Platoon Mega Playtest: Part 6 - Force on Force

Presentation

224pp glossy hardback from Osprey. pretty well laid out, lots of Osprey and other pics, and QRS sheets at the end.

Set-Up

Scenario 3, Attack on the Hauptkampflinie again, British with the extra section. Force on Force is of course a modern set, but most stats are abstract and very general. However I decided to count Firepower as only 1/2pt per figure rather than 1 as the baseline weapon is a higher ROF than the SLR. Troops initially counted as regular, but shifted to Veteran after Turn 2 (see below).

How It Played

Slightly broader attack this time with No. 1 Section supported by the Cromwell crossing the open ground of the N flank, No. 2 Section through the garden in the centre and No. 3 Section through the woods. In the N the Panzer IV took one shot at the Cromwell and brewed it up.  German fire from the farm against No.1 Section was suprisingly ineffective. No. 3 section walked into the MG42 ambush again - but lost no-one (~60m range!). They charged and the MG42 wisely fled back to its main body. A firefight then ensued between No.3 Section and 3. Gruppen, with both sides steadily losing men, but consistently passing morale tests. No.2 Section meanwhile pushed through the garden, got the better of the firefight with 2. Gruppen, its last man fleeing. No. 2 Section then charged the flank of 3. Gruppen and in a bitter melee which went on for several rounds eventually got the upper hand and eliminated the Gruppen - with only 4 of its own men remaining. With two Gruppen gone ENDEX was called.

The Cromwell brews for a change!

Rules Impression

It's probably 5 or 6 years since I played Force On Force (actually may be 2011/2012 if I played them when they came out!), and I must admit they were worse than I remember.

Good points:

• Unlimited range, but bonus for <~100m
• Rules for pretty much everything, inc on-table 2" smoke
• Good ideas for asymmetric and casualty stuff for modern play (but not used here)
• Every fire becomes an exchange of fire between both sides (well sort of good, see below)
• No limit on firing per turn, but each at reduced effect - so given above far more interaction between units than usual

Bad Points:

• Masses of Dice! For a firefight one side is rolling typically 5-10 dice to hit, opponent is ALSO rolling 5-10 dice, and then Risk style you have match numbers (any 4+) off to see who wins. Then if there's a kill the defender has to roll another 5-10 dice for a morale check - so possibly 15-30 dice for 1 dead figure! I started on D8 (as regular), but having only 2 of them switched to D10 (of which I have about 10) to make things easier. This may queer some of the results below.
• Little friction, its alternate unit activation, with a reaction test if you want to fire or melee, but no-one every failed it.
• No one ever failed a morale test, so units never got pinned, let alone fell back from fire or fled a melee!
• Not a great fan of multiple dice types, could just about stick them if I side stuck to one type, but these rules also have dice  type shifts.

Overall

Just not for me. A few nice ideas on the ultramodern front which could be imported to other games, but wouldn't use as a core set. Lowest score so far, 5/10.