"My first FUBAR (in 6mm)" Topic

Well here is my first FUBAR game to test and get to grips with the rules.

After 15 minutes I realised I was playing it wrong.
I had assumed that once you failed to activate a unit your turn was over.
What actually happens when you fail to activate a unit is that the opponent gets the chance to try and activate his.
When he then fails to activate a unit the turn carries on (not a new turn as I thought) and you can try to activate units of your own that you have not tried yet.

As such in one complete turn, both players will have tried to activate each of their units and the initiative will probably have swapped sides a few times.
I have only ever played IGOUGO rules so this did not seem obvious until after 7 turns of one unit failing to move I read the rules a bit more closely.

I digress though, before this occurred as I was setting up it became very clear how important cover was, the table has no terrain or cover except for the building objective.
Until now I have played Napoleonics and a huge empty table is not an issue, you have so many men that you don't mind losing the few thousand here and there as you close on the enemy under fire.

Not so keen to take losses when I only have 20 men though.
So some terrain is next on the list.

I decided to keep it simple and have all units as SEASONED including the APC crew.

As this is my first game and first report I will explain what happened each turn so that those who know how to play can tell me if I did it right and those that are yet to play can see what I did.

Right then:

The below image shows the first turn and has the labels so you know who is who.

TURN ONE

ECM win the initiative and try squad A – success they opt for the walk order
ECN fail to activate B so play passes to the BPI

BPI fail to activate their unit A so play passes back to the ECM who activate both squads C and D who walk and APC 1, they fail when they try to activate APC 2.

So play passes to the BPI
They have tried A and failed so they try B, they fail.
Now play would normally go back to the other side as they failed to activate a unit but the ECM have already made an activation test for each of their units so it remains the BPIs initiative.
C passes and they are given the run order and leg it down off their hill towards the front.
D fail
E passes (the sneaky AT gun under the parking roof) but nothing is in range (not quite)

So the first turn is done as all sides have made an activation roll for each of their units.

The ECM have had the most success with regards to activating units.

TURN TWO

BPI win the initiative and start by trying to activate their unit A again, and fail again.
Initiative passes to the ECM
They try and fail to activate unit A also so play passes over to the BPI again.

Seems to be a lot of confusion as to what to do within the squads.

BPI activate unit B and this goes to `on guard` status.
C passes and they stay running and keep legging down the table toward the ECM flank.
D pass and thinking this is the thing to do (or thinking they best cover C before they get cut off) runs after them.
E fails so back to the ECM who can now try the rest of their units as the BPI troops have all made activation rolls.

Squads B, C and D all fail…. Both APCs pass however, 1 moves forward and into range for its turret mounted LMG. It fires on BPI unit B, causes 1 hit which the unit takes as suppression rather than a kill.

TURN THREE

BPI win the initiative and try to activate E, they do, it aims and hits the APC, the APC manages to pass its save though. No damage done.

The AT gun throws 3d6 to hit and requires (based on the gunners skills) a 5 or 6 to hit.
It gets +1 as its action this turn was to spend a few seconds aiming.
It rolled a 4 a 3 and a 1 which in turn becomes a 5 a 4 and a 2 meaning just 1 hit.
The APC needs a 5 or 6 to save and got a 5.

Right, the BPI try to activate their unit A, guess what they fail to move.
There must be a problem with their comms… 3 turns in a row and nothing doing…??!

Over to the ECM who try to activate their HARD suit squad (B), nope the same radio interference must be effecting them too.

Back to the BPI.
They try to activate unit B.
This unit was shot last turn and took a suppression hit rather than a kill.
This means the shots forced them into panic/cover/ fear and they are harder this turn to activate as they are worried about being shot at again.
As such they get -1 to their roll for activation as they have 1 suppression hit.
They fail to activate and initiative passes to the ECM, however they now remove the suppression counter.

ECM squad A passes and runs, they try C but they fail.

Over to the BPI, C pass and yep, they carry on running – must be eager to fight!
D try but fail, they are not so sure about this running lark.
That is all the BPI rolled for so the ECM try all their now.

APCs 1 and 2 fail, D passes and runs toward the BPI C.

TURN FOUR

BPI win the initiative and start by failing to activate E.

ECM try squad D and pass, they are told to walk toward the enemy and open fire when in range.
The fire at BPI C, that will teach them to run at the enemy.

D has 1 rocket with 3 fire points (3d6) and the other 4 have assault rifles at 1 fire point (FP) each.
They get to roll 7d6, they need 5 or 6's.

They only manage one hit, which the BPI take as a suppression hit rather than a kill.

The ECM want the 2 APC to join in the fire fight and open up with its LMG and try to exceed the amount of suppression hits that the BPIU unit can take and force them to start losing troops.
Alas they fail to activate.

The BPI then activates D which advances toward the ECM squad D and opens fire, managing a rather impressive 3 hits.
ECM D can only take up to 2 suppression hits before taking losses, so they take the 2 allowed suppression and then lose a man.

The BPI C unit realises that with ECM D fully supressed any more hits are instant kills, they roll to activate but fail.

ECM APC 1 passes and pelts off toward the fire fight and opens up with its LMG and rolls 3 FP.
All 3 hit and due to current suppression the target can only take 1 more supressed hit, the other 2 hits are kills! Result to the crew of APC 1.
Inspired by this ECM C tries to engage but fails its activation roll, over then to BPI.
BPI A finally gets its arse into gear and advances on the APC fires it rockets and gets 2 hits.

It is now I realise I have been neglecting armour saving throws…
Ooooops – too late now to take it all back, but I start by making a saving throw for the APC.

It saves against 1 of the hits, the other hits home and requires a roll on the vehicle damage chart:

Crew stunned, -2 to their next activation roll.
Sounds like the shockwave and heat and noise has knocked the crew inside about a bit.
BPI B are left, they roll and pass but have no weapons that can take out an APC, so they go on guard.

The remaining 2 ECM units fail to activate.

TURN FIVE

ECM win the initiative.
Squads A, B and C all pass and choose the run order, they leg it toward the action.
APC 2 drives and fires at the BPI C and manages a hit.

APC 1 fails and lets the side down, giving the initiative back to the BPI – who in turn fail to activate unit D.

REST OF THE GAME

I think you get the rough idea how the rules work by now so I will not bore you with every last detail.

What happened next was the ECM squad B (the HARD suits) engaged the BPI at the front and kept walking toward the enemy until they got into very close range for their assault rifles; at under 12cm they have 2FP instead of the normal 1.
So at less than 12cm the 4 normal troops roll 2d6 each and the rockets unchanged at 3.
Meaning they roll 11d6, this coupled with their ridiculous armour saves means they are very deadly.

They fired at all the BPI there, took out the AT gun and finally engaged the last of the BPI near the building in melee and never took more than 1 suppression hit until right at the end in melee when 1 was lost.

During this though the BPI did manage an outstanding burst of supreme shooting by taking their time to aim and using their assualt rifles and LMGs to in 2 turns annihilate ECM A squad altogether.

They are very powerful and no doubt saved the day by taking out half the enemy on their own.

Whilst this was going on the BPI C unit was slowly being taken down to the point there was just one man left, he threw caution to the wind, ran as close to the ECM as he could an threw some grenades at them.
They took a good bit of suppression from this and he managed for a while to keep the edge over them.

However as BPI D was backing him up the APC decided to try ramming them, alas the BPI all got out of the way.
This left the AT gun (not destroyed at this point) to take a pot shot at the APC, over a couple of turns it managed to disable the LMG and its engine.
It was just a coffin in the making.

The ECM lads advanced on the remains of BPI C and D and they too went grenade crazy and after no time there was just a single BPI man left cowering behind the burning APC.

He did not last long.

Outcome – the ECM managed to make it to outpost #125…

HERE ARE A FEW MORE SHOTS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

FACE OFF

HARD SUITS

ECM ADVANCE

LAST MAN STANDING

HARD SUITS LIVING UP TO THEIR NAME

HARD SUITS ADVANCE

MELEE

SUICIDE RUN

BPI RUN LIKE MAD

SNEEKY BPI AT GUN

AT GUN SHOOTS

OUTPOST #125

Thoughts on FUBAR.

A -I need to alter the force composition a bit.
The BPI were given mostly LMG and a single Rocket Launcher.
The LMG can't harm vehicles which hampered them a bit.
The LMG and the rockets both roll 3d6 when firing which essentially makes a LMG pointless, a rocket launcher being better.
So next time the LMGs will be HMG.
They still can't hurt armoured vehicles but they roll 4d6 so they will have an edge against infantry over the RL.

B – I need more cover. It looks better for starters but when rolling to hit the difference between needing a 5 or 6 compared to needing a 6 is substantial. Cover saves lives, though it may slow the game down…?

C – Must remember armour saving throws.

D – I like it. It is quick and easy to play and adding house rules will be dead simple too.

E – it is FREE, now that has to be good.

Well there you go, the first playtest done.

Hopefully you got something from the report; there will be more to come…

See more 6mm FUBAR greatness at the 6mm FUBAR forum:

6mmfubar.forumer.com

Looks good !

Cover is definitely need in the modern, or futuristic era, where weapons and combat are so deadly.

Hope you enjoyed the game.

Utilizing cover will slow the game down a bit, but make it much more enjoyable too, as you try to maximize it to keep your forces alive.

Really liked your game's look! Hats off!

Yeah, I agree with Mako. There are a few things that I am not too excited about in the rules. The fail and go on overwatch mechanic I despise. It makes ZERO sense to me. Try using that with about a dozen maneuver units per side. It will effectively kill movement in the game. I think overwatch/on guard should be a choice not a default. I also don't use the vehicle damage chart. If playing a small game I guess it works. However, if playing a larger game say commanding a few platoons WHY would you care about damage to tank #4? You'd care about whether it was knocked out, falling back or stopped. I also think that damage from artillery and missiles needs work.

Fubar hasn't been on the front burner lately. Mostly it has been ITNE. I think Fubar can be one of the absolute best Scifi sets out there. But some core changes need to be made to it.

Thanks,

John

Excellent AAR! I relly like your set up but agree you need more cover.
Keep up the 6mm FUBAR.

Indeed.

I am going to start with natural cover, rocky outcrops and vegitation first.

I have man made cover planned but that will mostly be for one off scenarios where as rocks and stuff can be dumped into any game..

Also looking at some ideas for house rules for things such as minefields and so on.

I have not played enough to have the fail and go scenario crop up yet John, I can see what you are saying though.

I like the damage chart, it is simple and not too deadly.
Works great when vehicles are not the bulk of your force and just periphery things.

My games will be mostly about the 2 sides squads..

Nice to see this little chaps on action!
I agree you need cover to make it a fun game.

I think one of the great things about FUBAR it´s that it´s easy to make your own admentments, in our games we use a great change on fubar rules:
.We have a number of suppressed tokens for each force (about 3 to 6)and you can use it during the battle to avoid one dead fig. and suppress it. It makes the battleield more deadly but speeds the game.

.About to fail act. and became on guard I also agree that sometimes it got not to much sense, we´re toying whith the idea of automatically activate an unit if can see the enemy at 20cm.

What do you think?

we´re toying whith the idea of automatically activate an unit if can see the enemy at 20cm.

Could make green troops as reliable as elite.
What about a bonus to the roll instead?

Otherwise in a really intense firefight where you would expect elites to keep their cool and do stuff and the greens to hide, you will get both doing stuff.

John, how about those that fail to act do nothing.
BUT if an enemy crosses into LOS they can make a roll to snap fire, instead of it being automatic..

great report, looks awesome. Can't wait to give it a go myself!

Nice game and especially nice looking terrain

Your experience with the activation rolls reminds me of our first game of Black Powder – when we totally forgot about that units have Initiative moves that don't require rolling command dice!

I'd think that snapfiring as you describe might be a possibility.

Thanks,

John

I think automatic activation might work, but only after all other units that pass their activation rolls have acted, if desired.

That way, they are just considered to be slow in acting/reacting, compared to other forces.

The downside is you'll need lots of chits to keep track of that, and will have lots to activate at once, at the end of the turn.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I have to comment. Thanks Angel for posting this. I'm still learning FUBAR and this was an awesome find with you going into detail about the mechanics. It really helped to me to wrap my head around the mechanics. Great stuff!

I too have found it useful to get my noggin around some of the FUBAR aspects. Well done Tgunner for the resurrection :o)

Glad it was of help!

:D