Foxhole: Utah Beach

Foxhole is a series of board wargames planned to cover a number of important battles of World War II and later those of other wars from the Napoleonic Wars to the War on Terror. Players assume the roles of Divisional or Corps commander. Although there are other ways to play the game, in the historical scenarios the goal is not to "win", but rather to do better than the historical commanders whose role the players have overtaken. The series' scale encompasses both the Operational and Tactical levels. Although the product is a wargame its publishers prefer to call it a simulation. It is developed by game designer Glenn Davis and published by Diffraction Entertainment, Ltd. based in Scotland, UK. Foxhole's first product Utah Beach can be played by two to six players, while future installments are to allow additional players. The product comes with three ways to play the game: 1) The historical scenario that comes with each product where the goal is to do better than the historical results, 2) A competitive (called tournament-style in the rulebook) system with over two dozen orders similar to Warhammer 40k like sieze and hold, rearguard action, etc. where your goal is to "beat" your opponent to the goal. Interestingly, in this version you each take one of the hexagonally shaped maps, set up your forces, and then push them together, giving you a bit of fog of war. 3) TSWW conversion: Although seemingly not fully supported in the original product, the rulebook implies that with later releases of TO&E data players will be able to play out TSWW battles at the Foxhole scale, giving gamers the first opportunity ever to play out World War II at the company scale ... everywhere. As for playing the game; the following is ripped straight from the rulebook: "A Primer on Foxhole™ in 400 Words or Less Each Player Turn consists of 6 essential Phases: Supply-Movement Phase: Units which are adjacent to enemies, plan on firing an artillery barrage or conduct an Activity this turn must Trace Supply instead of do anything this Phase. Otherwise they may move as usual. Barrage Phase: Barrages may be fired this Turn by Sorties and Artillery. In the case of Artillery, they must have Traced Supply in the prior Phase and not move in the next in order to do so. Note that the Reacting Player may also be able to fire Barrages. Activities-Movement Phase: It is during this Phase and only if the Unit Traced Supply in the Supply-Movement Phase that Units may conduct Activities other than Movement such as digging entrenchments, demolishing them, bridges, etc., crossing a river or un-pin a Vehicle Platoon (which represents Vehicles bogged down). Units may also move unless they fired a Barrage in the prior Phase. Combat Phase: There are two kinds of Combat and each hex may be attacked only once. Assaulting allows Units to enter and, if successful, secure a hex. Its disadvantages are that it allows the opposing Player to make Covering Fire against your Assaulting Units, you have less terrain benefits and are limited to 4 Units Assaulting the Hex. By contrast, Fights allow Units to attack enemy Units from range and has none of the above hindrances, but cannot secure a Hex and is less likely to do serious damage to the opposition. Motorized Movement Phase: Motorized Units are all Vehicle Platoons plus any other Unit with the little wheels at the bottom. Any of such Units can move during this Phase. In lieu of moving, they may instead make a 50/50 attempt to Un-pin themselves from the hex (but they couldn't have moved anyway). Vehicle Assault Phase: During this Phase Vehicles Platoons (not all Motorized Units) may make Assaults. Full Turn: A Full Turn consists of Weather Determination and Forecasting followed by a Player Turn from each Player. The Offensive Player always goes first, which is also the Allied Player in the Utah Beach Historical Scenario. There are three Full Turns each Day representing the Morning, Afternoon and Night. Preceding each Morning Turn and the beginning of the day both Players should conduct a Dawn Briefing." - Foxhole Rulebook, page 36. The only thing the above misses is a fun little weather forecasting and resolution where players forecast the weather two turns ahead of time, and it may or may not actually end up being the weather they thought it was going to be (but *probably* will), adding a lot a pressure/tenseness as the commanders look overhead to see whether those clouds will clear up, start a drizzle, or remain overcast as predicted.