Battle Report - 07 Nov 2011

Finally got to play a game of Operation: Squad last night, thanks to Andy from the club. Basic set up, with Andy umpiring, was four squads, one British Paras, one American and two German, set up with one in each corner and the Germans opposite each other. The German objective was for my squad to get off the opposite corner...

My Germans eye the killing zone between them and safety

We played a slightly simplified set of the rules, in part because all of us hadn't played before and in part because we missed a few bits.

In a nutshell? Brilliant, brilliant set of rules. The reaction rules are what make Operation: Squad, and it's just fantastic.

Here's how it works. Players move alternate figures, so let's suppose German A is making a dash for cover across a street. At this point, the British player can say that Brit X leans out of a window for a potshot at him. The German player can then react to that, and have German NCO B, who's covering A, take a pop at Brit X. And so on, until each side has committed no more than 3 figures. All the figures involved then have an initiative roll-off (2d6 + VT stat): highest goes first, ties are resolved by who declared first, and actions happen in that order. So, if, say, German A rolls 4+4 = 8, German NCO B rolls 8+5, and Brit X rolls 7+4, B goes first and sprays the window with MP40 bullets. If he gets a pinned or better result (wounded, killed), X won't be able to fire back: if he doesn't, X will fire before A makes it to cover...

All in all, elegantly simple and brilliant.

Oh. The battle? The Germans lost, due to getting caught from both sides. But I didn't actually care.