"So where is Regimental Fire and Fury ?" Topic

Whats the latest on the merry-go-round for this one?

Last I heard was that two Yeti had been seen playing it on the Marie Celeste.

my understanding of the time line, and maybe someone even closer to the product will check in to confirm the following:

went to the printer on 01 April, and no that is not an April's fool joke.

proofs due back in a few weeks. Barring any catastrophe's of a global or personal kind, and any major revisions, which are not expected I do believe attendees at 2010 Historicon should see it available for sale.

it might be available before that via other channels [their web site, retailers etc], but I would definitely think it would be available for H'con.

A posting on 4 April on the forum on Fire and Fury Games' website gives the following information:

– Finished product went to printers on 3 April
– Printed rules should be delivered to them within 10 weeks, so that's the middle of June
– You will be able to directly order it from Fire and Fury Games once they have printed copies
– Estimated cost is 36 USD or 38 USD

And, my series of Johnny Reb 3 scenario books will readily work for Regimental Fire & Fury with only minor modifications.

WooHoo! Its been a loooooong wait…..

Why not just do normal Fire and Fury but adaptt it slightly for regimental size games--Our club used to do it all the time!!!

"Why not just do normal Fire and Fury but adapt it slightly for regimental size games"

Main reason is that from the play test version, there's some really worthwhile changes to the games system. Not least of which is a switch in the way casualties are dealt with that changes the emphasis to a units ability to take the damage without running off.

Works along the lines that flying metal will kill anyone but better trained/more experienced units worry about it less.

Gives a much better game than the original and removes the old bug bear of having 100 Fire Points against a target and getting no result!

Trajanus

F and F was so open to local adaptions (either adding missing modifiers or eliminating something found distracting or wrong (locally)! The basic mechanics were just very good and open to tweaking and adaptions, so the system was very popular and still is!

Likely they have added some stuff and changed some stuff, that local groups and individuals already did long ago. Going regimental was fairly easy here without disturbing the basic system too much. I suspect that the delay is not so much trying play test glitches out of an already very well done set of mechanics ( with fixes out the wazoo added over the years)! My bet is that it is simply economics, needing the right amount of capital to fund a first class release in a time when investment money is not easily available. They want to release a great product, probably, and not just an adequate one. At least this is my hope about the delay! We will likely see soon enough!

doc,

I know folks have fiddled with F&F for years but the casualty system is a pretty major change in approach.

As for the test glitches, there haven't been anything serious that I know off for quite a while. That's no surprise – the original charts on the F&F forum go back to 2001, so there has been plenty of test time!

Yeah the extremes of huge losses and no losses was likely one of the things that locals addressed on their own if they wanted to, an official improved results system would be welcome if not very late in coming!!

Rich says we may actually get the proofs back as early as tonight. They are sending them via FEDEX.

Actually, capital had nothing to do with the long time it has taken to produce the product that has gone to press. Since using the game system for the Gettysburg 2004 event, Rich has been working on perfecting and smoothing out the game mechanics, playtesting them with each new step. He is VERY meticulous. Many game designers keep their work within a core group until it is almost finished. Rich has taken Regt. F&F to the conventions for a number of years, and while that can be frustrating for people to have to wait for the finished product, we benefit from a wider input from a greater number of players. We appreciate our long-suffering fellow gamers.

While Regimental Fire and Fury has a lot of things that are familiar to those that have played the original brigade version, it really is a new game with a set of mechanics that make it more suited to the smaller scale, and IMHO, represent the advancement in game design ideas in our hobby.

Because we, like may others, have found the original rules useful for other periods, we are committed to carry the regimental game outside the American Civil War and hope folks will enjoy other periods such as the Mexican War, War of 1812, AWI, ECW, and horse and musket period in India.

Mark

Well sir, 6 years is meticulous to the max!! Any remaining serious glitches would be very "well hidden" to say the least! I hope the new release makes as big a positive splash as F&F Brigade did years ago! You will certainly never please everybody in this chaotic hobby, no matter what you do or how hard you try, but this might be another serious attempt to bring wargame rules a little closer to general consensus, just closer, I stress!

It's actually closer to 9 years. But what can I say? I'm just an obedient minion who is trained to write and edit. :-)

Rich got the proofs, and he is very happy with them.

Is there a general consensus in any period these days? Brigade F&F came close 20 years ago. Empire seemed like it for Napoleonics 30 years ago. But today, it seems that gamers don't have to adjust their preferences that much to find a set of rules that suits them. Regimental Fire and Fury has a well recognized "brand", and we have put a lot of work into producing a quality product. It should have the widest appeal possible. No one knows what that is just yet.

Mark

Mark, just a quick question. Do the final rules still require that the unit have a double row of stands to represent a standard line of battle 2 ranks deep?

Cleburne,

Yes. However, a way around that is to have one stand represent two and use a marker of some kind to indicate the odd casualty. Folks who already have their figures based two deep have asked your question (don't know if that is your reason), and obviously a double row of stands in that case looks wrong on the game table.

Mark

Yeah, I have a lot of 6mm figures I'm not using, and was thinking of either basing them for Volley & Bayonet or Regimental F&F. Or both. I may do strips of single ranks on heavy metal bases for F&F.

Thanks!