"How compatible is 3rd ed to 1st" Topic

I played 1st edition quite a bit and bought many of the army list books and I am considering dusting off my figures and playing again. How compatible are the army list books from 1st edition to the 3rd edition rules?

Not that close I think.

There are some free pdf list you can downloand for 3rd Edition that may serve you well…but jump on them quick because it looks like they are going to be replaced by paid for "digital content."

Not very much at all.

If you want 1st edition again try Castles and Crusades---and the core book has a reasonable price

You do realize this is the FOW forum, right?

He's talking about Flames of War.

I suspect that the changes from 1st to 3rd are far too much for the books to be much use other than background or pictures.

Sadly the free PDF lists are now a thing of the past and access to Easy Army is restricted.

There are various places on the net where lists are available and the new Battlefront Forces of War site is gradually making lists available online.

Quite a few changes between 1st ed FoW and 2nd ed, 2e to 3e seems to be closer.

HMGs changed ROF, transports mostly lost their capacity (barring helos if you're playing 'Nam). IIRC, the Crusader IIIs lost the … Tally Ho(?) special rule if Africa is your bag. So points have changed greatly.

The lists in terms of oob's are still good, rules changes aplenty between the eds but no real changes as regards what's available to use.

I've been playing since FoW was just an online .pdf. Jumping from V1 to V3 you'll see a lot of changes, but mostly I would describe it an as evolution of the rules. It is still very much recognizable as the same game but with a lot "lessons learned" applied. Many small tweeks that have big impacts but only a few overtly major changes (aircraft being the biggest change you'll probably notice). Assaults are handled a lot better now.

In terms of army lists, points are much more balanced than what they used to be. I do not fondly remember my near totally useless 800+ point minimum size Hummel battery…

Compatibility? I mean, it is the same game, your models didn't suddenly become useless. There are some minor to changes to a few gun teams in how they are based (medium vs large bases) but that's not really a problem. There's a ton more army lists out now too, so if you could field a force in V1 you surely can in V3.