Firepower by AH

[GJK]

Anybody play this one?  I have an unpunchedcopy on the way.  I owned it several years ago but don't recall ever actually playing it. 

I see that there's a vassal module for it but I'm thinking it needs a facelift.  I was thinking of making blank boards that you could drag sets of overlays ontoto make any kind of map you want for a firefight. 

And maybe it's spooky, but I've always wanted to recreate the opening days of the standoff at the Branch Davidian.  I still have a layout of the compound that I drew when that was happening for an RPG combat system that the name escapes me at the moment.  Any how, thoughts on Firepower from anyone?

[Bison]

Wow.  I completely forgot about this game.  My brother got it for his birthday and we played it quite a bit back when Reagan was still in offiice. /sigh/  So long ago...

What I remember being so great about the game is that there is a book of army units from around the world so you can hypothetically set up a squad sized battle between any nations from the 1960s - 1980 or so to include some vehicles and armor.  The details are pretty fuzzy for me, but I do remember it was a lot of fun to pick your team and nation and have at it.

[bayonetbrant]

I remember there being a *lot* of setup before you could really start blowing shit up, and that frustrated us 80s-era teenagers who wanted to recreate "Platoon" on the tabletop.

[Barthheart]

Have it here on my bookshelf. Played it twice I think. Like Brant said it took too long to setup. But once you got going it was fun. My favourite part was the detailed squad building book as well.

[GJK]

Is it time spent setting up and equipping units?  Almost like an RPG with character sheets?

I know that the game had many 80's era (and earlier) equipment, I wonder how hard it would be to implement current weaponry?  I suppose if I can figure out the formulas that were used to get the figures for the included weapons, it would be fairly easy to add similar, but current weapons that the game didn't include.  At the least, it seems that the game would be very adaptable to some house rules in order to bring it up to today's standards.  And the great thing is that by using vassal, I can add any maps and counters that I want to create. 

[besilarius]

GJK, when you get the box, check out the credits.
If there's a developer/designer named Rex, I think I know where he is.  Cannot recall his last name, but how many devs were at AH named Rex?
He was a teacher at Bowie State University, about twenty miles south of Baltimore, at least two years ago.
Stumbled across his office and was blown away by a wall full of AH boxed games.  The ones he had a hand in.
Faced with all this cornucopia of goodness, I had to ask if any of the students were interested.  Not really.
Sigh!
Will see if he is still teaching there, the next time I pass that way.

[GJK]

Rex "Blooper" Martin is listed in the credits as a playtester. Charlie Kibler was the artist and a playtester. I have to brag about the time Kibler and I went out to lunch and then hung out at my house and played a networked game of Combat Mission together.  He's a super nice guy that had some great stories about the early days at AH. 

Obviously FP arrived and I'm hoping to get started on an updated vassalized version this weekend; if we don't decide to spend the long weekend at the beach!

[Barthheart]

I'd be happy to help you test the module when you think it's ready. I like to try and get back into FP.

[GJK]

I've played a few games using the "Basic" rule set using the VASSAL module that is already available. Meh- the basic only game is fairly bland.  I'll explore the Advanced rules but I (re)discovered an old Taxtical Combat System that was a blast to play last night and I'll start a new thread about it here in case there's any players or any interest in learning more about it....

[W8taminute]

Great game and I had a lot of fun creating my own squads and scenarios with it.  Then I gave the game away to a friend of mine in an attempt to lure him into the wonderful world of board wargaming.  I failed and lost a really good game for nothing.

[besilarius]

If Dr. Martin is still at Bowie State, I'm sure he'd love to discuss details of the game.
Get him going, and it's clear that making games is what he'd love to do.

[Michael Dorosh]

Is it time spent setting up and equipping units?  Almost like an RPG with character sheets?

I know that the game had many 80's era (and earlier) equipment, I wonder how hard it would be to implement current weaponry?  I suppose if I can figure out the formulas that were used to get the figures for the included weapons, it would be fairly easy to add similar, but current weapons that the game didn't include.  At the least, it seems that the game would be very adaptable to some house rules in order to bring it up to today's standards.  And the great thing is that by using vassal, I can add any maps and counters that I want to create.

I played this one back in the day; it is still on my shelf, along with Close Assault, it's World War II cousin, which I bought decades later to round out my collection. I actually preferred TSR's 2nd edition Sniper! for playability - not to speak ill of the dead, but all those stacks of counters telling you which side of the tree you were on, which stance you were in, what status you were in, etc., seemed ill-conceived. Not that Sniper! had fewer counters come to think of it (and the trapezoidal buildings were a bit much), but the latter had the advantage of being really colourful and as I remember faster playing.

Firepower tried to give the impression of detail where none was necessary - i.e. different weapon stats for all the different battle rifles, but at that scale, it really wasn't necessary to distinguish between an M-14 and an FN FAL - they're the same thing functionally and game effects speaking. It was just more  junk to have to look up on tables.