Up Front (game)

Up Front is a two-player tactical card game of infantry combat in the Second World War, published by Avalon Hill in 1983 and designed by Courtney F. Allen. It grew out of the company's Squad Leader system but replaces the hexagonal map with cards. Terrain cards are laid down as squads move, and they take the place of the hexes of a conventional wargame, giving a group cover or exposing it as the battlefield shifts with every play. Action cards such as Move, Fire, Conceal and Smoke drive the fighting, and a Move card is needed before a group can enter new terrain. Because positions are relative rather than fixed on a board, distance, concealment and the luck of the draw matter more than careful placement. A single scenario plays in about an hour, and a campaign mode links scenarios for committed pairs of players. Later expansions broadened the forces on offer, among them Banzai in 1984 with Japanese, British and United States Marine forces and Desert War in 1985 with French and Italian troops.