Tacfire

1943-53 Rules

review by Bill Rutherford

Tacfire, published by Brookhurst Hobbies is presented in a 3-ring plastic binder with full-color spine and cover inserts, containing 72 pages of basic, advanced, and optional rules, 35 pages of organizational and equipment data, 18 pages of order-of-battle set-up forms, and a page of designers’ notes. Also included are 8 card player-aid cards including equipment fire tables, game charts, and the like, organized by nationality. Production qualities are simple but good, with logical organization and clean printing. These rules are part of a trend in recently published 20th century rules towards battalion level games. An inch on the tabletop (for 15mm miniatures) equals 50 yards, a turn represents 10 minutes of time, a model AFV or gun represents two or three pieces of equipment, and a stand of troops represents approximately half a platoon.

The troop scale, at first glance, seemed inconsistent. The vehicle scale made sense to me because a real-life vehicle section was generally two or three vehicles (i.e., a single miniature) but the figure scale seemed by contrast arbitrary (many armies didn’t break platoons into half-platoon sections, which is what a stand of troops represents). If, however, one considers that the rules are concerned mainly with the ability of a platoon to be in line or column and form a fire-and-maneuver team as part of a company, this organization makes sense because two half-platoon stands allows that. Many of us had to make the same leap of faith when Command Decision® originally came out, e.g., for Soviet armor organizations, with miniatures representing half-companies, not platoons… As will be seen later, the focus of the rules is very much that the platoon that plays together stays together, so this troop scale, at least from a gaming perspective, is altogether consistent with the rules.

So - what about the rules? They cover combat from 1943 - 1953; later supplements will deal with the Blitzkrieg and the modern era. Tacfire spends almost three pages on miniatures, their painting and finishing, and their storage and it’s space well-spent… These rules were designed to be played on a hex field, with a hex being 200 yards across, though on an un-gridded tabletop, inches are used, e.g., in 15mm, a hex is four inches across, so an inch represents 50 yards. Facings and arcs of fire, however, are still based on 60 degree increments. The sequence of play is mixed-sequential throughout the turn. The indirect fire and the command control phases are essentially simultaneous, while the tactical interaction segment (essentially, the fire-and-movement phase) involves one or more initiative phases, each phase consisting of movement and/or attacks by one side, with opportunity fires and other defensive activities being performed by the other…

Command control is generally exercised at the company level. Companies (and independent platoons) check morale based on casualties and perform based on their morale status. Platoons and independent sections may test (and suffer the results of) morale separately. This generally consists of doing as told when morale is good and behaving increasingly cautiously, depending on how badly morale is failed. Companies have command radii within which their components must stay and activities, including fire combat, are company-based, i.e., the rules clearly prescribe how a given platoon may fire on another but the player dictates how company fires are allocated. Movement is “normal”, i.e., units have movement allowances that are modified by the terrain through which they attempt to move. Direct fire combat is resolved with a single modified die roll and is both ranged and dependent on armor penetrations/thicknesses (for AFVs).

Spotting is deterministic - a given target is visible at a given range under a given set of conditions (this is another trend that seems common to this scale of game!). Hits generally destroy or affect the morale of the target. All gunnery charts for a given nationality are on that nation’s play card. Indirect fire is called (after contact is made with the battery) on one turn and arrives on the next turn. It’s resolved in a manner similar to direct fire but uses a separate fire table, also located on the play card. Tacfire is not hardware-intensive; fire, maneuver, and destruction of formations takes precedence over detailed statistics.

Armor is broadly categorized according to thickness; antitank guns are similarly rated for penetration, so a Sherman can kill a Tiger but the reverse is much more likely. Players are firmly placed in the roles of task force commanders - many details common to company-level rules simply don’t apply here. Various optional rules allow players to incorporate weather, darkness, mines, aviation, amphibious operations, etc. Fifteen pages deal with campaigns and scenarios, and include three one-off scenarios and an introductory campaign game that covers three days’ combat. There’s a campaign map (something akin to a board game map) but the tactical scenarios, though their play data (set-up, OBs, victory conditions, etc.) are pretty complete, surprisingly rely on one-line descriptions of the tabletop terrain, leaving it to the players to decide the nature of the battlefields. One feature that I liked was the scenario generator (for more on which, look forward an issue or so in this magazine!)

The organization tables provide a wealth of data and are focused specifically on combat units (no tails here!), dealing extensively with the US, German, British, Soviet, and North Korean armies. Oh - the US and German organization charts include historical TO&E and KStN chart numbers, as applicable. Divisional organizations for numerous mid-late war divisions are included for the WW II protagonists, as well. The charts inadvertently omitted the organizations for the US armor and infantry companies, but this was a typo and the missing data appears on the order of battle cards at the back of the rules.

The rules play smoothly - combat resolution, especially with all national data condensed to a single play card, is quick and straightforward. The rules reward good tactics and punishes bad ones. Though command control is firmly centered at the company level, platoons are encouraged to work as units, due to the fire combat rules. Tacfire costs $29.98 and should be available from your local game shop. If you cannot obtain it there, you can go directly to the publisher/distributor, Brookhurst Hobbies, on their website at http://www.brookhursthobbies.com, or by mail at 12188 Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840. Well recommended.

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