Front Toward Enemy

About this board game

Front Toward Enemy is a two-player Vietnam War tactical simulation with an approximately 180-minute playing time. Players take the perspective of company commanders leading fire teams, weapons sections, leaders, vehicles, and helicopters through intense engagements at company and platoon level.

Each hex represents approximately 50 meters, while every turn covers about five minutes. Eight scenarios, with setup options creating twelve missions, recreate characteristic operations including airmobile insertions, assaults on fortified positions, and classic search-and-destroy missions.

The system focuses on the uncertainty and danger of small-unit combat. A chit-pull command system makes command and control erratic, while volume of fire is rewarded but results remain fickle. Difficult terrain and sudden contact can quickly disrupt coordination, making immediate action drills, close formations, and coordinated movement vital to survival.

• Helicopter gunships, armored vehicles, and artillery support
• Snipers, sappers, civilians, booby-traps, tunnels, and hidden caches
• Medics, wounded personnel, evacuation, and prisoner interrogation
• Non-combat injuries, higher-headquarters interference, and friendly-fire events

Victory is not always a matter of holding the objective: excessive casualties can make success too costly. With two unmounted mapsheets, three countersheets, scenario cards, charts, and dice, Front Toward Enemy puts players in the middle of the close-range jungle, night, and hamlet fighting that defined many Vietnam War engagements.