run out as an alternative but not to replace BG.

[SJWi]

For me the big improvement in 15mm has been the quality of the infantry. They used to be pretty awful but certainly the latest Battlefront and PSC plastics are very nice. Despite my 20mm armies I have bought and painted a late-war British army and am starting Germans.

 2021 could see me and my mates venturing into the Pacific courtesy of the latest PSC “theatre book”.

[robh]

Might be interesting to see what comes of the newly announced Skytrex/Warlord partnership.  If Warlord are going to come out with a 1/200 game to increase the size of Battles beyond the designs of "Bolt Action", with figures that allow either rule set to be played, they could be on to a winner.
For WW2 gaming, every advantage 15mm has over 20/25mm, 10mm has over 15mm.

[NTM]

For WW2 gaming, every advantage 15mm has over 20/25mm, 10mm has over 15mm.

Must admit if starting from scratch today I'd go with 10/12mm

[ulverston]

Wow the 15mm figures look really good! I was not even aware that Essex miniatures had a WW2 range and they were by far my favourite manufacturer back in the day. I can see head swaps becoming a thing for my Germans as I will be using those most. The Ironclad minis building looks perfect (never been to their website ) and I have to agree that the improvement in figure sculpting makes 15mm a more attractive proposition.

As for rules unless the latest edition is very different from the one I have I think I will be using Rapid Fire... reading them again at work (ahem) is not enthusing me at all... they seem a bit overly complicated and yet pretty basic if that makes any sense at all. I may even go and have a look at the Lardies page to check Chain of Command out, their rules are always interesting.

Thanks for the help on this thread I have discovered that there are even more 15mil figures and manufacturers out there than I thought.

[SJWi]

Ulceration, if you look at CofC try to find the “primer” they wrote about infantry combat. It helped explain the rule concepts to me. They might be in their download section or on their forum.

[ulverston]

I will have a look SJWi, I like the Rapid Fire because they are simple.. the Flames of War seem a bit overly complicated but I may have to try a game to see how they play. Certainly I will look on their website but everything seems out of stock!

[Elbows]

Count me among the people who enjoyed the earliest iterations of FoW.  Now it's...far too "tournament" styled and "buy our books and constant content" styled for my tastes.  They're very GW-esque as a company in many instances, and that's not a great thing for the end consumer (though I'd assume the goal is to mimic GW and hope that their massive profits follow).

FoW makes a large range of decent plastics, and if you find them in combo boxes or starter kits...they're great - to use for other games.   I find Battlegroup to be a far more enjoyable game, and FoW miniatures are perfect for that.

FoW miniatures on their own become...rather silly priced.  Their $100 battle force boxes are completely solid deals....or you pay $45 for five small tanks with few options.  Again, very GW-esque.  You have to hunt to find where you're not being ripped off.

My buddy said it pretty well; he prefers Battlegroup...but FoW is a game you can just throw down really quick and play really fast, and that's a pretty fair assessment.

[SJWi]

Interesting comment about the Warlord/Skytrex tie-up and 10mm.  The Skytrex range is "old" 1/200 and the figures and vehicles are not compatible with other, newer 10mm ranges such as Pendraken .I should know as I have lots of Skytrex 1/200 early WW2 French and Germans and Vietnam .Some of the models are beautiful, others pretty awful.

[NTM]

To be fair Skytrex have never marketed the Action 200 range as 10mm although others have sometimes described it as such. Will be interesting to see what they do with the ranges and if they "support" three different scales. Incidentally I'd completely missed this announcement but does explain the new logo when I last looked on the Skytrex site.

[SJWi]

NTM, I agree. Skytrex are quite open about their models being 1/200 which I reckon is about 9mm. However as 25mm morphed into 28mm I think 10mm is growing.

 My message was just a warning that Skytrex and other 10mm ranges may not be compatible.

[NTM]

I would say definitely not compatible figures are not only 8/9mm tall but very different style looking like upscaled Heroics and Ros 6mm in a way. Figures of the various 10/12mm ranges are actually around 12mm and largely compatible but the vehicles are 1/144 - 1/160 so quite a bit of variation.

[SJWi]

NTM. A good call on size. With my 1/200 Vietnam I actually use the 1/300 “Mainforce Miniatures” sold by Magister Militum. They seem to fit in well size-wise.

[SteveBurt]

A very good set (which was designed for 15mm although I play it in 20mm and it works in 6mm) is Battlefront:WW2 designed by the guys who did Fire & Fury. My favourite WW2 set for actions involving a battalion or more a side. Elements are squads and vehicle model represent 2-3 models. Very well designed and historical set of rules; infantry and armour both work well, and the artillery rules are superb.

[aphillathehun]

I really hated FoW.   But EVERYONE I game with loved it, so it must have had something going for it.  Now TFL have announced a battalion level game with the same basing, so they will repurpose their armies for that.  So I'd say go for it - you'll probably love it.  And you'll have stuff you can use for other games anyway.