Tony Figlia invited Fred Haub and me for a British colonial game. Tony would provide the 15mm figures. The scene was set in 1857, said Tony, and the Brits are advancing on a native-occupied fort. Everything was looking good, the figures were on the field, when Tony handed out the "Fire" and "Maneuver" charts. Omigawd! They looked distressingly like the typical FIRE and FURY (FF) claptrap! This couldn’t be happening to me! Say it ain’t so! But, yes, it was so. Tony said a friend of his had "redone" the charts (for the lebendy lebenth time)… to make ‘em appropriate for the British colonial era. I commanded the British and had about 7 infantry brigades (10 stands each), some 5 cavalry brigades (around 5 stands each), and a buncha guns. That gave me 12 different units for which, each turn and each time I called on them to advance, I had to refer to the Maneuver chart. Alas! Perhaps a better term would be the "Un-Maneuver" chart. A 10-sided die roll of 6 or more permitted my unit of regulars to do as I wished, to obey orders. When my units were "fresh", i.e., had not yet taken casualties and removed stands, I could add a +1 to the die, so that a toss of 5 or more would get the brigade going. A toss of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, occurs 60 percent of the time… which means that 40 percent of the time, a brigade couldn’t even turn to face an oncoming enemy! I knew this to be a fact, since several times during the battle, native cavalry units approached the flanks of one of my brigades. Could these well-trained British units simply turn and face the cavalry? Only 60 percent of the time, they could! In fact, less than 60 percent… for we discovered the rules tossed in another negative Maneuver chart die roll modifier… "-1 if enemy cavalry are nearby." This reduced the possibility of responding to 50 percent. I must admit the dopey rules also hampered the natives, for when they went to the Maneuver chart to attempt to charge in, their result seemed to be "hold position"… they just couldn’t seem to get going, despite the tempting target to their front. Yes, the Maneuver chart had certainly been "redone"… but I’m not sure why. When we examined the Fire chart, we referenced the number of stands firing (each stand in the unit provided 1 Fire Point) and discovered that the possibilities resulting from a volley were basically three in number… (a) a stand could be removed, (b) the target unit could receive a "disorder marker", or (c) the target could receive a marker AND a stand could be removed. A possible fourth result was to knock off 2 stands, but the chance of doing this was fairly remote. And to implement this limited number of results, the guy had devised a rather complicated Fire chart, listing columns, numbers, modifiers for all sorts of troops… elite, regular, irregular, militia, etc. At first, I tried to read the charts for myself, but, after a while, the other guys did the research for me. The REAL horror, of course, was the Maneuver chart. Not only in terms of its results, but in deciphering exactly what it said. I let both Fred and Tony fight their way through the listings, while I sat back and awaited the outcome. That’s the kinda guy I am. And I’m looking forward to my next FF game. THAT’S the kinda guy I am! Back to PW Review March 2001 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com