"Contemplating a return to FOW early war" Topic

After many years of not playing this game, I'm considering a return. I bought the 3rd ed. rules at time of release but soon after we stopped playing this game. Now I see that the 4th ed. is not popular, but wonder why as none in our group own the rules. I see other mentions of "3.1" and "3.5" so that tells me there were updates done. We love the tactical variety of early war as it almost feels like an extension of the 30's back of beyond sort of stuff. Fallschirmjager jumps, raiders in the dessert, French colonial troops, early Italians. All stuff of our dreams. Was that ever supported in V. 3? Should we forget V 3 and move onto 4? I'm also wondering if the new plastic stuff is good or lacking compared to the older stuff as we're sticklers for preferring metal miniatures but are open to plastic vehicles if they are better than the old resin. A lot of questions to sort through for sure.

V3 did have early war Mediterranean in it. The new plastics look good but are way more fragile then the old metal ones. Broken weapons happen a lot over time. I am not a fan of V4 but some are. Overall there has been a very sharp decrease in play in my area since V4 came out.

Thanks, do you think V4 is too simple? Streamlined? I hate the word streamlined when it comes to wargames rules:)

I can play v4 or 3,just not at the same time.

I have found V4 to be more tourney friendly but even less historical then V3. They have based it more on what they make and sell in plastics then in what is historically accurate. An example would be you could field a Tiger at El Alimain(SP) North Africa and it would be legal.

Stuck with Ver3.0 MRB. The gaming group updates a 3.x supplement sheet… or double sheet now for group games. Never switched over to Ver4.0.

… and I still use the 20mm WWII collection for FOW gaming. Examples of games and scenarios posted to Wargamerabbit blog. link

Having a Tiger turn up in 1940 is certainly troubling, but that is something we simply wouldn't do in our group, so that is not by itself something that would put me off the rules.

Some odd statements about V4.

Right now V4 is aimed at MID WAR… that is from 1942 to 1943 and it is aimed at El Alamein and Tunisia. The Tiger is in the German list but the fluff accurately points out that it is available in 1943 in Tunisia. The list gives you a lot of leeway for fielding forces and a little common sense will get you accurate army lists. So yes, the list would technically allow a Tiger at El Alamein. But then again I would use my US Army list and put Americans at "El Alamein" too if I really wanted to. That's where common sense kicks in and the same would be true for someone wanting to use Tigers there too.

If you want to do early war in V4 you have to use the updates book and the old early war army lists book.

Bigfan of v4. We.ve pulled in more new players then with v3. The cards make it so much easier. To play.

Ok. Maybe someone can answer. I know that a company needs to make new to sell new, but I thought all the old lists and stats would still work with V4 for non-tournement play?

BF came out with all those fancy new unit cards for V4. I never bought them cause I made my own for the stuff I have. Am I missing something here?

Thanks,

Dave

If you know v3, then go ahead and play v3.

If you'd need to re-learn the game anyway, the v4 unit cards make it a lot harder to forget what your target numbers are! IMO the unit cards are the single biggest improvement in v4.

I detest cards in wargames in most situations. Having said that, it seemed like one of the drudgery bits of the old days playing in the end of 2, beginning of 3rd ed; having to look up stats endlessly.

V3 was widely derided for being too simple a set of rules.
Battlefront solved that problem with V4 by dummying down.

If you want to do early war in V4 you have to use the updates book and the old early war army lists book.

Also the Special rules and warriors book + a couple of LFTF pdfs .

They did say at the open day in the UK , if EW gets updated it will be an Osprey book .

Also they don't think it will sell enough to get new plastic kits .

All good knowledge, and reason to hoard early war kits! Still, I'm tempted to try some of the new plastic vehicles. They seem quite detailed. Now if I could just find one of those short lived desert forts!

I love the cards. Much easier to get newbies into the game.

@Wealdmaster: Yeah, the cards get all the numbers into one place, speeds things up a bit.

The cards are brilliant. I just returned to Flames and I'm loving it.