Frontiers: Liberty or Death AAR

 Frontiers: Liberty or Death, produced by Asomdee, is a miniature game without the use of miniatures, a curious concept when I first came across it. As can be seen by my previous posts, I am a fan of miniature games though I have tended towards making my own pieces and/or going the abstract route by simply using bases to represent where the forces are on the table. I suspect that that might be one of the reasons why I considered looking into this game. The other reason was that sometimes you just want a light wargame that you can throw on the table. This turned out to be just the thing.

The pieces are punch-out cardboard and beautiful, with all of the information you need for the piece right on the disc. No need to look up things in an army book, just glance at the piece for the information that you need. This really helps to speed up the game which is really helpful for the younger siblings.

Since I was hoping to get a taste of as much of the game as I could the first round through, we selected a scenario that had both sides seeking out vital information that had to be picked up in one building and moved to another. Army deployment alternates with each side placing one unit until all units have been placed along their respective edge. We both elected for similar tactics, splitting our forces to each side to secure the buildings which held the objectives. Our tanks and heavy armor, two to a side, fired shots back and forth with minimal success thanks to some rather poor dice rolling, leaving most of the good fighting to the various types of infantry units running about.

Each army also has a deck of cards, four cards in hand at the start of each turn that can be used to improve the results of dice rolls, alter orders or heal up units on the battlefield. These actually have quite an impact on engagements if played at the right time, shifting a loss to a tie or even a success. What started out as a rush for the objectives soon turned into a slugfest with both sides taking pot shots across the table. We called the game after the death of last infantry unit for my sibling as his tanks were unable to pick up the objective and therefore could not when.

It was fun but a little messy, some of the rules were a little wonky to read and contradicted some of the pieces on the board but we sorted it out and had some fun. I look forward to getting it on the table again soon and perhaps picking up a second copy as it is selling quite cheap at the moment and who could say no to having massive armies to play with!