I decided to give FoF2 a try.
It's not as fun for me. Peleliu is fixed maps. Kind of suits the region...but I liked drawing for a random map - it was an additional level to the replayability as no map was ever the same.
Also - it's brutal. Every single time I've tried the first mission, I've lost Amtraks and people...lots of people. Whole squads at a time in some instances. Truly - sounds terrifying and probably very realistic.
However I watched a video fo a guy playing and he moved his first 4 Amtraks onto the Surf Zone. When checking for Potential Contacts, his first was automatic (Potential Contact A and No Contact means you have automatically made contact)...he pulled for bombardment (mostly what you'll pull in that phase. He then pulled for each of the other 3 Potential Contact A markers...Because he was now in Contact, each Potential A contact Marker pulls 7 cards to see if there's contact...he pulled 3 lots of 7 cards and all 3 of his Potential Contact A markers resulted in No Contact!!!
Lucky bugger. On my first time trying the mission, I made contact on ALL 4 cards and had 2 Amtraks Brewed Up (all passengers marked as casualties) and the other two were Knocked Out resulting in a check for each step of infantry being carried. The second wave did not fair much better with 2 Brewed up and 1 knocked out.
Absolute disaster from the off. Scrapped that one and started again - which resulted in a poor start again so I'm on my third attempt.
Long and short of it is - it's not as fun as the first one imo - mostly due to the fixed maps. I am going to carry on playing - and I'll play this next retry through to the end.
Kind of itching to get Holland '44 back on the table as I only ever got a few turns into my one and only playthrough before I had to move it off the table. And I'm reading a book on it which has piqued my interest in playing it again.
But I really am enjoying Fields of Fire.