Originally Posted by
GrogDaTyrant
First thing you'll want to do, is get yourself some lists to work with. Since you're going British, your options depend upon which Era you will be playing, but things can easily be modified to fit the different time periods, especially if you use infantry.
In any case, your primary resources would be Blitzkrieg for Early War, North Africa for Mid War, and either Fortress Europe, and irrc Turning Tide for LW. There is also the main rulebook for v3 which now comes with some basic lists to get you by.
From there, the type of list you want to build will determine what you are required to take and what options you have available. Your list will have a mandatory HQ, and at least 2 Combat Companies. Many lists will offer extra optional combat companies, but not all of them do. From there you have the optional Weapon Companies, which act as secondary supporting elements, and then finally the Corps Support, which tend to be ubiquitous throughout most of that nations list. What's available, and what's required of your list, will vary wildly with the list itself. For example, an armored company will most likely give you a Company Comander tank, with possibly an optional 2iC (or mandatory 2iC), and then to Combat Companies of tanks (which may or may not have options on which tanks you can run). Your Weapon Company options may be immediate supporting elements such as Mortar teams, Heavy Machine Guns, and some basic infantry support, while your Corp Support will be stuff like Artillery, Air Support, Recon, etc.
My recommendation would therefore be to figure out which era your friends would like to start playing with, find a list that interests you, and build for the requirements of that first. You can then expand onto it with other elements, and through that you can(slowly) begin collecting enough to run a variety of lists. One thing to note about Flames of War, is that it's a combined arms game. You're better off with a diverse list with many different elements, then a 'spammy' list of all the 'best' thing. A common trap newcomers run into, is the idea of the 'Heavy Tank List', as it's little more than the 'best' tanks. The problem these newcomers run into, is that a Tiger 1e, Panther, or Konigstiger is no more of a threat to an infantry platoon than a Pz4. And the point cost of those big heavy tanks, as well as their often slow speeds, means they can easily be swarmed by medium tanks.