Saturday, March 14, 2015

Playing Firefight 2.0 solo

Firefight 2.0 is a skirmish game by Alternative Armies. Players control teams of four soldiers on a map made of various tiles and obstacles. Movement is grid-based and actions are resolved using an interesting dice-rolling system.

Some time ago I purchased the pack with the rules and tiles. Although I wish I had the official miniatures, so far I have been playing with paper miniatures. The book includes two solo scenarios where the player faces automated turrets and mines. I have found that this game works very well for solo play due to some of its features:
- To perform any action, including movement, the player must roll certain values on the dice. This adds uncertainty to the game.
- Any attacked character that has not acted may immediately react to being attacked. Likewise, opportunity fire is available if the active character enters line of sight of an enemy.

I have found this game very good to play quick battles. The only house rules I use are:
1) The human player is always the attacker in the mission.
2) The human player has the initiative in all turns, and must choose to move first.
3) To keep things simple, the Medical Aid action is not available for anyone.

For enemy behavior, I have adopted these guidelines:
1) Remember that the enemies are the defenders, protecting some objective or preventing the player units from escaping the board.
2) Attacked enemies will choose reaction fire if they are at least in light cover, otherwise they will dodge out of the way if possible.
3) Whenever possible, enemies at least in light cover will attempt opportunity fire against targets moving in the open or under light cover.
4) After the human player finishes, enemy units will activate, from closest to farthest.
5) Enemies out of cover will choose melee, move and fire, assault fire, or move (towards cover) as their action, depending on available targets.
6) Enemies in cover will choose aimed fire, move and fire, assault fire, move (to pursue enemies if they are getting away), or stay frosty as their action, depending on available targets.
7) Enemies will pick a target that results in the greatest number of dice to roll. That includes objects, if applicable.

For a quick game, pitting a single team against an enemy team plus a couple of turrets and air mines tends to work well. Even light turrets have significant firepower, and mine explosions add some chaos to the game.

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