A Preview of Fog & Friction
Jim gets his paws on an early copy of Fog & Friction and tells us what we’re in store for when the rest of us finally get our hooks into it.
Jim Owczarski, 22 August 2015
As an historical miniatures gamer down to my genome, I live for the spectacle of the gaming table. In moments of weakness I have considered those willing to play on tables smaller than those used for ping pong a lesser breed of men and been dismissive of those games and rule sets than enable them. With age comes wisdom, though, no matter what my wife would tell you, and I’ve grown to see the merits of games that offer a smaller footprint while still trying to offer a bit of what draws each of us to the hobby. In this light, Pondfoot Games’ “Fog and Friction” (hereafter F&F) is a fine offering — it brings some of the toys, drama, and tension that make gaming the Second World War so appealing and lets you do it all on your kitchen table.
I’ll leave aside the fits and starts that this project has experienced as it’s tried to make its way to market (more here) and say that my remarks will confine themselves to the promo copy of the base set I received from the folks at Pondfoot. The offering is simple enough: two 60-card core decks, one each for the Axis and the Allies, and two 30-card expansion decks. The game is non-collectible (first step towards toleration for me) but the designers hope to offer several expansion sets that will allow players to eventually fight in theaters other than the familiar terrain of Normandy represented in the base set as well as adding in new units and special cards.
