Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. This is going to be a very brief article this week, but I wanted to both give myself a moment to recuperate (ran a LOT of demos over the last week) and also talk about how Firefight Tactical was received at GMT this month.

So Many Wonderful People

I want to start by saying thanks to all the people who came by to say “hi.” Some people wanted to see Firefight Tactical in action, but I also had a lot of people who had played with me in the past come by just to check in. It was awesome to show people how the game has been evolving. Nothing keeps me going better than seeing people’s enthusiasm for the game. What I enjoyed even more was the chance to show FFT to people that were attending the convention for the first time. Some of these people were not even hardcore historical gamers by their own appraisal but were drawn in by FFT’s presentation. I was very happy to see that they took to the game quickly, as soon as they picked up on the dice draft. A lot of “oh! This bit reminds me of this game…” Getting over that initial intimidation was my greatest concern and it was great to see it work out that way. I continue to believe that this design will be a way to bridge some gaps with other areas of our hobby.

A Tale of Two Carentans

For ease of reset I just ran the Purple Heart Lane scenario all weekend. Going into demoing, I had never lost Purple Heart Lane as the Americans. Boy, will I never be able to say that again. I definitely made some questionable decisions at times, but primarily luck was laughably not with me. The worst of this was a horrible situation in the second demo where I could NOT perform a leader rally to save my life. Sgt. Dixon and Sgt. Mason spent virtually the whole game pinned, and as such my squads had to leave them behind (which did not work out very well). Every game I played those buildings just became a brick wall for me, literally and figuratively. Fortunately, the game’s popularity kicked up as the weekend went on and I didn’t have to teach one player at a time anymore and subject them to my poor dice rolls.

To make matters worse though, once we started having some demos where two friends played against each other, the bad luck of the Americans persisted. There was one memorable moment where the American player through a very well-timed valor managed to get a Recon Squad up against the main German position. All they needed was to hold onto the initiative for one more action so they could advance into the enemy position. This would have radically shifted the advantage in their favor. *Bam*, the German player seized initiative on the first try. I was starting to feel bad about how the scenario made the balance look, despite the fact that it has been quite balanced in test.

The next day I debated changing the scenario out, but out of nowhere the Americans started to dominate in demos the next day. Excellent tactics and good use of leaders started to make all the difference and the paratroopers more than redeemed themselves from the previous day. Why do I think things varied so much? I think it’s because I stopped giving tactical advice. I think I was jinxing the American players. So, what’s the take home? Just because I am the designer doesn’t mean you should listen to my strategy advice at the table. It’s a tough pill for me to swallow.

Back to the Front Lines

Next week we will be back with my strategy advice! We are on to the final third of scenarios in the game. These are all among the largest and most varied scenarios, so I am excited to talk about them. See you then!

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