Matthew Jones
United States
Forest Grove
Oregon
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Ambush Alley Review
This is my first review here on the 'Geek, so be gentle while you're being mean.
I'd like to take some time to discuss Ambush Alley for you. It comes from Shawn and Robby Carpenter and Dave Phipps who have a steadily growing number of people populating their website at www.ambushalleygames.com. Ambush Alley (or AA) is a minis game that can be picked up in a relatively short period of time and plays in about an hour.
I enjoy the game and here's why.
AA is a squad-level game set in any of the world's current urban hotspots. Its current version pits Regular Army troops against "Insurgent" or militia fighters. Its easy game play and lack of large numbers of charts leave it pretty wide open to interpretation about which war you're fighting. You want the US in Iraq? Soviets in Afghanistan? Somalia? Balkans? Main Street USA a la Red Dawn? Just choose your minis.
Is it fun? Heck yeah. As you read this think about Blackhawk Down, either the movie or the book, because I think this is the flavor that these three guys have captured.
Setup
You choose one of five current scenarios (with more on the way) that have objectives for the regular troops, objectives for the insurgents, and a list of the forces that each side gets. The scenario also lists any Asset Cards your side receives as well as how many Fog of War cards to choose. Assets are just that, attached APC's or weapons teams that can increase your performance on the battlefield. Fog of War cards are the Chance Cards of the game, could be good for you could be bad.
Then you set up your map according to a nifty little picture on each scenario page (or your wishes) and place the insurgents and regulars on the map in the appropriate spots.
Dice
AA uses the BoD principle, you'll need up to 10 dice of d6, d8, d10, and d12. I'm playing with mostly d6, d8 and d10. For most die rolls, you have to beat a target number: 4. The more skilled your troops, the higher sided dice get used. Plain old insurgents get a bunch of d6 to reach that 4, and each level of training goes up a type of die.
Untrained - d6
Trained - d8
Veteran- d10
Special Forces -d12
So theoretically the higher skilled you are, the more chances to beat the number you have on a roll. But Veterans and Uber-soldiers still fail, something I personally appreciate in a game.
Gameplay
AA uses squad level movement based in inches on your table/floor. Squads are based around "leaders." Leaders are more important to Insurgents than to Regulars in the game, as Regular squads are cross-trained on each other's jobs. But for insurgent squads, leaders allow those groups to engage the Regulars without making a morale check.
Squads get two Ratings: Troop Quality and Morale. Troop Quality gets used for Attacking, Defending, and Initiative, while Morale gets used once the squads start taking casualties.
Movement and Interruptions
Instead of the traditional I-go-You-Go (Ogre), or cards (Mem44 and C&C:A), or phases (LnL and PG), Ambush Alley simplifies the Initiative process. The Initiative always goes to the Regulars. Regulars start their movement and can choose three levels of movement, Halted (overwatch), Cautious (6 in.), or Rapid (12 in.).
Once half of the squad is in LOS of an insurgent unit, those insurgents may make an "interruption." An interruption is when an Insurgent unit gets to attempt to pop up and fire upon the Regulars, thus interrupting their movement or action.
As I mentioned earlier, when Insurgent groups have leaders attached, the Insurgents and Regulars simply make a Troop Quality roll each. If the Insurgents are successful in interrupting they get to fire first, if the Regulars are successful, it's their turn to fire first. Beware firing first, because combat in AA can be swift and deadly.
Fire Combat
Attack and Defense are accomplished by each side rolling a number of Troop Quality dice.
The attacker gets to roll the number of weapons in the squad plus any heavier weapons that may be brought to bear (grenade launchers, .50 cal, RPG/LAW, etc.) They also get an extra die for being in Optimal Range. The range of all weapons is off the map, but if you're inside the Optimal Range, you're considered to be within the range where the weapons get more deadly. Optimal ranges vary from weapon type to weapon type.
The defender gets to roll Troop Quality equal to the number of men in the squad plus bonus dice for being under cover, behind hard cover, and a couple of other situations.
You roll the dice and compare the attack vs the defense. If the attacker rolls higher than a 4, it’s a hit! However if the defender rolls are equal to or higher than the attacker's rolls, then the hits are ineffective. Each side maxes out the number of dice rolled in a combat situation at 10 dice.
Casualties
When the attacker hits with more dice than the defender can negate, casualties occur. Regular casualties become Dependants and reduce the combat effectiveness of the squad since someone is busy carrying the wound man who's also not shooting.
Most of the time I play that Insurgent casualties are ignored by the group, though I suppose there's no reason you couldn't play with the rule for both sides. I think it's intended to simulate the no-man-left-behind idea of the Western militaries.
Morale is figured by rolling your morale die-type for each soldier in the squad and seeing how many 4 or above rolls you can make. If more than half your squad botches the roll, it has bad consequences for the unit. Insurgent units actually melt away for every 1 you roll.
Vehicles
Vehicles are included in the game and you can certainly play with them. I prefer to play without them, having my regulars doing foot patrols. However I have made up my own scenarios about a convoy attempting to get itself out of an ambush zone.
Vehicles basically work on the same principles as the men, their movement is farther, they can absorb more punishment, and their guns are more powerful, most of the time.
End of Turn
At the end of a turn, the insurgents roll a d6 against what is called the Insurgency Level. Basically if they roll higher than the number, it nets them some reinforcements, which is cool because it's like the fighters in the neighborhood are coming to each other's aid mirroring some of the situations I've heard about in recent wars. These reinforcements come from any direction potentially through the use of a mechanic called "Hotspots" Hotspots are numbered areas (1-5) where the Insurgent players rolls a d6 to find out where his reinforcements show up. I've played games where reinforcements cost the Regulars their victory by appearing right on the line of march. I've also had games where reinforcements are so out of place, they don't really get into battle effectively.
Solo
The reinforcements rules are the first part of a 1-2 punch that makes AA fun solo as well. Besides the possibility of having insurgents pop up in your "cleared" areas, AA also includes full behavior charts for the insurgent, "if this, then this" style. It seems daunting at first, but really the charts are common sense Leaderless groups will try to find leaders before attacking, Groupless leaders likewise, once they're together, then the advance on your positions. It's pretty fun.
Other Rules
The game also has house clearing, snipers, IEDs, car-bombs, Predators, Artillery, and on and on.
Potential pitfalls for players
I personally had some difficulties differentiating between the weaponry types for vehicles and those for infantry. A Heavy infantry weapon like an RPG is more like a Medium vehicular weapon (my confusion here is probably a big part of my reluctance to use vehicles.
I have also read on another new wargame (Eisenbach Gap) that some people are not so fond of the Bucket of Dice method. If you don't like it, I would still certainly give this game a try (it has free teaser rules available) just to see, but the game is what it is. You probably don't even need to invest any money into it. Go steal your kids legos after the go to bed and play a game or two.
Personal Opinion Time
IMHO the Bucket of Dice method works here to keep the action moving. There are no CRTs, no +1DRMs, no column shifts, no blocks (but you could do that if you wanted). This to me is its strength. I like the fact that I've gamed a scenario this evening before I typed this review. I personally don't have the time to set up a whole game of ASL, much less play it while checking all the tables for hits or not.
Ambush Alley's combat is in some ways abstracted, hits against a group of insurgents can simply have them melting away, so in some ways it's not about blood and guts (and Tables), it's more about combat effectiveness. Almost a platoon-level game that maneuvers on a squad scale.
I also think this game captures the intensity of urban combat (from what I've read in the histories). In this game if you can get a squad on overwatch in the building above an intersection, you can get a 2nd squad out into the intersection to rescue the trapped helo pilots, or protect the sniper while he moves into position. If you can get two squads out to overwatch, you own the intersection, except for really bad luck (which does happen)
If you bog down in this game, you start taking casualties. So even though the Regulars get to move first each turn; if you're the Regular player you can lose the initiative of the whole battle by getting stuck in an area. For me the highest compliment I can give is that the game plays like reading (or watching) Blackhawk Down.
Hope this helps you if you're on the fence about this game. It's certainly worth the $25 pricetag in my opinion. And the support/service you're getting is phenomenal!!!! Two thumbs way up on that one, AAgames.
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Crusher Crancko
Spain
Granollers
Barcelona
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Great review and totally agree....
Also I would add that with a small budget you can buy all the minis in 15mm you need to play all the scenarios.
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Antonio Chavez
United States
Laredo
Texas
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Excellent review. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions.
See, I'm not a miniatures man. The closest I've come to that is MageKnight, and only for a couple of games. However, this sounds like a lot of fun, so I was wondering; besided the rules, what do I need to buy to get a good experience? How many miniatures? Also, does the game include some terrain, or do you have to buy/make that?
I just don't know anything about miniature gaming (other than the gorgeous pictures I've seen here) and would love to get into it.
Regards.
Antonio.
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Matthew Jones
United States
Forest Grove
Oregon
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I purchased 2 boxes of Cesari's 1/72 (20mm) minis, the Modern US Infantry and the Urban Resisters. That's about 40 of each type. Long story short, you need a max of 4 fireteams of 4 men each plus a Corporal for the Military. And for the Insurgents you need probably about 20-25 total. You could theoretically get more on the board, but your fireteams tend to chew them apart pretty quickly.
That's US$11, plus 1 bottle of Elmer's School glue (no I didn't swipe it from a student, but I was tempted  ) plus 3-4 bottles of Ceramcoat paint for the US Soldiers. So just about $20 plus the game.
I'm painting them right now. I've never had minis before in my life and I think I'm taking a slightly longer process than most mini's painters.
I started off washing the figures. I super glued them to nickels, pennies and dimes, which provide the perfect basing material. Then I coated them in Elmers glue, which dries as the primer coat. Then I'm painting the figures.
I'm gonna post pictures as soon as I get it all done.
OH YEAH, the other thing I have done... I purchase "Desert Village" by papermodels.at. You can google those or go to RPGnow where I got them. I have seen a bunch of guys using $100-$180 sets but I gotta say I'm impressed with the quality of the paper models. I also have never made a paper model in my life; so I think these are easy to do, since I'm good at them.
Hope that helps, like I said, I may post a few pictures, or at least spice up my review...
MJ
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Mike Brown
United States
Ohio
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Alright, you guys are really talking me into this game. More pics please. I have some of the Caesar minis you are talking about and forgot all about them. - Thanks.
US
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=CAE&code...
MUR
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=CAE&code...
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Aron Clark
United States
Los Gatos
California
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Mongoose Publishing did a near future set, Battlefield Evolution, with pre-painted miniatures that has now been discontinued. Our FLGS is clearing the inventory at 50%. With a little luck you can probably find these on discount as well.
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If you just want to test out the system... here's a cheap way to get soldiers. I'm surprised by the variety they have.
http://www.juniorgeneral.org/modern.htm#others
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Mike NZ
New Zealand
LOTR
New Zealand
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Great review! Is it possible to play Vietnam scenarios-say street fighting in Hue or jungle terrain at all please?
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Jeremy Fridy
United States
Kent
Ohio
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I would assume it's not to hard, but they were working on a book called Ambush VALLEY, that would put the system back in 'Nam.
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