Houston Beer and Pretzel
Wargaming

June 23rd witnessed our first play of Osprey's (Ambush Alley Games') new Force on Force modern miniature combat rules.

Barry and Brian took command of two teams of Syrian street fighters and five teams of Fedayeen insurgents in a neighborhood of Fallujah in November 2004,  This is the first scenario that covers just the infantry combat rules in Force on Force and was played on a 3' x 3' table containing my new collection of north african Paper Terrain (www.paperterrain.com) buildings.

Newcomer Sam assumed command of elements of the US Army (two infantry squads of two teams each) as they attempted to move through the city streets from one edge to the objective buildings comprising part of a phase line in the opposite corner.

The US forces struggled mightily on their right flank when one team rushed to the roof of a building, despite being covered by smoke grenades, and took a number of hits from insurgent fire coming from down the street. The second team of that one squad was never able to get up to treat the men trapped on the roof and the squad's overall efforts quickly collapsed.

The US squad on the left flank fared much better, pushing forward into a pair of buildings and wounding a number of insurgents in the nearby church.  One team soon came face to face across a narrow street with Syrian street fighters, some of the foreign "imports" fighting in Iraq.  The subsequent exchange of fire resulted in some injuries on both sides.

The game length of six turns gave no chance for the US force to reach its objectives, but much of that was because we got some things wrong in interpreting the rules.  After having read the rules again with the goal of identifying what we got "wrong", here is what I have discovered, in no particular order, that might have given the US forces a fighting chance.

• Wiped out teams surrender to any enemy team that comes within cohesion distance during movement.
• RPG weapons are medium support weapons that get +2D to firepower attacks, +1D if the unit has moved.
• Teams reacting to fire by firing back only resolve one set of firepower attacks, not two.
• Confident teams must fail a morale test to become suppressed.
• Pinned/suppressed teams drop a TQ die size for all tests.  D6 teams that are pinned/suppressed cannot fire.
• Initiative teams may surrender their activation to react to reactors.
• Green (D6) teams cannot be placed on overwatch.
• Overwatch teams get a +1 to their reaction tests.
• Overwatch teams always fire first if they pass their TQ test.  The defender may return fire.  If the overwatch team fails its TQ test then it would fire last after the defender had finished its action, if it still had LOS/LOF.
• Close assault defensive fire costs both sides 1D when the defender shoots.
• The casualty penalty does not preclude a rapid move, but it does require the team pass a TQ test before making a rapid move.
• A team that looses a comrade must pass a TQ test to avoid being "frozen" for a turn.  A team that suffers a serious wound is "frozen" for a turn.
• There are rules to determine if a casualty or dependent in a team should be the figure to suffer a subsequent wound from another attack.
• Teams in a building have a 360 degree LOS.  They may enter, exit, and shoot through any wall and be fired upon from any direction.  They may not hide in the interior of a building unless there are special rules that cover this in a scenario.

I think we all had a good time trying this game out and I'll be certain to play through this scenario myself, solo, several more times in order to nail all the details of the rules.  We'll definitely be revisiting this system in the future.  More photos can be found in the gallery.