Fields of Fire

Generals Rulebook

Introduce Fields of Fire as a whole

As humanities grasp on the mysteries of science tightens the power gained by
technology increases dramatically. This in turn widens the gap between rich and
poor until the two could be thought of as separate species. As mankind spreads
itself throughout the galaxy small empires rise up to try and seize their own
share in new territory. The rich make a profit from this expansion while the poor
are oblivious to the rest of the galaxy. The power the rich wield is so tremendous
that they become godlike, able to make an unstable, volcanic planet sprout
forests and seas within a few years. They can travel across the stars in a blink of
an eye and are practically immortal. They run the galaxy, though the poor
struggle to make their mark on local events.

In Fields of Fire, you take on the role of a leader in your empire. You are a
member of the poorer people with access to only limited technologies. The
decisions you make will affect your people for all eternity and if you can become
powerful enough, you will be able to influence events spanning many millions of
kilometres. The choices you make matter, so make the right ones.

What Does Fields of Fire Mean for the General?

Although the Statesman is the one that decides what items are purchased and
how the country acts as a whole it is the General who will ultimately decide the
fate of the country when at war. They are responsible for tactical choices like
organisation, distribution of resources, allocation of units and taking care of the
battles. Although Fields of Fire is much bigger than just the Regimental Battle, it
is here where push comes to shove and the choices you have made really start
to matter.

How this book works

This rulebook is one of three books that are used to play Fields of Fire. You will
not need to read all three but it may help you make better informed decisions if
you do. There will be places in these rules that one of the other rulebooks are
referred to. This will usually mean that you do not really have to worry about the

details of this part of the rules if you are only playing as a General. This will
make the rules easier to learn and refer back to should you need to.

There are also quite a few places where this book will refer to Dossiers and
Catalogues. These can be found on the Red Scar Gaming website and are
updated as the Fields of Fire game changes. You will not have to pay for a new
version of these every time a new one comes out though because on the
purchase of this book you have gained access to these on the website free of
charge.

There may be parts of this book that do not make sense at first but dont worry;
with a little bit of practice and perhaps a reread or two you will be on your way to
mastering the art of war. Fields of Fire has been designed to be as realistic as
possible but still kept simple enough to avoid getting bogged down in rules. This
means that, while some things may not be entirely accurate compared to real life
circumstances, a balance has been drawn which will hopefully suit as many
players tastes as possible.

Also there are many concepts like night fighting, guerrilla warfare and morale
that have purposely been left out of the Fields of Fire Rulebooks. This is not
because we dont think it is important but because it will allow us at Red Scar
Gaming to make better and less confusing rules for these later on. Plans have
been made and indeed some rulebooks have been written, but they will be
released once testing is complete and it is felt that it is required. In the
meantime, the rules provided still make for a very interesting game with limitless
possibilities.

Game Concepts
In the first part of this book we will explain some of the concepts that go along
with playing Fields of Fire like turns and dice rolling. This will mean that when
you get into the nitty-gritty of the rules you can learn them easier and also know
where to refer back to things quickly.

Time
Fields of Fire, like most other games of this sort, is played over a series of turns,
each with their own part or phase. Each turn in Fields of Fire is represented by a
day in the life of your empire. When the rules say that something will take a
day, per day or in one day, it is simply meant that one turn will have to be
spent doing that action. The Statesman will also be familiar with the concept of

days and likewise many of their actions take a day or several days. Likewise,
when it is said that something takes one week it will take seven days, thus
seven turns. Whether you are playing as only the General or as the Statesman
as well you will need to make sure that all your records are to the same day, you
cannot have one day going on here and another going on there. If you are
playing as the Statesman you might be playing Fields of Fire several days or even
weeks at a time but as soon as you are at war with someone and thus are doing
regimental battles you will need to do your days one at a time.

Seasons pass in Fields of Fire and while the exact season is of little concern to
the general it will have an effect on the terrain he is in, thus changing the
conditions the soldiers are faced with. Although the seasons are explained in
more detail in the Statesmans Rulebook, the general should know that, like in
real life, winter brings colder weather and summer brings hotter weather. The
exact effect this has on your soldiers will be explained later.

Dice and Results

When playing out Regiment Battles (and Team Battles) you will need to consult
the results of dice rolls to determine the outcome of events. This introduces an
aspect of the lack of control that even the master tactician will always have.
Even the most effective weaponry may not hit and even the softest units may
survive a terrible battle unscathed. This is just how war works; there always is
the shadow of chance hanging over the battlefield. This does not mean though
that Fields of Fire is based purely on how lucky you are. You will need to
implement a wide range of tactics to get your soldiers into position attacking
where you want them to. You will find as you get better at being a general that
luck in fact has very little to do with Fields of Fire but some good luck will always
be of good use.

Fields of Fire uses many dice but the one you will probably most commonly use
as the General is what is known as a D100. This is in fact two ten-sided dice
(D10s). When you are required to roll a D100 you roll one D10 and that will give
you the first digit of your score while a second roll will give you the second digit.
It works out that you have a 1% chance of getting any number between one and
one hundred; perfect chances. Below is a list of all the dice used in Fields of Fire
and how to get the results for them.
D100
D50
D20

Two ten-sided
dice.
Two ten-sided
dice, halve the
result
Twenty-sided dice

D12
D10
D6
D4
D3

Twelve-sided dice
Ten-sided dice
Six-Sided Dice
Four-sided dice
Six-sided dice,
halve result

Sometimes you will be required to add, subtract, divide or multiply results of dice
rolls or other scores to get a final result. If there are multiple rules that affect the
results apply the multiplications and divisions before factoring in the additions
and negatives. Also sometimes you will have to add or subtract a percentage
from a result. If several of these rules are in place, say a +2%, a +12% and a
-5% then total the various percentages first before applying the result. So in this
example your score would be increased by 9% (2+12-5=9).

Sometimes you will be required to roll a number of dice at once to obtain a

particular result. When you are required to do that a number will be placed in
front of the dice used. For example if you need to roll four six-sided dice you
would see 4D6 written.

You may also be asked or given the option to re-roll a dice or several dice. This
will mean that a dice which has already been thrown can be rolled again to show
a different result. This new result will stand though; so just hope you dont get a
worse roll.

Measurements, Scales and Bases

Like many other wargames, Fields of Fire uses measured distances to determine
how far units can influence the battlefield. These can be determined by a device
such as a tape measure or ruler. The measurements in this rulebook and the
other two that accompany it are given in kilometres and metres. This does not
represent how big your gaming area will have to be to accommodate a game of
Fields of Fire but rather the distance the game would take up if it was played at
life size. You can fight regimental battles at whatever scale you would like to but
1:200000 is probably the best scale to play at. This will mean that an area of a
one hundred kilometre square will be represented by a gaming table fifty
centimetres on each side. While this may seem like a small area to the
experienced gamer you will often find that it may be more appealing to place
two, three or more such areas next to each other, thus making this gaming board
bigger. Just make sure that everyone knows at what scale you are playing your
games so nobody gets confused or mismeasures.

Bases are another thing that Fields of Fire has in common with most other
wargames. These are what you represent your soldiers with. In many other
games you are likely to find that a single soldier or small group of soldiers
occupies one base whereas during a Regiment Battle in Fields of Fire a base
represents the area a regiment occupies or has control over. The bases used in
Fields of Fire are circular. They must be at least 20mm in diameter as anything
smaller than this is hard to come by and hard to accurately move around the
table. There is no upper limit to the size of your bases, though smaller is
probably better, as a large base is easier to target and harder to move around.

At the scale Fields of Fire is played at it is rare that you would even see the
soldiers involved let alone be able to accurately represent them on the
battlefield. Any miniature that you use to represent your soldiers therefore do
not have to be at any particular scale as they are simply representative. You
should try to put miniatures on the bases that symbolise the contents of the
regiment. You might have a 1:100 scale infantryman represent your infantry
regiment, a 1:300 scale tank to represent your tank regiment or even a 1:1000
scale battleship to represent your naval regiment. The miniatures in Fields of
Fire do not really matter but they make the game look more appealing and
exciting. Remember that Fields of Fire requires you keep accurate records of
your soldiers, so you will have to have some way of identifying which regiment is
which so you do not get them confused.

When you are required to measure a distance either between regiments or

between regiments and a destination you should measure from the edge of the
regiments base. If you are moving for example you should measure the
distance you wish to move from the edge that is closest to the direction you wish
to move. You may not measure from the far edge to the close edge of a base to
minimize or maximise distances.

Unit Types
Every soldier, regardless of if they are on foot, in a tank, on a boat or in a plane,
has a Unit Type. This determines a lot of things including how quickly they can
react to situations, how fast they can move and how hard they are to kill. Unless
there is some other rule that applies, all soldiers count their unit type as
Infantry. Things that alter this can be training, piloting a vehicle or carrying
certain equipment.

The main way to change a soldiers unit type is to have them drive a vehicle. In
the catalogues you will find that every vehicle of whatever sort has a unit type
stat. These types are Vehicle, Tank, Walker, Boat, Ship, Helicopter,

Aeroplane and Space Vessel. This unit type is what soldiers will become
when they pilot the vehicle. This also determines what training will be required
to drive each vehicle among other things.

Many vehicles will have a Light or Heavy in front of their unit type. This
gives a more specific rating of how well their armour will stand up to enemy fire.
Being a heavy type will make the unit harder to kill but it will move slower, while
light units are easier to kill but can react faster. Each Unit type has its pros and
cons. Some vehicles have such good armour that they may have a Super
Heavy in front of their unit type. This may also have light or heavy in front of it.
Super heavies are much harder to kill than any other vehicle but they move very
slowly. Super heavies will usually be massive vessels; like battleships, space
stations or even vast super-powered tanks.

Initiative Order
Whenever a player does anything with their units, it is done in Initiative Order.
Essentially, this means that the fastest units perform their actions first. Below is
the Initiative order from first to last. You will also need to refer to this in Team
Battles (explained later).

Aircraft
Helicopters
Space Vessels
Vehicles
Boats
Tanks
Ships
Infantry
Super Heavies
Walkers

Furthermore, if a unit is of a Light type it has a higher Initiative Order than

other units of its type and Heavy units are slowest. So, for example, a Light
Aircraft moves before a Standard Aircraft which moves before a Heavy Aircraft

which moves before a Light Helicopter. When to use Initiative order will be
explained in the Moving and Shooting Phases of the turn.

At the start of every turn you will need to figure out who has Initiative. This
can be done by each player rolling a dice and the person with the highest score
counts as having Initiative. As explained earlier, each unit type has a different
Initiative order. The player who has initiative may take their actions before other
players do. So for example, the player who has Initiative will move all his Light
Vehicles then the player who has the next highest initiative will move all their
Light Vehicles and so on until all players have completed their actions with Light
Vehicles. Afterwards, the player who has Initiative will move their Standard
Vehicles and the process continues.

Weapons
As you begin thinking about equipping your soldiers ready for battle you will
want to think about what weapons to give. You will find all the various military
equipment in the catalogues provided on the Red Scar Gaming website. You can
purchase any of these items so long as you have the funds. The details of
purchasing equipment are explained in the Statesmans Rulebook. This section
explains how to determine which weapons you wish to purchase and the rules
surrounding them.

It is important to remember that a soldier can only wield one weapon at a time
and cannot change weapons half way through a battle. They can however
change weapons when they are not in combat (explained later).

You will notice that each weapon is presented in a similar way on the Red Scar
Gaming Website. The information given about each weapon is recorded in five
sections. The first is the background information. Rarely do these have an effect
on the game; you will not need to know these stats as all the rules to use them
are in the next four sections. Think of the background section as being what the
weapon is and the other four sections are what it does. The only thing you will
have to take any consideration of is the Cartridge as this determines what size
ammo you need to buy for each weapon.

Raw Stats
The second section of each weapons stats, better known as the Raw Stats
gives a basic rundown of how good a weapon is and how to use it. First of these
stats is Weapon Type. This shows what training will be needed to use this

weapon and how many soldiers are required to use it. Some of the Weapon
Types are called Standard Weapons. You will notice in the Training Dossier that
some training will give you access to these standard weapons. All the following
weapon types count as standard weapons for the purposes of training; Pistol,
Rifle, Machine Gun, Sub-machine Gun, Shotgun, Launcher, Grenade and Light
Mortar. Upon completion of Basic Training you will gain access to one standard
weapon type. This means that you must select one of the standard weapon
types and the soldier can only use that weapon type, though they can use any
variety of that weapon type. You will notice that if you take Advanced Infantry
Training (along with its prerequisites) and Weapons Training you will be able to
use all of the standard weapon types. Some weapons require more training as
the weapons are a lot more specialised and harder to use. These weapon types
are; Gun, Mortar and Artillery. You can find the training required for them in the
Training Dossier.

Weapons are also either a Basic or Complex weapon type. Basic weapons
require no further training than is standard for that type of weapon. Complex
weapons however are a lot harder to master, though they tend to have either
very specialist or very powerful stats. These weapons are trained for in a similar
way to basic weapons, having the same prerequisites, but you will also need to
train in Complex Weapon Training to use them. You will need to designate which
weapon you are training to use though because if you want to use another
complex weapon, even if it is the same type, you will need to do the training
again.

Below the Weapons type are listed a set of numbers that explain how effective a
weapon is. As a general rule, the higher these numbers, the better the weapon.
You will notice that there are several ranges that weapons can reach to; Range,
Long, Medium, Short and Close. How to use these stats is described later but
just know that each range is used in different places and at different times. If
there are any numbers next to Long, Medium, Short or Close you will notice that
there are two numbers separated by a /. The first number tells how good this
weapon is in attack and the second tells how good it is in defence. The numbers
under Range though are different, the first will be a distance and the second will
be a percentage. Again these will be explained in detail later but for now, the
first number will be how far the gun can fire and the second will be how effective
it is. The higher either of these numbers, the better.

Occasionally a weapon will have a + or - in front of any numbers is has in its

raw stats. This means that the weapon just provides a bonus to whatever
weapon the soldier is normally using. This may be because the weapon is easy
to use with other weapons or is indeed attached to them. It does not count as

switching weapons though you will usually have to supply a different type of
ammunition.

Logistics
The third section of a weapons stats is known as the Logistics. It details how
much money you will have to spend to buy and maintain the weapon and how
much ammunition it will require to operate.

First in this section is the Weight of the weapon. This is simply how much the
weapon weighs and is important because soldiers and vehicles can only carry
certain amounts of weight. This weight is how much the weapon weighs without
ammunition or any options, which will ultimately increase the weight. Each
soldier, unless given certain training, can carry ten kilograms of weight. Carrying
capacities are explained in more detail in the Statesmans Rulebook. The
carrying capacities of vehicles are explained in the Vehicles chapter of this
book.

The second stat in this section is the Cost. This is how much one of these
weapons will cost to buy. Remember that you can buy as many items as you
want at any one time but regardless of how many you buy they will take a week
to get to a Military Base you control or one another player has said you can have
items sent to.

The third stat is Upkeep/day. This is how much money you will have to spend
each day on this weapon to keep it in working order. This could represent new
parts having to be bought, replacement weapons needing purchase or the cost of
rags and oil. Whatever the reason, you simply have to pay the amount to keep
the weapons operational. You will find it a lot easier to group a whole company
or even regiment together in terms of upkeep, just to keep things simple. If you
find that you cannot pay the required upkeep you will have to discard weapons
and other equipment until you can afford to pay upkeep.

Next is the Ammunition for Combat stat. This is the amount of ammunition you
will need to purchase in order to use this weapon. You will only need to have a
supply of ammunition if you are fighting in a combat (explained later). Every
time you are involved in a combat you will have to expend one lot of
ammunition. If you are unable to do so then you cannot fight in the combat
using whichever weapons you do not have ammunition for. The amount of
ammunition used is meant to be about what the average encounter would
expend over one day in combat. While it is true that often a lot more than this is

used, there are often times when a lot less is used to, so an average is applied to
make things simpler for everyone. If you so choose you can fight with only a
portion of the weapons used to expend less ammunition, but of course this will
affect your soldiers effectiveness.

The last in this section is the Rules section. This details any extra rules and
effects that apply to this weapon. Sometimes these are beneficial but
sometimes they hinder your efforts. Regardless of the effect you must apply all
of them whenever you use the weapon, though occasionally you may be able to
replace or upgrade certain rules with options you add to the weapon or training
you give to the soldier. The effects rules have on weapons and soldiers are
explained in the Special Rules Dossier.

Capabilities
The fourth section of a weapons stats is the Capabilities Table. This table is
very important and will be highly influential in deciding which weapons you will
want to buy. As those who are aware of how military equipment works will be
familiar, different weapons are effective in different situations. For example, a
heavy machine gun is great against infantry but useless against tanks while an
RPG is far more effective against a tank then an individual soldier.

When you roll to inflict casualties on your opponent (explained later) you will find
that you will not be able to do much damage unless you have the right Anti-Unit
Capabilities. On the Capabilities table you will notice that some of the positions
are occupied by a percentage. This is the percentage that this weapon has to
make up of the total number of weapons used in a company to give the Anti-Unit
Capabilities to that company. To explain that a bit more easily here are two
examples.

A weapon has Anti-Infantry Capabilities, 10% and is given to one

hundred soldiers in a company of one hundred. This makes one hundred
weapons and therefor makes 100%, more than the 10% required. If you
gave this weapon to only twenty soldiers you would make 20%, still higher
than 10%.
If a weapon has Limited Anti-Tank Capabilities, 12%, requires two
soldiers to operate and eleven of them are bought for a company with one
hundred soldiers otherwise equipped with one weapon each, it will still
provide the Limited Anti-Tank Capabilities rule. This is because while it
only makes up 11% of the soldiers it makes up 12.3% of the weapons (it
makes up 11 of 89 weapons being used).

Anti-Unit Capabilities are given to soldiers as a company, so each regiment might

have the same anti-unit capabilities several times over. This is not a bad thing
as it will let you be even more effective against that type of unit. Remember too
that you will need to make up at least the percentage required to gain the
effects, so if you require 11%, 10.99% just wont cut it. Also you only apply up to
one of each type of Anti-Unit Capability. So for example, if you have a weapon
that has the rules Limited Anti-Infantry Capabilities 11% and Anti-Infantry
Capabilities 15%, you only apply the Anti-Infantry Capabilities; you always apply
the best one. But if you also had Limited Anti-Tank Capabilities 13%, you would
still get that as it is against a different Unit Type.

Options
The last section in a weapons stats is the Options. These are the different
adjustments you can make to the weapons in a bid to make them better suited
to whatever task. In this section you will find a list of options divided into a
category, listed under Option. This lets you know what area of your weapon
you are altering, like the Sight or Barrel. You cannot take two items from the
same option. So for example you cannot take a long barrel and a short barrel on
the same weapon. The type of option will not usually matter otherwise. The
only time it will matter is if you take a Stand option, you will not gain the
effects of it if you also take a Mount option. What the option does will be listed
under the Effects. These must be applied if they are taken. They may alter
any of the weapons stats and will be listed in the order in which they appear on
the stat line. Any additional rules they give will be listed last.

Sometimes, the options you give your weapons will alter the Raw Stats. These
are listed clearly in the order they appear. They will appear as a + or -, or a
0 if there is no effect. Sometimes, usually in the case of Mount options,
alterations to the Raw Stats will not be listed as a plus or minus but will be listed
as flat numbers. This is what the weapon becomes when it is taken with the
mount and then other effects are applied afterwards. Regardless of what options
you get you cannot buy options for one weapon and apply them to another, even
if they do the same thing or have the same name.

Vehicles
Your soldiers may be able to wield their weapons with great effect but they may
not be able to carry them if they do not have the appropriate vehicles. Vehicles
are a great way to move large weapons or numbers of troops around quickly.
Though each vehicle will cost a large amount of money they are worth it if
applied correctly. Vehicles share many similarities with weapons and other items
like having a stat line. They have some differences though, like the fact they are
not carried and change the unit type of the soldiers piloting them. You will find

that vehicles will be an important part of the mobility of your armed forces,
letting you get to the battlefield on time.

Similarly to weapons, a vehicles stats are divided into a number of sections. The
first one is just the background information on the vehicle and is not required to
play the game. Something to take note of is that when the rules talk about
vehicles as a group it will be with a small v and when talking about the unit
type Vehicles, it will be with a capital V.

Vehicle Raw Stats

The second section of a vehicles stats is called the Raw Stats. These tell
basically how good the vehicle is and what role it will be best suited for. The first
thing you will see in this section is the unit type and the required crew. Any
soldiers driving the vehicle or passengers in the vehicle count as that unit type
for all purposes unless otherwise stated. All the soldiers required to crew the
vehicle must be trained to use the vehicle which will depend on what it is. This
will be covered in greater detail in the Training Dossier

Next is the vehicles Range. This is the maximum distance the unit can move
when moving around the battlefield in one day. Remember that this is also the
distance a vehicle can move over maps and tiles in one day. While these
distances may seem huge at first, you will soon find that even these ranges have
their limits. The range of a vehicle can be reduced by the effects of terrain,
which is covered in more detail in the Terrain dossier.

Fuel/km is the third stat in the Raw Stats section. As the name suggests, this is
the amount of fuel a vehicle will have to use when it moves. It may not seem
like much at first but when you start factoring in large numbers, the fuel
efficiency of your vehicles becomes very important, especially to countries that
do not have a good source of fuel. It is best to figure out how much fuel each
company or regiment uses to keep things more simple.

The next three stats are the Capacities of the vehicle. These are the most
important things on some vehicles and they usually help define what the vehicle
will be used for. Capacity (Troops) tells you how many soldiers you can carry
with you in that vehicle. The crew will not be counted in this number. So for
example, if you have a company of twenty trucks that can carry eight soldiers
each you can carry one hundred and sixty soldiers with that company. You will
also need to take into account the weight of the gear the soldiers are carrying.
This is dealt with using the Capacity (Supplies). Vehicles can only carry a

certain amount of weight and even the most powerful tank or truck will become
overloaded if you put too much on it. This capacity works in the same way as a
soldiers carrying capacity though it is usually a lot more. Soldiers that are being
transported in the vehicle do not add to the carrying capacity of it. Any item that
is being carried by the vehicle, including fuel, weapons and ammunition will take
up room in the Capacity (Supplies). Many vehicles can also tow a weight behind
them. This is dealt with using the Capacity (Towing) stat. If an item has a
special rule called Towable, you may tow it along behind (or underneath in the
case of helicopters). This is a weight and works exactly the same as the
Capacity (Supplies). If a vehicle wishes to tow something and carry things using
Capacity (Supplies) then both measurements are halved. It is therefore good to
distinguish between vehicles that are towing and vehicles that are carrying in
their cargo holds.

Logistics
The third section of a vehicles stats is called the Logistics. These tell you how
much the vehicle will cost to buy and run and any special rules that apply to it.
These stats work exactly the same as those found amongst a weapons stats and
are covered in the Weapons section of this book.

One of the rules you will find often on vehicles, particularly those that are mostly
concerned with combat, is rules concerning mounts. These rules state which
weapons can be mounted on the vehicle should the player wish to mount any.
There are five types of mount; Pintle, Hull, Turret, Salvo and Cargo. Each of
these, if the vehicle has any, has a measurement in millimetres or a weight in
front of them. This is the maximum size of that type of mount the vehicle can be
fitted with. If you have a look at a weapons stats or options you may find that
you can opt to have a mount on it. This will also have a measurement in front of
it. If you wish to mount a weapon on a vehicle first check that it is of the right
type mount; you cannot fit a weapon to a mount if it is not the same type. Then
check the size of the mount. If the vehicles mounting is equal to or bigger than
the weapons mount then you may fit it onto the vehicle. This will usually
increase the weapons stats but you will need to check each weapon for the exact
effects. You also cannot fit more weapons than you have mounts of course. The
weapon can then be used by the crew of the vehicle. It does not matter how
many crew the weapon usually requires to operate as the vehicles crew is
trained in the techniques to use them mounted on their vehicle. Weapons can
be fired as per normal when they are attached to a vehicle; the only exception is
Cargo and Salvo Mounted Weapons. Also, Hull and Turret Mounted Weapons
cannot use their Range stat unless the vehicle they are in has the Open-Topped
rule.

Weapons of either Salvo or Cargo Mounts can only be used once before all the
ammunition they have is expended and the vehicle using them will have to get
some more. In the case of Aircraft type units, this will mean they will have to go
back to base, but in all other cases the unit will often be able to carry extra
rounds with it. In these cases, you will expend one days-worth of ammunition
each time the weapon is used. During the Battle Phase this will mean that you
can only apply the results of a Salvo or Cargo Mounted Weapon in one round of
combat (explained in the Battle Phase Section).

The last part of a vehicles stats is the Options. These work in exactly the
same way as with weapons. Refer to that chapter of this book.

Other Equipment
There are some items that are not weapons or vehicles. These items are called
Equipment as they are too varied to class as anything else. Equipment
includes uniforms, special armour, smaller items and some specialist items.
Equipment usually does not have a stat line though if they do it will look very
similar to that of either a weapon or a vehicle. In those cases it is easy to figure
out what effects these items have on the game. Many items do not have a stat
line though as they just have a simple rule that affects the game or they alter a
different rule. These items can be extremely helpful and specialist or for general
use and hardly noticed. Unless otherwise stated they take up weight and require
upkeep just like anything else but that will be listed with each applicable item.
All equipment is bought in the same fashion and under the same rules as all
other items.

Three important items though are the various uniforms, Soldiery Gear and
Infantry Gear. Their details are given in the Basic Equipment dossier.

Company and Regiment Stats

After you have organised your soldiers into their companies and regiments you
will have to figure out what each units stats are based on which weapons and
equipment they are carrying. As explained in earlier sections of this book,
weapons have a set of stats which determine how effective they are. You will
have to refer to the weapons Raw Stats when determining the stats for your
companies and regiments.

First of all you will have to figure out the stats for you companies. Each soldier
can only use one weapon in a battle and so you will only be able to use, at the

most, as many weapons as you have soldiers in your company. You will have to
add up all of the stats that all of the weapons being used provide and then divide
this score by 100, regardless of how many soldiers you have in the company. For
example, if you have a Rifle that has 12/19 at its Short stat and you have 120
soldiers in the company, all equipped with this Rifle then you add up all these
scores and divide by 100 to get 14/22. Ignore any decimal points you come
across in this equation, so if you arrive at a score of 13.6, convert the companys
stat to 13. You will need to do this for Long, Medium, Short and Close ranges. If
you have any additional increases or decreases in this final score such as the
effects of terrain or special training you only apply them after you have figured
out the base score for your company. It would be a good idea to record the
results somewhere, such as on a piece of card or on a computer. Then repeat
the process for all the companies in each regiment.

A regiments stats are worked out quite easily. You simply add up all of the
companys scores in each range and that is the regiments stats. Much of the
time, you will have some companies that give you an Anti-Unit rule of some
description and some that dont. If a regiment has, say, three companies with
Anti-Infantry Capabilities and two companies with Anti-Tank Capabilities then the
regiment as a whole has three points of Anti-Infantry and two points of AntiTank Capabilities. The regiments stats are ultimately what you will be using in a
Regiment Battle, but it is of course the companies that make up the regiment
and the soldiers that make up the company, so it will matter which soldiers and
weapons you take.

Starting a Regiment Battle

As stated in the Statesmans Rulebook, a regimental battle is fought when two
enemy forces wish to occupy the same tile. During the Regimental Battle you
will move your regiments around the board and try to beat your opponent. In the
cases of a large scale war, you may end up having several adjacent tiles
contested, in which case it is suggested that you place the two boards you will
be fighting over next to each other as units can move freely between them
anyway.

The first thing to do, before a regimental battle starts if possible, is to draw up
the board you are playing on. If you are just fighting in one tile you will be
fighting over a square board, usually fifty centimetres by fifty centimetres. When
the board is being drawn up or constructed (however you choose to do it) you
should make sure that everyone is reasonably happy with it. It should be as
close a copy as is convenient to the tile you are fighting over. You may want to
go into great detail and map every single crack and crevice or you may just want
to have it looking pretty close and get started.

The thing that affects the board the most is terrain. The type of terrain affects a
lot of things like soldiers ability to fight and move and sometimes how much
upkeep they have to spend. The terrain is discussed in detail in the Terrain
dossier. You should know that the rivers shown on maps should be those that
would be difficult to cross without specialist gear. There may be other smaller
rivers around the main river, but these can be crossed easily and have no effect
on the game. Rivers shown on the maps are impassable to ground based units.
The only time they can be crossed by land based regiments is at bridges, the
placement of which will have to be designated before the battle starts.

When choosing the terrain for the board you are playing on take note of what
type of terrain the tile is. If it is, for example, Hills/Forest, then your board should
be made up of mainly forests and hills. That is not to say though that there
should not be grassland or swamps, but that the tile is mainly made up of that
type of terrain. You may want to have certain types of terrain depending on the
season too, like no swamps during the frozen winter or more grassland during
the summer. It would also be wise to keep in mind what Focus Buildings are on
that tile, if any. For example, if your tile has two Population Focus Buildings on it
then you might have several large towns on your board, whereas just one might
render a large town and some small ones. Although this is getting into even
more detail, you may want to consider what the history of that area is. For
example if it is a newly conquered tile on the edge of your country then it might
perhaps only have a few small towns. Roads are one other thing that you find
will be important across the battlefield. Roads cut small lines through terrain
that may otherwise be hard to get through and provide great ways to supply
your troops quickly. Although you of course do not have to put roads on your
boards they will come in handy, are realistic and provide great tactical focus for
your battles. Also, if you find yourself fighting over a tile you have already
fought over you may wish to set up the board as an exact or very little altered
copy to implement tactics again and fight grudge matches.

How you set up your board is completely up to those playing on it, but it is
suggested that you use a large piece of paper or cardboard and draw it on.
These will not only mean that you can make maps quickly and put a lot of detail
into them, but it means they can be packed up quickly and recovered easily. You
are more than welcome though to make three-dimensional miniature hills,
valleys, forests and rivers to fight over. So long as everyone knows what and
where everything is then you can set up a board however you want and at
whatever scale. Just remember though that the entire area of the board has to
be some sort of terrain as each type has a different effect on the battle.

After you have set up the terrain for your battle you will want to place your
soldiers. This will largely depend on the circumstances faced by each player at

the time. There are few set rules in regards to placing your regiments down
though there are many things you should consider. If a player owns the tile you
are fighting over then they should probably decide where their soldiers are
placed and where the other player can place his soldiers. If you are pushing your
opponent back through territory you will of course not be able to set up on a new
board behind his lines. Players should think hard about these limitations and
perhaps even discuss them before battles or even wars take place so everyone is
clear on them when battle is met. Of course the main thing to remember is that
soldiers cannot be placed on a tile that they are not on already.

Turn Sequence
Like most other wargames, Fields of Fire is played over a series of turns.
Remember though that each turn equals one day and so between turns players
will earn income and be able to buy more troops and supplies. These matters
are dealt with in the Statesmans Rulebook. Each turn is divided into Phases,
each of which is further divided into Steps. Each phase deals with different
aspects of the battle and each step is how these aspects are carried out. The
phases are as follows Movement Phase, Shooting Phase and Battle Phase,
each of which is explained in more detail in the appropriate section of this book.

Movement Phase
During the movement phase, players get a chance to move their regiments
around the field, trying to get into the best position possible. A skilled general
will be able to put his opponents right where he wants them in the movement
phase and the importance of this phase should not be overlooked.

When the movement phase comes around the player with initiative moves his
units in initiative order (explained in the Game Concepts section). The first unit
type to be moved will be Light Aircraft. The player with Initiative gets the chance
to move all their Light Aircraft and once they have done so, the player with the
next initiative gets to move their Light Aircraft and so on. This will mean that all
Light Aircraft will be able to move before everything else. After all Light Aircraft
have been moved, then the player with Initiative gets to move his Standard
Aircraft and the pattern continues. Regiments do not have to be made up of the
same unit type so if you wish to move a regiment with multiple unit types you
can do one of two things. You can either move the Unit Type with higher
initiative out of the regiment thus making two separate regiments or you can
choose to move the regiment as one. If you choose to do this, the regiment
must move at the slowest initiative order in the unit. Remember though that
soldiers being transported in vehicles become that unit type and so move at the

same time. Also if you have a vehicle in a faster vehicle, you can move at the
fastest vehicles speed.

To move a regiment all a player needs to do is declare that the unit is moving.
The player will then measure the distance from where the regiment is to where it
is trying to get to. Remember that measuring from the edge of the base is
probably the best bet. You do not have to move your regiments in straight lines
either. If you so choose you may want to, say, move your tanks twenty
kilometres north and then fifty kilometres east to avoid a line of tank traps. That
is fine, so long as your opponent/s know that you have done so. Remember that
many types of terrain will affect the distances a unit can move, so keep in mind
what type of terrain a unit is in. You will also have to expend an amount of fuel
when moving vehicles. Calculate how far you wish to move and then see how
many litres of fuel you will use in total by looking at the Fuel/km stat.

If you feel like doing so, you can choose not to move your regiments when their
turn comes around. You will then be able to move them along with any of the
units who move later on. All the normal rules regards moving apply. This means
that Light Aircraft can move at any time but get the first chance to move. There
are many different reasons why you may want to do this, but mostly it will be
because your faster company is grouped in a regiment with a slower company.

If you so choose you may move one of your regiments so as their base comes
into contact with one of the enemies. If this happens, the opponent may choose
to move away during their turn to move. If the two regiments remain with their
bases touching they are said to be In Battle and you will have to pay attention
to these regiments during the Battle Phase.

The other main reason to not move your regiment will be to make an
Interception Move later on. At any time, regardless of normal initiative order, if
an opponents regiment comes within half of one of your regiments movement
allowance you may move as many or as few of the companies in that regiment
so they are In Contact with the opponent, thus stopping them from moving any
further in that direction. You may also allow your opponent to move within this
distance and choose only to move your companies when they reach a certain
distance. You will of course have to let your opponent know when this is. The
opponent may then continue their move, though this will usually mean that they
have to change course or move backward. There are a few restrictions on how
this can be done though. You may only attempt an Interception Move if you
could normally move that far anyway, so if you have already moved the full
allocated distance during the Movement Phase then you may not make
Interception Moves. Also companies cannot make Interception Moves against

Helicopters or Aircraft unless they are one of these types as well. Space Vessels
cannot make Interception Moves unless against other Space Vessels.

Sometimes, regiments will carry other types of soldiers with them, like Infantry
being carried in Vehicles. Infantry being carried in this way can be unloaded
from a vehicle when it is their turn to move and then move as per normal. If
there is a vehicle in another vehicle though they cannot move after they have
been unloaded unless a special rule says otherwise
The details of how each unit moves and where they can move are explained in
the Unit Rules section of this rulebook.

Shooting Phase
Shooting at Regiments
The shooting phase takes care of any long range firing of weapons that your
regiments can do. This includes artillery, aerial bombing runs and orbital
bombardment along with some others. As with the movement phase, each unit
gets the opportunity to fire their weapons in initiative order, so Heavy Vehicles
will go before Light Tanks who go before Infantry. Also as with movement the
player who has initiative for that turn gets the opportunity to shoot first, followed
by the player who has initiative next and so on until every player has had an
opportunity to shoot.

To fire your weapon at a target, the weapon you are firing must have a Range
stat. This will be a two part stat with a distance followed by a percentage. The
distance is the maximum distance this weapon can be fired. Remember to
measure from the edge of your regiments base to the edge of the opponents
base when measuring distances. The percentage is how much damage each gun
will do when it hits the target. Once you have selected your target and
determined if it is in range you then select which weapons are firing and expend
one days-worth of ammunition. You can choose as many or as few weapons as
you like, so long as they are all in range. You then select a company in the
opponents regiment to be the target of the shooting. Your opponent then rolls a
D6. If they get a score of 6 then they may select a different company in that
regiment to be the target. You then add up the percentages of all the guns firing
and inflict that percentage of casualties on the target company (casualties are
explained later). If you have any weapons remaining in that regiment you may
then target another company which may be in another enemy regiment. You do
not have to fire all the weapons in a regiment but all shooting that you wish to do
with one regiment must be done before you move onto another regiment. You
may choose to fire your weapons this way more than once. Just remember that
each time you fire like this you will expend one lot of ammunition.

The details of how exactly each unit type and weapon type fires in the shooting
phase will be explained in greater detail in the Unit Rules section of this book.

Shooting at Cities
If you cannot defeat your opponent outright you may be forced to try and beat
down his cities, crippling his income and ability to produce new units. You can
only fire at Capitals, which are explained in the Statesmans Rulebook. When
you wish to target an opponents Capital you must first find if you are in range of
it. When you draw up a map to be fought over in a regiment battle you should
draw in some representation of all towns and cities, but most importantly you
should draw up some representation of where a Capital is on the map if there is
one. A regiment can fire at a Capital using the same rules as if it was firing at
another regiment. The only difference is that rather than inflicting casualties you
do damage to the Capitals income.

Each Capital has an Influence as explained in the Statesmans Rulebook. When

you fire at a Capital in this way you reduce one of the Incomes of all the tiles
under the Influence of the Capital by the percentage listed. So for example you
may wish to fire at a Capital and choose to reduce the Food Income. The player
who owns the capital will then reduce the total food income by the percentage
listed. A player who has a damaged income of any type can begin repairing it
at the start of the next day. No matter how much damage an income has
suffered, it always takes one week to repair it, in which time it continues to gain
the income at the reduced rate. If you begin repairing an income and it suffers
further damage part way through repairs, you must repair this damage
separately which will take another week. If you have damage to several incomes
when you choose to repair them it will take one week for each repair to be made.

Battle Phase
As explained earlier, if two regiments come into contact with each other during
the movement phase then they are considered to be In Battle and are dealt
with during the battle phase. The Battle phase is where the soldiers of each
opposing side conduct the closer manoeuvres and shorter range firing of
weapons to best defeat the foe. This is where most of the damage will be
inflicted to your soldiers and you can inflict the most damage to your opponent.

There are two ways you can conduct the Battle Phase; using the Six-Section
System or fighting Team Battles. While officially you should fight a team battle,
it is fully understood that you may not have the time, space or desire to do so, so

the Six-Section System has been devised to get results of battles quicker and
easier. Team Battles are covered in the Soldiers Rulebook, but the Six-Section
System is detailed here. Both styles of combat will ultimately give similar
results, though a skilled commander might be able to save many of his troops
while inflicting a lot of damage to the opponent. Team Battles also make for far
better stories than the Six-Section System, but you of course can make up the
details if you want.

The Six-Section System is a faster way of determining the results of a battle then
conducting a Team Battle. It is a stylised and representative way of showing
where soldiers are and the overall tactics and outcomes that result from the
battle. At the end of the day it doesnt really matter which system you use, you
will get similar results, but the Team Battle offer a greater depth and range of
tactical options, but it does take a lot longer to get a result.

When your regiments do battle in the Six-Section System you first create a line of
six parts. This could be drawn on a piece of paper into six squares, it could be
six markers placed in a row or something else entirely, so long as you have six
parts in a line and all players involved know what the diagram means. Each side
then places a marker at opposite ends of this line, taking up the end sections.
When referring to distance using the Six-Section System you count how many
sections away the opponent is from your marker, which normally when you start
will be five sections.

When your opponent is four or five sections away they are considered at Long
range, two or three sections they are at Medium range, one section away they
are considered at Short range. These ranges use the stats that correspond
with the stats of the weapons your soldiers are equipped with. So when your
opponent is at Medium range, you will use your regiments Medium Stat to
determine how effective they will be. Also, if during the Movement Phase your
regiment moved to touch the opponents regiment to bring it In Battle then you
use the first rating of your stats, the Attack Rating. If you were the regiment that
was contacted then you use the Defence Rating. The only time this rule is not
followed is when you are contacted by an Intercept Move, in which case both
players use the Attack Rating.

Players may choose at the start of the battle to designate any number of their
companies as Non-Combatants. These will be left out of the battle for all
intents and purposes and cannot contribute to any results and cannot be killed.
You must leave at least one company in a regiment as a combatant.

After setting up for the Battle Phase, players are ready to start rolling dice to
determine who wins the combat. Each combat is divided into several rounds.
Each round will have a winner and at the end of every round a Casualty Point
will be inflicted (casualties are explained later). At the start of each round players
compare the scores that correspond with the range they are at, using either their
attack or defence ratings. Most of the time, one regiment will have a higher stat.
Reduce the higher stat by the other players lower stat and the lower stat
becomes zero. This score, known as the Battle Score will be needed to figure
out how easily each regiment can defeat another. Each player rolls 2D100 and
adds their Battle Score to the result. The player who has achieved the highest
result is the winner of this round. The loser then receives one Casualty Point.
The winner then has the choice of moving the marker representing their
regiment one section forward or backward on the Six-Section. They may stay
where they are if they wish. The loser then may move their marker one section
forward or back once the winner has had a chance to do so. This represents the
shift of the focus of the battle as some troops advance into enemy territory and
some fall back. Neither player may move backward off the edge of the SixSection, thus limiting the distance one can move. If the winning player chooses
to move forward when the opponent is in the section in front of them they simply
move into that section and the opponent can only move backward. Players will
use the Close stat of their regiments if they end up fighting a round of combat
on the same section. If in the next round of combat the winner wins again they
push the other player back one section, if they lose though they must move back
one section. After any section moving has been done, the next round begins and
is played out in the same fashion.

At times it is better to retreat then stay to fight and risk death. Instead of
moving in the Six-Section a player may choose to retreat thus ending the battle.
If a player does retreat though, they suffer one more casualty point. Sometimes
players are required to retreat. This may be because they are in a nondefensible position or the morale breaks. An opponent must retreat when they
are either at the last section and are pushed back from losing a combat or suffer
as many casualty points as they have combatant companies in the regiment.
Because of this rule, the most casualty points a regiment will have inflicted on
them is the number of companies in the regiment plus one. Occasionally there
will be a special rule in play that negates either one of these effects, but they are
normally require special training or some sort of equipment. Ultimately a battle
will end with someone retreating and the regiment that retreats must move as
directly as possible 1km away from the opponent. If you cannot move backward
from an opponent for reasons such as an impassable obstacle behind the
regiment or being surrounded by enemy regiments or even if the controlling
player chooses not to move then the entirety of the regiment is considered
Captured and the player who captured theses soldiers can do with them what
they will. You will still need to roll for casualties (explained later). Furthermore,
as soon as a soldier is captured, any equipment they have instantly becomes
property of the player who captured them.

Companies that are captured remain the property of the owning player and can
be controlled as normal, though if you have captured soldiers in a tile your
opponent does not need to declare the presence of any soldiers. Unless the
Prison rule is enacted by some facility or piece of equipment the capturing
player has, the captured soldiers may choose to try and fight, though they will
have no equipment and will probably loose. They simply are placed on a base as
though they were a regiment in their own right and are affected by all the normal
rules.

One other thing that takes place during the Battle Phase is Close Support Fire.
Close Support Fire is when artillery pieces shoot at enemies that are close to your
soldiers so they can keep the enemies heads down as your soldiers advance.
This of course will also do some damage to your opponent. Weapons that have a
Range stat of at least 1km can fire their weapons in the Battle Phase using the
Close Support Fire Rule. You must do this during a battle and you must declare
you are doing so before either player moves along the six-section. During the
next round of combat you add the Long range stat of the unit providing Close
Support Fire to the total score for the friendly regiment. This can be done at any
time during the battle at whatever range but the firing unit/s must obey all the
normal rules for shooting as explained in the Shooting Phase section of this book.
Every time you shoot in this way, the weapons you use expend one days worth
of ammunition. You may fire the same weapon as many times as you like during
a battle but only once per round, so long as you can keep the ammunition up to
it.

Some units operate slightly differently in the Battle Phase, but any different rules
will be outlined in the Unit Rules section of this book.

Unit Rules
Aircraft
Movement Phase
Aircraft move in much the same way as every other unit. The only exception is
that they must start and end their movement on a friendly airport. If they
cannot do this they are destroyed (see Casualties section). They may also move
over enemy regiments and, unless there is a special rule that says otherwise,
can move over all types of terrain without penalty.
Shooting Phase

During the Shooting Phase aircraft may perform a number of moves called a
Bombing Run. This does not necessarily have to be using bombs but it will
quite often. To perform a Bombing Run, first select the regiment you wish to
make the run. It may then move using the normal restrictions and rules for the
Movement Phase. It is important to remember that any moving you do in the
Movement Phase will affect how far you can move during the Shooting Phase.
The Range of the aircraft is the maximum distance it can move in one day and
because each phase is played out each day then if you, for example, moved half
the maximum distance in the Movement Phase then you will only be able to
move up to half the maximum distance during the Shooting Phase. Remember
that you will need to expend fuel to make such moves.

Aircraft can fire any weapons that have a Range stat during the Shooting
Phase. To do so an aircraft will have to move into the distance indicated by the
weapons range. In many cases this will be 0km, in which case you will have to
move directly over the top of the target. The results of shooting are worked out
the same as any other unit but the aircraft will have to fly back to some sort of
airport to land. An aircraft may make as many of these bombing runs as they
want, each time expending ammo and fuel. So for example an aircraft with a
range of 1000km could perform five Bombing Runs at a target 100km away (a
round trip being 200km) or they could perform one bombing run on a target
500km away. On a tactical note, often the distance you can travel will be
affected by the weight of your weapons, as sometimes you will not be able to fill
up on fuel and thus use the extent of your range.

Battle Phase
During the Battle Phase, Aircraft can perform an Attack Run. This is similar to a
bombing run in that the aircraft moves to a target following all the normal
restrictions. They can only perform an attack run on an opponent that is In
Battle with a friendly regiment. Before rolling for the battle result, a player may
declare that a regiment (or several if they wish) is performing an Attack Run.
They then move the aircraft to the target regiment and will assist in the battle
result. Whichever range you regiments are at in the Six-Section is the range that
the aircraft will use in the Attack Run. For this round of combat, simply count any
Aircraft you are using in this way as an extra company, figure out their company
stats as per normal, and they contribute their score to the Regiments Battle
Score. Once the round of combat is over the aircraft must return to a friendly
base to land, following all the normal movement rules.

Aircraft may only be counted as In Contact with another regiment if it has either
Aircraft or Helicopters in it. They may also move as far as they wish after they or
their opponent retreats from combat, allowing them to get back to an airbase.

If an Aircraft regiment has been intercepted by another regiment while on their

way to do a Bombing Run, Interception Move or an Attack Run then you must
first resolve this combat before continuing on to the action you wished to do in
the first place. This is the only time you will ever do the Battle Phase before the
Moving or Shooting Phase. The Battle Phase for an Aircraft is the same as any
other unit type, though only other Aircraft and Helicopters can take part in such a
battle. It can get a little complex if say, you are making a Bombing Run and your
opponent makes an Intercept Move against your regiment but then another of
your regiments makes an Intercept Move against your opponent. Just remember
to do things in the order in which they appear and it will all be resolved quickly
and hassle free.

Helicopters
Movement Phase
Helicopters move in almost the same way as aircraft with a few exceptions. They
may end their movement over land or an airbase to refuel and resupply. They
can only carry enough fuel to travel one quarter of their total range, so if a
Helicopter has a range of 800km, it can move 200km, but will have to either land
at a base to resupply before moving again or land on a friendly regiment and
take some of their fuel to continue further.
Shooting Phase
Helicopters may perform Bombing Runs the same as Aircraft with the only
difference being the changes in movement.
Battle Phase
Helicopters may perform Attack Runs in the same manner as Aircraft with the
only differences being in how they move. They may also fight in the Battle Phase
in the same way as Aircraft.

Vehicles
Battle Phase
During the Battle Phase, if your regiment is made up entirely of Vehicle type
companies and your opponents is not then you may move up to two sections in
the Six-Section when you get a chance to move. This represents the superior
mobility light vehicles allow compared to heavier vehicles or infantry, thus being
able to decide more often where a battle will take place.

Tanks
Battle Phase
During the Battle phase, if your regiment is made up entirely of Tank type or
Vehicle type companies and your opponents companies are all Infantry Type then
you may move up to two sections in the Six-Section when you get a chance to
move. This represents the superiority of manoeuvre Tanks and Vehicles have
over infantry.

Boats

Movement Phase
Boats cannot move any further than 4km from a piece of land and cannot be
counted as In Contact with a regiment based on land.

Battle Phase
A regiment made up entirely of Boat type companies may move up to two
sections in the Six-Section if they are against a regiment made up entirely of
Ship type companies. This represents the superior agility and mobility a smaller
boat has.

Ships
Movement Phase
Ships cannot move closer than one kilometre away from a piece of land.

Space Vessels
Movement Phase
Space Vessels may end their movement over any terrain type the controlling
player wishes and over enemy regiments so long as they are not other Space
Vessels.

Casualties

Allocating Casualties
It is no secret that in war there will be casualties. Even the winner of a war will
undoubtedly have many soldiers killed or wounded and the loser will probably
have more. Inflicting casualties is taken care of at the end of a battle involving
opposing regiments. As explained in the Battle Phase section of this book,
regiments will probably take a number of Casualty Points. These have little
direct effect on the battle, though it will determine how long a force wishes to
stay on the field.

After one of the players has retreated from the battle that battle is over and
casualties will then be totalled. There are two types of casualties;
Dead/Destroyed and Wounded/Damaged. Dead and Wounded are the terms
given to living soldiers while Destroyed and Damaged are the terms given to
vehicles, though the names dont really matter. For every Casualty Point a
player has the opponent will Roll for Casualties. The first Casualty Point is
inflicted on a company of the owners choice, the second is chosen by the
opponent, the third by the owner and so on until all Casualty Points have been
allocated. In all but a very few cases, both players involved in the battle will
have some Casualty Points against their regiment. It is probably best to figure
out the casualties for one player at a time, just so everyone can know what is
going on, but if you feel you have a better system, then by all means use it.

Whenever you Roll for Casualties against your opponent you roll a D100 five
times and choose the lowest score. This is the percentage of the total soldiers
the target company has sustained as casualties. The player will then record the
percentage of casualties the company has suffered and continue on to allocate
the next Casualty Point. Casualty Points may not be allocated to companies who
have already suffered one hundred per cent or more casualties. If you have two
of the same types of company in a regiment you must allocate casualties to one
company until it reaches one hundred per cent unit allocating to the next one,
although in this case anything over one hundred per cent is allocated to the next
company. It may seem like it is very hard to inflict any casualties on the
opponent in this way, but the number of D100s rolled is decreased the better
your regiments Anti-Unit Capabilities, thus statistically making the number of
casualties higher. Refer to the Anti-Unit Capabilities Table later in this book for
details. Occasionally this result is further altered by special rules that may come
about by training or equipment. Apply these after determining the percentage of
casualties. Under no circumstances will a company who sustained Casualty
Points reduce the percentage of casualties inflicted to less than one per cent. If
the applied rules would otherwise lower this result below one per cent it is simply
lowered to one per cent.

Anti-Unit Capabilities
A company can be equipped with a range of weapons that alter the Anti-Unit
Capabilities of the soldiers. Most weapons and equipment provide some sort of
additional strength in this regard. The Anti-Unit Capabilities a company has
makes destroying an enemy company a lot easier. It will be almost impossible to
make a company that has capabilities in all areas, but if you can build your
regiments well you might be able to make some good combinations. How to give
a company Anti-Unit Capabilities is explained in the Weapons section of this
rulebook.

If a company has an Anti-Unit Capability it essentially passes that rule onto the
regiment it is with. When applying casualties you may declare that a casualty
point is being allocated with a certain Anti-Unit rule. You can only allocate as
many Casualty Points in this way as you have Anti-Unit Capabilities. So for
example if you inflict six Casualty Points on your opponent and you have three
companies with the Anti-Tank Capabilities rule, then three of those casualty
points can be allocated as Anti-Tank. Especially in companies of infantry you will
often have several different Anti-Unit Capabilities in the one company. They too
transfer their Capabilities to the regiment in the same way. An example is if you
have five companies and each of them has Anti-Vehicle and Anti-Infantry
Capabilities. If you were to inflict three Casualty Points on your opponent you
might want to use the Anti-Infantry Capabilities twice and the Anti-Vehicle
Capabilities once. If you find that you inflict more Casualty Points than you are
able to allocate you may allocate another Casualty Point using the same AntiUnit Capability only after you have used up all other allocations. For example if
you have three counts of Anti-Infantry Capabilities and two counts of Anti-Super
Heavy Capabilities but you inflict seven Casualty Points you must first allocate all
of both types and then you may use any of them again.

Also you may only allocate Anti-Unit Capabilities if the weapon that provides
them is used in the combat. So for example, if a field gun provides the Anti-Tank
Capabilities rule and only has medium, short and close range stats, if you only
fight at long range before your opponent retreats then you may not allocate any
Casualty Points using the Anti-Tank Rule. Even if you only fight at an appropriate
range once, however, you may use as many Anti-Unit Capabilities as that range
will allow, regardless of where the Casualty Points were actually inflicted. So you
might have one round at long range, the next at medium range and the next at
long range and inflict Casualty Points at each, but you could inflict all the
Casualty Points on your opponent using the before mentioned example, applying
them all as Anti-Tank Casualty Points.

Light Unit

Standard Unit

Heavy Unit Type

No Anti-Unit Capabilities
Limited Anti-Unit
Capabilities
Anti-Unit Capabilities
Heavy Anti-Unit
Capabilities
Specialist Anti-Unit
Capabilities

Type
4
2

Type
5
3

6
4

1
1

2
1

3
2

4*

3*

2*

The above table indicates how the Anti-Unit Capabilities of a company affect the
percentage of casualties inflicted on an opponents regiment. The numbers
indicate how many times you roll a D100 and then pick the lowest result of the
set. The numbers marked with a * indicate that you use the highest result
rather than the lowest. As you can see then, a Heavy Vehicle, for example, will
statistically suffer fewer casualties than a Light Vehicle when faced with a
Casualty Point that has Limited Anti-Vehicle Capabilities. Note that Walkers,
Boats, Helicopters and Aircraft all count as Vehicles for the purposes of Anti-Unit
Capabilities while Ships and Space Vessels count as Super Heavies. You may not
allocate Casualty Points against Aircraft unless the weapon used also has the AA
Weapon rule.

Applying Casualties
Once the number of casualties has been determined you must remove them.
This is often a sad affair but it is a necessary one. For each company that had
Casualty Points inflicted upon them you will have a certain percentage reduction
in the number of soldiers in the company. In all cases, a company calculates the
percentage of soldiers lost based on the original size of the company, not the
size at the start of a battle.

You will have to figure out how many soldiers are counted as casualties at the
end of each battle by the percentage. To convert this percentage into a number
you will have to take the original number of soldiers, divide this number by 100
and then multiply the result by the percentage of casualties inflicted. So for
example, if you have a company that originally has 120 soldiers in it, you will
divide that by 100 to get 1.2. If you suffered 60% casualties you multiply 1.2 by
60 to get 72, which is the number of casualties the company has sustained.

After figuring out the number of casualties a company has suffered you will have
to find out how many have died and how many are wounded. Roll two D100 and

choose the highest result. This is the percentage of total casualties that will
count as Wounded. All other soldiers are Dead and are removed.

Many of the wounded are not lost forever though and may come back to the
battlefield after some medical attention. Wounded can move around as per
normal but cannot carry any weight and so basically become numbers on a piece
of paper. They cannot participate in any battles the regiment might become
involved in and still count as casualties if the company they are in suffer another
casualty point during another day. The best thing to do with a wounded soldier is
to get them to a Hospital. While the exact layout of the Hospital varies,
anything that has the Hospital rule can act as a hospital. After all wounded
soldiers have spent a week in a hospital you then roll another two D100 and
choose the highest result. This result is the percentage of soldiers that can
return to the battlefield. They act as per a normal soldier, retaining any special
rules they had before they were wounded and continue fighting in exactly the
same fashion. The soldiers that are not included in this number are sent home
as they are too badly wounded to be able to fight effectively. They are
effectively removed in the same manner as a soldier who is dead.

The time it takes for you to get your soldiers to a hospital also matters. If you
can get your soldiers to a hospital no later than the day after they have become
wounded then you roll the two D100. If you cannot though, you must consult the
table below. Any more than six days between battle and hospital for a wounded
soldier will be fatal. As with most of the rules in Fields of Fire, this may not
always be completely accurate, but it is a close enough average. Furthermore,
regardless of the result on the dice roll, you cannot heal more soldiers per day in
a Hospital than you have Doctors in that Hospital.

Days between battle and hospital

1
2
3
4
5
6

Dice roll
D100
D50
D20
D10
D6
D3

One of the things that players will have to get used to when they remove
casualties is figuring out which weapons and equipment the company will have
to either drop or transfer to another unit. Because the carrying capacity of a
company is reduced when it suffers casualties the company will have to
redistribute some equipment if it wants to remain at full combat capacity. The
way you do this is entirely up to you; just remember that the normal rules apply
to the company regardless of how many soldiers are in it.

In the case of vehicles of the various unit types there are a few different rules.
Damaged vehicles cannot move but they may be towed. They can be repaired
by Mechanics in a Workshop. It does not matter how long it has been between
when a vehicle has been damaged and when it gets to a mechanic, it always rolls
2D100 for the number of vehicles that can return to battle. Regardless of the
dice rolled though, you cannot repair more vehicles in a week then you have
Mechanics in your Workshop. In the case of Aircraft, Helicopters and Space
Vessels, there is no damaged vehicles, just destroyed as they plummet to the
ground with little chance of recovery.

In all cases, when a casualty result has been applied, players apply the score to
both the vehicles and the crew driving them, so if, for example, a Casualty Point
inflicted 23% casualties on a company made up of 20 tanks with 60 soldiers
driving them then 4 tanks and 13 soldiers would be casualties.

Your soldiers must have some type of Uniform to be effective in combat. Each
Uniform is made up of a Terrain type and Climate Type (these are explained in
greater detail in the Basic Equipment Dossier). If either one of these types is
not the same as the environment your soldiers are fighting in they suffer an
extra 10% casualties. If neither of these types are the same as the environment
your soldiers are in they suffer an additional 20% casualties.

If you find that because of the loss of soldiers through casualties you end up with
fewer Combat Companies than you are normally supposed to have you just
simply cannot add any more Support Companies to a regiment until you can
once again return to having more Combat Companies than Support Companies.

A Few More Rules

This section of the rulebook goes over a few of the other rules that do not quite
fit into any other section. They are still rules to be applied as normal.

Lack of Food
If you find that you cannot provide your soldiers with the amount of food they
require on a certain day then you have a serious problem. At the end of a day
when you cannot provide the required amount of food all the companies that
could not get enough food suffer 10% casualties. On the second day in a row
they cannot get enough food then 20% casualties are inflicted, 30% on the third

day and 40% on the fourth. By the end of the fourth day, your company would
have suffered 100% casualties and so becomes all but useless. You need to get
the soldiers that will count as wounded to a hospital quickly.

Walking Dead
If you find that all the companies in a regiment have 100% casualties you are in
big trouble. You can still move them around but they cannot fight in a combat. If
an opponent comes into contact with them they all immediately become
captured as explained in the Battle Phase Section.

Veteran Points
As your soldiers train and gain experience from fighting they accumulate
Veteran Points. These represent the knowledge gained from seeing how
warfare is conducted first hand. Having experienced units can be the difference
between winning and losing, though just make sure you dont throw your
experienced troops in harms way too often as they will eventually all be wiped
out. For more detailed information on Veteran Points see the Veteran Skills
Dossier

The number of Veteran Points a company has is an indication of the average

level of skill each soldier has. To find a companys Veteran Points simply add up
all the Veteran Points in the company and then divide by how ever many soldiers
are in the company. This will give you the average. Every soldier in the
company then counts as having that many Veteran Points, so in effect the
company has as many Veteran Points as each soldier in the company. If you
have a company that suffers casualties and you wish to replace them with new
recruits you will often find that the soldiers Veteran Points are different. You will
just have to find the average of this new organisation of the company. So for
example, you might have a company with sixty soldiers in it and the company
has 12 Veteran Points. If you want to add another forty soldiers with three
Veteran Points to the unit you will have to figure out the new average, which will
be sixty times twelve plus forty times three divided by one hundred. You get the
result of 8.4, but because you always ignore any decimals, this score becomes
simply 8. Now all of the soldiers in the company are considered to have 8
Veteran Points.

Veteran Points are useless until you allocate them to something. In the Veteran
Skills Dossier you will find a number of Veteran Classes. Each class will have a
list of special effects you can purchase and the number of Veteran Points you
require to achieve those effects. If you have, say ten Veteran Points you can

allocate them all to one class or spread them across as many as you want,
though it is probably best to focus on getting one skill before you get another.
You do not have to allocate Veteran Points if you do not want to, like if you want
to save up for something big but once you spend them you cannot take them
back. If you find that your company decreases in Veteran points and this brings
you below the required number of Veteran Points for a certain skill then you lose
that skill. This is the only way a company will lose a skill, so the skills you buy
early on will determine how your company will function for the rest of its life. You
cannot combine two companies if they have spent veteran points on different
skills unless doings so would reduce the soldiers to having the same skills.