First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.
On the 8th day of Christmas War Gaming, my true love gave to me…
8 Suspect Markers Hiding
Phantom Fury 2nd Edition is a solitaire wargame game that simulates at a tactical level the operations carried out by United States Marines (USMC) to secure the town of Fallujah, Iraq in November 2004 and to attempt to suppress all armed resistance by the insurgents. The game focuses specifically on the fighting carried out by the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines on the morning of the 9th of November 2004, in the district of Jolan in the north-west portion of the town. The player will control the USMC forces and the game system manages the actions of the insurgents.
The Marines will have to move block by block and house by house clearing out resistance all while trying to minimize casualties and trying not to allow insurgents to infiltrate their lines and reappear in the rear to wreak havoc. This is very much easier said than done though as the first priority is to identify suspected insurgents as the Marines enter new areas that are enemy controlled.
At the outset of the game, and as the Marines advance, they will encounter Suspect Markers which represent as yet unidentified insurgents. Suspect Markers are placed on the map at the start of the game and others will be placed as the game progresses. After Fire Combat or an Assault, a Suspect Marker can be Activated or revealed and then its real nature will be determined. As the player moves into a Zone, they will then completes the Activation of the Zone by placing Suspect Markers out based on the type of Zones they are. Most Zones have just 2 Suspect Markers but some have as many as 3.
These Suspect Markers are drawn at random from an opaque container or draw cup and will be placed on their Suspect side. Where each of these Suspect Markers will be placed is determined by the text as the bottom of the counter. R stands for Roof, while 1 and 2 refer to the first and second floors of a structure. The locations to place the counters in are printed in a decreasing priority order from left to right, and if the first priority location is already occupied you will simply move to the next priority and place the Suspect Marker there.
When a Suspect Marker is Activated in a Normal Zone, the player will roll a 10-sided die and consult the placement table. On a result of 1-5, the Suspect Marker is considered to be a Dummy and represents a false alert, poor intel or just the suspect unit leaving the location as the Marines came closer. On a 6-8, the player will draw a Guerillas insurgent unit from that cup and replaces the Suspect Marker in the same location on its Guerillas side. On a result of 9, the player will draw a Martyrs insurgent unit and replaces the Suspect Marker in the same location on its Martyrs side. Finally, on a result of 0, the Marines have encountered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and will be subjected to an attack.
In the picture above, you can see that the Marines are located in Zone 11 and Zone 12 and have scouted out the buildings across the street and have intel that there are 8 Suspects hidden on the various floors and roofs of the buildings in Zones 20, 21, 22 and 30. If they happen to run across the street without attempting to identify the Suspect Markers, they will come under fire by a large number of them and most likely will be hit and take casualties. The Marines can call in Air Support in the form of UAV’s, attack helicopters, M1-Abrams Tank support and air strikes to identify and knock out these insurgents before taking fire but that will slow their advance down and might cause them to be unable to meet the objective of clearing and securing the entire area of Jolan in the limited amount of turns required.
This game is just so very good and I love the decisions that the player has to make about how they go about clearing the areas with limited resources and under a time limit. Just a very good game design that shows how difficult this task was that was asked of the Marines.
If you are interested, I shot a short RAW video on the game during my first play and you can watch that at the following link:
If you are interested in Phantom Fury 2nd Edition, you can order a copy for 50.00€ ($53.00 US Dollars) from the Nuts! Publishing website at the following link: https://www.nutspublishing.com/eshop/our-games/phantom-fury-v2-en
You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:
2 Aircraft Bombing – General Orders: World War II from Osprey Games
6 Merry Men Assembling in the Forest – A Gest of Robin Hood from GMT Games
-Grant
The Players' Aid 