Authors: Paul Cockburn and Geoff Pass
Company: Alternative Armies
Format: Paperback with card sheets and cover
ISBN: 1-873997-01-9
Overview: What's that you say? You've never heard of Firefight? Well that's probably because the game was really bad. Sometime in 1991 I stopped in at a game store that I often visited and found an entire range of new miniatures on the shelves. The name of this new line of miniatures was Alternative Armies. They had a line of both fantasy and science fiction miniatures. It was obvious that Alternative Armies intended thier miniatures to be a substitute for Citadel miniatures. Firefight was a miniatures game that Alternative Armies made to go with their sci-fi miniatures.
I don't believe that Firefight was ever intended to be a real contender in the sci-fi miniatures game market. Back then Rogue Trader both dominated and defined the genre. Firefight could not hope to compare with Rogue Trader (what game can even today?). Firefight had none of the things that made Rogue Trader successful. It seems that Alternative Armies released Firefight to somehow legitamize their 'alternative' miniatures.
Firefight has its own background that allows it to explain the existance of some of Alternative Armies borrowed imagery. There are basically three sides or nations in the Firefight universe the Free Companies, the Imperial Commonwealth, and the Shia Khan. The Free Companies are a small group of worlds that are all that remains of a once united human empire. They are defended by the Crusaders and the Templars, the miniatures for them look suspiciously like space marines. The Imperial Commonwealth are ruled by the colonial elite that over threw the old human empire. The Shia Khan are an alien empire that uses conquered humans and other aliens, such as goblins, as soldiers in its armies. Many of the humans in the Firefight universe worship a messiah like ruler, Alexander Pendragon. The cover of the game depicts a large gothic style cathedral with troops from the Free Companies in the foreground.
The basic system for Firefight revolves around rolling 'Action Dice'. Depending on the troop type and the action that they are trying to perform you get to roll a number of D6. Now in general any '6' that is rolled is a hit and any '1' rolled is a dodge, while numbers two through five are general actions. How this works is I nominate a target, then roll the appropriate number of dice. If I don't roll any 6's then I can't shoot at the target. Any 1's that I roll are saved as dodges. If I get a 6 then the target must use a 1 that he has rolled to dodge my shot. If you don't roll any 1's and are targeted with a successful hit then that miniature gets shot. Now if a miniature rolls multiple 6's then his target must have a 1 to dodge each hit or gets shot. General actions let you move, press buttons, perform first aid, etc.
Pros: Firefight did introduce something that we would see a lot of in the future. It came with a lot of card sheets. These sheets had the all important map squares, but also equipment and weapon cards. There were also event cards that could be drawn to provide unexpected random events that you could unleash on your opponent. The developement of 40K's weargear and strategy cards may have been influenced by these.
Cons: I have briefly described how the rules work already. Now I must admit that the system is with out a doubt the most novel and original that I have encountered. The rules for Firefight are just plain goofy! You only have a limited control of what a miniature does. Its all up to the luck of the dice. You may want a miniature to stand and shoot at an exposed enemy and he rolls nothing but dodges and general actions. Or you may want to have a trooper snap off a shot and move to cover only to have him stand and fire a hail of well placed shots!
The randomness of the system seems to have been meant to provide tension, you never know exactly what will happen. Instead the game is just frustrating. One of the main elements of a miniature wargame is moving and controlling you forces while you try to lead them to victory. This element is totally absent from Firefight.
Another feature of miniatures games is that they have a strong visual appeal. Firefight can only be played on a grid and unless you want to make more you only have the eighteen small map pieces that come with the rules. While the map pieces that come with the rules are in color and well illustrated they can never compete with a true tabletop miniatures game. You can't really make terrain or game boards for the system as it is totally dependent on the use of a grid.
Miniatures: Alternative Armies made an extensive line of miniatures for Firefight. Truly the miniatures existed before the game did. The quality of the miniatures ranged from good to very poor. Of the fantasy and sci-fi miniature lines I only liked a few of the sci-fi ones and none of the fantasy figures. I haven't seen any miniatures from Alternative Armies in a long time. I thought that they had gone out of business. Just the other day I was looking at an online store and they had some! Though they didn't seem to have any of the sci-fi miniatures listed, let alone Firefight the game.
