"Couple of Basic Fistful of TOWs Questions" Topic

A buddy of mine and I are going to try a small game of FOT tomorrow, playing one of the tables of the Little Wars TV Kharkov scenario and using the free Introductory Rules, to see if it's worth taking the plunge to get the full set. The scenario is pretty simple, and we'll exclude some things not covered in the Intro Rules (e.g. German Stukas), but there are a couple of more basic items I had questions about:
1. First, we use 15mm. We are thus thinking of bumping all the ranges/distances up by 50%. Comments?
2. In the scenario, the Soviet infantry Troop Quality is "Marginal". From the QRS, their Quality Number is thus 7+. There is only one + mod on the QRS which is related to Close Combat (CC is not in the Intro rules, so it won't matter). Does this mean a Soviet infantry stand will always fail a Quality Check (e.g. so a hit will always eliminate)? Or is there something else we should know?
3. Some guns rom the Excel spreadsheet have a penetration value with the notation "he" or "h" (HEAT?). How do they affect a shot vs. a vehicle (my thought: no range mod for penetration)?
4. Infantry ROFs from the spreadsheet have two values, e.g. "3/4". How is that interpreted?
5. The Germans have an Sdkfz 251/1, which has a Armor rating on the spreadsheet of "0 A 0". What does the "A" mean?

Thanks,
Dave

I'll try and help here although it's been a while since I've used the rules.

1. Whatever suits you best. I think cms for 6mm and inches for 15mm is common.

2. There is a FFOT3 global setting of on a die roll of 1 it's an automatic fail, a roll of 6 an automatic pass, so I think you need a 6.

3. h = HEAT and no change in penetration for range.
he = HE and does have a small AP value that depends on gun calibre. You need a big gun though. Likewise no change in penetration for range.

4. Inf numbers are for:
1st num is for ranges > 1,
2nd num is for Close Combat.

5. The A is a spaced armour rating of +1 against h type weapons.

Hope this helps,

B

If you are on facebook, the authors answer rule questions at
link

BattlerBritain is correct. A natural die roll of one always fails and a natural die roll of six always passes

"H" class weapons use the armor modifier for anti-vehicle fire. This is a letter designation in the vehicle armor values such as 6A4. in this case the armor rating would be one higher due to the "A" modifier.

BattlerBritain, thanks for the response.

The distance/range thing has me a little puzzled. The downloadable QRS appears to be in inches already, and things like the Spotting Table seem reasonable, but then the distances/ranges in the spreadsheet (e.g. 4" movement for infantry) seem a little short for 15mm. At least my buddy thought the 4'x4' Kharkov table would look way too densely packed using 15s if we didn't bump things up by 50% and make it 6'x6'.

Typical die roll mechanic – I would think that would be included in the Intro Rules, but I if it's in there I didn't see it.

The infantry ROF makes sense. Using the Intro Rules, there is no CC, but I noticed the Russian OB has an SMG company, so we may have to figure something out.

I never would have guessed that A = spaced armor.

Thanks again!

williamb

Thanks for the response, but I am not on Facebook (and would not join with a gun to my head).

codiver, I fully understand about facebook. I only joined to have access to certain wargaming groups that are only there. There is also a groups.io FoT group though not as active as the facebook group. Many of the former Yahoo groups migrated to groups.io when Yahoo disbanded that service.
groups.io/g/Fistful-of-TOWs

The downloadable QRS is in inches. For some modern vehicles the "H" armor modifier can be as high as F = 6

williamb, I used the demise of Yahoo groups to wean myself off them entirely. If the FOT game (which to my chagrin is a week from Sat., not tomorrow; got the dates mixed up) is favorable and I pick up the rules, I may join – though I would hope with V3 of the rules they are pretty tight. I would join groups.io before Facebook..

I also was forced to join facebook, but apart from viewing a gaming site and posting quotes from the bible, i never use it. Its pretty awful otherwise. IO:Group is what i use and its much better. There is a FFT3 IO:Group, try that.

As for scale, i remember the designer once stated he should of changed the ground scale to 1:10000, so while the cm/inch ratio is the most common, you could try cm with 15mm and see how that goes. As long as you have low element density and you are fighting moderns it may work. Something i have been thinking for a while. ON the other hand if you have a lots of room, go with the inches solution.

Also, if you buy the rules, go with a pdf copy or the ring binded version. I got the book format and it looks great on my book shelve, but its useless for a game. Too big.

We played the game Sat. My buddy took the plunge beforehand, so we had the actual rules. They played ok, but the scenario isn't much fun from the Soviet POV.

BattlerBritain, it turns out there is an errata file for FOT3 that has an entry "Correction: p. 42 rule 5.3", section 5.3 being Quality Checks: Delete the statement "A natural "1" always fails and a natural "6" always succeeds." It was true in FFT2, but is not true for FFT3, owing to the existence of quality levels that have a 7+ quality number.

As far as we could determine, there are no + mods (e.g. loss of a formation HQ is a -1, but being near it is not a +1). So a QC for the Soviet infantry was an auto kill.

Like I said, the rules themselves seemed to play ok, and we'll certainly give them another try with forces that aren't so poor, but in the scenario we played the Sovs were little more than speed bumps. Might be realistic, but just wasn't much fun.