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“A Fistful of TOWs” (“FFT”) is a miniatures wargame covering the “modern period”, usually defined as the period from the end of World War II to the present. Version 2 (“FFT2”) covers battles from 1946 throu 2010.
Ty Beard designed FFT after becoming frustrated with existing modern wargames like GDW’s Combined Arms. He felt that most were too slow and tended to focus on minutia rather than on the important concepts. The particular event that caused him to take the plunge was an 8 hour game of Combined Arms that only resolved 4 turns and ended in a draw when the players all had to go home.
In Ty’s game design paradigm, there is a finite amount of detail that can be crammed into a game before it becomes unplayable. This means that game designers must ration the amount of detail and abstract anything that isn’t critical to the game. In the case of FFT, this meant that (for instance) the vehicle combat system is fairly detailed, while the rules for counterbattery fire are pretty abstract.
In addition, he believed that speed of play was critical in any simulation of modern warfare. So he ruthlessly streamlined every FFT subsystem to speed play. As a result, turns typically take only 10 minutes or so. A 2 player battle between a US battalion task force and a Soviet regiment usually takes 1-3 hours. And since Ty designed FFT to easily accommodate multiple players on a side, it usually takes the same amount of time to fight much larger battles.
The game had proven very popular with players who share Ty’s design biases, particularly those who want reasonably detailed wargames that can be played in a reasonable time.
Of course, Ty did not do all the work himself. Hundreds of players have provided priceless feedback and have improved the game substantially. But three men in particular stand out.
Dave Burnett, a wargaming buddy for 25 years, brainstormed with Ty in the initial design sessions. Dave also designed the nifty penetration system that is at the heart of FFT’s anti-vehicle combat system. And since Dave shared many of Ty’s design biases, he provided invaluable feedback and helped keep the game from getting bloated.
Paul Minson, is the man who is probably most responsible for FFT’s current popularity. Originally, he offered to design some Arab-Israeli Wars material for FFT. Then, he volunteered to assist Ty in a complete rewrite of the rules. In the process, he did most of the “heavy lifting” – rating hundreds of vehicles and weapons systems, quality checking the text, and generally keeping Ty from adding dubious “features”. Like Dave, he shares Ty’s design biases. And Paul has a far deeper background in science than Ty (who is a lawyer by trade). He was the author of many systems that now allow FFT2 players take real world data and convert them into FFT data. Paul also probably understands Ty’s design theory better than Ty does. So Paul routinely acts as a check on Ty’s tendency to try to fix what isn’t broken. Another invaluable contribution that Paul makes to the game is his ability to expand and refine Ty’s crazy ideas. Ty will say something like “you know, it would be nice if we could dispense with the thingamajig system and replace it with some kind of whatchamacallit mechanic – that might save ten minutes in a game”. A week later, Paul will produce a well-conceived critique and a pretty decent draft of the system.
Ty flatly states that without Paul’s tireless work, FFT2 would never have been released. Ty also says he lives in fear that some other game designer will “steal” Paul. Paul has also designed the new artillery system that will appear in A Fistful of TOWs 3 (“FFT3”) sometime in 2005, and did most of the work on the revised infantry combat system that will appear in FFT3.
Bob Mackenzie, a relative latecomer to FFT, is the third man that Ty credits with helping FFT. Ty values Bob’s tireless questioning of every system and assumption that went into FFT. While they could certainly be irritating, Ty quickly realized that Bob’s questions were legitimate. And the exercise of defending every system and concept forced Ty to re-examined some of his sacred cows and improve them if possible. Bob’s probing of the system has resulted in the improved artillery system that will appear in FFT3. Also, Bob is Ty’s resident World War II expert. Ty has long wanted to do a WWII version of FFT (to be called “Where Panzers Dare”) and Bob currently carries the load on playtesting, as well as providing the database.
FFT2 Specifications
Ground Scale: 1” = 100 meters
Time Scale: 1 Turn = 4-6 minutes
Unit Scale: 1 stand = 4-6 vehicles; 4-6 guns; 1 infantry platoon or squad. The rules contain conversions for those who want to play at 1:1 scale (i.e. 1 stand is 1 vehicle or infantry squad)
Miniature Scale: Nominally 1/285 or 1/300. However, Ty plays with 15mm miniatures.
Fistful of TOWs website: http://www.tyler.net/tbeard/home.htm . There are several free versions available there.
FFT email list -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fistful-of-TOWs/
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