First an update on where we are with the game at this moment. The final playtesting is underway and I’m very pleased by the excellent work the playtest team have done so far. The difficulties have been all the new concepts in this volume and to transfer the FAB system to the wide open desert and desert warfare, where there are no strict frontlines and swirling battles are fought all across the map. 

There are four things that I want to highlight, first is supply – in order to acclimatize the system to the desert, the tracing of supply had to be different than before. In FAB: Crusader, it costs movement points to trace supply from a unit/area back to a supply source. This stops players to trace supply in some immensely long, circuitous routes. It normally costs 0 MP to trace along road connection and 1 MP across field connections. Tracing the supply path into a vacant enemy-controlled area is a +1 MP. This also makes the road network and road junctions more critical as it was historically. In this game there is also the Desert Zone, in which neither player controls vacant areas so there are many supply routes to take. Tracing supply outside this zone may also be into or through vacant enemy-controlled areas, but at a higher cost. 

Second is combat modifiers. Instead of having special rules for different units and assets when firing I decided to use a Base Success Net Modifier Matrix. In FAB, the Base SN is always 5, and this number is usually modified based on status and other circumstances. To add more realism without lengthy rules, the matrix is a very simple and effective solution to show the impact of combat between different types of units/assets in a battle. Simply cross-reference the firing unit (or asset) with the target’s point unit type and you have the modifier. 

 Since this was a battle of Tanks (at least initially for the Allies) there are some special rules for armored combat, such as Tanks vs. unsupported infantry and unsupported Tanks vs. infantry. This builds in combined warfare to the game automatically in a simple way and makes it very crucial to have anti-tank assets assigned to infantry forces in combat or infantry supporting your Tanks. 

Speaking of armor (or armor-class units), Recon units have the unique ability in the game to conduct scouting against enemy forces. They are also very good to use in a screening role to delay/harass your opponent’s movements. 

 The third is the introduction of Ghost units in FAB: Crusader. These unusual units have been a headache and causing many sleepless nights. Lots of different approaches have been tried and some of them very “complicated” in FAB terms. The main problem was in regards of supply, retreats and control of areas. I think that the solution finally ended up with is very simple and easy for players to grasp. In short, phasing player’s ghost units are removed in the Supply Phase if not stacked with regular units. There can be situations when (non-phasing player’s) ghost units are blocking supply, but as one playtester stated “the ghost unit of the non-phasing player can block supply of the phasing player, NOT because it is a real unit BUT because it has caused fear/doubt of supply trucks moving up into a fluid/unknown battlefield”. 

The fourth and last thing I want to address is stacking. In the FAB system stacking is two units per area. Because of the open desert (and scale of used) I was never satisfied with this stacking limit, so in FAB: Crusader, the stacking limit is three units. However, areas with a Terrain Defense Number (TDN) of 2 or 3 as well as fortified and ridge areas, the normal stacking limit of two apply. But to prevent a steamroller effect with three powerful Tank units smashing around, there may never be more than two Tank units stacked in an area. This has worked very well and have been much appreciated among the playtesters. This together with ghost units created another dimension in the fog-of-war aspect. 

That’s all for now about FAB: Crusader, watch out for more… 

Regards,

Michael Gustavsson

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