"Flames of War Historical" Topic

I have not played FOW since 2nd edition as I became totaly fed up with the competition aspect of the rules and gamey opponents. Looking at it now I am tempted to go back to it but only play historical OOB and scenarios. The basic mechanics of the rules seem good as far as i remember. So what do people think to playing the rules with historical scenarios like the Lardies produce and others?

That's all I do is scenarios.

Most sets of rules allow for historical campaigns and scenarios to be played, indeed I have seen it with FOW.

FOG(R) is one example for example the ORBATS of Lutzen or Breitenfeld could not be made up using the "points and army lists" but still do not prevent the battles being fought,

Tally Ho!

It's a great rules set and covers nearly every corner of the ETO and the Mediterranean. You can use those assets for competition gaming, or you can use it for scenario driven gaming and it gives an excellent outcome for both. The deciding factor are the players.

I learned long ago to not let tournaments or a certain type of players dictate what rules I play. If you like the rules play them with friends. And yes to answer your question, FOW can be used with historical OOB as can most rule systems.

I remember one time my oponents dice landes on a flat piece of paper that was on the table and he proclamed cocked dice and rilled again! Another time I fired mortors on his maching troops and got double casualties, he said "we dont play that rule down the club so its just normal casualties" So yes I think the people I played against put me off the rules.

If you have a wide selection of opponents than choice is your plan of action. as others have said, it is often the players rather than the rules. Maybe play another period for a short while to help you sift out those you enjoy plating. Then come back in to FOW with those chaps? Don't play Nick though, he gets loads of sixes!

God luck anyway.

Historical scenario all the time with FOW. Also I use 20mm miniatures vs. the normal 15mm while playing FOW since the collection predates FOW appearance on the WWII gaming scene.

I simply look for or more often read an account of some battalion sized action. Then I figure out what units were there, use the FOW organization format, Google and locate maps of the battlefield, and either use a FOW mission format or devise my own victory conditions and scenario set up. Now FOW is not a perfect rules set and the organization at company or battalion level sometimes leave out minor, generally non combative, parts of a company or battalion rear area detachments…. but overall presents a good basis for designing scenarios for quick tabletop action. As the scenario designer, you can control the level of regimental, brigade, divisional or even Corps level assets involvement on the tabletop. Generally I always play with the larger artillery (90mm+ cannon) off-board.

Calore River (Salerno 1943) scenario (set up):

Examples on the blog if interested: link

and if played, the matching AAR: link

That looks good. I have some 20mm too, thats another problem 20 or 15mm? I had more or less decided on 20mm for skirmish games and 15mm for bigger actions. I was also looking at the PBI rules as well as FOW decisions decisions!

Funny you should post your question today because today I purchased v3 at a really good price. I bailed on FOW a long time ago but, upon reflection, it was really the type and mentality of some of the local players that was such a turn off for me. And, I must admit, I don't remember that much about the rules, so I will give them another go, especially since I plan to do historical (or reasonably historical) scenarios and mostly solo play.

@Rabbit: Do you use the 15mm stands with less infantry, or do you use larger stands?

I've always preferred FoW using scenarios / historical OOB's, and I've always had a blast playing it that way.

It really does come down to if you have other gamers around who like the same thing, or if they are more tournament/gamey style who aren't really interested in WW2 history.

add me to the list of people who only does historical. The competition/ points nonsense makes no sense to me.

thank you all for the encouragement, now should I get a copy of V3 or wait for the V4 rule set?

I'm exclusively a scenario player & find FOW is excellent for that purpose. You can use the Larry scenarios, but it's sometimes challenging converting unit strengths over from their system.

A lot of gamers complain that FOW is not realistic, however if you don't get too hung up on the terminology they use (like "bailed out" should be "suppressed") and you aren't playing with "win at all costs" players, it's very enjoyable.

Personally I would wait for V4.

I have played and enjoyed V1-3, but as I understand it (and I am no expert, I have not followed the news particularly closely) but I understand that it will be more like Team Yankee. Frankly, if they do bring in cards, it will be easier to play as you can concentrate on tactics rather than trying to remember a stat from your recon platoon, as the recon platoon card is already on the table telling you everything you need to know.

That is just me, and there are doubtless more qualified to know, but I understand that V4 will be significantly streamlined, and that is good for letting you get on with the game.

I have played three times as many scenario driven games as straight points or tournament games. We always seem to have more fun with the scenario driven games. We do them with up to a dozen players at our local club and everyone has a good time.