[MAGNA]

Battlefront

Fire and Fury - fireandfury.com

Battlefront is a set of rules designed for miniatures which sits in between the usual rule sets. Most sets are either one to one scale in vehicles / infantry or platoon scale where one stand or model represents one whole platoon.

Battlefront uses one stand of infantry as a section / squad or special unit such as mortar or spotters. A vehicle miniature represents two to three vehicles as do guns. Units are organised at company level for maneouvre and morale purposes.

Orders of Battle are included in the rules and are a good guide for setting up maneouvre elements.

There are example scenarios as well to help beginners.

The game sequence is logical and each side has a turn within the turn. The attacking side goes first otherwise it can be rolled for.

Whoever has the turn becomes the attacker at the time.

The turn sequence is as follows;

Artillery fire followed by aircraft if any (both use templates to show affected areas)
Offensive fire by attacking units.
Reordering and movement of attacking units.
Defensive fire by the opposition.
Close combat for any units declared in the attackers movement phase.

The turn then swaps to the other side who play the same sequence out.

There are rules for opportunity fire, double movement, bog down , hull down, and so on which cover most eventualities.

Units can become suppressed or disordered when fired on. This has an effect on reordering and movement. As a company takes casualties it also affects reordering to the stage where a maneouvre element can fall back or even panic. The thud and blunder approach of send them in to soften the others up can backfire badly here as units do not simply fight on until completely destroyed - they can even fall back with hardly any losses.

Units can either fire or move in their turn. Some thought has to be given to this at times to keep momentum up. It seems a bit odd at first and not the usual way of doing things but it rewards fire support tactics such as firing with some units while moving others into better positions. Many rule sets allow fire and movement in the same round which promotes a one in all in methodology - not too realistic for WWII.

The rules allow and reward integration of fire support and infantry very well. Use them properly and you increase your chances of success.

The manual includes examples of all the different rules but is not needed too often once the game mechanics are learned.

The real efficiency of the game set comes in with the modifier pages (two only for all situations including the turn sequence and spotting chart)) and the terrain pages (again two only for spotting and movement in different terrain types). These are the core settings for the game and most of the time all that are needed. Very simple to use and well thought out.

The next important factor that makes these rules stand out are the movement, firing, and range charts. There aren’t any. Cards are used instead. Each unit type has a specific card showing movement on road / off road, modifiers for chance to hit according to range against vehicles or troops / guns, armour if any, close combat rating, period of use, and size if applicable. All you need to do is make the card set for the units you are using and all the information is right there, including a unit picture and symbol.

There are cards for most armies with different types of infantry and support weapons being taken into account. Special abilities or hindrances are shown on the cards as well such as whether an AFV can fire to it’s rear or what plus / minus there is for anti aircraft fire.

The rules are written primarily for 15mm scale but 20mm or 1/72nd can be used without problems too. There is no need to go out and buy special figures or models for these rules as either scale from any manufacturer will suit. A big plus if you already have a collection for other games. All you need are the rules and you have two different games.

Of all the rules I have used or tried to use in the past 30+ years these are the best for this level. One to one can be too finicky after a while (too impatient or too old to bother?) and larger scales still tend to be better as board games so this system fits nicely.

The pricing is very reasonable for the amount of work that has gone into this one. Extra card sets are available for different theatres as well, again at reasonable prices. The website at fireandfury.com is well worth a look too as there are plenty of pictures to drool over. I haven’t put any pictures here as the site itself shows far more anyway.

If I was rating this set for game play I would give it 95%.