Fields of Fire Rulebook

Statesmans Rulebook

Introduction

As humanities grasp on the mysteries of science tightens the power gained by

technology increases dramatically. This in turn widens the gap between rich and
poor until the two could be thought of as separate species. As mankind spreads
itself throughout the galaxy small empires rise up to try and seize their own
share in new territory. The rich make a profit from this expansion while the poor
are oblivious to the rest of the galaxy. The power the rich wield is so tremendous
that they become godlike, able to make an unstable, volcanic planet sprout
forests and seas within a few years. They can travel across the stars in a blink of
an eye and are practically immortal. They run the galaxy, though the poor
struggle to make their mark on local events.

In Fields of Fire, you take on the role of a leader in your empire. You are a
member of the poorer people with access to only limited technologies. The
decisions you make will affect your people for all eternity and if you can become
powerful enough, you will be able to influence events spanning many millions of
kilometres. The choices you make matter, so make the right ones.

What does Fields of Fire mean to the Statesman?

Fields of Fire is ultimately a game about running the military of your very own
empire. As the Statesman you take the role of the head of the military of your
country. You might be the Secretary for Defence, the highest ranking General or
perhaps the monarch of a military dictatorship; whatever back story you want to
add to your country will create some flavour for your game.

Because Fields of Fire is such a big game, you may want to share the load of
command with other people. This will not only provide a fun time for more
players but will also present new challenges and opportunities. The exact role
you have in your countries success may differ. The rules covered in this
document are those that relate to the running of the country as a whole, such as
recruiting soldiers, capturing territory and building cities.

How this book works

This book is one of three rulebooks that outline the rules for playing Fields of Fire.
You do not need to read all three books, especially if you are leaving other parts
of the game to other players, though it is suggested you do read them so you
have a better understanding of how the game works and how your decisions will
affect the rest of the game. In some parts of this book, one of the other two
rulebooks are referred to, to simplify the learning of the rules. This simply means
that there are more detailed things to learn regarding that part of the game that,
as the Statesman, may have little effect on your choices, at least initially.

There will also be times that the rules refer to The Dossiers and/or The
Catalogues. These are the files that are often updated by Red Scar Gaming as
the Fields of Fire game changes. You will not have to buy a new copy every time
an update comes out because, upon buying this book, you can go onto
redscargaming.webs.com to view the Dossiers and Catalogues at any time.

Admittedly there will be parts in this book that may not make sense the first time
you read them despite trying to make this rulebook as simple as possible. Dont
worry, if you have any questions you can jump onto the Red Scar Gaming
website and ask either our staff or your fellow gamers for some help. Fields of
Fire is designed to be as realistic as possible but to be kept fairly simple. This
means that there will be some things left out from a real life situation. Of course,
if you wanted to have a fully realistic experience running a military, just join the
military.

Game Concepts
Before going into the details of the rules we will have a look at some of the terms
and concepts that Fields of Fire uses. This will make the rules themselves easier
to understand and make it easier for you to refer back to if need be. This
chapter will help explain many of the rules later on in the book.

Maps
Fields of Fire as a whole is played on a massive scale, a whole galaxy in fact.
This leads to a near numberless range of possibilities for the gamer. Just as in a
real military, Fields of Fire uses maps and co-ordinates to keep track of where
everything is.

Firstly, the galaxy is divided into seven levels or layers, a bit like the layers in a
cake. These layers are +3, for the top layer, then down to +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 and
-3 at the bottom. These layers are simply to make the mapping process a little
easier on everyone. You are more than able to move between these layers, so
long as the rules will allow you to.

Each layer is divided into hundreds of Sectors, these are simply numbers, a
different one assigned to each sector. Each Sector is divided into a ten by ten
grid, representing ten light years by ten light years. The horizontal axis of this
grid is divided A through to J and the vertical axis is divided 0 to 9. This gives
every square its own co-ordinate.

Some of these grid squares have a star system in them. The make-up of each of
these star systems varies greatly. There may be dozens of small planets
orbiting a star, maybe one large one with many moons or even nothing at all.
Each System as it is known has a number for each body orbiting the star made
up of two numbers. The first of these two numbers refers to the place in the
system, the first planet is in place 1, the second in place 2 and so on. If the
orbiting body is the main body orbiting at that distance (usually a planet) it will
have a 0 after the first number. If the body is also orbiting another body (in the
case of a moon or asteroid or even a vast space-station) then the second number
will tell where it is orbiting around that body. Once again the first is listed
number 1 and the second 2, third 3 and so on. This numbering will give each
body of significant size a different number. To give an example, a particular
system has five planets orbiting the star, numbered 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50. The
first two planets have no moons so they will sit by themselves. The third planet
has a small moon orbiting it though, which is labelled 31. The fourth planet has
three moons orbiting it which are listed as 41, 42 and 43.

Each body in the system is referred to as a Planet regardless of whether it is a

planet, a moon or something else. Each planet is divided up in a similar way to
the galaxy, with numbered maps, each divided into a ten by ten grid. The
sections your planet is divided into are called Maps and each square the maps
are divided into are called Tiles. Each tile is a one hundred kilometre by one
hundred kilometre square, making each map a thousand kilometres on each
side. Tiles are given co-ordinates in the same manner as star systems; the
horizontal is a letter, the vertical a number.

Keeping track of ones place in the galaxy is obviously a big task. This is kept
simply by using the various numbers and co-ordinates provided by the tiles,
maps and so on. Each part of the map, whether it is a layer of the galaxy or a
tile on some distant moon, is given its own unique reference code which not only

lets players know which planet or sector they are on, but also lets them know
where they are in relation to everyone else. A specific tile for example may have
the code +2:8F3:22:12G6. This may look daunting at first but you will get used
to using this system very quickly. As you can see each code is divided into four
sections. The first tells you which layer you are on, the second the system, then
the planet, then the tile. So for this example, this code refers to a place on layer
+2 in Sector 8 in system F3 on the second moon of the second planet on map 12
on tile G6. If you wanted to refer to just the system for example you would only
uses the first two sections, only listing whatever information is required. At least
at first, when you are only in contact with people who are on the same planet or
even the same map as you, you can just simply skip the first two or three
sections. Everyone at your gaming group knows what planet you are on; they
just want to know which tile your troops are on.

Time
As with just about every game ever invented, Fields of Fire is played in turns. To
the Statesman (and the General) these turns are called Days. As the name
suggests, each day represents a day in the life of your empire. Throughout all
the rulebooks you will find that things may take a day or per day. This
simply means that it will take one turn for the rule to take effect or the action to
be followed through. If a rule states that something will take a Week then it
will take seven days thus seven turns to complete. When playing a game of
Fields of Fire with other people you will need to make sure that all of you are on
the same day and keep up with each other. This will not be as critical to the
Statesman as it will be to the General but so long as everybody is within a few
days of each other than it should be close enough.

Also in Fields of Fire there are seasons on planets that have them. These are just
the four you are probably familiar with; summer, autumn, winter and spring.
While theses seasons may not be as neatly defined as you may be familiar with,
their effect on the planet is the same.

Each planet has a certain number of days in the year and, depending on what
planet you are on and where, the season will change over time at set times. In
winter the climate is colder and in summer it is hotter which has a small but
important effect on your soldiers and therefor how your empire is run. The
exact effect the seasons have is outlined later.

Resources

For your empire to grow and your armies to survive you will need an income.
Each tile will provide you with some Resources. There are four types of
resource; Population, Industry, Fuel and Food. Each one is important in its own
right and you will need a good supply of all of them to run a successful military.
In the Map Stats Dossiers you find that each tile on a planet is listed with the
amount of each resource the tiles gives to players.

Population is the first resource listed in the Map Stats Dossiers. This indicates
how many able bodied people will be able to fight in your army at any one time.
You do not gain population on a daily basis like you do the other resources; it is
totalled to provide you with a maximum number of soldiers you can have under
your command. So for example a small country of four tiles has Populations of
2500, 3500, 4000 and 6000. This means that at any one time you may only
have up to 16000 soldiers under your command. If your soldiers die than they
may be replaced as soon as your capabilities allow, but so long as you do not
exceed this limit you can arrange your soldiers in whatever fashion you wish.

Industry represents the amount of money per day that the country allocates to
the military. Each day you will receive the amount of money generated by each
tile you control. This means that the more tiles you control the more money you
will get. A few other factors decide on the final total you will receive but for now
all you have to worry about is how much money you get from each tile. The Map
Stats Dossiers give this value in $, but feel free to substitute your own currency
or even a made up one so long as the numbers stay the same.

Fuel is one of the most important things in warfare. It is used for getting your
vehicles around the place, which is almost always faster than getting your
soldiers to walk everywhere. In real life there are many different types of fuels
and indeed the future will probably present some more but to keep everything
simple all vehicles require Fuel to run. The measurements for fuel are given in
litres, but feel free to substitute your own measurements so long as the numbers
stay the same. Each tile will generate the allotted amount of fuel per day and,
upon receiving the fuel, you will need to place it in a military base (explained
later). Many tiles do not generate fuel as it is not found in all places. If you find
yourself without fuel or in need of some more you can buy it using the money
you have earned in the same way you buy other items (explained later).

Food is the last resource given in the Map Stats Dossiers and is something no
soldier can do without. The food resource tells you how much food in kilograms
your military is assigned from the food that is generated in total. The exact type
of food is up to you, but it is all ultimately the same for game purposes. As with
Fuel, you may find that you cannot keep up with demand, but you can buy food

and have it shipped to you. In the real word, food tends to go off after a certain
amount of time but dont worry, this will not happen in Fields of Fire, as any
surplus food you make is assumed to be sold off and bought back at the same
price when it is needed. To keep things simple though, any food that you have
will not go off and is stored in the same way as any other item. Unless otherwise
stated your soldiers will need to eat three kilograms of food per day to stay alive.
Failure to provide this has dire consequences and should be avoided at all costs.

Terrain and Temperature

As you can imagine, the terrain your armies encounter has a great effect on the
outcome of battles and varies from planet to planet and from map to map. Not
only this, but the terrain effects how much of certain resources you will have.
For example, a hot desert tends to have a lower population than a cold forest but
a cold forest generates less food than grassland. For those playing as the
Statesman, the terrain will not matter so much at the tactical level, mostly at the
income level, though of course how valuable a tile is to you will have a bearing
on how much you are willing to fight for it.

Each tile has a Terrain stat listed in the Map Stats Dossier. This tells the
players what the area is generally made up of. So for example a tile might be
Hills/Forest, therefor it is mostly a hilly area covered in forest. There is a
variety of different types of terrain, all listed in the Terrain Dossier, each having
a different effect on battles.

At the end of each tiles list of stats you may find a temperature rating of
Boiling, Hot, Temperate, Cold or Freezing. This shows what the
temperature is like in the area and affects the soldiers fighting in the tile. Once
again the Statesman does not need to worry too much about the effects at a
tactical level, mainly the effects to income. Most of the tiles on a planet will not
have anything under the temperature stat line. This is because it is at the Base
Temperature, which is indicated just below the title of the map. As stated
earlier, the season also has an effect on the temperature of each tile. In summer
the tiles are hotter, in winter they are colder. The table below outlines this a
little clearer.

Temperature of
Tile
Boiling
Hot
Temperate
Cold
Freezing

Spring and
Autumn
Boiling
Hot
Temperate
Cold
Freezing

Summer

Winter

Boiling
Boiling
Hot
Temperate
Cold

Hot
Temperate
Cold
Freezing
Freezing

Although it is explained in greater detail in the Generals Rulebook, suffice to say

that a soldier will not do very well in battle if he is not equipped with gear
appropriate to the conditions he is in. Also at the end of the tiles stat line you
may find some additional rules that go along with that tile, but these are dealt
with in the Terrain Dossier.

Build Points and Focus Buildings

As your empire expands, so does your income capabilities. You will notice that
most tiles have a number listed under Build Points. As will be explained
shortly, the higher the Build Points, the more profitable owning that tile will be.
On tiles that are mostly covered in land you will notice that they have two Build
Points. Some tiles with only a small amount of land suitable for building, like
those on the coast or up a mountain, will only have one. If either the conditions
for building are extremely poor or there is only a small amount of land available
you will find a zero, meaning that you cannot expand this tiles income any
further. Some tiles, almost exclusively those out at sea, will have a - under
Build Points, which means that you cant even capture these tiles and so cannot
build anything on them.

On tiles that you control you may build what are called Focus Buildings. This
represents the government building the necessary infrastructure to increase an
areas capability. You can build five types of Focus Buildings; Population, Industry,
Fuel, Food and Military. You will notice that four of these are resources. In the
case of those that are resources, when you have a Focus Building in a tile you
gain the resource it represents again. So for example, if you have a tile with
$25000 industry you normally get $25000 every day from said tile. If you build
an Industry Focus Building in that tile though, you will gain $50000 every day,
and if you were to put another one there you would gain $75000. Managing
Focus Buildings can be challenging but it is an important aspect of the game, at
least for the Statesman.

To build a Focus Building, all you need to do is decide which one you would like,
record it somewhere and in one week you will have it. There is no cost but time.
You can only build one Focus Building at a time though, so in a tile with two Build
Points you will have to spend two weeks building there to make full use of the
tile. There may be times were you need to remove a Focus Building from your
tiles, like you desperately need more fuel or you find you will never need so
much food. All you have to do is record that you wish to remove a Focus Building

and it is done. It takes no time, though if you wish to replace the Focus Building
with another one then you will have to rebuild, taking a week as usual.

The fifth type of Focus Building is Military. You do not gain any resources from
building this but you do gain access to a Military Base. All tiles with a Military
Focus Building count as having a Military Base and can purchase Facilities to
put on it. These options range from training facilities to communications arrays,
hospitals to airports and everything in between. You will find the list of things
you can build on a military base in the Facilities Dossier. After paying for them,
the facilities on a military base are built instantly. Remember that you will need
to pay upkeep on them though, so it is a good idea to moderate your
construction. These facilities cannot be destroyed by themselves; you will have
to destroy the entire Military Focus Building. Building and destroying the Military
Focus Building works exactly the same as the other four Focus Buildings. As the
commander of the military, the placement of military bases is very important
and can have a profound effect on the game. You may have two Military Focus
Buildings on the one tile but there is very little point and you are probably better
off with some more income.

One other thing that a Military Base does for you is it allows you to place as
many soldiers as you have housing for in the base without having to pay any
upkeep except for the fifteen dollars required by any and every soldier. You will
find that in the long run you will save money if you place troops in a Military
Base, especially while they are not doing anything in particular. Also any
weapons, vehicles and other items that normally require you to pay upkeep for
do not require this payment, saving you more money if you store your things in a
military base while they are not being used. You can store as much as you want
in a Military Base of whatever sort, but just dont let it slip into enemy hands or
you will lose it all. You will still have to pay upkeep for the various facilities your
Military Base has however.

Capitals
As your empire grows and becomes wealthier, the centres of your government
grow and prosper. When you start a game of Fields of Fire you will start with a
Major Capital. This represents a huge metropolis and, at least initially, the
centre of your country. When a new Major Capital is built the tile it is on
immediately counts as having five Build Points and one of each Focus Building.
This essentially means that it has double the income making it very important.
There are also a few other things that make it important, but those will be
covered in the Generals Rulebook. You cannot start your game of Fields of Fire
on a tile with - in the Builds Points column, but you can start on a tile with 0

Build Points. Even in this case, it now has five Build Points. Deciding which tile
to start from can be a daunting task, but more on that in the rules section.

As your empire expands you may gain Capital Points. How you do this will be
explained in the rules section, spending them will be explained here. If you find
yourself with a Capital Point you may spend it at any time. By doing this you
establish a Minor Capital. Minor Capitals can be very important too but are not
as good as Major Capitals. When you spend a Capital point you do three things;
set up a Minor Capital, increase a Major Capitals Build Points by one and increase
another capitals Build Points by one.

When setting up a Minor Capital all you have to do is select a tile that you own
and declare that it has become a Minor Capital. Increase its Build Points by one
and you are done. You then increase one of your Major Capitals Build Points by
one. Unless you have conquered some of your enemys territory or someone has
been destroyed it is rare that anyone has more than one Major Capital. You then
choose another capital that you already own and increase its Build Points by one.
This may be the Minor Capital you just set up, the Major Capital you just boosted
or simply another capital you own. As a general tip, it is probably best to spread
your capitals out a bit; dont put all your eggs in one basket. The additional Build
Points added by these capitals will remain for the rest of the game, regardless of
who owns them and what happens to the tiles.

Capitals are also important because they are centres of income. When you gain
a capital of any kind and by any means you must figure out where its Influence
extends to. These influences can be as big or as small as you wish though it is
probably best to have these areas about the same size. To find a capitals
influence simply decide which tiles you would like to have under this capitals
influence, so long as all player owned tiles are under an influence from
somewhere. You may if you wish have tiles that are partly under one capitals
influence and partly under another, so long as all tiles are accounted for. While
the details of using a capitals Influence is explained in greater detail in the
Generals Rulebook, for now, just keep in mind that if your capital is attacked by
an enemy you will suffer a reduction of income across all the tiles under that
capitals influence. You can only change a capitals influence if you are not at war
with anyone, but otherwise you can do so at any time, under any configuration
you choose.

Running a Country
The second half of this book concerns the running of your country. This is a more
or less step by step guide to setting up and managing the affairs of your country

along with some things to think about. One of the more important things to
remember as the Statesman is that accurate records should be kept of all the
various incomes and expenditures. The way that you do this is entirely up to you
but it is suggested that you use a computer as it will be fast, neat and easy to
change if need be.

Starting a Country
The first thing to do when you start your country is to decide where to start. You
will need to have a close look at the available tiles and decide which one will suit
you most. There is certainly no right or wrong way to decide; an area rich in
resources will be better funded but more people will want it, while a poor area
will not provide so well but will be fought over less. The choice is entirely up to
you.

If you are starting at the same time many other people are starting than the
group may want to decide on limiting the area where players can start. This is
not required but it is highly suggested as if you start too far apart you wont get
any real game time in until everyone has large, complex armies. As a general
rule of thumb, about one map per person to start from is a good way to go,
though of course you can decide whatever you want. Similarly, you may be
starting on a planet that already has an array of established governments, and
you may want to start a certain distance away from them in order not to be too
easily trampled. If a previous player has been defeated and a major capital is
left spare then you may wish to start on this. These boundaries and limitations
should be decided by the entire group, or perhaps by a person in charge of
running the campaign.

Upon choosing the tile you will start with you will have to figure out what the tiles
incomes will be. Remember that when you start a new country, the tile you start
with will have five Build Points with all five Focus Buildings on it, essentially
doubling its normal income.

The next step is to do what is called the Free Eight Weeks. This process is
ultimately to determine at what point, financially speaking, you will start from.
No country, however large or small, starts with nothing; the Free Eight Weeks is
used to determine what you start with. It is also a good opportunity to
familiarise yourself with the basics of running a country and ease you into the
routine. You can do these Free Eight Weeks at any pace and you will not be
affected by the other players as you dont technically exist until you finish them.

To do the Free Eight Weeks you first total up eight weeks of income (fifty-six
days). Depending on where you start you will probably end up with somewhere
around three to six million dollars. You will then play out eight weeks of turns,
earning the income as per normal and spending it as per normal. There are a
few limitations to what you can do though. For one you cannot move any
soldiers you recruit outside the tile you start on and so cannot expand your
territory. You also do not have to spend upkeep of any kind, including food and
money.

Some things to think about during your Free Eight Weeks are things like what
stances do want to take with other players? Are you going to train many soldiers
poorly, few soldiers well or try to fund many soldiers with good training? You will
need to figure out how you will keep your records as well. This will be a big
challenge in itself and while there are no rules in regards to how you keep your
records you must keep them accurately.

One of the first things you should consider buying is training grounds for your
soldiers. Remember that because you start with a Military Focus Building you
count as having a military base and so you can start building facilities straight
away. A training ground is probably the first thing you should get as it is a
prerequisite for many other facilities and you will find that it is one of the most
important and most used.

Training Soldiers
Whether in your Free Eight Weeks or years into your campaign soldiers are
trained the same. You can train them in whatever you like and while the training
itself does not cost anything there are other costs like upkeep and facilities that
will affect your decision. As a general rule soldiers who spend more time training
are going to be better on the field of battle. Of course this will also depend on
the situation they are in at the time; a soldier with Parachute Training will be no
better or worse assaulting a beach than any other soldier. You will need to strike
what you feel is a good balance between having your soldiers trained for the
tasks they will need to do and having them trained before the battle is over.

To start training a soldier you will first need to buy them. This costs $1000 per
soldier, representing the efforts you would have had to go through to get them
there. This may be money spent on advertising the position or it could be money
spent on kidnapping them and forcing them into the service. The backstory is up
to you.

All soldiers must do Basic Training. This is the only training that must be done
though you will probably fare a lot better if you train them more than that. In the
Training Dossier you will find a list of all the training programs you can put your
soldiers through and the effects it has on them. Some allow you to pilot certain
vehicles or use certain weapons, others make them tougher or more flexible and
some give them special abilities. Once again, the choice is yours. However you
do it though there will be a number of weeks that it will take for the training to
be completed. In the case of Basic Training, it takes four weeks or twenty-eight
days. After figuring out what training your soldiers will do, total up how many
weeks it will take them to complete your training regime and you will need to
leave them in the training grounds for that amount of time paying whatever
upkeep you need to keep them there. For all of the training programs there are
prerequisites in the form of facilities and/or other training. You will need to do
these first (or as well as, depending on how you organise your training).

Organising Soldiers
Once your soldiers are finished their training you can begin organising them into
whatever formations you want. There are three types of formations Fields of Fire
is concerned with; Regiments, Companies and Teams. Companies are in a way
the base formation for your soldiers. Historically speaking, a company consists
of about eighty to one hundred and twenty soldiers. You may call it by another
name if you wish, so long as other players know what you are talking about. You
can have as many or as few soldiers as you wish in a company. This number is
affected by how you will want to equip them and use them in combat. While the
exact rules are discussed in the Generals Rulebook, suffice to say for now that
the larger the company the harder it will be to defeat, but if it is defeated you
will lose more soldiers. About one hundred is a good number. All soldiers in a
company must have the same training though and must all be the same Unit
Type.

Once you have organised your soldiers into companies you can group these
companies into regiments. Historically, a regiment is made up of about six to
twelve companies, though this number varies as much as the name. Again, you
may call your regiments whatever you like, so long as other people know what
you are talking about. For each regiment you will need to assign a Combat
Company. All Combat Companies must be exactly the same when fully-trained
and with full numbers. They must also have the same equipment and vehicles.
You may then assign Support Companies to the regiment. These companies
may be of any design and outfit. You must have more Combat Companies than
Support Companies though. This will mean that the bulk of each regiment will be
made up of essentially the same soldiers. You only have to have more
companies of Combat Companies though, not more people, so you could in fact
have more soldiers in support than as the main force. When deciding how big
each regiment should be you, once again, may make each as big or as small as

you want, though, as in organising each company, the bigger the regiment the
harder to beat but you lose more soldiers if it is beaten.

Buying Supplies
There is one thing that any soldier will tell you should you ask; you need to have
the right equipment. Whether you are buying weapons, vehicles, uniforms,
ammunition, food or fuel you are buying supplies and they all work in the same
way in regards to purchasing.

After deciding what items you wish to purchase and adjusting your total funds
accordingly you will be sent the items you require. They will arrive in one week,
thats seven days. Upon arrival they are placed in any Military Base you own and
can be used straight away if you so desire. After purchasing though, any moving
of supplies will have to be done by yourself which will generally cost you a fair
amount of money and is discussed later in this book.

While most of the items you buy will be from one of the corporations, listed and
available on the Red Scar Gaming website, the generic items such as uniforms
and bags will be found in the Basic Equipment Dossier. These are purchased
just the same as anything else and will also take one week to arrive.

When viewing the catalogues for the first time you may be overwhelmed by the
sheer size and scale of them. Dont panic though, especially if you are just
starting off, as you will only need to view certain products at certain times.
While the details of each item are discussed in the Weapons and Vehicles
section of the Generals Rulebook, for the purposes of purchasing you will only
really need to consider the price after you have decided which items to buy.
Listed in the document you will find a Cost for each item. That is how much
money you will need to spend in order to receive one of each item. Also some of
the items options may incur an additional cost which will be listed in the
Options section. Any options you buy for the equipment you receive cannot be
removed, even if they are the same as another option available on a similar item.

Ammunition will be one of your most closely watched resources while playing
Fields of Fire. Each corporation sells ammunition to fit whichever weapons they
may have. You will need to look at the weapons Cartridge to see what type of
ammunition it takes. Remember that the price listed for each type of
ammunition is per round so you are likely going to be buying a great deal of
them and spending a lot of money on them. Ammunition too takes one week to
get to you.

Equipping Soldiers
In all truth the fact is, and it is perhaps a cruel fact, that soldiers exist simply to
operate the weapons they use. If there was some other way to wage war then
soldiers would not be needed but that is the truth of the matter. What your
soldiers take with them to battle will be just as important as the training you give
them or where they are in the field. Also their ability to carry their equipment
will be of great importance and also making sure they dont run out of whatever
they need.

When you first equip your soldiers before they enter battle, your thoughts should
be if they can carry their entire load and if they have enough. With the
exception of a few items everything has a weight and each soldier has a carrying
capacity. After figuring out how many soldiers you have in a company, find their
total carrying capacity. For example, if each soldier can carry fifteen kilograms
and there is one hundred and fifteen soldiers in the company, simply times
fifteen by one hundred and fifteen to get 1725kg. This is the maximum amount
of weight the company as a whole can carry. You do not need to figure out what
each person is carrying for in Fields of Fire as in real life some soldiers will be a
little stronger and carry a heavier load while some may be weaker and carry a
lighter load. All you have to worry about is the total carrying capacity. If the
weight of all the items being carried exceeds the carrying capacity the company
cannot move until they discard items so as to fix this problem. Discarded items
are gone for good and cannot be recovered by any means.

Your soldiers will need to be fed while they are out on the field. Each soldier will
require three kilograms of food every day to survive unless they have a special
rule that tells you otherwise. In a nutshell, dont neglect to feed your troops
because they wont be around for much longer if you do. The food they carry of
course weighs three kilograms and you will need to leave ample room for them
to carry it. Soldiers also expend ammunition and if they run out they cannot use
whatever weapons required the missing ammunition.

Moving Soldiers
Soldiers can be as highly trained as you want and equipped with the best
weapons but they are no good to you if they dont move to where they are
needed. Moving soldiers is usually pretty straight forward from the Statesmans
point of view, it only really gets complicated when you get to battle.

Soldiers on foot can move one tile in any direction under normal circumstances,
those being that they are moving into or moving from a tile owned by you or a
friendly player. If the soldiers wish to move into a tile that is owned by or is
adjacent to an enemy tile than they will not move in this normal way but will only
move up to twenty kilometres per day. This slower movement is covered in more
detail in the Generals Rulebook. Apart from faster movement, staying in or near
your territory also allows you to supply your soldiers better. Unless in or
adjacent to an enemy tile, food does not have to be moved up aboard a vehicle
to reach the soldiers, it is simply deducted from wherever it usually is kept and
consumed by the soldiers. If a foreign power has said you can use their territory
to utilise this rule than you may do so. This rule only works for food though;
weapons, vehicles and other equipment still need to be moved by hand.

When your country starts to get bigger and larger distances need to be covered
you will probably want to utilise the various trucks, jeeps, helicopters and planes
to move gear around faster or carry loads that normal soldiers just cant carry.
Vehicles of any sort have a Range statistic. This shows how far in one day a
vehicle can move. For example, if a truck has a range of four hundred kilometres
it can move across four tiles in one day. For the purposes of simplicity measure
all ranges from the middle of each tile and round down if a vehicle has, say two
hundred and fifty kilometres range to two hundred kilometres range. You will
only get any benefit from the extra fifty kilometres when you are in a regiment
battle. Of course a land based vehicle such as a truck cannot move across water
and a boat has difficulty on land. Vehicles, Walkers and Tanks can only move
across tiles that have linked land (so no island hopping), Boats can only move on
tiles that have a coastline and must stay in the water, Ships can move over all
water and Helicopters, Space Vessels and Aeroplanes can move over any type of
land. You will need to apply a little bit of common sense in regards to where
vehicles can move. While a boat might be able to move on any costal tile, it
cannot cross a thin strip of land to reach the shore on the opposite side. This
type of movement can be done regardless of who owns the land they move
through, if indeed anyone owns it. If you wish to transfer supplies or soldiers
from the sea to land or visa-versa, you can only do so on a tile that has either a
Military Base or two Industry Focus Buildings. You can alternatively move
supplies between a ship and the land with use of a helicopter or plane if your
ships can carry such vehicles.

Planes are a bit of a special case however, they cannot land if they do not have
the appropriate space to do it in. While they do move great distances they must
start and end their movement on a tile with an airfield owned by you or a friendly
player. This means that while a plane might have a range of say two thousand
kilometres, if it only has access to one airfield it will only be able to travel one
thousand kilometres before needing to turn around and come back. A Helicopter
does not need to do this but can only end its movement on land or on a helipad

which you can buy. While you certainly dont need to, it is suggested that you
avoid landing your Helicopters in the middle of nowhere, as while they are on the
ground they are vulnerable to attack.

Space Vessels operate on a bit of a different level to other vehicles. Many orbit
the planet at a certain distance from the surface which will be indicated in the
crafts special rules. If a spacecraft orbits at, say six hundred kilometres, you will
need to travel six hundred kilometres up as well as any distances across to reach
it. Otherwise Spacecraft move in the same way as Helicopters though they may
stop wherever they please.

One other way to move troops and supplies around is to make use of
government facilities. These may include airports, seaports and spaceports or
even private shipping companies. This is best made use of when large amounts
of troops have to be moved quickly to one area. First you must have the
required soldiers and equipment in a Capital. You then declare that you are
transporting these troops using this rule and select another friendly Capital for
them to end up in. All the soldiers and equipment must remain in the Capital for
three days, paying upkeep as normal. When this wait is over you immediately
place all of the soldiers and equipment in the destination capital and they can
move as normal. During this three day wait though, neither Capital will make
any income so you should only do this when you really need to. You can move as
many or as few soldiers and items as you want of whatever weight in this way
but you will always need to wait the three days and offset three days of income.

Capturing Territory
Particularly when you are playing Fields of Fire on a new planet you will find that
there are a lot of tiles that nobody owns. To capture these tiles is simple and
bloodless, all you need to do is move at least one hundred soldiers into the tile
and keep one hundred soldiers in there for a week and the tile is yours. These
hundred soldiers do not have to be the same ones, so long as the number of
soldiers does not drop below one hundred. Also if another player moves into the
tile while you are part way through capturing it and declares that they wish to
stop you, you must immediately stop capturing it and you will have to start
another week over again. It will have no Focus Buildings when you capture it as
you will have to build these yourself. This action might represent politicians
moving in and negotiating with the local populace, a startling show of military
power or whatever other story you might come up with to show the capturing of
new territory. If you have had countries collapse on this planet and they leave
territory behind any increase in build points remain but any Focus Buildings they
placed on any of their territories dont, representing the anarchy that consumes
a country once it collapses and the destruction that inevitably follows.

If you wish to capture an enemys territory though, you will have to try a little
harder. You cannot gain control of another players tile unless they give it to you.
This may seem impossible at first but if you can threaten them militarily and
show that you are the stronger then you may succeed. Of course, this is how
wars generally start in the real world; people dont really want to give up their
land. Wars do end though when, after sufficient killing of their soldiers, a country
concedes that they are not powerful enough and a treaty of some sort is
generally signed. Furthermore, if you move at least one hundred soldiers into an
enemy tile when they have none of their own in there then they will not earn any
resources of any sort from that tile until they can place at least one hundred of
their own soldiers in there without any of yours occupying it. As soon as they
can though, they begin gaining the resources again as per normal. This will
mean that as your armies march across your enemies lands your enemy will lose
some income but you will not gain any. Your enemy need only push you back
though to regain control.

Whenever you capture a tile that has never been owned by another player make
note of it. After capturing fifty such tiles you will gain a Capital Point and you can
spend it whenever and wherever you want. Because you gain this ability from
tiles that nobody has previously owned, it means that there will be a finite
number of capitals of various sizes across a planet. The owners of these capitals
may change but the Build Points they provide will remain.

When to Do Regiment Battles

Unless you are playing by yourself or are an excellent negotiator you will
probably be at war with another player at some point in your Fields of Fire
campaign. War is an ugly process but it is ultimately the reason you are playing
Fields of Fire. You are at war with someone when you declare you are and so
they are at war with you. The only way you can stop the war is when both
players agree that the war is over. This may be a simple process if there are only
two players involved but it can get awfully complicated if there are more people
with a stake in your struggle. The details of the politics will depend on what each
of you can agree on at the time and so no rules can be written for such
circumstances.

Regiment Battles are covered in detail in the relevant rulebook and are only
given a brief description here. When you find that you and your opponent have
troops in the same tile or tiles very near each other you will have to conduct
what is called a Regiment Battle. It will involve moving troops in to far more
specific places than a tile. It is where the master tactician can really show off
and the organiser of the military can see if all that training, planning, equipping

and organising will work out for the best. Regimental Battles are a fun and very
challenging concept where only the mightiest will win. If you have any number
of soldiers in a tile, your opponent must declare that they also have a number of
soldiers on this tile. Neither player has to reveal how many soldiers they have;
they simply declare that they are there.

Conscription and War

As mentioned earlier it is quite easy to start a war; simply declare war on
someone and you are at war. This gets a little more than just political though. If
you are at war with at least one person you get a x2 bonus to your Industry
income and a x3 bonus to your Population. This represents the government
allowing more money to be spent on the military, seeing the need for it is
greater, and more people signing up to fight the enemy. You may also enact
conscription whenever you so choose, whether you are at war or not. This gives
you a x4 bonus to your Population cap, but it increases the price of recruiting
soldiers to $3000 instead of $1000. This would perhaps represent the loss of
workers in factories and such rather than the actual cost it would take to recruit
them. There is one further action along these lines that you may take. If you are
at war with someone you may declare Total War. This can be dangerous but
can be used to great effect. By declaring total war you gain a x3 bonus to
Industry, x2 bonus to Food and x2 bonus to Population. You may turn off Total
War whenever you want but for double the number of days that you had it on,
these multipliers become dividers; so /3 Industry, /2 Food and /2 Population. This
represents the ultimate economic backlash that occurs after a country spends so
much on something and means that if you use Total War then you had better
mean it. These days with divided income must be taken as soon as Total War is
turned off.

Remember that in all cases these alterations can be combined to introduce some
truly devastating results. For example, a country might have a population of100
000. If that country has war declared on it then that becomes 300 000. The
country then enacts conscription, giving a x12 bonus which will mean a
population of 1.2 million. The country then declares total war for twenty days,
making the population 2.4 million. After these twenty days the country remains
at war but the population now becomes x6 (3x4/2), making it 600 000. Before
forty days is up, the war is over and the country goes to a population of 200 000.
Then, after the forty days, with conscription still enacted, the population
becomes 400 000. Hopefully the above example is not too confusing, but it
gives a good explanation of these effects.

Further Notes on Being a Statesman

While the points below are not rules they will provide you with some tips to make
your games run smoother, quicker and easier.

Make sure you have a good records system. Try your best to keep
mistakes to a minimum.
There should be talk amongst the players about where to start the
campaign, the condition of relations between different countries and other
information of that sort. Fields of Fire is meant to be played with others
and communication is a must.
Designate someone to be in charge of the entire campaign. It will make it
easier to organise when and where people are and if they can show up to
participate in a battle.
War is a tricky thing. While you are of course playing a wargame in Fields
of Fire, wars start when you want them to but seldom finish when you
want them to. Be careful.
Please feel free to keep the staff at Red Scar Gaming in the loop regards
how your campaign is going. We love to hear all the latest news and we
can post the results of your battles and campaigns on the Red Scar
Gaming Website for others to enjoy.
It is fun to make background stories for your countries and soldiers. While
you certainly dont need to you will find that not only will you understand
your own forces better but you will get a much more enjoyable time out of
it. You are more than welcome to send any of this background information
to the Red Scar Gaming staff and we may even post it on the website,
making it official information.
Sometimes players may decide that they no longer want to play Fields of
Fire. If they are in control of a country, big or small then there is no need
to fuss over what happens to their tiles. You can simply count them as
though they had never been occupied at all and the game can continue on
as normal. Though it may affect the politics a little it will not affect the
overall game.
Especially as your empire gets larger, feel free to appoint other players to
tasks below you or even above you. This can make the game flow easier
and also provide some interesting challenges. Also it allows people to play
parts of the game they like over parts they may not like as much.
Fields of Fire has one thing that no other game has; politics. It is important
for all players to remember that you can do as much treaty making,
promise giving, background scuffling and general political chatter as you
want. This might include trade rights, information sharing, defence
treaties and soldier treatment laws.
Particularly when two countries borders meet you may want to split up a
tile. You might, for example say that each player is entitled to half the
income and half the build points.
When you start a new campaign on a new planet your group may find it
easier to play several turns at once at least until countries get closer to

each other. This will speed the game up a bit, getting everyone involved
in the more varied stuff quicker.
The most important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, Fields
of Fire is a game and it is meant to be fun. Make sure that the other
players are having fun and that no one feels as though they are left out of
anything. This will mean that everybody can relax and just enjoy the
massive game that is Fields of Fire.