Until
then, we have a few alternatives to squad-level combat in the modern
era. One of those alternatives is West End Games' Fire Team. Fire
Team was designed by Jon Southard and released in 1987, a few years
before the trial by fire of the West's and East's doctrine and
equipment in Operation Desert Storm. In Fire Team, the player is the
company or battalion commander and coordinates his forces to
accomplish missions against a determined enemy. Units include
individual talks like the T-80 or the M1, BMPs and Bradleys, infantry
squads, weapons teams, and support weapons like the LAW or Dragon.
Remember, this game was released in 1987.
In
this installment, I want to do a comprehensive overview of the game.
Over the next few days, I will add additional parts of the review,
including components, rules, and game play.
Overview
Fire
Team is a game of squad-level tactical combat between the US forces
and Soviet forces int he 1980's. The setting is somewhere in Germany,
but the town names on the maps are generic. The counters represent
infantry squads, weapon teams, leaders, individual vehicles, and
supplemental support weapons. Infantry units possess an "infantry
firepower" (for use against infantry) and operate supplemental
support weapons. Vehicles possess a "gun/missile firepower"
(for use against vehicles) and an infantry firepower. Individual
machine guns or the main gun of vehicles are not differentiated as in
ASL. Time scale is 10 minutes per game turn.
To
move or fire with men and equipment, players expend "command
points" (CPs). The sequence of play is governed by "command
point chits" (CP chits). Each player has a number of CP chits of
various values which are tossed into a cup at the beginning of play.
The players then draw them out one by one. For each chit drawn, one
player receives an "impulse" during which he may expend
CPs.
Players
expend CPs to “activate” units. When a player activates a unit,
he may either move it, fire with it, or combine the two into "moving
fire." A player may also save CPs with his units to expend them
in a later impulse. The other player may conduct "opportunity
fire" at moving units during their activation.
There
are two fire tables: one for fire against infantry the other for fire
against vehicles. Fire against infantry (resolved on the Infantry
Fire Table) may cause “step losses” or “fear.” Activating a
unit suffering from fear costs more CPs than normal, until the unit
“rallies.” To rally, you must have a leader stacked with the
unit, expend CPs, and roll against the leader's “rally rating,”
printed on his counter.
The
table for fire against vehicles (Gun/Missile Fire Table) incorporates
modifiers for range, target armor, and ammunition. The result is
either kill or miss.
What's
in the box?
The
game includes:
- Four geomorphic unmounted maps
- 320 5/8” counters, back-printed
- 200 1/2” counters, back-printed
- Rules booklet
- 6
Scenario Cards (12 scenarios)
- Two US and two Soviet Charts and Tables Cards
- Two CP displays containing US and Soviet CP information
- Two Terrain Keys
- One decimal die
- One counter tray
Maps
The
maps are unmounted sheets 10.5” x 15”. A weird size, but they
are nice and functional. Typical of the 1980's style. They include
various elevations depicted by colors (as shown at the left), roads,
buildings of wood, stone, and multi-story (in black), woods, and
cover (rough terrain).
The
maps are geomorphic, so they can make a number of different
variations.
The
paper is pretty thick, but not cardstock, and they are folded in half
in the box. The section at the left is only half of map B.
Each
hex represents 80 meters across. This is twice the scale of ASL,
which is 40 meters per hex. While typically modern units spread out
much more than their WWII counterparts, that creates a lot of space
between units and in the hex itself.
Counters
The
countes are nothing to write home about, but are functional and
probably typical of the 1980's. All unit counters are 5/8 inch. CP
chits, smoke, and other markers are ½ inch counters.
You
can see the Fire Team squad above with the firepower, range, and
movement allowance designations, as well as the rudimentary
sillouette of the squad.
Below
are the counters for the leaders. They are very similar to those in
ASL, and include a rally rating, leadership rating, and a movement
allowance. They also include a name and figurehead.
Below
is also a sample of the vehicle counters. As you can see, there is a
lot of info packed onto the counter, but not nearly as much as on an
ASL vehicle counter.
Each
vehicle counter represents one individual vehicle. The counter
contains the main gun info, the vehicle's infantry firepower,
movement points, and one the back its armor against certain types of
weapons.
That's
it for part 1. In subsequent installments, I will explore the
rulebook, game mechanics, and the scenarios. I will also document a
quick game from scenario 1, just to show how the game works.
Happy
hunting!
