2 Games Which Make Me Feel Like a Kid at Christmas! Urban Battle and Urban Battle Junior – Board Game Preview
Urban Battle and Urban Battle Junior Publisher: Forsage Games Designer: Predrag Lazovic and Dragan Lazovic Price: unknown at this time
Passed Inspection: Beautiful components, packed with tons of goodies, easy to learn and play, fun games, family friendly.
Failed Basic: needs initiative rules, dice in Urban Battle Junior have a large blue number and a smaller red number which is not explained.
{default}Disclaimer: The reviewer, Rick Martin, worked with Forsage Games to design their solo combat and maneuver systems for both the Age of Dogfights games.
Whenever I receive a game from Forsage Games I always feel like a child opening a Christmas gift. Their games, such as Age of Dogfights WW 1 and WW2, Naval Battles in the Archipelago and Tank Chess are filled with so much great miniature goodness that it makes my heart skip a beat. Let’s look at the components for each game:
URBAN BATTLE JUNIOR COMPONENTS
• 25” x 19” mounted map board
• 50 plastic tanks and trucks
• 2 unit charts with vehicle stats
• Small plastic flags used to designate command vehicles
• Destroyed unit markers
• 4 six sided dice
• 4 page rule book
• 5 page scenario book
URBAN BATTLE COMPONENTS
• 3 modular map boards 25” x 9 ¼”
• Depending on the version either 100 tanks, trucks, armored cars and halftracks
or 100 3D printed tanks with rotating turrets and other vehicles
• 3 dice
• Direction dial
• Turn trackers
• Moved markers
• Destroyed markers
• Altitude Stands
• Speed dials
• 2 vehicle stat cards
• 9 page rule book
• 9 page scenario book
Both Urban Battle games are abstract tank combat games. No particular nation or time period is indicated. This, in a sense, opens up the games to a world of new possibilities untethered by real world history. They feel very World War 2 grounded to me but they don’t have to be. Your imagination is the key to these games.
In Urban Battle Junior there are 6 different units – light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, anti-aircraft tanks, recovery vehicles (which can repair tanks) and trucks.
In Urban Battle there are 19 different vehicles – reconnaissance vehicles, light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, heavy tank bulldozers, super-heavy tanks, tank destroyers, assault guns, heavy assault guns, tank hunters, light SP howitzers, heavy SP howitzers, heavy SP mortars, SP rocket launchers, amphibious tanks, SP anti-aircraft tanks, armored recovery vehicles, trucks and half tracks.
Each vehicle is rated for firepower, speed, whether the main weapon is turret or hull mounted, drive type (treads or wheels), and armor quality for front, side and the rear.
Urban Battle, the more complex game, also adds in “effectiveness” which is a point value used to balance out your own scenarios.
Game set up is very fast and can be done in less than 5 minutes. The scenarios in both games are very well thought out and fun. The games are for two or more players but can also be played solo with one player playing both sides.
Playing time is typically from 30 minutes to a few hours depending on the number of units and whether you are playing Urban Battle Junior or the full Urban Battle game.
Urban Battle Junior has you roll 3 dice and then assign the die roll as the movement speed for a given unit each round. The speed is modified by the type of vehicle with lighter tanks being fast and heavy tanks being slower. First you move the units then you fire on the enemy. To destroy a vehicle, your roll a die (I assumed the small red number on each die is the combat hit number while the blue number on each die is the movement speed but this isn’t really explained in the rules but it is explained in the rules of the more complex Urban Battle game). Buildings on the map board black line of sight. To destroy an enemy, you roll a die and read the read number. You add the firepower modifier to the die roll. If the number is higher than the defending unit’s armor plus the distance to the target, the enemy is destroyed and a yellow destroyed marker is placed under the vehicle.
Urban Battle, the more complex game, assigns the number of vehicles which can activate based upon the total number of vehicles that each player controls. This game also adds rules for turrets, indirect fire, bulldozer tanks, and more advanced and complex scenarios.
Neither game seems to have initiate rules, so I just decided that each player rolls a die. The person with the higher number goes first that turn. Ties are rerolled.
The map boards for each game can be combined to make an even larger combat environment.
These games are fun and challenging and perfect for a quick afternoon gaming session or to introduce younger gamers to war gaming. They will deliver a much needed boost to bringing new, younger players to our hobby. Great work Forsage!
About the Author
A college film instructor and small business owner, Richard Martin has also worked in the legal and real estate professions, is involved in video production, film criticism, sports shooting and is an avid World War I and II gamer. He designed the games Tiger Leader, The Tiger Leader Expansion and Sherman Leader for DVG and has designed the solo system for Forsage Games’ Age of Dogfights. In addition, Rick can remember war games which came in plastic bags and cost $2.99 (he’s really that old)!
