Battle Report - Force on Force

I finally got in my first game of Force on Force.  Verdict?  I loved it.  The game was fast and furious, very tactical and had plenty of room for cinematics.  It seemed to capture a realistic, but fun, simulation of combat, not getting bogged down in details.  It has a quick mechanism for including variables that makes attachments and weapons count, but doesn't slow the game down.  I ordered Tomorrow's War last night based on how this game played.

The setup.  Two infantry patrols meet in a destroyed village.

Nick, of Little Nicky's Gameroom, had a day off of work on Thursday.  I was able to get down there early.  We've been trying to get a game in for months.  Nick pimps the game for Ambush Alley, running demos at the local conventions and teaching people how to play at the local game stores.  He's also a genuinely nice guy who hangs out at Collectormania quite a bit, we just haven't gotten to play before.

We each had a squad of NATO troops.  I took the Marines (Duh) and Nick took the Brits.  We were evenly matched with a squad leader and three fire teams with two light support weapons in each.  I also had the designated marksman.  Normally Nick would have brought out the Afghans but I'm not at all interested in gaming that part of my life.

Opportunity fire takes its toll.  Lesson learned.

Nick gave me a quick overview of the rules and we started out.  I got initiative, which is very helpful in this game.  As in real life, the side with initiative gets to set the pace of the battle.  I advanced my forces, two teams up the center and one around my right flank.  This is when Nick explained opportunity fire (it might be called something else), and demonstrated it by killing all of one of my fire teams.  Lesson learned.  I like the way that played out, from a gaming standpoint, not a tactical standpoint.  Tactically I lost a third of my force on the first movement.  Suck.

The culprits.  They would pay later.  Muahahahahahah!

Nick moved forward, using cover and parking one team, and his squad leader, in the woods.  I won initiative again in turn two.  This is something I like about this game.  Once you have it, it's easier to keep it.  That's very realistic, but it's implemented without being game breaking.

The first team goes down.  There is no one close enough to check on them, so they stayed that way.

Nick's right hand fire team.  The one guy standing came back later to try to check on his buddies, and got killed as well.

I advanced aggressively, getting my teams to the center of the table and lighting up his teams in the open, and wiping one of them out.  Pow!  Pay back time.  I then moved the left team into the ruins and the right team into a building.  At this point it turned in to a medium range fire fight, which my guys won.

Two light wounds.  They both got up and started firing again.

The Marines were getting hit, but not staying down.  The Brits in the center weren't able to match the firepower coming at them.

I didn't have it all my way, but the hard cover and increased firepower, as well as the designated marksman, allowed me to dominate the fight.


I loved this game.  I really liked the mechanic for adding dice to attack and defense rolls as well as how overwatch and suppression worked.  Movement was easy and not too fiddly.  All in all, this was a great game which introduced me to a system that I think I'm going to really enjoy.