"Flames of War Question" Topic

Has anyone ever figured out the reason for FoW's exasperating habit of periodically purging parts of their product lines? Ages ago they scalded out their entire French line with the apparent excuse that they wanted to overhaul it.

FoW seems to spend more time overhauling their lines than the Russkies spend trying to keep their carrier afloat. I can't speak for others, but this shell game is the principle reason I've managed to roll my eyes and forego 15mm WWII.

Inquiring minds…

Why don't you play with other ranges of 15mm WWII?

FoW has displayed a tantalizing habit of offering esoteric items that round out the offerings of the more "stable" manufacturers.

For North Africa, only FoW has ever offered the Morris AC and the Indian Pattern Scout Car. Both not now available.

For Crete they made a German Air landing gun. Now gone.

WTH?

If there is a logic there I can't grok it.

Sounds like instead of FoW, they should be called GoW ? (Games of Workshop… ;-)

HMS Exeter, check out Quick Reaction Force, they offer all of the things that you are looking for.

If you hunt around you can find most stuff you want in 15mm, I also quite enjoy doing conversions of existing models. As noted QRF has all sorts of wierd and wonderful stuff, as do the various 3D printing people.

The BF stuff is OK but I stopped buying it years ago as it became ludicrously expensive. I still like their Russian horse carts though.

I had always had the sense that Quality Castings were "true" 15mm, and didn't mix well with other makers…

…and Scotia/Command Decision and FoW were nearer to 18mm, thus being compatible, but…

…QRF was nearer to 20mm, and didn't blend well with 15s or 20s.

this shell game

Battlefront has copied the GW business model and they too rotate stock. It's probably got something to do with FOMO and "buy before it's gone" followed by "classics now made to order"

Whatever the current Codex happens to be is where product should be. It's Bulge right now, right?

Planned obsolescence and reworking of army lists keeps the hard-core fans shelling out money, while new players don't know any different (or are already aware of the business model via GW). That said, any manufacturer has the right to pull pieces from production if they are not meeting sales goals with the item/s. You also see gamers who stop at X edition and don't keep following the train down the tracks.

I give FOW credit for jump-starting 15mm WWII gaming. If you like their figs, there are plenty of WWII rule sets out there.

QC were 1/106th, which used to be the old '15mm' standard until 1/100th took over about 20 years ago.

QRF are 1/100th, and go very well with Skytrex/OG and BF. The exception being the OG carriers which are oversized. Peter Pig are also 1/100 but seem rather larger than the others in many cases, thicker castings I guess.

Zvezda are supposedly 1/100th but are on the small side, as are PSC. My QRF Shermans are exactly the same size my PP ones, whereas the PSC ones are a fraction smaller. My PP Panthers have exactly the same hull dimensions as my Zvezda ones, although they look bigger as the gun barrels are thicker (and they weigh a ton).

BF are generally 1/100th but the older castings used to have a vertical height distortion so they were stupidly tall. Something about being in proportion to based figures.

All manufacturers figures have got more bloated over the years, although the PP ones had a period of getting smaller, before they got bigger again. The multi part PSC ones are rather elegantly proportioned, if a pita to assemble, whereas their one piece casting chums are a bit thicker all over.

Well if you insist on only buying FOW for your 15mm armies, there are other avenues of obtaining them than from the FOW site. Try ebay.

The newly designed QC items are a bit bigger and fit with FOW. I mix mine.

Good to know.

Meh…no manufacturer carries "complete" lines of figures. Just plan on mixing and matching as needed.

(It used to be that FOW (BF) carried the most complete lines; I'm not sure anymore since I stopped buying their plastic kits.)