Firefight: Modern U.S. and Soviet Small Unit Tactics

Firefight is a two-man wargame in which Soviet ground forces have invaded West Germany and are opposed by American units.

The game is packaged in either a clear plastic flat box that incorporates counter trays, or a large cardboard "soapbox".

In the mid-1970s, SPI was commissioned by the U.S. Army to develop small-unit training materials for soldiers assigned to Europe during the Cold War.

[2] That material was then converted to a commercial product, designed by Jim Dunnigan with cover and interior art by Redmond Simonsen, and was published by SPI in 1976 as Firefight.

In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer noted the "unusually detailed rules, with particular care taken to see that beginners can follow them."

But due to its first purpose as a simulation developed for Army trainees, he felt that it was "a learning device – not a game [...] the aim of the system was realism, not playability."