"Does Anyone Still Play FoW?" Topic

I know all the gamers I know in NJ have given it up since version 4 and are playing mostly ADLG. Haven't been able to find a FoW game in over a year. FoW tournament at NJCon last year had few if any players and there wasn't even a tournament at Cold Wars this year. So does anyone in the NE still play FoW?? Cheers!

4th edition did cuase the number of games to drop off quite a bit around here. No one seems to want a game if we have to decide on which version to play. Me, I'll play 4th edition, but I'm not buying new army books.

Sure

I'm trying to play with house rules. No real local group so I can feel some freedom.

Turn Sequence

Phasing Player Formation Morale

Phasing Player Artillery/Air Strikes

Phasing Player moves

Movement orders as per rules

Non-Phasing Player Direct Fire

Shoot and Scoot for Non-Phasing Player

Phasing Player Direct Fire

Shoot and Scoot for Phasing Player

Assault Phase

Terrain

Built Up Areas:

Single building models represent areas of light or dispersed buildings. Rules unchanged.

Buildings on templates represent Built Up area and dense construction. Unless moving on roads vehicles need to make cross checks to move through. Building models can be move to fit models as for woods (the Template is the terrain)

I just started playing again and I'm enjoying it.

A lot of Team Yankee going on around here

"People aren't playing Flames of War" because V4.0 sucks.
However, my group is still playing V3 and we're doing fine.
But we're old farts who haven't been conditioned to only play what the Lords of Flames of War insist we play.

If you are depending on official chapter approved FoW games, good luck with that. Those of us with independent minds play what we want to play.

Some guys in my group are going to a friend's house in my group to play an "unofficial" V3 tournament next week.

What I find ironic is that before V4 came out, FoW was panned for being an overly simplistic WW2 game. Battlefront responded to this criticism by dummying down the game. Way to go, geniuses. You have now lost 90% of your tournament gamers. What a plan.

Still play Ver3.0 out here in So Cal. Active group using Ver 3.1 rules now. The Ver4.0 splinter group still runs games but the bloom of FOW gaming is down. BF shot itself with Ver4.0 release last year and everyone with the serious FOW collections, the same veteran FOW players, the experienced tourney players all know it…. except for the young Ver4.0 crowd. BF fools no one with their "look we have games forum" posts, reporting large tournaments organized for Ver4.0 (but so narrow in focus and scattered to selected conventions), their book release schedule (nothing in comparison to the history of Ver1.0 to Ver3.0 books or scale of effort), all the old .pdf articles, the gamer generated articles….. basically old news to BF eyes.

Think independent is the watch word for FOW gaming now.
For myself…. running a FOW Remagen bridge scenario next month.

link

I've never seen a FOW game played, lots of Battle Group though.

I go to a lot of clubs,shows and groups. Flames of war seems to be very popular (modal). Folk will often need to base their observation on what they see in their locale. In my locale i mostly see PBI being played (and have seen this for the last 26 years in my locale) . I expect FOW are still selling lots of rules and models.
There are no statistics on this one I am afraid.

Is it because FoW has lost favor in our historical gaming clubs, but is still popular among gamers who play it in addition to their science fiction/fantasy collectible games? FoW has appeal to Warhammer/40k/Warmachine/etc. gamers, who don't haunt the same forums or locations or conventions as many of us on TMP do. I believe it is still popular with those folks, even if not among veteran WW2 gamers who have moved on to other rules.

There WAS a Cold Wars tournament this year. 14 players, so less than previous but it did happen:

link

We play it regularly, about half of our games.

The people who went from FOW to ADLG must be tournament gamers. What about the rest of the world?

I see less and less of it up here. A few people plying Tanks but not much FOW compared to a couple of years ago. V4 severely hurt them up here. Just look at this Forum it is mostly Team Yankee, maybe 20% of it is about FOW.

TY is the precursor and laid the groundwork for FOW V4 and the latest version of 'Nam with its card-based system. Having said that, I play TY but not FOW.

It seems to have a died a death around here. the occasional 3rd ed game gets played but thats all. think most folk went to Battlegroup, but I tried that and didnt like it.

ADLG?

le art de la guerre (ancients & medieval rules)

Not regular FoW since 4th came out. But we play 'Nam and Team Yankee. If we play FoW I'm sure we'll stick to 3rd edition, since we have all those books already.

I guess I have benefitted from the drop off in FOW,s players as I have picked up some nice minis at good prices. I don't play FOW, but the abundance of nice toys has been responsible for my WW2 collection growing rapidly. Not to sound cruel but I'm thinking Team Yankee will go the same direction & my modern collection will grow too.

The people who went from FOW to ADLG must be tournament gamers

Well that would be the wheel turning. Here in Oz many of the DBM (an ancients and medieval game) tournament players moved over to FoW when Phil Barker released DBMM. Sort of ironic given that ADLG is considered by some to be what DBM should have turned into, instead of DBMM.

Cheers,
JohnG

Seen a rise in the number of players that have moved to Battlegroup, since no rebasing is required. You just need a way to keep track of the casualties per base.

JohnG:

Excellent observation re DBMM causing crash of DBX and then ADLG picking up the pieces (from listless FOG).

ADLG didn't quite ring my DBX bell so we did A Game of Knights and Knaves to replace for medieval (and DBA 3.0 big battle for everything else).

Glad we did Combat Command as a user friendly WWII game as FOW never had much appeal and seems to have shot itself in the foot (as per DBMM though by going simple while DBMM when uber complex).

Shows the value of independent game companies – sometimes we do get stuff right (and by necessity have to pay attention to our players).

Thomas J. Thomas
Fame and Glory Games

We haven't played WW2 in a couple of years until a fortnight ago when we started with V3 and then last week swapped to V4 and started the scenario all over again to see how they compare. Wielding a rules book that is about half the thickness of the V3 one is a bonus, as are the cards.So far it seems ok.
I think the last large game we had using V3 all the way through was FoaN about a year ago and although we could have gone on for 3 nights by the end of the second evening most of the players had had enough.

NJ had a very weak FoW presence anyway… You need to go further away (to Delaware or New England) to see bigger FoW crowds.Also try Brooklyn Wargaming. It's not Jersey but they do have FoW.

V4 really killed my interest.

Oh yes…I play 3rd edition but it's one of many games that get played with my groups.

FOW v4 is just not historical enough for my tastes.

My first game was a v.3 match,and I've been playing v.4 for about a year now. Presently in a LW escalation series. Not bad. Hope to put my Panthers in the mix soon.

Having finished the V4 game we thought that it moved along a lot faster than V3, mainly because we didn't have to keep wading through the rulebook every 5 minutes.

Checkers is faster then chess does not mean it is better.

I use a hybrid of V3 and house rules which my friends and I enjoy very much.