Firefight

Futuristic battles fought on alien worlds.

Mantic Games have been generously sending me their new games lately, and it’s really interesting to see the flood of quality product that is coming out of that company. Their new one is the second edition of a sci-fi skirmish system called Firefight, and there’s a lot to love here.

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first—their miniatures are really not in the same league as Games Workshop’s, either in design or manufacturing quality, and I wish they’d make them less frustrating to build. But that aside, Mantic games are cheaper, better value, don’t hold to sneaky shenanigans like making you buy umpteen extra books, and most of all – the rules are great. And frankly, after stabbing my fingers for the hundredth time on GW’s spiky, fragile miniatures, the chunky simplicity of Mantic’s models is somewhat refreshing!

Firefight is a clean, easy to use rules system that isn’t afraid to simplify a few things in the pursuit of playability. It doesn’t get bogged down in obsessive detail, preferring to keep movement and ranged attacks a bit abstract by measuring them all from a unit’s leader (a bit of a tip of the hat to defunct classic AT-43 there). Combat is a simple two-roll affair. Close combat is considerably enlivened by a serious of keyword options that allow some troops to respond to being attacked in interesting ways. It all adds up to easy to play rules with an emphasis on fun, not fiddly detail.

One of the great things about this game (and its even easier-to-play sibling, Deadzone) is that a book is included that gives you all the stats you need for all the factions in the Mantic sci-fi miniatures range, not just the armies in the starter sets. No buying extra books! That instantly increases the value of this starter set tenfold.

I’ve completely rewritten this rules & reference from scratch to cover the latest edition of the game, and I intend to get a long-promised battle report filmed as soon as I have the opportunity!

Making these game aids takes a lot of work, yet I provide them free of charge. If you find them useful, please consider making a donation, or becoming a regular supporter via PATREON, so I can continue making quality tabletop gaming content. Thankyou!

Update Log



Date Version Changelog
Jan 2024 2 Complete rewrite for new edition of the game
Aug 2022 1.1 Fixed unit strength for holding an objective when a unit is reduced to a single model
May 2022 1 Original release

7 Comments

  • Kum Kit says:

    Thx so much for this! Btw, i believe if a unit is left with just 1 model, it should only have Unit Strength (US) 0. 🙂

    • Kum Kit says:

      And in your description above, it should be Enforcers (marines) from the starter instead of GCPS. 🙂

  • Alpha1983 says:

    Kum is right about the Unit Strength. If a single model is left unit strength is reduced to 0, instead 2 is stated in your reference. Could you please update it? As a reference, this is described in page 51 of the manual. It literaly states:
    “Last one standing
    If a Troop or Specialist unit is reduced to a single model, it will have a Unit Strength of zero. This does not apply to Support or Command units”
    Thanks in advance

  • Weasel-Fierce says:

    This is great. Any chance of an update covering the changes in Command Protocols?

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