Get FWC1 or wait for FWC2? Plus Qs

[Octo]

Hey all, I'm new to the forums and have an interest in getting into Future War Commander, since the 10mm scale minis from here are so affordable and pretty. As such, I've got a few questions.

First and foremost: I'm not itching to get minis on a table and have them start blowing each other up, since I'd probably be the only player within an hour drive. That means I'd be buying two armies and bringing them to demo... Eventually. Since I'm not in a rush, should I wait for the FWC2 rules to release? I saw that they're in development, but I know from experience that that doesn't, and shouldn't, set a timeline.

Next question: do the different armies play differently? You don't need to go into the rules of it all - I don't want to step on any toes. I'm looking at Human Theological as my main force, but I do want to know if I need to worry about if the second faction I get for demos might matter.

Next next, and feel free to say "that info is in the rulebook": what size bases, and how many models to a base, are used for 10mm scale minis? If I'm waiting on FWC2 to release, I'll likely be being my minis before the rules because I really want to paint them, but I'd also like to base and assemble them so they can be used with the rules.

Finally, for the rules-related questions (again, feel free to gloss over it): is there anything preventing me from using other minis with this game? I've got a resin 3D printer and my eye on a (some) designer(s), so it would be neat if I could use their models, too, but not the end of the world if I can't.

Now, for the rest of the questions: are there any good content creators out there with longform how-to-plays or battle reports, or general FWC content

What do you all use for terrain? I know that N- scale stuff is 1:160 and someone mentioned that Pendraken's 10mm stuff is closer to 1:150, but most of the N-Scale stuff I see is modern or historical anyways. I saw Warcradle has some modular "Dystopian Industrial" buildings that look good, except that I have no idea where to get them in the States.

Is there anything else I should know about? A subreddit or Discord Server, game finder, online client? That I don't get email notifications from posts here unless I tick a certain box in my settings? That I should avoid [blank] like the dickens because [blank]?

Thanks for your time reading! And doubly for any time answering!

[Big Insect]

Welcome Octo 

FWCII has Q2 2025 target release date (fingers crossed) but you might probably want to buy a copy of FWCI asap (whilst stocks last) to start getting your head around the way things play. Whilst FWCII is an upgrade of FWCI the core mechanisms will remain constant between the two sets.
Also FWCI will have some army lists in them that wont necessarily appear in the FWCII universe (as the manufactures and minis are now sadly OOP) but that doesn't mean you cannot continue to play with those lists.

Unlike other more prescriptive sets of rules, FWC was originally designed to allow players a huge amount of flexibility when creating and deploying armies. So, yes, you can use other sets of minis and apply the FWC mechanisms to them. That is one of the great beauties of FWC as a rules set (& all the Commander rules sets as a 'family' of rules).

You can use FWCII with any sci-fi minis, although Pendraken are, of course, our preferred option     
If you have other old minis from other games or rules sets - such as Dropzone Commander for example - they will play equally well with FWC - some might say better 
The trick will be converting the DZ stats across into FWC stats, but there is a long and highly successful tradition of FWC players doing just that themselves, and submitting the lists for publication on-line.

The different armies can play very differently and that is based around two key sets of factors:
1) Tech.Level - so all armies are classified as either Primitive, Contemporary, or Advanced. Primitive units are generally cheaper to buy, but any advanced 'tech' cost you more. The opposite is true of more Advanced factions.
2) Tactical Doctrine - all armies must be assigned a Tac.Doc. there are 7 to choose from.

These two primary factors are supplemented by technical upgrades applied to units by way of different armour & defences (shields), weapons, camouflaged and methods of movement. For example, there are also 11 different types of movement that can be applied to units - ranging from 'Foot' (walking) at one end through to 'Teleportation' at the other. Units are not restricted to mechanised vehicles - biological entities are also catered for - think of the winged flyers in the film Avatar or a massive Kaiju or the 'bugs' from Starship Trooper - all will work on the table-top with FWC mechanism!
All of these various combinations offer a player an abundance of alternative armies and troop types to play with. Building armies can be addictive. We have a unit and army list calculator that will allow you to model your own factions. List for all the Pendraken 10mm sci-fi ranges will be available plus many others.

There was an old FWCI website that contained a lot of the Q&A and old lists on it. I'm not sure if it is still accessible, but I'll get back to you on that 

I'll let others on the forum answer about terrain etc.

But I hope that the above is helpful?
Again, welcome to the forum
Cheers
Mark

[Octo]

Aight, lemme see if my forum-fu still works on Mobile lol

Welcome Octo 

-bows- Thank you!

FWCII has Q2 2025 target release date (fingers crossed) but you might probably want to buy a copy of FWCI asap (whilst stocks last) to start getting your head around the way things play. Whilst FWCII is an upgrade of FWCI the core mechanisms will remain constant between the two sets.

Good to know. Q2 is just long enough away that I think it'll be worth it to pick up FWC1, yeah. I might just get the PDF, though, because color pictures and searchability. Let me know if that's misguided, though.

Also FWCI will have some army lists in them that wont necessarily appear in the FWCII universe (as the manufactures and minis are now sadly OOP) but that doesn't mean you cannot continue to play with those lists.

Unlike other more prescriptive sets of rules, FWC was originally designed to allow players a huge amount of flexibility when creating and deploying armies. So, yes, you can use other sets of minis and apply the FWC mechanisms to them. That is one of the great beauties of FWC as a rules set (& all the Commander rules sets as a 'family' of rules).

I do love a "model agnostic" game, like OPR.

You can use FWCII with any sci-fi minis, although Pendraken are, of course, our preferred option     

As they should be. The pictures do them great justice, even in grey-with-black-wash, and they're super inexpensive. An entire army for 50 currency? A tank for 5? I'm sold.

If you have other old minis from other games or rules sets - such as Dropzone Commander for example - they will play equally well with FWC - some might say better 
The trick will be converting the DZ stats across into FWC stats, but there is a long and highly successful tradition of FWC players doing just that themselves, and submitting the lists for publication on-line.

I do have a small army each of Scourge and Shaltari somewhere in deep storage. The game was too "suddenly, localized war, drop your dudes in and fight" for me, personally, and I didn't like the sheer number of flyers lol

The different armies can play very differently and that is based around two key sets of factors:
1) Tech.Level - so all armies are classified as either Primitive, Contemporary, or Advanced. Primitive units are generally cheaper to buy, but any advanced 'tech' cost you more. The opposite is true of more Advanced factions.
2) Tactical Doctrine - all armies must be assigned a Tac.Doc. there are 7 to choose from.

These two primary factors are supplemented by technical upgrades applied to units by way of different armour & defences (shields), weapons, camouflaged and methods of movement. For example, there are also 11 different types of movement that can be applied to units - ranging from 'Foot' (walking) at one end through to 'Teleportation' at the other. Units are not restricted to mechanised vehicles - biological entities are also catered for - think of the winged flyers in the film Avatar or a massive Kaiju or the 'bugs' from Starship Trooper - all will work on the table-top with FWC mechanism!
All of these various combinations offer a player an abundance of alternative armies and troop types to play with. Building armies can be addictive. We have a unit and army list calculator that will allow you to model your own factions. List for all the Pendraken 10mm sci-fi ranges will be available plus many others.

Suddenly info! I'm probably going to pick up two factions' army bundles and build the lists with what's included. Let me know if I should buy more of one or another if Theological will cost drastically more or less points than an opponent faction, but I suppose I'll find that out when I get the rules.

There was an old FWCI website that contained a lot of the Q&A and old lists on it. I'm not sure if it is still accessible, but I'll get back to you on that 

I'll let others on the forum answer about terrain etc.

You do those, I'm not in a rush.

But I hope that the above is helpful?
Again, welcome to the forum
Cheers
Mark

Very helpful, yes!

Now to hope that formatting worked lol...

And to figure out how to get notified that there was a reply.

[Shedman]

Welcome to the forum

This is the old FWC site
http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/Content/Forum/default.aspx

There are loads of AARs on my blog covering FWC and FWC Bootcamp, an annual weekend of FWC gaming
https://twomarshals.blogspot.com/search/label/future%20war%20commander

[Octo]

Thanks, Shedman! I'll be taking a look through those links soon.

As an aside, I just bought the PDF of FWC1 from Wargame Vault, and it's... not in color? That's not the end of the world by any means, but the description does say it's full color. Might want to get either of those fixed. Maybe, I dunno, I'm not your boss. 

I'm not seeing any guidelines regarding what size bases to use, or how many minis are to a base. In the pictures, I'm seeing maybe 2 for heavy weapons, 3 for "elites", and 5 for infantry. I could see an argument for a number of minis equal to the number of hits they can take (maybe modified by profile) or attacks they can make, though. Good to know I don't have to go full "madman" and magnetize each mini's tiny base to remove them on hit.

Finally, I have little clue which army Human Theological is supposed to be, here, so I suppose I'll have to either figure out what the bracketed letters mean (which I suspect represent the manufacturer of the mini line the army is expected to use) or see if someone around here has a custom list lol. I only just bought the book, so maybe more time with it will reveal its secrets.

[Octo]

I have spotted this post, which shares much of the same concerns as me, but it's months old and I'm hesitant on what constitutes "thread necromancy" here lol

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Anything up to the foundation of the forum.

[Big Insect]

Hi there - Leon is 'the boss' and keeps an eagle-eye on this forum - so I'm sure he'll pick up on the black & white v colour issue himself. Other answers below:

Thanks, Shedman! I'll be taking a look through those links soon.

As an aside, I just bought the PDF of FWC1 from Wargame Vault, and it's... not in color? That's not the end of the world by any means, but the description does say it's full color. Might want to get either of those fixed. Maybe, I dunno, I'm not your boss. 

I'm not seeing any guidelines regarding what size bases to use, or how many minis are to a base. In the pictures, I'm seeing maybe 2 for heavy weapons, 3 for "elites", and 5 for infantry. I could see an argument for a number of minis equal to the number of hits they can take (maybe modified by profile) or attacks they can make, though. Good to know I don't have to go full "madman" and magnetize each mini's tiny base to remove them on hit.

> glad you've found the previous thread - TBF in most instances I only base Infantry and Infantry Support units or Low Profile units, all to make them easier to handle. You arnt required to remove individual infantry or infantry support units to represent casualties - units are either Knocked-out or Suppressed in the game and we use marker dice to indicate hits and suppression, with whole KO'd infantry units being removed from play


Finally, I have little clue which army Human Theological is supposed to be, here, so I suppose I'll have to either figure out what the bracketed letters mean (which I suspect represent the manufacturer of the mini line the army is expected to use) or see if someone around here has a custom list lol. I only just bought the book, so maybe more time with it will reveal its secrets.
> the new Human Theological range are not from any specific book or film. They are from the mind of the designer  You wont find any of the new Pendraken figure ranges in FWCI or the old lists online - as they are newly created and the lists will be out with FWCII. Not much help I know, but it might stop you hunting around to find them online.
We might choose to release some of these new lists online ahead of the release of FWCII, but it will depend a lot on how we progress with the whole project.
FYI - there is a PDF on the old site that tells you which army lists represent which manufacturers ranges - so DR for example are the old Dark Realm 6mm ranges - which are currently OOP - although there is a rumor that the masters have been 'found' and sold to somebody who is planning on bringing them back into production.

I hope that is helpful (sort of)?
Cheers
Mark

[dylan]

As it says on page 1 of FWC 1st edition:

"Your miniatures can be based or unbased as this makes no difference when playing
the game. One stand of figures represents an infantry squad and one model represents one item in real-life, whether
that be a tank, dropship or massive walker. Alternatively, one stand of miniatures can represent a platoon when playing
at a higher level of command. One figure represents one man when playing skirmish games."

[Leon]

As an aside, I just bought the PDF of FWC1 from Wargame Vault, and it's... not in color? That's not the end of the world by any means, but the description does say it's full color. Might want to get either of those fixed. Maybe, I dunno, I'm not your boss. 

I'm not quite sure why it says in colour as the PDF has always been black and white, but not to worry, colour version uploaded now!

[Octo]

I'm not quite sure why it says in colour as the PDF has always been black and white, but not to worry, colour version uploaded now!

Absolute legend! You could have just changed the description to say it was Black and White, but you went the better road.

[Leon]

Absolute legend! You could have just changed the description to say it was Black and White, but you went the better road.

No worries!

[Octo]

Hi there

<Lots of helpful stuff>

I hope that is helpful (sort of)?
Cheers
Mark

Yes, very helpful! I've just picked up the one army for now. Gonna base the infantry, and if there are mdf cases included in the bundle for tanks I'll probably base them, too, so if I decide to get anything that hovers (or if HumTheo has hovering tanks like I kinda imagine they do) I can base them on an acrylic rod bit to raise them up a few mil.

High-five the tank designer for me lol. The tanks are great. I'll try to find that PDF so I at least know what analogs I can draw lol

[Octo]

As it says on page 1 of FWC 1st edition:

"Your miniatures can be based or unbased as this makes no difference when playing
the game. One stand of figures represents an infantry squad and one model represents one item in real-life, whether
that be a tank, dropship or massive walker. Alternatively, one stand of miniatures can represent a platoon when playing
at a higher level of command. One figure represents one man when playing skirmish games."

I'm aware of what the rules say, I was hoping more for a "best practices" sort of thing  . Like "the people I play against do X and I kinda wish I did it that way" or "the 6mm crew does X, but it doesn't work well for 10mm". Have a discussion, y'know? 

[Big Insect]

I'm aware of what the rules say, I was hoping more for a "best practices" sort of thing  . Like "the people I play against do X and I kinda wish I did it that way" or "the 6mm crew does X, but it doesn't work well for 10mm". Have a discussion, y'know? 

I know a lot of players base your Infantry and Infantry Support units on the 'Pill' type bases - (e.g. squares or rectangles with rounded corners). I base my 6mm infantry on 30 x 30mm bases as that allows me to easily fit them in boxes. I also usually base 8-10 6mm infantry per base. With 10mm you may want to fit less on the base - but I tend to like mine to look more 'dense' as a formation.

I also base all my vehicles - but again that is personal preference - as it allows me to customize the base terrain to suit the army. But also - as it states in the PDF by matching the front-edge base width of the vehicles to that of the infantry bases, when the infantry debus they will fit in-front of the vehicles.

But as you say, it would be interesting to hear what other players do.

I know that at one point, at the club I was at, at the time, we prohibited infantry on bases smaller than 30mm frontage, as you could just end up with a massed firing line otherwise, but that had its downside, as it just meant more units under the artillery or air-strike templates.

Generally, with Grav or Hover vehicles basing is essential, and as you state adding a small bit of clear rod or a block of MDF under the vehicle to lift it off the base is also esthetically pleasing.
I also always base my Massive units, but again I customize the shape and size to fit the unit.
For example, I have a few very nice Star Wars AT-AT walkers that need rectangular bases, whilst their accompanying 'chicken' walkers are on round bases.
I also put all my aerials on wire or clearer plastic rod on weighted flight bases. And I have drop-ship/drop-pod models both in flight and on the ground.
So there are lots of options available.

But as you say it would be interesting to hear what others do.
Cheers
Mark