Historicon Report

Historicon 2010 proved to be a great testing ground for Fireball Forward. Overall, eight games were run over the course of the weekend; seven Normandy scenarios and one Hue City. Everyone seemed to have fun, the games were close and some rules got hashed out in the process. I am really pleased as the goal of creating a game that is fast paced and fun seemed to play out. Most people had not played before but were able to learn the rules fairly quickly...and several of them returned to play multiple games.

There were two rules that got worked out that players universally thought did not 'feel' right. The first was the diameter of artillery barrages. I had it at 24-inches, which was way too big. A diameter of 12-inches should work just fine. That was my fault as I was thinking 12-inches all along but I kept saying radius instead of diameter. Other than that everyone loved the arty rules. During one game the Americans squeezed 2+ infantry platoons into a field when it got hit by 81mm mortars. They all broke and fled back to cover. It felt right and no one...including the US players thought it an unreasonable result.

The second rule that we worked on was how tanks conduct opportunity fire. The way we had been doing it was that tanks could rotate their turrets a certain number of degrees and if the gun pointed at the target then they could fire. This just didn't work as it kept leading to situations that didn't seem right...mainly because players felt that in many situations a tank could not see the target, ie. infantry creeping up to assault the tank. After alot of discussion we came up with a solution that we are trying that not only works better but is more in line with the general feel of the rules. Basically a tank with a tree-man turret (US and German) can take opportunity fire at a target that is either in the front 180-degrees of the front of the tank or within 180-degrees of the front of where the turret is pointed. A tank with a one or two man turret can only take opportunity fire a target in the front 180 of the turret. The idea is that these are the areas were the crew is focused. Seems simple, easy and addresses a host of issues.

Other than those two issues people mainly commented on what kind of variations they would use. The main rules...especially the armor rules seemed solid and well liked.

We'll be doing more games soon and I will let you know how things go. My wife and I have just moved to a new house and once we dig ourselves out I will be painting up figs to try out Guadalcanal...and see how the differences in terrain and tactics will change the rules! I want to tackle the Pacific BEFORE we release the rules. It has been my experience that most WW2 rules make everything work for Europe and Russia but not the Pacific.

Mark