Operation Squad AAR: Reconnaissance

I had the pleasure of Samulus' company on Saturday afternoon for a couple of games. This included another game of Operation Squad, this time with larger forces. I ignored the points-based squad builder and just threw together something that looked balanced based on the goodies I have painted. They were something like this:

12 British commandos

Officer, Sergeant with Sten, Bren, Vickers GO Machinegun, 2" mortar, Sniper, 6 riflemen

15 German Infantry

Officer, Sergeant with MP40, Corporal with MP40, MG34 and loader, 2 Riflemen with G43, 8 with Kar98k (two also carrying Panzerfausts). 

The officers were armed with pistols and were there as scenario fodder.  I also knocked up a reconnaissance scenario, with points awarded for the officers spotting enemy troop numbers, taking the field (being closest to the crossroads at the table centre and for killing the enemy officer. The Vickers counted as an MG34. We made up some rules for the Panzerfausts, grenades with twice the range and that reduced cover by one dice.

Turn one, the Germans advance.

An early sniper kill and the Vickers also being opposite led me to hastily rethink and head to the right of the building.

Disaster! German officer wounded by a long-range shot by the Bren gunner.

Still, it isnt all looking bad...is it?

Moments later, a British mortar shell took out the advance pair on the right. The British were still unscathed: things were now looking very bad. 

Second disaster! The deadly Bren gunner also wounds the German MG34

Endgame - Commandos take the field, having suffered just a single wound. I was utterly trounced, partly by not having a solid game plan, further changing it as I went on, leaving men exposed out of cover, not supporting can other and not getting the MG34 into a useful position. Ah well, perhaps next time!

I think this size is the extend that Operation Squad deals with smoothly, the first couple of turns were a bit slow. I was a too heavy on the special weapons, especially for the Commandos. The sniper, mortar and Vickers dominated, though  good play by Samulus and bad by me were also to blame for that. I think the Germans were out-pointed, next time I'll at least roughly tot it up to ensure some balance!

After we'd finished, I remembered I had some t errain bits that would have come in useful, so spent Easter knocking them together. First to be finished are these rather spiffing telegraph poles. Laser cut wood, from 'Arcane Scenery' on eBay for £3. Unexpectedly, the sprues were marked  Sarissa Precision, but they don't seem to sell them on their webstore. I wonder if they were an early prototype. 

Fairly basic pieces, I'm a bit worried they may snap, though they bend so may be more survivable than they look. Oddly the holes in three of the bases were off-centre, so I re-drilled those. Being wood, the assembled poles were incredibly light and the merest breath would send them all wobbling. To solve that, I stuck the wood bases to 2p pieces to add some weight. Re double-bases are why the bases look a bit mound-esque, but that feels like the lesser of two evils. I'm fairly happy with them as table litter, useful for all sorts of eras. 

Samulus also provided another game, 20mm modern fireteams for Force on Force. More on that next time!

Operation Squad: Brief AAR and Review

Quick post tonight to note a great first game of Operation Squad with Samulus. We took reduced squads, me with 8 (freshly painted!) German infantry and Samulus with 8 British commandos.

It was a game of two halves, the right half of the table ending up a troops hunkered down in cover sniping at each other. Perhaps my fault for not putting more blocking terrain down. The centre was dominated by two buildings and I managed to get a well-positioned MG34 to keep a large building full of Brits suppressed. Well, cowering at the number of shots I could throw out, at least!

MG34 team heads for the rooftop

Surprise! Sarge guns down a rampant German

The game ebbed and flowed well and before we realised it was late enough and our forces were dwindling and routing, so agreed it was a draw.

Disaster! MG gunner fails his break test and leaves the field. It was a still a draw despite this setback, honest! 

I really enjoyed Operation Squad. The action/reaction mechanics initially needed the application of braincells, but flowed better after a turn or two. The game encourages you to use squad tactics and have your troops work together.

Pros
-designed to encourage squad tactics, captures the feel very, very well.
-elegant mechanics, the way MGs worked we thought was quite excellent.
-makes for a tense game, some dice rolls really matter, which is fun!
-I think the core mechanics would work well for Weird WWII, with tinkering and adding some different flavours of troops, without breaking the core mechanics.

Cons
-requires both players to pay attention or it can go quite slowly
-some scenarios not explicitly covered by the rules
-restricted squad lists (easily solved by the application of imagination and scenario design!)
-long ranges require a lot of terrain, echoes of my Infinity days here
-uses quite a few counters, unless you've got a good memory!

So after one game, my feeling is definitely very positive and I look forward to trying new things out like mortars and Panzerfausts. If you're aftet a pick up and play, small scale squad action game, I'd recommend it!

Now, can I justify some more suitable 4Ground buildings?