Tomorrow's War out in Oct '11

[mike954]

Ambush Alley Games is following up the popular Force on Force modern warfare rules with a built-from-scratch sci-fi ruleset. The goal was to leave scale and choice of minis up to players, and focus on a "hard" sci-fi feel of potentially possible high tech rather than a "fantasy in space" approach.

The date has slipped due to printing problems. However, there has been an update to the cover art:

Original cover art:

New cover:


As a purely optional inclusion in the book, AAG are including a setting and factions with a storyline that players are encouraged to use or not as they wish. Personally, I am looking forward to picking up some 1/144 (12mm to maybe 15mm) minis when this comes out- I've been looking at the Critical Mass Games minis as well as the Heavy Gear Blitz lines. Another option is trying out some 28mm minis I have with this system.

[Legionnaire]

Mmmm, looks tasty ;D. Do you know at what "size" it's going to be? Skirmish, platoond, divison, whole army? As a 28mm gamer that's probably what I'd go with.

[mike954]

Well, because Force on Force (FoF) and Tomorrow's War (TW) are quite flexible, the choice is yours in terms of the scope of the scenario. As you might expect, one will be limited by the size of the available gaming surface, number of available minis and of course, play time.

Personally, looking at the way FoF is set out, I would say anything up to multiple platoon level warfare is possible in an evening of gaming. The scenario games in FoF cover a wide range, from 12 strong fire teams facing off (a recreation of an encounter during the Falklands war) to larger scale clashes with several platoons and vehicles involved (Chechen conflict recreation). Any scale and make of minis can be used, which gives one a lot of options in the choice of minis.

Here's a link to a post in the Ambush Alley Games forum on the number of minis for starting off with TW:
ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=7078

In summary, gleaning info from this thread and others on the forum, for 2-3 hours' play one would be thinking in terms of:

• Smaller numbers for very elite, high tech level forces
  
• 35-40 infantry for a regular force, with 3-5 vehicles
  
• 70-80 infantry for a horde, with vehicles/ monstrous creatures
  
• at 15mm-20mm scale a 2'x2' play area for congested scenarios, 4'x4' for a more normal scenario
  
• for 28mm, I would guess 4'x4' for a congested scenario and 4'x6' for a normal one as the designers recommend increasing movement rates, and board size to compensate for the larger scale of minis