Good news! Asymmetric Warfare has been released as PDF, with version 1.1 on DriveThru RPG now. I received my copy from the Author while I was having a day off (actually getting the email while strolling around the Yorkshire Air Museum), and although I’ve only managed to have a skim through it, it does feel a touch like sitting back in a familiar comfy chair (except someone made the chair slightly less squeaky and added a bipod).
The problem is that this has stirred up the nest once again about the confusion between Asymmetric Warfare and Spectre Operations – the two rulesets are closely interlinked and it hasn’t been especially clear for someone new to the hobby to work out which ruleset is which. So, let’s quickly explain the process and take a step back in time while doing so. A lot of this information is gathered from the history that Spectre themselves have released on their blog, as well as chatting over the years with some of those involved.
Spectre: Operations Infantry Rules – 2015
Let’s begin back in February 2015 – with the Kickstarter having finished in 2014 and the webstore just opened, Spectre released the first version of their rules to the public. In fact, they are still available on Kickstarter via a Dropbox link (as well as 4chan’s little archive in one of the threads on /tg if you know where to look.)
Written by Stephen May (lead sculptor/founder for Spectre as the company) and with work beginning on it way back in 2013, this set is very early and misses some of the later rules that make Spectre what it is today, lacking rules for sneaking around or using vehicles. But importantly, a lot of the key concepts were there, such as the tiers of soldiers, the various stats and tests, weapons having ranging bands and lethality values and more. This is the set that I think everyone who was on the Kickstarter soon found themselves digging through and playing – sure we found issues but there was something about the set that felt different from anything else out there.
Spectre Operations V1 – 2016
The first physical book from Spectre, version 1 dropped in 2016. The authors of this book were Stephen May and Matt Adams, a former army officer who came on board to assist with tightening up the wording of the rules as well as adding additional elements to make it feel more authentic and put you in the mood for the game before figures even touched the board, such as a long section at the back covering tactics and mission design. The narrative aspect was pushed hard, with new rules covering sneaking around before the action kicked off as well as even advanced optional rules for playing with limited ammo count.
Something else this book really showed off was Spectre’s branding – packed full of high-quality images of fully painted figures (including some two-page spreads) combined with a logical and clear layout, this book definitely felt like a premium product and sold a lot of people on a lot of Spectre minis!
Now, there was an issue or two with this ruleset that didn’t feel quite right (suppression and vehicles were my particular bugbears) as well as lacking an index (a common complaint by certain people). But, after three years we got an update.
Spectre Operations V2 – 2019
Version 2 of Spectre Operations was released in 2019 (after a pre-order campaign featuring a rather cool FAL and Glock armed operator). With Stephen focusing on sculpting figures and Jess running Spectre as business that shipped out platoons of figures every month (and occasionally taking them to shows around the world), Matt took over lead writing duties.
With the piles of feedback from players (some names you’ll recognise from the front cover of a later release below), Matt effectively rewrote the rulebook, focusing on clarity and improving the literal mass of rules the book had expanded into. WIth suppression and vehicles for the most part fixed (and an index added), there was also space for more elements to add to the narrative element – drone, specialists to join your force, weather, CBRN and more were all packed into the book, accompanied by yet more of Spectre’s photographs and diagrams all wrapped in a distinctive aesthetic.
This book is the reason that most of the people on the various groups around the internet recommend Spectre when people ask what to play. It is a one-stop shop for anything modern military related, ranging from cops and robbers to mechanised infantry squads and supports clashing in the midst of a chemical attack to Tier 1 operators sneaking through a town after being shot down, this rulebook had rules to cover it all. I dread to think just how many games of this have been played since its release.
It is at this point that we have a split. Matt Adams parted ways with Spectre in 2019 and maintained ownership of the manuscript he wrote for Version 2. This was then licensed back to Spectre for a limited period to allow them to continue to sell the rules (and more importantly the books) that had been created. The licence ran out at the start of 2023 (as we all quickly found out at Christmas time 2022) and V2 was removed from sale, except for those places that still had a few spare copies lying around (such as Desk-Ops who still have a single copy for sale as I write this).
And then in early 2023, we had news of two different rulesets coming out – a new version of Spectre Operations from Spectre themselves and Matt’s releasing of the set he wrote, with some tweaks and adjustments. There has been a bit of a race between the two to see who releases first but in the end, Asymmetric powered across the line.
Asymmetric Warfare – 2023
Asymmetric Warfare, released this week on Drive Thru RPG, is effectively a more polished version of the manuscript used to write Spectre Operations V2. The core mechanics are all here, but there has been a massive list of tweaks, changes, adjustments, slimming down and polishing up. It’s still very much the kitchen sink approach (with appendices full of gear, OTAs and more) so if you love the complete feeling of Spectre V2, it’s still all here. The presentation could do with a few tweaks (more diagrams and photos are always appreciated) but for getting this ruleset back out there, this is a good set. After I’ve read it some more, I’ll write up some thoughts.
Spectre Operations V3 – 2023
At the same time, Spectre has spent most of this year discussing what’s coming in their own ruleset that is releasing soon (after a pre-order process back in September). From what has been discussed, it seems like there are going to be a lot of similar ideas and concepts as the earlier books but with some major changes to give the system a bit of fresh air – D10s have replaced D6s (as they should) and there are plenty of rules for campaigns and expanding forces within them as well as some interesting changes to the core system. It’s also getting a level of polish from the layout team at Black Site Studios in the US, as well as assisting with playtesting. I can’t say much more about it (a better place to look would be on the Spectre blog), but I am interested to see what it brings to the table when it releases later this year (and more importantly I get my Nomad figure that was with the pre-order.)
That’s a run down but to make it simpler, let me deploy this handy flow chart with all the key information.
Now, with that all sorted, let’s get back to the wargaming!
