Game Setup

Game Setup will be taken on a scenario by scenario basis, the first for playtest being 1. Free-For-All
Treating the mapboard as the table; the rules for Fair Fight and Mobile Battle apply. Attacker and Defender orders Apply. Preparing for Battle: Americans are the attackers and choose the South board edge. Attackers place Objectives in any hex that is no more than 3 hexes from the opposing board edge and no closer than 3 hexes from the sides.

American - hex U3 and BB3, German in T8 and AA8

The Armies

Now to generate some starting forces to playtest. I’m going to use Army Builder and build forces using the Festung Europa book. Will take the bare minimum, troops only to playtest the rules on the ground-pounder level. Then I will assign counters to the units and go from there. As it stands, the beginning forces are as follows:

US Rifle Co. (Confident Trained)
Co. HQ – Command Carbine Team, 2IC Command Carbine Team, 2x Bazooka Teams
1st Platoon – Command Rifle Team, Bazooka Team, 3x Rifle Squad
2nd Platoon - Command Rifle Team, Bazooka Team, 3x Rifle Squad

German Grenadier Co. (Confident Veteran)
Co. HQ - Command SMG Team, 2IC Command SMG Team
1st Platoon - Command Rifle/MG Team, 3x Rifle/MG Squads
2nd Platoon - Command Rifle/MG Team, 3x Rifle/MG Squads

SMC counters will represent HQ Command teams. Crew counters with the appropriate SW for weapons teams and, of course, MMC to represent Squads. Since each counter is representing a whole squad, some means of tracking how many teams remain in that squad are needed. Note that the stat lines are not used, only as to identify the current strength of the Squad with regards to firepower.

For the US Rifle Squad, a 6-6-6 (1st) = 3 teams will be replaced with a 5-4-6 (2nd) = 2 teams for the first unsaved hit, and then flipped into a HS (2-3-6) after the second unsaved hit and removed thereafter after the third.

For the German Rifle/MG Squad, a 4-6-7 (1st) will be flipped over to a HS after the first unsaved hit and removed after the second.

Cool-Ass Logo

First off, though, I have to come up with a cool-ass logo. Something on an ASL board background and a hybrid of the ASL and FoW logo. But then again, something simple that won’t get me sued for using trademark logos. So there it is , simple stencil font on top of the leaders graphic superimposed on a mapboard.

I have a dream . . .

I have spent many a night thinking of how to integrate my two favorite WWII games; Squad Leader and Flames of war. While I love Squad Leader, I just like to spend a rainy afternoon pushing around some counters and rolling dice. And I love Flames of War, but it’s taking me way too long to paint up an army to play, but I like the simple mechanics involved. Thus, Flames of Squad Leader is about to be born. Even better, I have downloaded the VAASL program so I don’t have to break out all the counters and boards to play; I can play on the laptop to play test and show examples. Awesome.