Company Megatest - Fireball Forward!

 

Seen the ads for this set for ages in MW&BG so had to give it a try. It also has a Stalingrad scenarion pack which might be interesting for the PhD. Oh and Little Wars TV has just done a head to head between Fireball Forward and Crossfire - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tvgM3_-UE

Presentation

I got the 110pp PDF, which has about 56 pages of rules, optional rules and design notes (!), 26pp of scenarios (13 scenarios), an index (!), 8pp QRS and 11pp of stats - so a pretty full package for $25. Rules are pretty well laid out, line drawing not photos, lots of short examples. My only niggle is that there is a short of quick intro to the whole rules at the start and actions at each phase, but further rules for the actions are later on, so I was always diving backwards and forwards. The RQS also seems to miss some key elements (even if simple) like Morale.

Artillery Stonks from both sides causing a lot of issues!

Set-Up

I used the Choctaw Warrior scenario as the base for my game, beefing the allies up to a Coy+, and giving the Germans some extra MGs and tanks. Germans attacking from the top of the table.

How It Played

The lead P.IV got taken out by the Cromwell as it reached the wood, but the second P.IV managed to take out both of the Cromwells and settled down to providing fire support. A to-and-fro battle for the wood on the L lasted almost the whole 7 turns, with close assaults by both sides but the British ended up in possession. A German attempt to flank L of it was caught by an arty stonk and never progressed. On the R flank platoons traded shots for most of the game, the Germans only belatedly trying to push across the gaps between the hedgelines once their IG started providing support. Unfortunately their Pl Cmd bought it, one section faltered, and one was already Broken so the remaining section to make contact couldn't really achieve much. 

The centre was far more touch and go. An early British stonk caught the Germans forming up, but then a couple of German stonks, and the fire support from the P.IV started to weaken the British line enough (crucially breaking the UC Bren teams that had been brought up to support) and in the final moves the Germans tried to push across the open ground. They'd did their best to suppress any fire, but in the end only the Zug Cmdr reached the hedgeline - to be faced by only the British Pl Cmdr left defending it! And that was the end of Turn 7 so we'll never know which of them won!

In terms of losses the British only had 2 elements KO'd, compared to the German's 5. Both sides lost one Pl Comd. In terms of holding the line the British succeeded, holding both flanks quite securely, and with enough Broken troops to put into the fray if the German commander won his melee!

The fight for the wood

Rules Impression

Unlike some of the rules I've tried recently which have been pretty vanilla Fireball Forward has a lot of novel mechanics and ideas, all of which work, but which possibly aren't as elegant as they could be. So I'll actually step through the key mechanics.

Activation

FF uses a standard deck of cards, shuffled, with Germans activating on black cards and British on red. You draw cards until the colour changes, and the person who's colour it is must then decide order of activation for that many units, so you can't change if things go wrong on the first activation. At first I found drawing then replacing the colour change card a bit odd, but in the end I found it gave a nice Bolt Action type mix of long and shorts spurts of action but without special dice or drawing chits. I used to be really keen on the 1 card = 1 specific unit model to get the extra friction, but certainly for mech games I think its reasonable to let the commander choose the order so as to try and bring off integrated attacks. Having thought more about the card deck approach the more I think I might use it on my next CWO game, with a few further tweaks to introduce some morale orientated friction.

There are also "initiative chips" (1 or 2 per game, but some multiple use) which give you extra activations. Nice.

C2

Good units can take actions automatically, basically one or all of Spot (leaders), Rally, Fire, Move, in any order. Broken units have to take a Rally test first (3+ if by a 3+ leader, otherwise 6+). Any suppression is removed automatically - which really limited the effects of suppression, see below. When the platoons lost their leaders then the 6+ really meant that Broken units were out of the action and the Platoon ceased to work as a cohesive unit, which seemed reasonable (although FF does use extreme terms, Broken is really just "Shocked" and Rout - when a freshly Broken units falls back - is really just Pull Back).

Spotting

You need a basic spotting check (5+) to spot hidden units (default state at start) before you can fire on them. Auto within 3". No DMs.

Movement

Movement distances are as-the-crow-flies. As long as your route doesn't move beyond this radius you can take any route to your destination (although subject to Opportunity Fire).  Terrain is dealt with by allowing a maximum of 2 "zone" crossings in a move, such as two hedges, or a part of a wood divided into 3 or 4 zones. This does bring a nice fluidity to the movement and gets away from the false precision of a 8" or 12" move. Might be tempted to use it, plus maybe some variable element to still increase uncertainty.

Firing

This is where FF fails I think. When you fire you roll at least 3 dice (4 for MGs/Guns) these being your normal damage dice (typically needing 4+/5+ to hit), one or more "hit dice" (needing an invariable 6 to hit) and a range dice (which can be a single D20, or D4+D8 or other weird combinations). MGs and guns roll another D6 for ammo/stoppages. With bigger guns and HMG you could be rolling 7 dice or so, a mix of D6 and other types, the D6 in three different colours! Just looking that up each time and then finding where the dice are on the table just really gets in the way of the flow (although if its just basic rifle fire then you tend to just hold the 3 dice needed in your hand the whole time). The range dice is there both to give variability in range (your range is range dice+ a basic range for the weapon), and to give a short range effect (+1 if range < just the range dice). There are some very basic DMs.

For each hit you take a morale check, typically 4+ for separated unit, 3+ for leader or unit adjacent to leader. Lose 1 check and you are "broken" and pull back to cover and out of LOS of enemy, upto 12", two losses and you're dead. I found the pull-back very unnatural - from what I've read the pullback is more likely to be a Pl level thing, sections just going to ground if they are being hit and pinned. With an element now 12" behind you the Pl Comd then has to decide whether to spend a turn moving back to help them rally on a 3+, or leave them trying for a 6+, again in contrast to what I usually read of the Pl Comd and Sgt running along the line to motivate people.

Any hit means you are suppressed, so no opportunity fire, but you automatically lose suppression when activated - so if you try to suppress with one Platoon from the front and then charge with another Platoon on their activation the target is only suppressed if the opposition hasn't had an activation between them to recover suppression.

Opportunity fire works in the same way, but doesn't cause suppression which seems odd - surely its normal effect is to get a moving unit to dive for cover. It also wasn't clear to me if a unit could do Opportunity Fire and normal activation, or even multiple opportunity fires.

Anti-tank fire is a bit simple. D6 plus a range dice, hitting again on around 4+/5+. The tables give the "penetration" points and the defender rolls D6 per armour point - but saves are then a complicated none for 1s, 1 for 2s-5s and 2 for 6s. Anything not saved means KO, and a morale test if equalled.

Close Assaults

Close assaults are relatively simple, Morale check to commit, then pair off, D6 each and a couple of DMs. In practice I found that if a Platoon charged forward you'd be lucky to get 50% of the Platoon actually committing (looking for 3+ for 3 units, 4+ for the winger), which again doesn't quite seem right, more likely all or nothing as otherwise you get one section stranded - but guess that happened, just not as often as in the game? Loser takes morale checks equal to the delta in modified die rolls.

Indirect Fire

Each side gets a number of missions, no discrimination between mortars and guns. FO needs a Morale Check to call in, if successful then roll on a 2D6 table for the result, 6-10 on target, lower is bad news (delays, deviation), higher is good news (double impact etc). Very basic.

There are extra rules for things like Grazing Fire/Beaten Zones,  Snipers, Mines, Air Support, fanatical Soviets, jungle and even small boats and horses but I didn't play any of them.

ENDEX

Conclusion

So some different ideas which is good, but some work, some don't. Trying to "house rule" it to fix is probably too big an ask as the direct fire system is just too clumsy for my liking. No issue with the multiple morale check principal though. In reality I think I'll just steal the bits I think I can work with. Overall I guess 7/10.