City Fight thoughts and experiences

By Benny Christiansen

*Table setup before the fight. We did not have a lot of city terrain available, so we had to do with this.*

One of the things I enjoy doing is to experiment. City Fight rules, found in the back of Enemy Of The Gates and Iron Cross books, were very interesting for me. I was preparing for a tournament at the time and thus did not have the time to pay much attention to them.

Going through the rules, I noted a few things before my first games.

First, smoke barrage seemed very effective. Filling a room with smoke seemed a good way to protect your assaulting units. Assaulting teams benefit from concealment and bulletproof cover when assaulting rooms, and with smoke, it could be potentially very, very difficult to stop an assault.

I really wanted to find out more about this, so I decided there and then, to make sure I would test a list that could fire smoke.

Rubble and Tree lines are suggested terrain features, and I have realized that in V4, I really love the infantry, and so I could see a chance to throw loads of infantry on the table and have fun.

First experience

My friend and I decided to try out the City Fight rules at one of our weekday evening battles, him playing Brits and me with Soviets. We failed to realize how big a difference the size of the rooms is, so we used normal BF houses, and put them together in a bundle of four to make out a building. We were playing “The House” Urban Assault mission with the small table size, 90*60 cm.

Fielding a City Fight list the first time, as well as finding that much infantry took a lot more time than expected.

The KVs are in. My artillery had ranged in on one room and kept pounding. The moment the KV’s came in, we could see that if he could not take them out, I could remove his force in that room before the turns ran out and assault it to claim the objective. He lost 1-2 teams pr turn to flamethrowers alone.

Our armies were infantry based, though I had brought three KV8 flame tanks as support. To be honest, I chose them to make the reserves easy. I made another mistake right there, in not realizing that my deployment zone is very small. The KV’s are awesome in City Fight if supported by infantry to ensure no sudden assaults on the tanks.

We ended up having a very quick game. I could not deploy all my forces in my deployment area but chose to have some guns along with infantry on the table. In retrospect, I should have deployed my KV’s along with HMG and a small platoon of Hero SMG infantry.

In the game, we found that due to having a very small area on the ground floor, it became extremely bloody during assaults, as any assault that got through, would take out the teams on ground floor first, and hope that the Counter Attack roll failed so the entire force in that room would die.

Here, we learned an important lesson. The houses HAVE to be big. The teams can deploy on any floor. The forces deployed on the ground floor have to be chosen carefully, as they might die instantly. So if you, like us, do not have the BF houses meant for this, make sure your houses have large enough rooms.

Second experience

The second set of games was held in the basement of my house. Since we will be playing in an event in February, where there might be City Fights, I decided to make two of the tables 120*120 so people could play either small or large City Fights. I also set up two normal size tables, one of them would be with the ruins one of my friends has made, inspired by Stalingrad. Since our play was a preparation for an event, as well as having a focus was on learning FOW/City Fight, no requirements were made in regards to painted units etc.

“The House” mission again. We set it up so that each room was 2 buildings, and that made a big difference.

We found that the bigger tables (120*120 cm) were fun and playable. If you did not, however, primarily field infantry, it would be very time consuming to go where the action is with your vehicles.

Fun is a relative term and as such, I encourage people to play with the smaller tables if you want to use tanks in the game. Roads in the city are limited to terrain dash, which makes sense, but it also means that city tables with a decent amount of terrain on it, will limit your mobility a lot. If you like it, as some of my guests did, larger tables allow for more maneuverability.

You should expect a lot of rule readings in the beginning, as with all new things. Other than that, a lot of dice rolls are to be expected also, and we all love that 🙂

90*60 table with a surrounding area for creating a mood.

Pictures of the 120*120 cm table:

Other Experiences

My list for the day contained three KV8s. I had expected them to die and, as mentioned above, I brought them to make any reserves easy to pick. I decided to try and field them against an American M1o force, where we played Fog Of War. I was pretty sure they would die horribly.

I found, however, that my concerns were a waste of time. Even though he dedicated two of his four M10s to shoot at my KV’s, He only managed a bail, as I was lucky/skilled enough to be able to keep them concealed at long range.

In my entire V4 MW experience, I have always felt that the American Sherman tanks were overpriced. I realized during this day, that Shermans have great potential. I must, however, state clearly, that I believe it requires a very skilled player to maximize the potential in this tank, as it is easy to hit. The Sherman’s front armor helps keep it viable, and so could a skilled use of smoke.

Two tables at normal size on tables that can be raised up or lowered as needed.

Red vs Red. In the first game, I had the pleasure of testing how the HMG platoon handles being shot at (bottom right). I found them positively thrilling to use, pinning my opponent over and over and over again.

How awesome is that table! I love it! Based on Stalingrad and a factory there. You might have read about it.

Østerskov experiences

Every year, in Denmark, we have a big event, Østerskov. Here we play a historic event. This year it was Stalingrad that was the theme. I took a list with three KV8 and four KV-1 along some Hero infantry.

I played a version of “The Factory” mission where the table was 120 cm * 120 cm instead of the normal size. We had 90 points lists with Firestorm Units, so the change of the size of the table made sense. However, the size of the building changed the game dramatically. My opponent had the advantage in numbers and artillery, where my force had flamethrower KVs that could threaten any room, but due to the size of the building, he could “hide” from me on the other side.

All in all, he also had a more “city fight” type of list with assault groups and lots of flamethrowers in the teams. My HMG platoon managed to do very well and kept him from assaulting for many turns. In the end, however, I lost. I find City Fight to be very intense and entertaining.

The only downside seems to me, is that it was very much focused on getting the defensive fire down to a point where you could assault, and when you assault, usually, you obliterate the opponent. I wonder if that is the case in most situations?

Have you played City Fights mission? to discuss the tactics and play styles for these new additions to FOW V4. Not a member of our forums? Just send Iron-Tom an email and he’ll get you set up with a login. .