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Thinking about diving back into FoW. It seems dead... Nothing really for sale on here. Battlefronts website doesnt even have early war or great war (i know not flames), but it seems like they've all ined on mid-late war? So if it isnt dead, and if I'm jumping back in..where should I start?

Whats going on with battlefront and flames?

Where to start is going to depend on what people in your area are playing (if a group exists), or are willing to play (if a group doesn't exist). Both Mid-War and Late War are fully supported by Battlefront at this time, with products coming out for both periods.

Early War was released late in 2nd Edition, and I don't think it's really been touched since then. Late War and Mid War has generally been where the player interest is located, so that's where the money is at, and that's where Battlefront is focusing. Great War was its own thing. I'm sure that it will be reissued at some point, but it's anyone's guess when. It's a niche product of a niche product. Unless there's a sudden massive surge of interest, I wouldn't expect to see it as more than one of those things that they periodically reissue because they know that it will sell a few figures every now and again. Pacific War is similarly in limbo, though since only the Japanese and USMC were released, there's not as much attention on it.

The later wars - starting with Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli Wars - now fall under the Team Yankee Early umbrella, and are found there instead of as part of FoW.

It would really just be me and some friends playing for fun. I have a ton of stuff from 1st or 2nd edition. Just have the urge to play again. Ill need to buy new books and maybe some units. I kind of wanted to try early war (but as stated it isnt an option really).

If it isn't dead, then how is that state of 4th edition?

Fate of a Nation, Nam, and Great War went out of print during COVID due to supply chain issues, its taking them a couple years to correct that, Nam came back into print earlier this year, they are supposedly working on Great War next IIRC.

This year Battlefront has been mostly focused on Team Yankee otherwise, not to say FOW hasn't seen new releases, just that Team Yankee has had a number of big book drops (Red Dawn, Nordic Forces, and NATO Forces) with pretty substantial new kit releases associated. They are working on a "Checkpoint Charlie" book which is supposed to be an "early war" Cold War Gone Hot type book set in 60s/70s timeline, I think due for release next year. It will cover rules for forces in Europe and merge with the FoaN and NAM lists to allow for broader intermixing of those army lists. Rumors also that they are working on an Asian theater book, and other rumors about an update to the Oil War book covering a broader segment of the Middle East.

On the FOW side, Battlefront has been a bit back and forth. They started with mid war IIRC, then jumped to late war, then jumped back to mid war most recently, releasing the Eastern Front and North Africa compilation books - these books were pretty great, in that they each merged the contents of like 4-6+ other books into one, and also incorporated the return of midwar monsters into them (as well as IIRC covering the wild card options in them so if you didn't have to buy a pack of cards to get all your army building options). My understanding is that late war will be getting a similar treatment in the near future, with some rumors of them including "late war leviathans" for things like the Maus and the American T-28/T-29 tanks. They are also working on Early War and Pacific Theater stuff for 2024/2025 release as well. Early War (and Pacific) was removed 100% when they moved to v4 a few years back, which is why you don't see anything available, but rest assured a revamp is coming.

My advice, if you want to do WW2, is to go in with Mid War. At the moment its more "complete" and easier to collect. There might be more expansions for it in the future, but just needing one (or two if you're playing the Germans) books to get all the army lists and options for your chosen faction is pretty handy and convenient. You can do Late War, but stuff is spread out over a larger number of books currently, which I have no doubt will be consolidated and updated in some manner in the future. Otherwise, Team Yankee seems to be a bit more alive than FOW from a community standpoint.

As for the state of the game, its still generating good turnout for major tournaments and events/cons worldwide so I wouldn't say its struggling or dead, just maybe not growing/strong. There were a lot of people that quit with v4 as the game removed a lot of stuff vs previous editions of the game - entire army lists are no longer really playable, all the softskins and logistcis vehicles have been removed, some unit types/weapons, etc. were dropped, etc.

VERY VERY helpful information. Thank you. I may dive in mid-war then to help with book bloat (until they compile the books). I appreciate all the information and will keep an eye out for early war/pacific/great war. Thanks again gang, and any other input/advise will be greatly appreciated.

Glad I could help. I myself am very hyped for early war. What little they have said is that they intend to fully support the period with a substantial set of plastic kits, including full plastic infantry for all the major parties involved, and something like 20-30 different plastic tanks, as well as a pair of 2 player starter sets (one for Blitzkrieg, one for Barbarossa) and individual army starters as well.

Its sounding like the roadmap is to start with "Blitzkrieg" (France and the Low Countries) and then Barbarossa, and then they are going to circle back to Poland and early war North Africa/Wester Desert and some other areas (I assume Norway and possibly also Manchuria?).

If it is just you and your friends, just play with what you have honestly.
BF has split many of the old infantry model boxes from v2 and v3 into two, so it is a bit more costly today then they used to be 5+ years ago. Covid hit BF REALY hard as all their model production is done in asia, that is why they had to drop anything that was not WW2 and yankee and they are just this summer starting up production again outside of thouse two main categories.

Game has allso become mutch more tanks biased in v4, so the infantry forces that one saw in v2 and v3 are now on the rare side of things.
Nearly all late war books from v3 is now remade into v4(under new names) and midwar is going strong, so you have options if you want to head into v4. Faction balance seems to be more fair in midwar then late war so that is why mid is more popular then late, but as chaos said, that will prolly be solved when compilation books for late are released. (BF still dont do digital balance updates)


As a side note, gale force 9 makes a skirmish version of FoW just under a different name licenced under world of tanks pc game, its is same scale as fow and the new starter box has some models that are not made in the regular fow rang yet, namely the german maus, russian is3 and the american t29.