Fields of Fire rules

This last week I brought out a new set of rules “Fields of Fire” by Larry A Yeager, published by Proving Ground Games.  Miniatures rules for Modern Combat 1975-Present is the subtitle. I ran across these on Facebook, from a post from Game Craft Miniatures back in December. I downloaded the armor only version  that is on their website and tried them last month.  That play test worked pretty well, so I attempted to understand the full basic game and got out my 30 year old 1/285 armor.

For the USSR I have a battalion of both T72’s and BMP1. Out they came on the table, a small recon unit and 3 off board batteries of 152mm. The Americans got a company of M60A3 and Mech Infantry in M113 with mortars and M150 TOW launchers. Off board one battery of 155mm artillery. So there was only about a 2 to 1 force ratio, not really enough but you play with what you have. I did cycle back in Russian armor that had been destroyed.

Setting up for the game, L to R Chris, Michael, Scott and Bruce.

Since there was only one bridge, I made the river was fordable as to not make it too much of a choke point. The Soviets never did make the far side. But then we only went through 1 and ½ turns in about 2 ½ hours.  Too much mini goodness on the table for a leaning game (a fault I keep repeating). The sequence of play is a bit confusing and I will be checking on the Proving Ground forums for some clarity.  There are 2 identical phases in the middle of a turn when move and fire happens.

From the quick reference cards 

 The middle of the 2^nd turn with the Soviets advancing as fast as possible.

The game uses a decimal system for artillery deviation so there were some big misses. I know I forgot to account for the forward observer bonus that would have reduced the dice by 25%. The Soviets killed a couple of their own with friendly fire and a 2 US tracks. But that was it.  

Tank fire is pretty deadly if you can hit the target. While we did not use the snap shot rules, fire against non-hull down US tanks was pretty deadly. Hull down halved the chance of hitting as well as moving fire. This dropped the odds of the advancing USSR armor to 10 to 20%.

I made some big mistakes as far as learning the rules….. I wasn’t well versed it them as I should have been and that messed the game up. The group liked the game and is willing to try it again. I will be planning another test using much smaller forces. That should keep things manageable while we get the flow down

Lucky for me the group will play most anything as long as someone provides the figures.

As far as tactics went the Soviet players put 2 companies on the south (top of picture) side of the board as a feint, they were dead at the end of turn one. The main push was to the north towards the bridge. The US used every bit of terrain to hide in that they could. For the next game they will get a couple of sets of emplacements to shoot and scoot.  The units in the woods were wiped out.

I have more infantry on order for both sides to be able to deploy them from the infantry carriers. Not that they were used much. The US were shot up as they fired Dragons and the Soviets dismounted a company so they would still be alive after the BMP’s were blown up. No close assaults so far.      

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