Monday 23 April 2012

15mm.Co.Uk releases HOF Fire Team

This one has been a long time coming!



Let's flash back to 2010 for a moment.  Gavin at 15mm.Co.Uk asked Mark to lead the playtesting for their in-development game system.  Mark opened it up to the world, and many of us signed up for the playtest on Yahoo! Groups.  Personally, I had a good time during that playtest... even broke out the boards and notes and played a few games after that period ended. :)

Well, HOF Fire Team is here at last.  Rather than an open-terrain tabletop wargame, HOF-FT is a miniatures-board game hybrid.  The game is played on a collection of specially designed "Battle Boards," which means the game can be enjoyed with very little space.  And each side only has three fire teams - most games can be played with just 24 total figures.

The game retails for £8.00, and each of the three Battle Board tile packs retail for £4.00.

My personal copy hasn't arrived yet, so the full review will have to wait.  But we at least wanted to break the news of its release.  And share this special gift from Gavin and the folks at 15mm.Co.Uk...


In appreciation to Mark and all the Dropship Horizon passengers who helped develop this game, we have been presented with this special bundle offer.  The normal retail price for the game and all three tile packs is £20.00.  For the same price, the Dropship Horizon Bundle includes a FREE pack of HOF63 Zidhe Infantry and HOF67 Zidhe Jetbikes.  That's a complete army for our first HOF-FT games.  

Stay tuned for a review of HOF-FT, along with a behind-the-scenes interview with Gavin. 

Cheers,
Chris

11 comments:

  1. At the risk of seeming like a jerk...I'm not impressed with any of what I see with this. It really looks like an attempt at 15mm Spacehulk, and even the less than attractive artwork seems to try to emulate 40k designs. I could be dead wrong on all of this...but I don't think I'll be spending any time with this one.

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    1. I definitely see what you're saying. But there is almost no similarity between HOF-FT and Space Hulk.

      Alternative Armies released their first version of Firefight around 1990, if I remember correctly. That game brought us the Ion Age universe - which actually had a more "knightly" space setting than Games Workshop's own Space Marines did at the time. 40K is far more prominent these days, but the Ion Age has maintained a loyal following through the decades.

      The mechanics of HOF-FT (at least, during the early playtest) were almost like playing Ghost Recon on the tabletop. Keep an eye for our review, along with more history and background straight from the designers.

      If Gavin Syme is reading this - hopefully he can jump in and link you to some better information about the Ion Age and its history. :)

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  2. I have just headed over to DSH and read this post. What Chris says is pretty much right. The Ion Age is twenty years old and HOF FT has nothing to do with 'Space Hulk' or any other game universe but its own.

    The interview Chris has arranged on the game will have more information but anyone who is interested in the Ion Age can go along to Alternative Armies website ( http://www.alternative-armies.com/Ion_Age_Science_Fiction.htm ) and Barking Irons Online ( http://www.barkingirons.co.uk/j/game-systems/moth ) to learn more.

    Thanks,

    Gavin Syme
    www.gavinsyme.co.uk

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  3. I will do that. I love giving all games a fair shake, wih my complete disillusion to all things GW related the very look of anything similar is a turn off. In all fairness, it may very well be a great game. GRUNTZ was a hard sell at me at first too...now I love it.

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  4. user@example.com26 April 2012 at 07:08

    I just got paid and wanted to buy this, but the site's down. I hope this means it was incredibly popular and the rush of orders used up their bandwidth for the month.

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    1. user@example.com26 April 2012 at 09:41

      Or not. Works now!

      While I wait for the review, would someone mind answering a couple of simple questions?

      The page says three fire teams a side for a quick game - what sort of size forces does the game reasonably go up to? Is a more typical game two squads, or is it designed around those smaller forces?

      What size board would be used for that? From what I remember of the copy of Firefight! I skimmed once, about 2x2 to 3x3 in tiles?

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    2. Typically four troops per fire team, twelve troops per side, twenty four figures per game. Some larger models (bikes, etc) will reduce the model count. So it would work well with figures from existing armies, and it wouldn't cost much to collect a good variety of playable HOF-FT forces.

      The battlefield (at least during the playtest) is usually nine boards, with nine squares per board. All of my playtest games were played on a small tray table, roughly a 12" x 18" space.

      So ultimately, it's designed to be a fun and small game. Something to satisfy the itch when you don't have time to drag out the big game table and terrain pieces. :)

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    3. user@example.com26 April 2012 at 17:00

      Nine squares per board? I thought they were 6x6?

      The size sounds about perfect, and I have a few ideas for repurposing a squad or two from other armies... after all, in the grim darkness of the far future black pyjamas and an AK will always be in fashion for the rebels, right?

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    4. Oops, you're right. :) And I don't know about that force... most of my rebels seem to be wearing cultists' robes or trench coats...

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    5. You were right. The website simply collapsed under the number of users! Of course it was during the night so we did not see it until morning but it was up and running by 11am GHT. The price of success!

      Gavin Syme.

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  5. Each set of our own HOF Tiles contains nine terrain tiles and three scenic tiles to be cut up. This for me at least is the standard size area for a normal game. I have played on 2x2 tiles and also on four sets meaning 6x6 tiles. The biggest force was two full platoons (five teams each) per side.

    You can use ANY miniatures you want, it is totally generic.

    Thanks.

    Gavin Syme.

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