Look for this to go to Pre Order! I have had a chance to play a little of the system. It has a blend of capabilities and features that pull the best from some well known systems. Steve Overton the designer has a solid grasp of modern combat for a number of reasons not the least of which is that he was a key contributor to the Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Rising PC game, helping with design, OOB, scenario creation and the like (love that game).

The blurb:

Fire Team: Red Eclipse is the first game in the new Kontact Now game series. Fire Team: Red Eclipse covers the Cold War Gone HOT in West Germany in 1989. Fire Team: Red Eclipse is designed and developed by Steve Overton with Jon Southard consulting of the original Fire Team game.

Fire Team: Red Eclipse covers the US and Soviet forces fight on geomorphic maps that are represented on 50 meter hexes.

The series brings together mechanics to represent the OODA Loop, training and experience of military organizations, Command and Control of tactical combat units, random impulses based on the capabilities of your leaders on the map, intuitive game play based on the units responding to game play as soldiers do in actual situations, and the ability to create random events such as happen in small unit actions.

Couple the OODA Loop with the training and experience of each nations organizations in the series to create a unique blend of Command and Control with organizational traits. Tactical Event Cards, Command Points.

Leaders play the pivotal role in the game by creating orders, directing fire, gives them a movement bonus, and the rallying of broken and disrupted units. The state of your leaders on the map determines how many orders they can give. The number of orders you have determines the number of impulses you will have during each turn. The player who can utilize his leaders to the greatest effect will usually be the winner. Usually because nothing is ever 100% certain in Kontact Now.

Weaponry has not been left out of the game. All weapons in the game, including infantry weapons have been created using the same formula. This allows each unit – weapons system – to be created with it’s own unique values. Armor penetration values are constant throughout the series as are armor defensive values; for all vehicles and helicopters.

Fire Team: Red Eclipse will include Offboard Artillery, night rules, engineer obstacles (mines, wire, bunkers, trenches), multi-level buildings, rubble, fire, roadblocks, helicopter, Close Air Support, ATGM, SAM, MANPAD, with both high and low unit counter density, asymmetric victory points for map locations, exiting the map, all of varying degrees of complexity. Special rules governing helicopter and column movement activation, as well as snipers, medics, wounded and vehicles with multiple weapons systems.