Flames Of War D-Day Boot Camp: Saturday
Chris Explains How To Introduce Your Friends To Flames Of War
Jun 8 2019 @ 13:00
48 Comments
John asks Chris a few questions about how he introduces people to Flames of War.
So you’ve got your new starter bundle. A Hit the Beach box set for you and a friend. You’ve read the rules and built both forces. But how do you go about taking your friends through their first game? Luckily Chris is on hand to showcase years of convention experience to get mucked in with your forces and start blowing things up on the table.
The best demos I go through focus on getting you to roll five asap and killing a few things!
Simple enough. How about a segment for getting in toWWII hostoricals but coming from existing competative games that don’t have different time periods with different tech levels. Getting used to not pulling out the model with the best stats, and coming to terms with everything not being balanced against everything.
interesting idea, with @lloyd @dignity @warzan all kicking off with armies I wonder if we could work out something.
Cool. Ignoring time, money, and opponents, this is my biggest hurdle in to WWII. I have the El Alamein set and I was looking at this Hit The Beach set thinking if I got it I could add it to my army, but then I hear its late war and my stuff might be mid and I don’t have any clue if they would be on the real battlefield together, or could be on the table together, or if they can, if they would be effective. I’ve no idea if FoW or Bolt Action adjusts points costs based on which… Read more »
not over thinking it at all. No one made desert specific tanks, although some were modified, but most of the British armour was replaced by the time of Normandy. The German 88s are fine as is, but the Pz III and IV, while still being used, were up gunned and in some cases up armoured. FoW is split into periods, the early, mid and late war don’t adjust points as equipment was redundant and retired or changed into other functions. French tanks having anti tank guns replacing their turrets or using inferior turrets and guns in fortifications instead of on… Read more »
As a non-historical gamer it would never occur to me to think of such things. These are extra hurdles to getting in to historicals, and hitting these without knowing I had to plan for them would be quite offputting. Especially if my friend and I had paid for, built and painted our armies only to find out that even with matched points one of us cannot lose to the other. I haven’t read the FoW rules yet so I do not know how apparent they make this. I do not recall seeing anything too obvious when I last read Bolt… Read more »
for flames of war it’s not in the rules because they don’t change, instead it’s with the books they’re all dated for specific times.
it’s like getting into any game you need to know what it is before you start splashing the cash.
Thats very true, but all the games I’ve played so far haven’t had models that get “outdated”. Everything is always somewhat valid, no matter what my opponent brings. Not entirely true, I know, but this seems more pronounced with historicals. But perhaps thats just my limited view from the outside? Tell you what, make sure I win one of the “On The Beach” sets and i’ll play that, my El Alamein stuff, and then merge the two for one battle and see how I feel and get back to you.
I’ve always had a passion for historicals, especially WWII. The thoughts of all those brave men doing what they did is absolutely fascinating to me. This is a game I’d absolutely love to get into
Just have to make friends now 🙂
come visit us, @lordsanes has even said he may come down on occasion from Belfast for games of KoW and other things
One day I’ll make it
I approve this message
You should join the FB groups I mentioned Robert
I agree. Being new at this myself it’s fun to just put the pieces on the table and seeing what I can do with them.
Just get stuff on the table and have fun and learn the rules as you go has always been my mantra.
Ah yes how to corrupt, I mean “introduce” your friends…
I thought you were to alpha strike during the demo.
I found people also need to be interested in the time period to consider joining in. It’s tough getting die hard fans of one game/system to try something else.
it’s always great to have your first game (or games) with someone who really knows the rules, I’ve found too much stopping & starting (especially when having to look through the rulebooks) can put people off playing
For some people it can seem a bit overwhelming starting a new game but these starter kits make it a bit less intimidating.
that’s some nice advice, you just need to be able to implement it 😉
Rules what rules?
thats alpha strike justin (allegedly) out of the intros then
A lot of action really helps getting people into games, that’s true. But as far as I can tell from my own experience (dragging a friend of mine into Bolt Action) try to make the table / terrain you play the first game on as appealing as possible. This helps in turning the game into an immersive experience…don’t just use grey plastic and books and such but instead have painted up models, mdf buildings for instance and some of the other jazz that makes a great (war)gaming experience….and for sure you’ll end up with a new gamin’ buddy.
I must start play game, looks cool.
Keeping things interesting and moving, got it!
Great info on how to get people excited about a game
Love these video’s, now I only need friends to play with 😉
If your minis look good ( no grey plastic) it will go a long way, some terrain doesn’t hurt. The boards are have the battle really:
It’s looking good on the table!
Yeah killing some stuff fast helps. So going with tanks at first is a good idea. Not so like infantry dug in and getting them off a target.
Great little piece of advice there. Its always quite difficult to get someone into a new game especially when it can be quite slow paced.
Good advice.
Tempo, excitement and manageable, i. e. followable chunks of rule sections. Less is more at the beginning.