Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. Last week in the ninth article I talked about the third scenario, “Shot in the Dark”. I covered a couple of new concepts like reinforcements and night combat, neither of which are too different from what we have seen before. Well, buckle up, because this week we are jumping into “About Last Night”. Scenario 4 adds a few interesting new experiences to the game: multi-front scenario entry, snipers, and mortars. Multi-front scenario entry is pretty simple to understand, but let’s talk about snipers and mortars a little bit first and after we will jump into the details of “About Last Night.”

Aim Small, Miss Small

Snipers bring serious threat to your most valuable assets in Firefight Tactical. Snipers do not behave markedly differently from regular infantry squads, with the exception of the Snipe action. The Snipe action replaces the Sniper’s Fire action and functions similarly with several key differences. Firstly, unlike the Fire action which targets a zone, the Snipe action targets any individual unit. Most of the time this will be your enemy’s leaders or support weapons. You then roll your Fire check, with all the modifiers being the same as a regular Fire action. Things change if you succeed on the check while targeting a leader or support weapon. You may recall from Firefight Friday #5 that if you roll a pair on a successful Fire check, a unit in the zone is reduced. With the Snipe action as soon as you roll the successful check, a third die is rolled. If any of those three dice matches, that is an elimination for the target.

Considering how devastating the loss of a leader or support weapon can be in Firefight Tactical, you will always have to keep an eye out for potential sniper positions. Even when they reveal themselves from concealment to take the shot, Snipers have the Conceal action in common with Sentry Squads. This means they can simply reconceal, create a decoy, and go back to keeping the opponent guessing. Needless to say, you will see fewer heroic charges from leaders in scenarios with snipers.

Bring the Rain

If Snipers have the potential to shake up tactics in Firefight Tactical, mortars outright flip the table over. Mortars bring two special actions new to Firefight Tactical. These are Mortar Fire and Mortar Smoke. To understand these, we first have to talk about how Line of Sight (LoS) works for Mortar Teams. Mortar Teams do not need to have LoS to their targets at all. If they do not have LoS to their target, they can still hit it, so long as they are connected to a friendly unit that does have LoS by a contiguous chain of zones occupied by Good Order friendly units. The only issue is that the more zones you chain through this way, the greater penalties you take on your roll. The other limit is they can never target adjacent to themselves.

The actual roll to hit is the same as a Fire check, but things can go sideways when you miss (literally). For each point by which the Fire Check fails, you must roll a die. Four of the faces on that die are associated with directions on the battle grid. Big miss means big drift, and you can easily end up hitting your own forces with bad luck and improper planning.

Now let’s get back to the actions. For Mortar Smoke, there is no damage of any kind. You simply place a smoke overlay in the target zone. These function identically to the Smoke action that Assault Squads have but have the added bonus that they can be deployed at distance.

As you might imagine Mortar Fire can work a bit differently. If the target is in most terrain in the game, they just make a normal morale check just as though they were the target of a Fire action. Where things can change radically is if they are in a destructible structure. Every time a Mortar Fire action resolves on a zone containing destructible terrain, the terrain card is replaced with a ruin terrain overlay. Then roll a third die for each unit in the zone, and if any of the 3 dice matches, the unit is reduced. Any surviving units then make their morale checks.

Tactics wise, the big change that mortars bring to the game is that they turn the most defensible zones into a liability. There is still plenty of reason to take superior cover, but in a scenario with mortars, packing a leader, 2 squads, and 2 support weapons into a single small building is perhaps not the greatest idea.

We Weren’t Ready, Let’s Go Again

The morning of June 7^th following the successful capture of Sainte Mere Eglise by soldiers of the 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions, the Germans made an effort to counterattack the town. The Germans were members of Ost Battalion 795. The mixed unit was German only really in alignment and was largely comprised of Georgians. Their attack came from the south and they were expecting to take Sainte Mere Eglise back without much struggle, but instead were shocked at the ability and coordination of America’s Airborne infantry. They were routed very quickly.

Paratroopers Are Supposed to be Surrounded

“About Last Night” is the most variable scenario we have covered so far. This is because the Germans can attack from the South, the West, or a combination of the two. The Americans, significantly outnumbered, only have the benefit of the fact that they are holding the town. The German objective for the scenario is to get all the Americans out of all three buildings on the outer edge of town, or get any of their units into the building at the center of town. The terrain is mostly rural with the occasional small house, so the Germans will have to cross a bit of terrain with limited cover, one way or the other.

A Game of Cups

The Americans in “About Last Night” have some complicated problems to contend with. Firstly, they are being attacked from two sides of town. It is very important that during setup, the American player chooses positions that will be easy to shift to address the direction from which the German is attacking. Often one direction will get most of the German resources. If you can react to it well, or even better, bluff them into picking the wrong side, you will have an easier road ahead.

The other issue is the buildings. Previously, buildings were a reliable position that you could park lots of units into. Now with mortars, the buildings are giant piñatas waiting to be whacked. They are still your best defensive terrain and should be utilized, but don’t rely on them too heavily.

Your secret weapon in this scenario is your Sniper. He is almost more valuable as a deterrent than a unit. While unknown, he can be anywhere, and will give the German player pause before playing cavalierly with their leaders and support weapons. None the less, when the most valuable German units take a troublesome position and you see a good shot, take it.

A Human Wave

The Germans have two things going for them in this scenario: mortars and numbers. Making the most of both is crucial if you want to win. First, get your Mortar Team on the board, and put them in a well defended position. Make sure they are well supported by squads that are also in good terrain so they have potential targets all over the board. The other important piece is not to forget Mortar Smoke. Mortar Fire can be devastating on many structures and some other terrain, but otherwise it isn’t much better for attacking than standard Fire. Mortar Smoke on the other hand is almost always a good thing. The ability to strategically break sight lines at range will let you get in close with the enemy and nullify a lot of the poor terrain you will have to wade through to get there. Also it can break troublesome sight lines for the Sniper.

Regarding numbers, you significantly outman the Americans here. Don’t overcommit your forces early. Wait for the Americans to show their hand and then commit hard in the other direction. If they went for a balanced approach, hit the middle and see if you can split the American forces. If they picked one side of town over the other, go to the extreme on the other side and see if you can make it all the way to the town center. You can be far more flexible tactically deep into the scenario than they can.

The Obligatory Carentan Scenario

That is it for “About Last Night”. Next week we move on to Scenario #5, “Purple Heart Lane”. This is Firefight Tactical’s Carentan scenario, and I love it dearly. It doesn’t increase the rules complexity (wait for Scenario #6), but it does increase the scope. I have been doing these articles for about 2 months now, and for those who are still reading, thanks a lot! I hope you are enjoying them as much as I enjoy writing them. See you next week.

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