In case you missed it - new Force on force/Tomorrow’s War ruleset pdf available

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Greetings all,

The new edition of Tomorrow’s War/Force on force by Ambush Alley called ‘The Next War’ is available, described as a developer’s draft. It’s only bare bones as is but seems it will be updated as Ambush Alley work on the project and has a play test and error reporting system available to help them out. It states it’s suitable for Cold War to the Future and is backwards compatible with all FoF and TW scenarios that already exist. I bought it as a pdf from wargame vault to help support AA in getting this new version of their excellent game to the table after all this time. It may be available elsewhere.

I thought I’d put this up as I’ve been eagerly awaiting this for a long time and suddenly and unexpectedly found this new version so presumed others may also have missed it. I’m not affiliated or paid by anyone and this topic is meant to be helpful rather than necessarily advertising in the traditional sense. Apologies mods if this is not allowed or is classed as an advert, please delete and except my apologies if so.

Hope this is good news to people and you’re as pleased/excited as I am.

Stay safe,
Andrew
BALM

[commissarmoody]

Thanks for sharing

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Not a problem. I was surprised that it’s release had slipped past me (even as a developmental draft) and figured I may not be the only one.

Andrew
BALM

[sir_shvantselot]

Not a problem. I was surprised that it’s release had slipped past me (even as a developmental draft) and figured I may not be the only one.

Andrew
BALM

Thanks for bringing these rules sets to my attention. I recently picked up some Chechen war miniatures and maybe Force on Force plus Cold War Gone Hot are a good set of skirmish rules?

[BeneathALeadMountain]

I’ve always enjoyed games with FoF and TW and would recommend them. I found that once you understand the reaction system it flows well. It’s a very adaptable toolbox that leaves the chrome/fluff/world building up to you and because of this is suitable for a massive range of subjects. I’ve used it for WW2, Used to be modern (80’s-90’s), near future and sci-fi.

If you type Force on Force wargame into YouTube there are some videos by a chap called Ralph Astley with a demo game and play through. It’s worth a watch.

Hope you have fun

Andrew

[Easy E]

Love this game system. 

I am glad it is getting some more love, but it is already a great tool box.

[Ewart]

Cheers for the heads up.

I never got tomorrows war. But am a big fan of the other FoF rules.

I do fancy some near future action and this might be the ticket.

Thanks

[gregmita]

Thanks for the heads-up! I've already ordered it.
Skimming through it, interesting that they adopted the Pulp Alley style "hero hitpoints" system with decreasing dice types. Only for special forces operators though.

[eilif]

Interesting. Our club played a few games of tomorrow's war when it was released and enjoyed it. Beautiful rulebook but kind of a mess of a layout that made it hard to learn how to play and difficult to reference rules.  Hopefully this new edition will be laid out better as the FOF system does have allot going for it

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Eilif I totally agree, I love my copy of Tomorrow’s war but found the colour choice and backgrounds do not make it the easiest text to read or reference.

Andrew
BALM

[Easy E]

A lot of folks read Tomorrow's War/Force-on-Force and try to do all the things! They think all the rules apply to every game.  They do not.   

The rules cover a lot of ground, but you should not really be using all of them all at once.  It is more of a toolbox, where you should only be picking out and using the rules that apply to the scenario you have built, and skipping the rest.  Sure, there are rules for hacking, artillery strikes, vehicle combat, medical evac, etc. but not every scenario needs all those things to be fun.     

The other big hurdle is that the "tactics" that are successful in other mini games just get you utterly pasted in Tomorrow's War/Force-on-Force.  Therefore, you have to "re-learn" how to play wargames when you pick up these rules.

[eilif]

A lot of folks read Tomorrow's War/Force-on-Force and try to do all the things! They think all the rules apply to every game.  They do not.   

The rules cover a lot of ground, but you should not really be using all of them all at once.  It is more of a toolbox, where you should only be picking out and using the rules that apply to the scenario you have built, and skipping the rest.  Sure, there are rules for hacking, artillery strikes, vehicle combat, medical evac, etc. but not every scenario needs all those things to be fun.     

The other big hurdle is that the "tactics" that are successful in other mini games just get you utterly pasted in Tomorrow's War/Force-on-Force.  Therefore, you have to "re-learn" how to play wargames when you pick up these rules.

That is very true.  It's a toolkit to do alot of things.  The difficulty with TW I think was finding the rules to do what you want, sometimes even for fairly basic games.   Still a great ruleset though and worth looking into for folks who want a "Realistic" take on combat and a functional, but not overly controlling reaction mechanic.

[Raedwald]

Hope this is good news to people and you’re as pleased/excited as I am.

Absolutely, this is great news! Thanks for flagging it.

I too really like the hard scifi, realistic simulation Tomorrow’s War provides. I find it so much more satisfying than the ‘IgoUgo line up massed forces and walk towards each other with both sides being massacred’ kind of games.

Having said that, like others, I found the Tomorrow’s War rulebook really challenging; with examples contradicting the main text, ambiguity and confusion throughout, the Hidden rules especially were just impenetrable… not to mention the fundamental mathematical flaw in the morale system.

Despite all that, there was a truly brilliant game buried in there, I really hope Next War delivers it more clearly.

I did hear that Force on Force was far better laid out, however, at the time when I decided to buy a copy to help me, Ambush Alley appeared to have died. So glad they’re back and relaunching this!

[sundayhero]

I like force on force, but I really hope they will improve the book layout , I mean the way you go thru the rules learning and then, the way you take rules references during games.



the book style, illustrations and overall quality is perfect