Force on Force - Road to Baghdad

I thought I'd put up some thoughts on the new Force on Force - Road to Baghdad scenario book.  The first new Force on Force campaign books was released alongside the main rulebook and covers the American led invasion of Iraq in 2003.


Physically, Road to Baghdad (RtB) is similar to the Field of Glory companion books; good quality softback, lots of Osprey illustrations and some photographs of miniatures.


The book starts off with a brief summary of the invasion of Iraq, not very comprehensive, but coherent and reads quite well.


The guts of the book are the two large campaign series; the first covering the United States Marine Corps and the second the US Army.  I say campaigns, and they do all logically follow each other, but they are more a series of individual scenarios to play.  Throw in the campaign rules from the main book and you'll have a proper campaign readily playable.

Each scenario covers the forces involved and their various stats, objectives for each side and any special rules.  There are also some historical notes that cover the actual outcome of the real life.  The maps for each scenario are presented as pencil drawings on jotter paper - very quirky but it fits in well to the overall style of the book.  Lastly, there are three quick scenarios on Special Forces (Rangers, ODAs etc) involvement in Iraq.


My main issue with the book is that it contains mostly asymmetric scenarios; fixed US forces while, generally poorer quality, opposing forces receive random reinforcements throughout the game.  I'd have hoped, as the first book, for a bit more variation in the type of forces available - although I understand completely that this best reflects the historical accuracy of the game.


Another impact of this is the amount of miniatures you'll need for the majority of the scenarios.  The US forces will generally need 20-25 figures, plus any armour.  The Iraqi forces however, will need 30+ and in a variety of Iraqi army, fedayeen and republican guard figures.  Basically, you'll be forking out a lot more cash on the Iraqis than the US.


This is a very impressive product from Ambush Alley and provides plenty of opportunity for modelling and gaming.  Although I'm still looking forward to the upcoming Cold War Gone Hot (80s what if) and the Ambush Vally (Vietnam) books, this might get some use over the summer. . .  

Force on Force - Modern Wargaming Rules

Being a real sucker for a bargain, I recently picked up the new Force on Force: Modern Wargaming Rules from Ambush Alley Games.  This isn't the kind of game I'd normally look into, but two factors really pushed me to purchase it; firstly Chris M's excellent coverage of the game over at Small Scale Operations and, secondly, the fact that Amazon are offering it at more than 40% off the RRP!

This rulebook, Ambush Alley's first collaboration with Osprey Publishing, is an amalgam of two separate rulesets; the original Force on Force and the Ambush Alley rules, each originally dealing with regular and irregular warfare respectively. The two have been refined to a single ruleset, allowing you to fight with fully "modern" armed forces or with militia or insurgent forces, each with armour and air support.


In terms of production, the book is the same size and quality as Osprey's other rulebooks, Field of Glory and Field of Glory: Renaissance.  This means you get a fully bound, full cover hardback book, filled with illustrations from Ospreys military publications.  There are also plenty or real life photographs scattered throughout.

The rules are divided into manageable sections; the basics first (turn order, profiles, movement, combat etc) before moving onto more advanced rules (air support, armoured warfare, artillery.)  Appendixes cover various unit attributes (essentially special rules,) some sample forces and an elegant campaign system.  Finally, six sample scenarios round out the book.


Sample forces? Sample scenarios?  Yup, this is a scenario driven game, not a points driven system.  The authors are quite explicit that the game is designed to feature opposing players with different objectives and balanced forces.  There are three training scenarios and, again, the six full scenarios.  All of these feature varied forces and range from Vietnam, 1980s Europe, Israel and Iraq.  Osprey have announced the release schedule for four separate campaign books (the first of these, Road to Bagdad is already available) and the Ambush Alley forum has plenty of user generated scenarios available.

So what does all this mean in practise?  Well, Force on Force is not a "lets have a 500 point fight, kill everyone" game.  You'll need to plan ahead with your opponent as to what forces and terrain to use.  If you're not using a predesigned scenario (or if you are, but with different forces) a bit of give and take will be required for balancing the two forces.  This will take  a good bit of getting used to for a lot of players, but a bit of extra preparation can result in a more enjoyable game for both players.


So how do the rules themselves play out?  Firstly, you should pay attention to the fact that this is not a micromanagement game.  You won't be rolling a skill check every time you want someone to vault an obstacle or take cover. You also won't have to track lots of different weapon profiles or an individual's statistics.  Your troops are assumed, for instance, to know how to safely move across a battlefield and to understand the principles of occupying a defensive position.



Instead, Force on Force revolves around your individual squads, their orders and their ability to react to the enemy.  Your troops roll a type of die to reflect their "quality" and compare how successful their rolls are against their opponent's dice.  The core mechanic is your troops have to roll a 4+ on their dice to score a success at their chosen action (shooting, assault etc.)  For instance: a US army infantry squad may have an eight sided dice (D8) as their quality.  To score a hit in shooting, they would have to roll a 4+ on their dice at a 62% chance of success.  On the other hand, a poorly trained militia may have a D6 quality. Scoring a hit is still a 4+, the same number, but a much lower 50% chance of success.

Movement and actions are resolved by the initiative player picking a unit and announcing to the opponent what that unit's orders are.  If the opposing player has any of their units nearby, that unit may react to the first unit and attempt to fire first or move away.  Quality dice rolls are made and the winner gets to act first.


Troops also have a dice type for morale and forces have also modifiers for body armour, supply levels and their overall confidence.  Optional rules cover many other factors including combat stress, civilians and biological and chemical warfare!

I've greatly simplified the above examples, but they are fairly indicative of the style of play in Force on Force.  Both players will be involved equally, both moving and shooting.  You won't spend a lot of time (barely any outside armour units)  looking up tables and reference materials and once you understand the core mechanics, games flow very smoothly.


I do have a couple issues with both the book and the rules.  Firstly, there are some appaling typos in the rules (Campagin?) and a couple issues with the rules referring to terms they don't actually use or define (cautious movement?)  Secondly, using the rulebook as a reference guide to the game is a bit of a chore.  For instance, the index is almost too comprehensive (Fog of War has 22 entries, Supply Level 16)  However, as I mentioned earlier, once you've played a couple games this becomes less of a problem.


Overall though, this is an excellent book, with some original and inspired rules covering an uncommon wargaming subject.


I'd strongly recommend a look through the preview material at Ambush Alley games website and a trawl through Chris's Small Scale Operations blog.


I'd also be happy to answer any questions you guys have.

SS up on eBay

Just a quick post to say I've decided to put the SS Panzergrenadiers up on eBay.

So if anyone wants some Fearless Veteran, ideologically indoctrinated machine gun troops for Flames of War, have a look!

Finally, finally finished - SS Flames of War Platoon.

So, after a long time on the desk, I've finally finished up this SS Panzergrenadier Platoon for flames of war.

They have an even mix of standard field grey uniforms, oak leaf, spring and autumn plane tree camouflage.

These are pretty much close to the highest standard of painting I can muster (although, in my defence, the photos have washed out a little depth.)  It was also a really good exercise in mixing your own colours.

I started these as a commission job for a friend of a friend.  He wanted a SS Company of command elements, three full platoons and a couple infantry support options.

Unfortunately, the week after I started, he backed out and left me with a with a whole pile of SS lead!

These can be used in my Fallschirmjager list as a support option, but I might just put these up on the 'bay depending on how I feel.

Flames of War - Infantry Aces

Battlefront have announced some more details of their Infantry Aces Campaign.  It sounds quite promising.

Essentially, it is a three turn campaign fought over the various routes involved in the Cassino; each turn having a battle at a different points limit (500, 700 and 900.)  Overall victory and defeat is determined through Campaign victory points, awarded for controlling the various areas of the whole battlefield.

The real draw is your Company Commander (your Infantry Ace) who gains unique abilities as the campaign progresses.  Hopefully, Battlefront will give some real individual and army wide options here (not just re-roll this, re-roll that) so there is an impact during each individual battle.


It's not clear how long (in human hours) the campaign will last, but with the small points totals, all infantry companies, hopefully there will be the opportunity for a campaign with a couple players playable over a day or weekend.

There are also options for multiplayer battles and, hopefully, a slew of new missions.


There's been nothing but good news about the Cassino book so far.  June's looking like an expensive month!

Flames of War - Cassino and Fallschirmjager Preview

Battlefront have just posted some images from their Cassino book release, sometime in June.

The battle for Cassino has always been one of my favourite episodes of World War Two and hopefully this supplement will do it justice.

French Moroccan Goumiers

M6 37mm GMC

There appears to be quite a few Fallschirmjager releases, including. . . . . at long last. . . . artillery!!!

10.5cm leFH18/40 Howitzer

15cm sFH18 Howitzer

Currently, if you want dedicated Fallschirmjager artillery from Battlefront, you either have to buy an artillery box set (or the individual guns) and the fallschirmjager crew separately.  On the downside, there doesn't seem to be any scenic bases with the guns - hopefully they will be in the final release.


There are also some images of new gun puts and turrets, along with a quick mention of new "Infantry Aces"


All in all, this sounds like an excellent release and is definitely on my must-buy list.

Dystopian Wars Ground Forces on the Way

The guy(s) over at Tabletop Fix have posted some pre-order images of the upcoming ground force box sets for Dystopian Wars.

The images have been available since just after the game was released, but this is the first indication of the contents in each set.  It looks like:


1 Capital Class Tank
6 Medium Tanks
3 Artillery Tanks
10 Small Tank Stands

I can't find a UK store advertising these, but the Warstore in the US has them for $44.99. That would be, I think, around £30-33 in real money, so pretty much the same cost as the Naval box sets.  They're marked as  a June release, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it ended up being July.  Hopefully Spartan Games will have much more stock available with this release (I had to wait about ten weeks for my Prussian Naval Box to arrive - though it was worth it.)


I have to say, there have been some great wargame releases and announcements lately.  It looks like a good year for gaming.