Burmese days: Firefight’s juicy jungle scraps

The Close Combat-esque Firefight has matured splendidly during the past twelve months. Dipping into its cache of seventy-two South-East Asian/Pacific Theatre engagements this week, I’ve been struck by the way sage improvements such as new order types and infantry formation options have enriched the game’s tense top-down tactical tussles without compromising one of PC wargaming’s most elegant command systems. If developer Sean O’Connor could fix the occasional crashes and furnish some minor play tweaks, I’d have no problem describing his creation as the finest WW2 Burma wargame money could buy.

For the unversed, Firefight is a multi-front £13 RTT in which you orchestrate infantry squads, weapons teams, and AFVs via effortless ‘footprint’ dragging.

As in CC, morale and cover are paramount, and vehicles can be slain by single AP rounds or AT rockets. Although no campaigns are included, 27 maps – each the venue of eight scenarios – plus a skirmish generator…

and mod support…

mean there’s little risk of early burn-out.

During the past twelve months, in addition to increasing FF’s faction count, AFV diversity, and map selection, Sean has honed vehicular pathfinding and spiced-up infantry combat by adding new order types. Players can now order footsloggers to advance in arrowhead formation as well as column and line, and to sneak, hold fire, and re-mount halftracks.

These changes, together with some lovely SE Asian maps, and the game’s uncommonly dense Fog of War, have resulted in a diversion that depicts jungle warfare most persuasively.

If, like me, you’re willing to overlook the fact that dwellings on maps such as Jelawat Village and Jalang River Delta probably provide too much cover, that Japanese troops surrender slightly too readily, and AFVs are a mite too common. Assuming you can tolerate the occasional crashes (which thankfully aren’t too disruptive because of autosaves) and the odd repetitive vocal cue, then there’s a good chance FF’s tropical engagements – in fact, all of its engagements – will beguile.

I’d argue Firefight is at its most beguiling when dense vegetation is disrupting sight lines, and ephemeral text is dotting the screen.

In FF, when one of your men catches a bullet or a chunk of shrapnel, the precise nature of the injury is communicated via a terse message in the top-left of the display. When a foe falls, generally the chap responsible, announces his success with a short speech-bubbled outburst.

When wounded soldiers call for medics, they aren’t simply contributing to a cacophonous soundscape. Zoom in on the unfortunate casualty and you might actually see a comrade dash to his side to administer first aid.

Inspired touches like these make this one of the most human and dramatic wargames in my collection.