Fire and Fury (F&F) is a relatively new ACW miniatures rules set published by the same people who put out the very popular ancients miniatures rules set "Tactica". F&F is the result of some five years of effort by the author, Rick Hasenauer, and his local gaming group. Rick is a graphic artist for the Department of the Army, and is no certainly stranger to military and wargames related graphics. Examples of Rick's previous efforts include the cover illustrations for Johnny Reb, 2nd Edition and A House Divided, and he also did almost all of the illustrations for Avalon Hill's highly acclaimed Napoleonic miniatures rules set, Napoleon's Battles. Rick modestly admits that many of the concepts in F&F were not his own, but rather the result of many of his gaming associates who helped with the playtesting.
F&F is physically the most beautifully produced ACW miniatures rules set you'll probably ever see, and I have no doubt that some people will buy the rules just because of their physical appearance. Those of you who have seen "Tactica" know what I'm talking about. F&F is a visual treat, with nearly 20 full color photographs of miniatures in action on a beautifully landscaped table, and about 40 nice diagrams scattered throughout the rules to help explain the various concepts to the reader.
While visually awe-inspiring, I was even more impressed with the organization and clarity of the rules' text. The explanations are exceptionally clear and concise, and I do not see too much of an opportunity for the 'rules lawyers" here. Rick told me that the rules editor, Ray Pfeifer, is a lawyer by profession, and Ray took great pains to clean up the muddy waters to the extent that I'm sure that F&F is among the best written sets of miniatures rules sets I've ever come across.
F&F is a grand tactical rules set, and two different scales can be used. 150 scale has each base of infantry/cavalry representing 150 men, and each artillery base represents 6 guns. 200 scale has each base representing 200 men, and each artillery base represents 8 guns. The ground scale is 1"= 45/60 yards, respectfully, but the game tables do not reflect any change in movement distances or weapon ranges for the two ground scales. The time scale is one turn = 30 minutes of real time. Recommended base sizes for the various troop types are given in the rules, but this need not be strictly adhered to, since entire bases are removed as casualties. This is an very nice feature since gainers will not have to re-mount their figures to use these rules. Infantry and cavalry bases are organized into brigades, brigades into divisions, and divisions into corps, based on historical orders of battle. The individual regiments lose their identity in F&F completely.
In F&F, each brigade has three effectiveness levels: Fresh, Worn, and Spent. Brigades generally start a battle fresh and suffer losses which will reduce their -effectiveness to worn, and finally to spent. A brigade's morale class can be Crack, Veteran, or Green, and the better the morale class, the more losses the brigade can take before its effectiveness is downgraded to worn or spent status. Once a brigade becomes spent, its usefulness on the battlefield is greatly reduced by the detrimental modifiers on the Maneuver Table and the Charge Table (as well as its reduced strength). This may sound complicated, but I assure you that it is explained very clearly in the rules.
The leaders are rated either as exceptional or normal in F&F. Exceptional brigade leaders can be killed, wounded, or captured during play, but normal brigade leaders cannot. The rationale here is that exceptional brigade leaders are replaced by normal leaders if eliminated, but there is no point in bothering with a normal leader being eliminated and then replaced by another normal leader. Division and corps commanders, normal or exceptional, can become casualties as well, but only while attached to a combat unit. Leaders offer advantageous bonuses in the Maneuver Phase and Charge Phase, and the proper use of their benefits is an important factor in the gamers' chance of success.
Each half hour game turn is divided into a Union Player Turn and a Confederate Player Turn. Each player turn is composed of three phases: Maneuver Phase, Musketry & Cannonade Phase, and Charge Phase. At the end of the Confederate Charge Phase, the passage of one thirty minute game turn is recorded. Let's examine each of these phases in some detail.
In the Maneuver Phase, the phasing player must choose a unit that he wishes to move, roll a ten-sided die, and consult the Maneuver Table to determine exactly what the unit will be allowed to do this turn. He then moves this unit BEFORE selecting the next unit to attempt to move. Brigades that wish to move, change formation, or that begin the phase disordered, must roll on the Maneuver Table. A brigade in good order that wishes to merely remain in place as is, does not have to roll on the table.
Depending on the die roll and the applicable modifiers among the seven listed on the table, the results can vary from "Quit the Field" (removed from play), to "Well Handled (conduct normal movement or change of formation). Intermediate results call for no move or half move allowed, among others. This innovative concept throws a lot of uncertainty into the tabletop general's plans, since each unit is selected, rolled for, and moved one at a time. Coordinated assaults become more and more difficult as the involved brigades become worn and/or spent. Players will find their troops being taken out of their control at the most inopportune times, and will find that they will have to try to react to battlefield situations as they develop.
This Maneuver Table replaces the morale check table normally found in miniatures rules. Allowable formations for the brigades include line of battle, supported line of battle, field column, and march column. As found in other rules sets, cavalry brigades that dismount will lose one or two stands of troopers to hold their horses. Artillery bases can operate either attached to a brigade or unattached. Unattached artillery bases can only unlimber when within the command radius and line of sight of a division, corps, or army commander. Artillery cannot move, unlimber, and fire in the same player turn. Just to give you a feel for the movement rates, I'll tell you that in clear terrain the following are applicable: Infantry move is 12", Mounted Cavalry move is 18", Field Artillery move is 8", and Horse Artillery move is 12". Friendly infantry and cavalry brigades can pass through each other, paying a 3" movement penalty to do so. Rallying and ammo resupply can be attempted at the end of the Maneuver Phase if certain conditions are met.
Next is the Musketry and Cannonade Phase, where both players issue small arms fire and artillery fire. The non-phasing player fires first and the results take effect before the phasing player fires. The fire resolution system is among the most simple that I've seen in any wargame. Basically, at any given range the weapons are worth a certain number of fire points per firing base. You merely total up the fire points firing at a common target, modifying them as per the small list of possible modifiers, roll a ten-sided die, and read the result on the table. Small arms range is 8", canister range is 4", and shot and shell range is 32". Union dismounted cavalry and artillery bases fire with slightly more fire points than their Confederate counterparts due to their superior weapons and projectiles. Artillery can issue indirect fire over other units along their line of sight if certain conditions are met. There are no small arms weapon types or artillery types in F&F. AIso,whether they be crack, veteran, or green, all units fire with the same effectiveness. What is even more interesting is the fact that small arms fire is issued at a constant one fire point per firing base, whether the range is point blank or at the maximum allowed range of 8".
Rick opted for simplicity here, and he said that he did not want people "playing the rules" instead of simulating battles with miniature soldiers. I can sort of see Rick's point, but I still find this deletion of range effects on small arms fire a tough one to accept. This is a good example of playability taking precedence over realism to a certain extent. The fire table results vary from "Desultory Fire" (no effect), to "Withering Fire" (target disordered and loses three bases). Batteries can be silenced, damaged, or wrecked when hit. Any hit on a brigade will disorder it, and this is a common occurrence. Disorder halves a unit's fire points as well as making the unit roll on the disordered column of the Maneuver Table at the start of the player's next turn.
If a zero is rolled on the fire resolution die, any batteries as well as any brigades who were firing at least half of their stands at the target, become "low on ammo". This causes brigades to fire with half their normal fire points, but oddly enough, is not cumulative with the effects of disorder, which would suggest that a disordered unit that is also low on ammo issue fire at one quarter its normal effect. Simplicity is once again the deciding factor here I suspect. Artillery bases that are low on ammo can only issue canister fire. Each artillery base fires with ten fire points when firing canister. In addition, this fire resolution die roll of zero causes the recipient of the fire to check each of his exceptional brigade leaders and/or attached div./corps leaders individually on the Fallen Leader Table to see if they become casualties. This table lists five outcomes that have no effect on the leader and five that will remove him from the game for the duration.
The deletion of range and morale effects, plus the constant probabilities of the ten-sided die roll results combine to make the fire results virtually random and very unpredictable. Let's look at what can happen when an eight base brigade (1600 men) fires at an enemy unit in line formation in clear terrain. The brigade issues eight fire points at the target. Looking at the table we see that the following could happen with the listed ten-sided die rolls: 1 to 4 = no effect, 5 to 7 = target disordered, 8 or 9 target disordered and loses one base, 0 = target disordered and loses two bases (plus the firer is now low on ammo and the target's leader(s) must roll on the Fallen Leader Table). So these 1600 men issue fire at what could be point blank range, or perhaps maximum range, and have only a three in ten chance of inflicting any losses on the enemy brigade in clear terrain. Hmm, I'm not real comfortable with this. Perhaps I'm just used to playing Johnny Reb, where these same 1600 men firing at point blank range with an average die roll would eliminate about one fourth of their number of the enemy. Clearly, the two rules sets designers have a marked difference of opinion regarding small arms weapons effectiveness, and I'm only mentioning it to make the readers aware of it. Yet amazingly, during the course of the games I've had with F&F, the casualties incurred by the combatants seemed to be reasonably accurate by the end of the game. So, F&F seems to work fairly well in spite of my opinions!
The third and final phase of each player turn is the Charge Phase. Enemy brigades and batteries in contact at the start of this phase are separated into a number of charge combats in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the rules. While not overly complex, this section is by far the most complex in the rules set, and some points, in spite of the excellently written text, could be interpreted differently by the players. The charge resolution process is fairly simple once the various intermingled units have been separated into individual melees. The list of modifiers for the Charge Table is the longest of any of the games' tables, but is clear and makes good common sense. Again, morale class is not a modifier here, but then it is indirectly handled by whether a brigade is fresh, worn, or spent.
To resolve a melee, both sides roll a ten-sided die and adjust their roll per the applicable modifiers. The difference between the two rolls determines who wins and the extent of the victory. Results can range from Defender swept from the field' to "Charge repulsed. If the attacker wins by a great enough margin, he gets a 'breakthrough move" and can continue his advance up to an additional half move. Although the melee results are very die roll dependent and quite unpredictable, the various results are interesting and add a great deal of excitement to the game. Stands of troops, batteries, and leaders can be killed, captured, or made to skedaddle for the rest of the game. Victory is seldom guaranteed when resolving melees in F&F.
All of the scenarios included in F&F are for Gettysburg, three historical and two "what if", but Rick is already working on a scenario booklet to be published in the near future. The Gettysburg scenarios can be rather predictable and one-sided, based on my experience with them. In one battle, I was commanding Howard's Corps on the first day of Gettysburg, and believe me, thanks to the realism of F&F, I discovered exactly how 0.0. must have felt that day in 1863. It was not a pretty sight!
One of the real advantages of this rules set is the ease of designing your own scenarios. You will not have to worry about artillery compositions or small arms weapons types, just troop strengths, morale class, leader types, orders of battle, and battlefield terrain. This definitely will take a lot of the work out of scenario design so that the gainers can spend more time gaming.
Due to the nature of the rules, I consider them to be a nearly ideal set of rules for resolving battles which are part of a campaign game. The flexibility of the casualty removal system makes this possible since whole bases are removed, and batteries would be either full strength or damaged at the start of a battle. Garners could easily develop additional campaign rules to allow for the recruiting of more troops for their depleted brigades and batteries. The morale class of the units could initially be green at the start of the campaign and improve after combat exposure in a certain number of battles. These are only a few of the many possibilities for F&F adaptation in a campaign game type environment.
In conclusion, F&F brings to the tabletop a major innovation in Civil War miniatures rules. F&F simulates faithfully the ebb and flow of battlefield combat that we've read about so often in our history books. Brigades can charge, suffer a repulse, reform and charge again and again into the fray. The rules are simple enough to allow players to recreate a major battle in a single evening, albeit a long one. F&F strikes an excellent balance between playability, grand tactics, and historical accuracy in a smooth flowing, elegant system. While I have taken a few punches at certain aspects of the rules during the course of this article, let me assure you that I am very fond of them overall. I consider F&F to be the ACW equivalent to Avalon Hill's "Napoleon's Battles". Rick told me that his goal in writing F&F was to write this rules set as an artist would, enabling garners to simulate on the tabletop a titanic struggle, as he envisioned it to have been. I think Rick has accomplished his goal admirably. If you do not already own a copy of F&F, I encourage you to give some serious consideration to getting one!
[EDITOR'S NOTE]: While Clay did the review, I also have to admit to being excited about this new set of rules. More importantly, as an editor, I have always hoped that those who produced rules sets would support their rules by providing a forum in which players can ask questions and get reasonable answers so as to better understand the rule author's intent. I am pleased to say that we will be carrying scenarios from the author of "Fire & Fury", along with any addendums and answers to questions that might be needed in the future. Our own club will begin using these rules with our Shenandoah campaigns. For those of you ordering "Fire & Fury", please note the advertisement in this issue for the address and price. Also, we would appreciate it if you would mention that you heard about the rules in The Zouave so that the F&F people will know that their advertising dollars were well spent. I have to admit that I haven't been this excited about a rules set since Johnny Reb hit the market! Great work!
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