I'm happy to report that Mark has begun a new draft of the rules and it's damn good! It's a re-write of the draft I did a while back, which was overly-lawyerly & hard to read. The new draft is set up in stages with scenarios inserted, so you can play as you go. There are lots of pictures & examples in the margins - always great. The first stage covers basic infantry, and we're thinking of making it available as PDF so folks can check it out and give feedback.

That said, Mark and I are committed to ironing out all the details before releasing the full thing, so it'll be several months yet, at least, before the rules booklet is available. We're planning to have all major theaters of WWII worked out, and to really capture the differences, based on historical written accounts - which we're constantly reading anyway. The rules are aimed at re-creating for the players, the same kind of tension & story lines described by combatants who were there.

We began with late-war Western front Europe, worked out armor rules, artillery, flamethrowers, moved on to Pacific jungle fighting (VERY different), and recently began work on desert fighting. Mark came up with new rules for long-range visibility which was a huge factor in the desert. I just finished reading "Brazen Chariots" by Robert Crisp and then played Mark's first desert scenario. Definitely feels right, although it was purely an infantry fight. Can't wait to do armor. I've been developing rules for bicycle troops and cavalry (Philippines saw both in spades). Jerry Frazee and his crew in North Carolina worked out rules for Eastern front, including a Commissar table which is a total blast - always injects a huge dose of Communism into the story line. Good, bad & ugly as it should be.

To answer some recent questions from Jan in Copenhagen, labels are not mandatory, but they're cool to look at, and help narrate the story. You can download PDFs for labels, if you want them, from the "files" folder here:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fireballforward/

For bases, you can't beat Gale Force 9. They're inexpensive and super accurate laser-cut:

http://www.gf9.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=64&products_id=368

FbF is intentionally relaxed about basing dimensions. Anything roughly the size of Flames of War units work just fine. You can always use FoW units if you want - easy to get on ebay. Or make your own. The bases in the photos above are 3/4 inch x 1 inch (squads) and 3/4 x 3/4 (leaders & teams). Anything about 15mm x 25mm will work with the labels on those PDF's.

Lastly, your table is certainly big enough. Several scenarios are very small - just 2 x 3 feet (approx 0.66m x 1m).

Thanks for all the interest and encouragement,

MUST GAME!
Jonathan.