Compact FUBAR

It had been a while since I played a battle using FUBAR 4.0, so I decided to refresh my memory about this great rules system. Initially, I set up a scenario in a board a bit less than 2'x2', with various wood patches and some clear paths around them. The invading squads (on the bottom of the picture) must reach the objective, represented by the red 20-sided die, and spend one turn in contact with it to win.

In hindsight, given greater numbers to the defenders was unfair.

I played both sides in this battle. At the beginning of the game, the forces took positions in cover of the wooded areas. It took me some turns of firing back and forth, suppressing figures and recovering, to realize that I needed other tactics.

The squad at the bottom advanced to the smaller match of wood, and the one at the top-right also moved to cover.

While the blue/tan squads tried to focus fire on a single enemy unit, one of the green squads risked an assault, taking the advantage of higher numbers. It worked and later they charged the remaining enemy squad, crushing the invaders.

A risky but necessary move.

With just two units per side, several turns devolved into IGO-UGO (e.g. the player with initiative would succeed activating both of their units, then play passed to the other force). Still, the overall battle made sense: units found suitable cover and kept firing at each other, and a close assault was needed to win a relevant advantage.

I wanted to try a game with more units, retaining the small board. Remembering a post from Spacejacker where he commented about playing Star Army using one figure to represent two soldiers, I did the same. So now each side had three six-man squads, represented by three figures placed in base contact.

Same scenario, different ground scale.

Again, both forces moved to take cover. Initiative and activation rolls allowed the green squads to get the best spots. Both sides would try to concentrate attacks on a single squad. I used a small die to mark suppressed figures, and laid down a figure to mark one killed soldier.

The grey/tan squads failed to activate a few times, so the green soldiers got most of the board.

While the grey/tan soldiers had an initial advantage, the green squads again risked some close assaults and turned the tables, winning the battle.

At this point, a single blue/tan squad with two suppressed soldiers remained.

It is interesting to note that even with just three units per side, both the activation and suppression seemed to work better. The use of "compact" squads worked well -- an alternative would have been playing with 6mm miniatures but I do not have any ready.