Introduction

Players new to the game should start small, with 2 or 3 identical infantry squads on each side, using only the Basic Game rules for moving, shooting and assaulting. No heavy weapons, artillery or vehicles.

Then, as you get more comfortable with the system, you can add more forces to the mix, and begin to experiment with some of the Advanced and Optional rules.

You will also need some miniatures (based individually) ranging in size from 15mm to 28mm, some six sided dice (D6), tape measures (with inches as measurements) and tokens to represent "under fire", "pinned", "broken" and "damaged" (these could be coloured beads, pieces of paper or specially made tokens).

Next you will need some scenery for your soldiers to take cover behind. A good rule of thumb is “The more terrain the more enjoyable the game.” To get you started, here are some ideas for scenery based on the desired location:

Military: Bunkers, sandbag weapons pits, trenches, barbed wire, mines.

Rural: Small clusters of a few buildings, roads, rock walls, rivers, bridges, crops, forests, swamps, ponds.

Urban: Lots of buildings, roads, fences,rivers, bridges, plazas, fountains, statues, scattered trees, parks.

Also don’t forget large bodies of water, there’s no reason a table edge couldn’t be the banks of a wide river, or the shore of a lake or ocean.

Finally you will need a flat surface to play on, for a small game a 4' x 4' table will be fine but larger games can be played on a 6' x 4' table.

Force Profiles

All forces used in F.A.D. are presented using a common template or profile which contains the following:

Unit Name

This simply identifies the unit in question. EG Light Infantry, Assault Marines and Star Guard

Quality (Qu)

Think of this as a combination of training, competence and experience.

Movement Rate (Mv)

The base movement rate for all infantry and other foot units is 6". The base rate for vehicles varies, depending on their type (wheeled, tracked, flyer, walker, etc.).

Resolve (Re)

This relates to how dedicated the unit is to achieving the mission on this particular day. This value will determine the casualties that a unit can suffer before it reaches it's breaking point, which triggers a morale check.

Armour (Ar)

Represents the type of body armour worn by all members of the unit (or the natural armour of alien creatures). Vehicles also have armour ratings for the top, front, sides, rear and bottom of the vehicle.

Fire Effect (FE)

This represents how good your troops are at hitting opponents in ranged combat. Fire Effect is a combination of your quality, unit size and several other factors. It is a good idea to make a note of a unit's fire effect at the start of the game (to speed up play) but this value will change as the game goes on (due to range modifiers, loss of troops, etc).

Weapons

Your troopers are not members of the Diplomatic Corps. They are warriors and enter battle armed with the best weapons their leaders can provide.

For infantry, these range from simple rifles and shotguns to plasma weapons, flame throwers and grenade launchers, with an array of heavy and special weapons available for support.

Artillery can be anything from anti-tank guns and light cannons to heavy mortars and missile launchers.

Vehicles come in all shapes, sizes and purposes and as such, they can be equipped with any of the weapons included in Fast and Dirty.

Game "Units"

In the real world, individual soldiers seldom enter battle alone. They are organized into small groups and trained to operate as such.

The names of these small units can vary but for the sake of simplicity we will refer to these groups of soldiers as units or squads.

The actual composition of units is up to the players. These rules provide guidelines for unit creation, but the players are free to create their own units based on the figures they have and their own gaming expectations.

Infantry

These are the basic fighting elements of any army and will likely form the core of any force used in FAD. Typically, groups of 5 to 10 soldiers form up into squads (although larger units work fine).

If using Advanced Rules, one member of the squad should be designated the squad leader.

Most members are armed with a single squad basic weapon. One or two members usually have a squad support weapon instead.

Three to four squads can be grouped into a platoon, which should have a command squad.

For larger actions, two to four platoons can be formed into a company, which should also have a command squad.

A command squad generally has 3 to 5 soldiers armed with Squad Basic Weapons. One of these soldiers represents the platoon (or company) leader.

If playing with Advanced Rules, these should be officers.

Other infantry units include heavy weapons teams (including artillery and anti-tank guns), snipers, officers and artillery. All of these are covered by the Advanced Rules.

Vehicles

These cover a wide array of unit types, from bikes to APC's, Tanks and even Mech's/Walkers. Vehicles can either be treated as a single units, requiring activation and action like any other. Or they can be grouped into a "squad" and then activate together (although the vehicles will still fire individually).

Vehicles can only perform Engage the Enemy and Move Out actions.