Hail of Fire - company level rules for the Second World War

The Wargame Library, is a site set up by the people at Little Wars TV and the premise is simple - it's a repository of a curated collection of free, downloadable wargame rules. Free is always welcome, but it's the curated aspect of the collections that appeals to me, after all, how much time do we all have to trial myriad sets of new rules, regardless of how little they might cost?

I downloaded a copy of Hail of Fire, a set of company level Second World War rules written by Brandon Fraley from Retroboom games. What had grabbed my attention was their innovative approach to resolving fire attacks and the way it introduced a good deal of uncertainty and fog of war.

In short, when an infantry unit takes fire it may result in a number of Received Fire Points (RFPs). These are recorded somewhere near the unit and, as the name suggests, indicate the unit has received fire. What it doesn't indicate is how effective that fire has been....if at all. That remains unknown to both players and discovered only when the controlling player attempts to issue the unit with an order. It's at that moment both players discover the outcome. It's a simple, but very elegant idea. 

Armour is treated slightly differently in that it's possible to know immediately if the hit has been enough to destroy the vehicle outright. Otherwise it receives RFPs like an infantry unit. In most cases you are checking to determine the state of the crew, rather than the vehicle itself. 

In our 20mm game pictured below, the American bazooka team have scored a hit on the StuG. It's not enough to destroy the vehicle outright, but it is enough to have it marked with a single RFP. In effect what this means is that the bazooka crew have no clear indication of the damage they might have inflicted. As it hasn't shown any obvious signs of destruction, neither side knows the true status of the tank, or more importantly its crew - are they all killed? temporarily out of action? unscathed?

It's easy to place this sort of mechanic in a plausible narrative framework. I know the enemy is lining the hedgerow opposite and so I've ordered my units to engage them with fire. The target is partly concealed and in the general fog of war I'm not certain how much damage has been inflicted, should I risk an assault, or will I find the enemy in good shape and ready to receive me? If nothing else it reminds me of the sort of tension I feel when playing Crossfire.

The core rules cover only ten pages and are easy to follow. The game is set at company level and the smallest unit is a team, with two teams making up an infantry squad and so six teams making up a platoon. The platoon leader is based separately and is a key driver of the actions in the game. 

The rules use a D6 system with 4+ the target for successful checks. A few simple modifiers can affect the outcome. When firing, a unit is in terrain that offers concealment, or it’s not. It’s either within normal range or at long range. The checks for RFPs are modified if in hard cover….or not. With these sorts of factors abstracted, much like they are in Crossfire, it means the games flow easily with few references to the rules (which do include a handy two page quick reference sheet).

Activation of units is via orders, with each side having a limited number each turn, subject to a dice roll based on the number of platoon commanders in play. In short, one order will activate a single team, but if that 'team' is the platoon leader, he may activate any or all units under his command who are within line of sight. With six teams in most infantry platoons it's easy to see what a command multiplier the platoon leader becomes when in line of sight of his subordinates. 

Beyond this basic issuing of orders the platoon commanders have a few additional abilities which continues the emphasis the rules place on leadership. There's a rather nice mechanic where the platoon commander can move ahead of his men and give one of the teams an additional 3" of movement to 'move up'. It's one of three 'free' special abilities the commander can use in the course of an activation.

Once a side's orders are used up, the turn flips to the other player. However, there is also a second pool of available orders, which the rules refer to as Hero Points. These are determined by a die roll kept secret from your opponent. These points can be banked and kept for use in any turn. Essentially they allow additional orders. These include such things as a second activation for a unit that has already activated or the activation of a unit during the enemy's turn. Timely use of these can have a great influence on the action. In our game the American bazooka team made use of one to fire off a second shot at the StuG. 

Movement is variable, except when carried out completely out of line of sight of the enemy. I rather liked that as a mechanism. Infantry move 2D6" in the face of the enemy, but may move the full 12" without the need to roll dice when they can't be seen.  

In our game, the American bazooka team wanted to ensure the StuG was permanently out of action. They tried to make a dash across open ground to find a position from where they could fire into its side armour.  As they didn't know the status of the AFV they had to roll for the distance moved. They failed to go far enough. To their horror, in the German phase, they discovered the tank crew were not only back in action but driving straight at them. A cinematic and entertaining moment (well, for the German player at least!).

As the number of dice rolled to determine the orders is based on the number of platoon leaders in play the rules scale up and down. We have played a platoon level action in 20mm and a larger two company attack with armour in 12mm. Both worked well without any issues. 

Victory in games is determined by forcing your opponent to reach their 'break point' - much like the Force Morale mechanism in Chain of Command and this is determined by the number of losses and/or the capture of key objectives on the table.

Orders of battle can be found at the Retroboom website but in most cases simply reflect actual historical structures. As such there is no points building in the traditional sense, but the website allows you to match up historical structures and suggests mechanism to account for any imbalance. This is not necessarily more units, more often than not it suggests more Hero Points or a lower/higher break point or adjusting the number of objectives.

Below is the table set up at the club for a company attack supported by two platoons of armour played in 12mm.

This is the scale I've been using to play O Group. The only real issue we have had with those rules is that the scenarios take too long to complete in an evening and are better suited to a full day of gaming. In that sense Hail of Fire looks like it might fill a gap for those looking for something at company or larger level using their 10-15mm collections. I'd say the rules were probably written with Flames of War players in mind, particularly those no longer using those rules and wondering what to do with the forces they have amassed.

If you have figures based for Flames of War, Crossfire or O Group then you probably have what you need to play Hail of Fire. As a free set of rules, with a fairly easy learning curve and a few innovative mechanics, they are certainly worth exploring. The Retroboom website has a useful army builder and a Discord channel with a forum (I posted a few questions and they were answered by the rules writer within a matter of hours).