WE BRING YOU HELLFIRE!

◗ wargamevault.com ◗ £4 - £9.50

Jim Webster, contributor and rules writer for this magazine, has produced a set of generic SF rules for 1/300th scale games. Obviously – with a title like Hellfire – I couldn’t resists the vague Arthur Brown reference in the title but what are they all about?

Mr Webster’s avowed intent is to produce something with no ’in game’universe, that is definitely figure and model agnostic. The new 2nd edition version I have is 50 pages in A4, printed in perfect-bound soft back and – other than a very nice cover – has no illustrations whatsoever inside. It’s written in a layout style best described as ‘comfortable word processor’: clear type in a good, easy-on-the-eye size and font and so – for those who always contact me saying that new rules systems nowadays are just‘too full of pretty pictures and flash’ – these should be right up their alley. Well, except that they are Sci-fi...

So what’s covered? It’d probably be easier to list what wasn’t. While there is no real attempt to include aerial or wet navy components, the game centres around battalion level engagements on the ground. Movement is in inches, all of the dice rolls seem to be using a d6 and the game system uses what I would call an interrupted IGOUGO approach: Player A goes through five distinct phases of firing and close combat but may be interrupted by return fire from Player B (with covering fire and‘on the way into combat’fire); then the roles are reversed with five phases for Player B with Player A interjections.

The game is heavily scenario based (half a dozen are supplied) plus there’s guidance on starting a campaign. Rules are available as a PDF or a print version and also from other outlets (Amazon amongst others).