Lost Treasures: Round of Fire

More tidying and more games! Jez, I have a lot! Round of Fire is pretty unique when it comes to wargaming as far as I know. A real experimental game that took a lot of bravery to publish. Well done Lazy Forger!

What was memorable about Round of Fire?

Round of Fire’s crown jewel is its Wheel activation mechanism. Instead of rigid alternating turns, every action—movement, shooting, reaction—slides around a circular tracker. Each unit token sits on the rim, moving clockwise after its move, keeping players glued to the table as control continuously shifts. It was a mechanism that instantly resonated with me. As it happens, I had trialled a similar flow-type mechanism myself a few years back (because every wargamer is also a would-be game designer), employing a strip/timeline instead. The Lazy Forger's innovation is pretty cool - you could likely find some videos etc at the RoF Facebook Group.

The Wheel is a clock face where each miniature’s token sits on a spoke around the rim; when you activate a unit, you perform an Action (e.g., Move) then slide its token clockwise a number of notches equal to its characteristic (e.g., Speed) value. Once a Segment has been resolved, the next Segment (moving clockwise) is activated. This creates a constantly shifting turn order where activation decisions need to take account of the associated delay/time that it will take before a Unit can be reactivated. Really clever.

Different Units' Actions have different Wheel Segment 'costs' as detailed in on their Unit cards. E.g., a Shoot Action for a Regular Fire Team costs 5 Segments (i.e., Shooting will delay their next activation by 5 Segments/Turns) whilst a Shoot for an Elite Fire Team costs 3 Segments. All that detail is included on the game's cards and their production was top notch, as you can see by the various pictures I've lifted from the official site.

The army lists and factions - Rebels, Enlisted, Agency, Wastelanders, and Tech - are all as you'd expect with various buffs and penalties aplenty. Virtually all Units - Regulars, Assault Team, Insurgents, etc - have a straight point cost and employ Token costs to unlock upgrades or particularly specialised Units. The clever thing is that different Tokens cost different amounts for different Factions e.g., Rebels can access the Troops token for free (nil point cost) that allows them to incorporate relatively more units in their force, whilst the Troops Token for the Tech Faction is the most expensive - Tech get Accuracy for cheap and Techology Tokens for free. I recall list building was fun.

Another feature of the Factions is the different Rewards Charts. It runs with that Factional flavour and results in asymmetric Victory Point (VP) scoring opportunities during the game. For example, the Agency (highly trained, Spec Ops Corporate types) get no VP for killing enemies and 6VP for capturing them. Wasterlanders get 1VP for killing and 2VP for capturing enemies but only suffer a fraction of the penalty associated with having their allies KiA, MiA, or Wounded relative to Agency units. Clever. I never played the game enough to make a call as to whether things were suitably balanced, but it certainly looks like fun.

What could be sharper?

That Wheel tracker, while a great idea, can feel a bit detached once squads spread across the field. I found myself jumping between the board and the Wheel, hunting down which token comes next. An integrated stand or a companion app could anchor it more intuitively? I don't know TBH. Maybe it would better suit a vehicle game? There's an idea...

Employing Distance Unit (DU) concept adds another layer of flexibility. As a player, I find DUs annoying, but I can also understand why publishers employ them - it allows the game to play at any scale without a whole lot of conversion notes etc. Rather than measuring in inches, you speak in DUs, which adapt to any table size or miniature scale. While the game has a sci-fi setting, the rules include details for Black Powder and Medieval settings.

What next?

Round of Fire still has that spark of innovation I fell for years ago. With a few tweaks? it might be awesome. Have you given Round of Fire a whirl? How did you find it? I'd love to know.

PS the Lazy Forger didn't just run with Round of Fire - they've gone onto make numerous games including Full Spectrum Dominance which is presently very popular. I know me and my mates are keen to give it a try in the future! I suspect some of the Round of Fire-related game features/mechanics might be reflected in FSD... my impression of the Factions etc suggests that it also has a well thought out list building and Victory Point system.