Frontiers on Fire: 18th Century Skirmish Warfare in North America

Frontiers on Fire is a man-to-man skirmish wargame for warfare in 18th Century North America, mostly the French-and-Indian War and the American War for Independence. Too many skirmish games are simple systems where dice take a greater role in the game than tactics, decisions, or careful use of fire and movement. Frontiers on Fire allows each player to control a half dozen or so men, but takes some of control away from the player through model/character reactions to the players’ plans and to the situation the characters face. Skirmish games often have difficulty making a playable and interesting game while depicting realistic ranges, movement distances, and time. Frontiers on Fire uses a short turn (the time to load a musket) and ranges experienced by those fighting in the Eighteenth Century, not parade ground and firing range optimums. Percentage dice for shooting means many subtle factors can be taken into account, with a separate d10 for the effects of an effective shot. Hand-to-hand is by opposing d6, but even melee allows for tactical choices in the fight. Each turn, each model is secretly given an order chit such as fire, load, walk (and shoot if loaded or if pistol- or bow-armed), run, etc, although the particulars are defined only when the model activates in a randomized order with other models or groups of models. Leadership and group rules allow some co-ordination of actions and timing. Special events account for unusual occurrences and can both benefit a player, or interfere a good plan. The game system, as written, works for 54mm or 25/28mm figures, and 15mm models can be used if the ranges are adjusted. Frontiers on Fire’s author is a professional historian, specializing in the 18th Century, who also has decades of wargaming experience. The rules have been extensively play-tested by both veteran and novice ‘gamers. Frontiers on Fire provides realistic, challenging, playable, enjoyable, and even dramatic games.

Sequence of play:

 1) At the beginning of a turn, secretly choose an action chit for each character. Place the action chit face down on the character card or under their base.
 2) Roll 1d10 per force for activation sequence. Record results. Re-roll ties but stay within relative sequence to other forces with different rolls.
 3) Using the sequence just rolled, each force takes turn activating one character ‘on point’ (must be done before any group moves) OR any one group with a leader OR any stragglers (stragglers can only be activated after ALL group moves)

—description from the publisher