Sunday 15 April 2012

Normandy Firefight First Impressions


I arrived home yesterday to find my copy of Normandy Firefight on the doorstep, so I've had a quick flick through this morning. To use 1/35th scale figures is an interesting idea and there's a lot of potential for some great modelling both of terrain and figures.

The rules themselves look pretty straightforward and remind me a bit of the old Laserburn system, which also relied on percentile rolls for firing, hit location and so on with various modifiers to add detail. The production values are up there with similarly priced rules sets and there are some very atmospheric photos together with diagrams, rule explanations and examples.

The four scenarios have plenty of re-play value and could easily be modified to add an extra element of variety. As details are included for British, Japanese and Russian small arms there is also plenty of room to break out from Normandy and cover other theatres, providing the terrain is suitable for skirmish gaming with lots of cover.

An interesting set of rules with only one downside. You need three figures for each combatant - one standing, one kneeling and one prone - which makes it hard to adapt the rules to other scales (1/48th springs to mind) if you can't find a range with all three figure positions.

I was looking at 1/48th scale, for example, using the Northstar range as a starting point but reckon I'd need to get four or five packs of figures to field only three or four actual individual soldiers. The German and British range have the necessary poses but there aren't any prone figures in either the American or Russian ranges.

Hmmmph! 

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting ruleset. Can't you use a marker to refer to the state of the miniature: standing, kneeling or prone? And guess the line of sight?

    regards

    ReplyDelete
  2. These sound really interesting. I'll be keeping an eye out for gamers views on how the rules play.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've got to admit I was intrigued by this having seen a review in Wargames Illustrated. I'll look forward to further observations.

    ReplyDelete
  4. love the rules, I use markers, but frown slightyl at the weapons stats. the lee enfield rifle hand loading loose rounds, is he sure, though it used 2 five round strippers?

    ReplyDelete
  5. This set does interest me alot, I'll be watching to see how you get on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I reckon I can get at least two or possibly three sets of figures out of the two sets, if I use a bit of imagination and some green stuff.

    I'll post some progress, when i actually get round to sticking them all together.

    ..back up the loft for some more long lost plastic fantastic finds.

    ReplyDelete

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