Force On Force Modern Rules

Force on Force (FoF) Modern Rules

Modern combat, for me, covers post-Desert Storm to now and in the near future.  My go-to rules for playing modern games is Ambush Alley’s Force on Force.  I use the version published by Osprey.  Although I started with 15mm scale, I switched to 28mm several years ago.  Sometimes I’m attempted by all the neat 20mm stuff that's on ebay!

What I like about FoF:

• The basic rules are very comprehensive and cover most situations you might encounter in modern combat.  And there are various supplemental books that add in specifics for campaigns, such as Mogadishu, Falllujah or Afghanistan.  I do think the main Osprey book could be better organized, though.

• How it models tactical quality and morale of forces.  The rules use different dice types to model the basic doctrine and how well troops are trained (Tactical Quality or TQ) and morale of the forces.  For example, a US Marine fire team is usually rated with a TQ) of D8 and a Morale of D10.  This means it uses D8’s in combat, and uses D10’s if it has to check Morale.  Insurgents, on the other hand, are typically rated as TQ of D6 and Morale of D10.  Easy to see the difference.  Some people are turned off by having to use different dice, but I don’t find it that hard.  To make it a bit easier, I use different color dice for each type:  red for D6, white for D8, blue for D10 and green for D12.  That way I can say to players, you are rolling white dice or red dice---they don’t have to check to see if they’ve picked up D8s or D10s.

• The whole combat system.  If I’m firing my team at your team, I figure out how many attack dice to roll.  This is basically one dice per figure plus one dice for any special weapon anyone is armed with.  Add a dice if in close range (for TQ D8 troops this is 8 inches).  The defender gets his men, plus any cover and any body armor.  No more than 10 dice can be rolled by each side.  The dice are rolled.  The nearly universal rule is that a 4+ die roll is a success.  Any roll of 3 or less is discarded.  Say a Marine fire-team rolled 4, 6, 8 as successes, and the insurgent rolled a 4 and a 6.  The insurgent can block the 4and the 6, but can’t block the 8.  The insurgent takes a hit.  Since he took a casualty, he must take a morale check.

• The first aid rule.  Figures that were hit aren’t automatically KIA.  They are knocked down and can’t fight until someone checks their condition.  At the beginning of each turn, each casualty is checked.  There is a chance that the man is just fine and will get back in the fight.  Modern forces have a better chance to get casualties back in the fight to reflect better medical training and equipment.  Medics help this, too.

• The reaction system.  These rules have a certain Dickens-like quality to it:  it’s the best of the rules and the worst of the rules.  At its core, it’s really opportunity fire or move.  If you observe an enemy moving or firing (even at you), you can react to that.  For most regular forces, this is automatic.  Insurgents who don’t have a leader, must check TQ---it they fail they can’t react.  Once it’s determined who can react, then each team roll a TQ dice to see who acts first.  Where it can get hinky is when multiple teams start reacting to the reaction, etc.  The rules are not as clear on this as they should be.  But most times, it’s an easy and clean process.

• Fog of War cards.  These are random events that affect usually one side, although there are a couple that apply to both (visibility, etc.)  Some are nuisances, such as Hydration Check---one of your men is out of action for one turn, etc.) and others are really bad (US player gets an M1 Abrams or the insurgent gets a large IED he can place virtually anywhere).  Most are in-between and give a neat flavor of the unknown to each encounter, without having complex, lengthy rules.

The designers of the rules have a website.  It has some solid articles, pics and sells several rules and mini-campaigns in pdf format.  Check ‘em out!

http://www.ambushalleygames.net/

I regularly run FoF games at the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (HMGS-E) conventions, Historicon, Fall In and Cold Wars.  Website for HMGS-E is here:  https://www.hmgs.org/

I hope this teases you to a give the rules a try.  I welcome new players.  

Game on!

Panzer Mike