Welcome back to Firefight Fridays. Last week in the first article we discussed the dice draft and how Firefight Tactical is constructed around it. We covered what is being modeled by the dice draft and how it can be used to get an edge on your opponent. This week we will be looking at the other half of the dice draft handshake, the action menu.

Each unit in Firefight Tactical is defined in part by its statistics (morale, movement, firepower, range, etc.), but in large part by its action menu. This is obviously a significant departure from most tactical games, and it is the biggest way in which units differentiate themselves from each other. As an example, recon squads are focused on scouting ahead, finding optimal terrain, and penetrating the enemy line. Both the German and American recon squads are designed for this, and while their base statistics may vary, their personality comes out in the differences in their action menus.

Reading the Menu

Each unit in Firefight Tactical has access to a maximum of 5 different actions depending on their posture. When looking at the action menu you can see that each action has its own row, and then next to it are all the dice that can be used to perform that particular action. The dice options come in 3 varieties. The first is a standard dice option, which has no defined color. Any dice may be assigned to this unit so long as it matches the number of pips to perform that associated action. The next is the bicolor options. For these not only must the number of pips match, but the die must also be one of the two colors depicted on the option. Finally, is the wild option. For these you simply need to assign the matching color regardless of the number of pips showing on it.

There are some things to take away from these rules. Firstly, is that the white dice, while plentiful, have limited uses. They can only be used on the standard options with no color requirements. Conversely, the colored dice can potentially be used for all 3 option types making them much more valuable. The added flexibility the colored dice afford paradoxically makes them much more valuable later in the Game Turn when dice are running low, which in turn makes them a priority to “hate draft” early. In other words, both players want to save them for later, but also don’t want to leave them for their opponent to get better value.

You only need to assign a single matching die to a unit to activate it and perform the associated action. The number of dice options tied to a given action then are about the reliability of that unit to follow its orders. In order of difficulty, it is easiest to activate a unit with a wild option, normal to activate with a standard option, and difficult to get the right die for a bicolor option. The number of dice options, and the nature of those options then say a lot about that unit’s specialization towards its order types. A unit with two standard dice options, or a standard option and a wild option will very reliably be able to carry out the associated action. Conversely, a unit with a single bicolor option associated with an action will more likely have to spend multiple Game Turns waiting for the correct die to turn up.

Organization of Options

Each action menu is organized similarly. Firstly, all regular infantry units have the same three standard actions, and they occupy the same locations on the action menu. These actions are Fire, Take Cover, and Move. Each infantry unit then has access to two special actions, the pairing of which is unique to that unit type. What is important to notice about these is that Fire is always at the top of the action menu, Take Cover is in the middle, and Move is at the bottom.

If you remember from last week, I mentioned that the dice required for the action menus are inverted between Axis and Allied units. As such, you will notice here that “highest” 2 dice results will always activate a Fire action, the “lowest” 2 dice results will activate a Move action and a ‘3’ will activate a Take Cover action. This decision space does double duty, in that it helps both players recognize at a glance what are the capabilities of the units on the table. You will be able to see exactly how many “movement dice” you have available on the table which also happens to be the number of “fire dice” available to your opponent due to the inversion.

Taking this concept even further, the special actions are themselves organized into more aggressive type actions, and more mobility type actions. The more aggressive special actions are parked between the Fire and Take Cover action, and the more mobility type special actions are between the Take Cover and Move action. I will come back to why that is the case in a moment.

What’s in a Color?

I just covered how the dice values are organized to commonly be associated with aggressive or mobility focused actions. Colors are organized the exact same way. Red dice are associated with aggression dice options. The yellow dice are commonly associated with the mobility dice options. Finally, the blue dice are for command focused options. These would be more for rallying, leadership actions, or flexibility options.

Unlike with the number of pips, the colors are not as strictly tied to these action focuses. For example, the Assault special action which allows you to fire on the move makes use of a red wild die for the American assault squad focusing on the aggressive nature of the action. On the other hand, the German assault squad uses the yellow wild die for the same action, instead focusing on the impact on its mobility. This is again where the units can display some of their personality.

Flipping the Script

Units will have to flip their counter due to certain changes in game state. Most commonly this will be when an infantry unit becomes pinned or when a vehicle is “in motion.” In both cases the action menu changes on the other side of the counter. While the effect is more subtle with vehicles, which simply have a harder time firing on a target while they are in motion, the effect is radical with infantry. On their pinned side, all infantry have the standard actions of Rally and Rout. Unlike the standard actions on their normal side, the standard actions on the pinned side have no common dice options. Each will have their own unique set of dice options that will be required to try and get them back into the fight.

Reading the Bones

Now that we have covered all the concepts around the action menu, I want to tie it all together with what we talked about last week. This all comes back to the dice draft, and now that we know how the action menus work, we can talk about reading the game state. In my mind, Firefight Tactical is not as much a marriage between a tactical game and a euro as it is a tactical game and a puzzle. FoW extends to the terrain and concealed units, but not to the dice options. You and your opponent both know exactly which dice you each have access to, which of your units have activated already, and what options the remaining units have available (with the exception being concealed units). This is why it is possible for you to do things like hate draft.

The reality is that this can be too much to take in, sometimes even for experienced players. On a larger scenario with 30 units on the battle grid, and 20 dice to consider, the amount of information can certainly be overwhelming. This is precisely why dice and the action menu are organized the way that I have outlined above. At the start of the Game Turn when everything is wide open it could take me eons to figure out what everyone is able to do if I look at each individual unit and the dice that are available. On the other hand, I can figure that all out with decent accuracy very quickly by just looking at the dice that are available.

If I am playing as the Americans and I see a lot of 4s and 5s, I know that I will have plenty of opportunities to attack this Game Turn and that the German player will have a plethora of movement options. There isn’t much I can do about that. There are only 2 yellow dice available, and one is in the German private reserve. They are going to want to use that common yellow to scout or something to make the most of all those movement dice. I should make getting rid of it a priority. At the same time my leader needs a blue 4 to rally. There is only one available, so I am going to take that first, and just hope the German player doesn’t realize how dependent they are on yellow dice this turn.

Making an assessment like I just described will take you far less time than looking at each individual unit. On the other hand, when you get later in the Game Turn, and there are only 5 units available and there are 4 dice left, that’s when you want to assess each individual unit. This makes for some of the most exciting moments in the game for me. I love the beats in Firefight Tactical where I am caught between making the most of my options and killing the best of yours.

The Missing Piece

My personal favorite aspect of Firefight Tactical is the myriad tactical puzzles that it provides due to the combinations of action menus, dice available, and the state of the battlefield. At this point I have covered about 2/3rds of that puzzle. Next week let’s start talking about terrain.

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Firefight Friday #1: Dice Driven Gaming