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Rated
'Very Good' by Pete on 10 October 2002. Review
8 Like many middle-aged wargamers I spent my formative teenage years away from historical gaming in the murky dungeon filled world of role-playing games. For a while building up characters and seeing them prosper and fall took on a worryingly real perspective that certainly kept me distracted from the joys of ‘O’ level homework. Finally, like a majority of part time druids and space-farers this activity slowly ground to a halt after the sweaty confines of the university gaming club disappeared and the reality of working for a living hit home. However somewhere in the back of my psyche there continued a desire to revisit the dizzy heights of those character filled games. I started thinking that it would be nice to play games where you actually cared about the figures on the table, could rejoice when a feared enemy was beaten or cringe when you were on your last legs. Even after leaving fantasy gaming to return to the historical fold I yearned for a mixture of role-play feeling and historical action. This thirst was not slated by many of the skirmish level games, which failed to give any real feeling for the tabletop figures. A chance sequence of events has however fulfilled my quest. First a plethora of what can only be described as superb 28mm historical figures has appeared from a number of manufacturers. I then discovered a set of rules on CD-Rom called ‘Battleground WW2’ from Easy Eight publications. The seed was planted as the rules based on 1:1 had very close role-playing links. Grabbing a few gaming friends and forcing them to try the rules I thought that Christmas had basically arrived early and furthermore Santa couldn’t be bothered to travel and dumped all the goodies with me! However disaster struck on both flanks; Easy Eight went into hiatus leaving its future support uncertain and we found that when we added multiple squads or any form of armour the game bogged down very quickly. It was impossible to play a game in a club night and like most Christmas presents it lost some of the ‘magic’ when left for a few days. The seed finally flowered when a friend recommended I acquire a copy of a new set of rules called ‘Arc of Fire’, claiming that they were Battleground without the ‘pain’. The rules were already attracting attention at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WorldWarIISkirmish. For £12.50 I
took the plunge. What I found was a game that
even with the optional detail rules (which give a
personal feel to the figures) are fast moving,
highly enjoyable and satisfy my role-playing
requirements. Although I use them for WWII games
they are actually designed to cover the period
1900-2000, a very broad sweep of history indeed. Editor's Note: This review within the subscription part of the magazine also includes an introductory WWII Arc of Fire scenario. The initiative system is card based. As in a few of the better skirmish games cards represent each unit or group. These cards are collected together and shuffled to make a pack with each card being turned over in sequence to determine the order that the units take their actions in each turn. When a group’s card is turned it gets to act. Games that use such a system include Battleground WWII, which has each group represented by one card, and Face of Battle, which has every figure, represented by a card. A particularly elite squad could have 3 cards, ensuring that they act in a more flexible way and get more done per turn. In this way the uncertainty of battle and the fog of war is represented and the game usually runs at fever pitch. You can’t be sure that your troops will act before it’s too late! In Arc of Fire a unit can be composed of a number of figures. In smaller games you may have each fire team (a third to half a squad, approximately 3-5 figures) represented by a unit. In larger games one card may represent each squad, or even platoon. This is the first example of how the simple game concepts have a deep ‘philosophical’ effect on game play. Different national doctrine can easily be represented on the table. The more cards a force has the more flexible its tactics can be. Veteran Paratroops may be represented with cards for each fire team allowing half a squad to be in a defensive mode providing covering fire while the other half are in advance mode. However a squad that is only represented by a single initiative card has to be careful about elements straying out of command range (12” if using 28mm figures), is easier to disrupt and can perform less effectively when activated. Many players use customised cards but a normal pack of playing cards can be used. One side uses red cards the other black. An example would be a sniper group with two cards being represented by a two of Diamonds and a two of Hearts. The author of the rules, Scott Fischer, makes an important assumption in the design notes for the game that has a huge effect on how quickly the game flows. This being: “We assume that infantry are always using the best cover and are prone when practicable but are in a position to fire their weapons.” What this means is that the players are unconcerned with marking the figures as standing, prone or kneeling. This saves huge amounts of time over the course of a game. However in actual game terms you don’t lose any realism but you certainly save on markers cluttering the board! I consider this an excellent decision by the designers that not only works well, but also saves lots of time over the course of a 3-hour game. In the game units can be in one of the following three modes; advance, confused or defence or the one compulsory mode; broken. The optional modes apply to all figures in a unit or group. The compulsory mode, broken, is an individual result and applies to specific figures within the unit or group. Advance mode lets all the different individuals in the group do whatever they like, some may shoot while others fire. However it assumes that the entire group are moving around in some way. Thus even if in cover you only get the smallest modifier to being hit. I often term this as normal mode to beginners to stop them thinking you have to advance! Defence mode
lets you make the most of your cover and any
firing. No member of the group may move. It is in
defence mode that automatic weapons can use
opportunity fire and covering fire. If hidden
spotting ranges will be halved if you are in
defence mode. Broken mode happens as a result of getting wounded or failing a personal morale test (e.g. when your buddy sharing your foxhole explodes all over your face – a gory death result on the wounding table!) In this mode you do nothing but find cover and make yourself as small as possible. At the heart of the rule system is the TAC (Tactical Ability) value and role. Troops are assigned a TAC value which reflects their training and to an extent experience. The TAC number must be equalled or beaten on a D10 roll. The best elite troops are a 4, while shoddy troops are an 8. This value effects everything a figure does. Its major game use is when you try and change modes, failing your TAC role plummets the troops into confused mode. This could be that the leader didn’t get across the instructions clearly, maybe an explosion muffled him, and so instead of half the squad laying down fire while the others move they all do the same thing. The TAC value also affects a myriad of other things. Fail your TAC and you don’t spot the troops about to open up on you from the hedgerow. Calling in artillery needs a build-up of TAC roles. Tankers need to pass a TAC role to quickly get rid of the results of being severely shaken by a non-penetrating round. Moving through an obstacle such as wire, or to stop a vehicle from getting bogged all need a TAC role. Other
miscellaneous task can be attempted by making a
TAC role. In our games such actions as jumping a
wall while on the run can be achieved on a TAC
role, a medic can make a successful TAC role and
negate the effects of a wound etc. Obviously,
modifiers can be applied as seen fit. A group of fanatic religious attackers (remember the rules cover from 1900-2000) can be poorly trained with a high TAC value (making it hard to do much tactically with them) but have a good morale rating (they are fanatic!) which means they will be very determined to rush up to you and kill you even if they can’t quite figure out how. On the other hand the best-trained Paratrooper that has fought through Normandy, Holland and the Rhine may be very reluctant to stick their neck out as the war comes to a close. Thus they would have a low morale rating but a high TAC value. German SS troops defending their homeland would fight to the last and have a high TAC and morale. By mixing and tweaking the two values you can recreate the ‘character’ of the troops at a specific point in time. Spotting is often seen as a painful part of any rule system. In larger level games, or in Company games you can often disregard it by having high saving throws. In skirmish level games, figures need to be hidden; it’s fun to sneak up on troops. So they are a necessary part of the game. In Arc of Fire spotting is done when the units initiative card is turned over or if something moves in your possible line of sight. Different groups in different modes are potentially spotted at various distances. If you fail a TAC role these distances are halved. Performing certain actions such as firing increases the distance at which you can be spotted, being in a camouflaged position halves the distance etc. Again, simple mechanics give a good, realistic result. Try spotting from an enclosed tank and you’ll see very little in the way of infantry. The commanders have to expose themselves to potential opportunity fire to see properly. Hidden troops can be represented in the game by markers with each initiative card allowing 2 dummy markers to be positioned. In games without a referee this works well and saves any mapping drudgery. Firing in the rules is simple; if you spot a target you can fire at it with a certain number of D10 (depending on the weapons rate of fire) and you need to roll a specific number to hit depending on the weapons range. The effects of any firing depend on how successful the hit roll was. If you only just make the required roll the hit may only be a close shave and only inflict a morale check. In the optional rules the wound table is consulted when the normal table shows a Wound or Killed result. The results range from a flesh wound with no effect to a very gory death, which may affect the morale of troops around the figure. The firing system is easy to get used to and we very often don’t look at the charts to determine results. Only snipers
can pick targets so you generally roll all the
dice fired at a target group in one go with any
hits being distributed randomly. This can result
in all hits being on the one enemy figure, very
Hollywood! Groups are pinned when enough figures suffer a failed morale roll and are broken. The other figures in the group can’t risk moving. The group will be below strength and leaving figures outside of command radius is not advisable. To pin a group will require laying down lots of lead, therefore laying down suppressive fire is a natural process. Groups in defence mode can lay covering fire. This lasts until their next action card is turned over and allows a number of fire dice to be used as targets move in or fire from the zone you are covering. Units in Defence mode may also engage in opportunity fire if they pass a TAC role and have an initiative card remaining this turn. Firing at suspected targets is also allowed. Thus even though you can’t see the machine gun nest that may be in the hedge opposite, you can ask your supporting tank to machine gun the area and you may break its morale. Vehicle
combat is also very simple although. The same
basic mechanics are used; just a different
results table for hard targets is consulted. The basic core rules do not require you stipulating what shell you have loaded; obviously house rules would suffice if you needed more detail. The armour rules are a lot simpler than other systems with all the various range, penetration and armour factors being built into the ‘hit’ and ‘effect’ tables, which are easy to remember. I tested different types of armour shots with the Arc of Fire, Battleground WW2 and Face of Battle rules. Surprisingly after working out about 35 different types of shots with each set of rules it panned out that the overall results were the same. A Sherman (76mm) had about as much chance of taking a Panther out at short to mid range in all the rule sets. I did omit the fire stabilisation rules for the Sherman as hardly any of the crews apparently used it anyway, although they figured in all of the rules as ‘options’. The major difference between the rules was the time each took. Arc of Fire required one roll, plus the crew check if needed and a possible optional damage roll. The other systems needed up to 5 rolls followed by crew checks and required access to at least 3 charts and tables (sometimes more). Such simple rules for armour allows for the deployment of more on the table. No game concentrating on forming individual characters would be complete without a way to get some characters to become heroes and others cowards. In Arc of Fire this occurs as a result of certain individual morale rolls. In this way a figure may become a heroic figure to the squad, someone they will follow, someone who ignores their first wound etc. These can of course be carried into other games. I believe that I have found a game that finally slakes my thirst for providing a role-playing feel to a historical period. Squad sheets can be kept from game to game; linking the game into a campaign is also relatively easy. My US Paratrooper platoon based on Band of Brothers has a field history, charting wounds and replacements. As a result you tend to look after your named figures in games but being a replacement in this platoon is akin to wearing a red vest and beaming down to an unknown planet with captain Kirk! I would encourage anyone with an interest in 20th Century Skirmish games to give the rules a go. At only £12.50 they are well worth a look. For any club night or event it would be my only choice above squad level because of the speed of play. The authors encourage house rules. In fact a rule set covering such a large time scale needs house rules for specific period quirks. There are more detailed sets of rules available, especially when dealing with armoured combat but as described it is debatable if the increased detail actually ends in a more believable result anyway. The rules provide statistics for all of the major vehicles and weapons and there is active support on the web on the Arc of Fire Home Page at http://fisherts.home.mindspring.com/aof The rules provide scenarios for several conflicts including a good Boxer Rebellion one. These have resulted in our group gaming eras that we would not have touched otherwise. As the core rules are the same it is very easy to pick up a new period. The down side of the generic feel is that if you are interested in a specific period outside of the ones covered in more detail then you will have to do more research and devise house rules yourself. I don’t feel this is a big issue as most gamers do this type of research anyway. The authors
also produce excellent WWII campaign/scenario
booklets, which are ideal for Arc of Fire. These
booklets add a lot of detail on the various units
and orders of battle, which is lacking in the
rules. Using 28mm figures with the optional rules the game has a great feel. Club players are often seen hooting and groaning at events, cheering on heroes and giving running commentaries on the action. This is especially prevalent when the unexpected occurs due to a failed TAC role! That's the end of a long review, which I hope was of some help to you in terms of understanding what AoF is all about. Subscribers to Wargames Journal can get hold of a complete Normandy scenario for AoF in this issue. Rich
Jones
AFTER ACTION REPORTS
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