Wow, I have my first (and only) member! Thanks Bob, I really appreciate your support.
This weekend club secretary, Mark, and I had arranged to meet up and try out the ww2 rules 'Operation Squad'. Mark stoped by the hall to picked up some terrain pieces and arrived at my house with the obligatory biscuits; sorted.
Operation Squad only uses ten or so figures a side and can be played on quite small tables, my large coffee table was perfect if not a little narrow, so we were able to have a decent game in relative comfort...with biscuits don't forget! I used my new Fallschrimjager and mark his fantastically painted 'Screaming Eagles', and with even some basic terrain the game looked great. We decided to only use basic weapons whilst we both got the hang of the rules, although we forgot that Mark's figures had M1's! These get two shots and were quite powerful against my KAR98 rifles, not that I am bitter or anything. We had a very nice afternoon, even if I did lose. In fairness it doesn't matter what you are armed with when you roll a three with two six sidded dice, the outcome will never be good. I lost three of my Fallschirmjager in quick succession, each rolling that same damned number! The writting was on the wall then and it was just a matter of time.
Win or lose I had a good time in good company. We had to debate certain rules of course but both agreed that Operation Squad was a success, a very worthy afternoon filler that will work well at the club within a multi game framework. Each player could take a squad from within the same platoon and so some very interesting scenarios could be played out. We even think that we could work the rules with our larger collections of WW1 figures. In fact, I am sure with a few tweeks these could be made to work for many periods and the efforts would be very well spent because the rules are actually very good and deceptively simple.
I played a second, solo game, after Mark went home for his tea. My Fallschirmjager lost again!! How is that fair?? This time to a unit of British Para's that were dug in behind a wall. Bloody Bren guns. I used far less terrain, a few bomb craters for the approach and a static Brit defence and still got a highly enjoyable game with another realistic result.
On top of all this, Arsenal won away too!
Operation Squad are a nice little set of rules and I've had a bit of a discussion about them on my blog. However it seems hard to do attack/defend scenarios with them, as the squad sizes have to be roughly equal to balance out the number of activations per side. As a result, all the supplied scenarios are meeting engagements - I suppose I could give the defender a set number of passes to try and balance it out like that, but I haven't got around to trying this out yet. I would also be interested in any opinions on the vehicle rules if you've got them, as I'm unlikely to get around to playing them anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI just got the Disposable Heroes:Point Blank squad set in the post and want to try them out over the Christmas break. Apart from being fully compatible with their platoon set, you get the vehicles rules in the price.
Look forward to more WW2 reports.
Cheers
Norman
Hi Norman,
ReplyDeleteI have not worried too mauch about balancing forces that way, although I have only had a quick try out of attck/defence solo. It worked well enough although we are working on a WW1 1914 mod with Belgians and Germans, so very much an A+D game there. We will keep you posted on our results.
The Op Squad vehicle rules are quite good, I was concerned at the cost and not sure what I would get for my money given the main rule book, but there is a fair bit to read; some minor rule amendments too. I shall post something about them this weekend (10th Dec).
Thanks - look forward to seeing the vehicle rules in action.
ReplyDeleteNorman