So I have a slight embarrassing confession to make – before last weekend, I hadn’t actually managed to get Chain of Command 2 (released in May last year) onto the board to play despite the fact I was genuinely excited for. The reason for this is pretty simple – last year was a poor one for getting games on the table, especially games that didn’t have “Necromunda” or “Old World” in the name. However, with the Christmas season upon us, and a hankering for some WW2 action amongst our group, we decided to get a game in.

As this was a learning game, I volunteered to be the rulebook reader/quick reference man while the two Regular Opponents would provide and, in turn, command the forces on the field. On the Allied side, the Dastardly Regular Opponent’s British Paras would be on the offensive, the return of his very nicely painted Warlord Games figures. Across the table, the defenders would be the Creative Regular Opponent’s Panzer Grenadiers, a platoon made from the new Victrix boxes and painted up in less than a week thanks to the wonders of Contrast. The terrain was all done by The Dastardly Regular Opponent, with his farm complex and surrounding buildings something he has been working on in between his various other projects. Frankly, I think he’s done an excellent job, although he is already planning the finishing touches (such as vegetable patches for the back of houses). It was also impressive to be presented with when I turned up – something that has been nice with these home games is that we’ve been slowly building up a terrain collection that is starting to look pretty damn good (although I do need to start work on upping my own game on this front).

The Dastardly Regular Opponent’s helper assisted in rolling off how the assault would go, and in this case, we ended up with a playing across the short side of the board, allowing for an assault along a wide front. The good news was that the British wouldn’t get stuck in the open fields at either end, but the bad news was that instead, they would just be within close range of almost every weapon in the German arsenal.

The two objectives would end up being the back bedroom of the large house (obviously, the war room of Herr General) and the workshop behind the (thankfully) inactive Tiger tank. The patrol phase was a pretty brutal affair, the sides locking in relatively quickly with the British centred on the row houses while the Germans were around the main farm complex. Both sides did have an outlier to assist in flexibility – the Paras managed to get in close at the woods at the bottom of the map, while the Germans seemed to have been camping out in the large field at the top. However, thanks to equal force morale at the start of the game, the attacking British would be able to make the first move.

Support-wise, the British managed to take advantage of the new toys in Chain of Command V2. The British Airborne has lost the integrated PIAT and 2-inch mortar in their list but has gained the ability to upgrade their sections in two ways (although only one section per platoon can get each upgrade) – this includes a marksman that increases the section’s chance of injuring leaders, and pulling a Bren gun from the arms room to create a double MG section. The Dastardly Regular Opponent decided to build a Weapons Section, combining both upgrades into a single section (obviously that Corporal is very popular or veteran enough to know what works). His other three options were all about keeping the assault going: an Adjutant to keep the reserves coming with both Senior Leaders on the field, an additional Para section to take over and keep the pressure up, and a set of WP Grenades (either for its intended purpose of popping smoke or for burning its way through the structures thanks to a pretty nasty set of rules).

Across the board, the German support was a classic combination for the limited points they had – a second Senior Leader (useful as most German platoons only come with a single one) and an entrenched MG42 on a tripod.

The opening of the game was incredibly brutal. While the British support section and sniper setup in the windows of the attic overlooking the farmyard (and praying the Tiger didn’t suddenly gun its engine), the first section deployed into the copse by the old house. The problem was that before they could actually get moving, and despite sitting tactically among the trees, the tripod-mounted MG42 in the first-floor bedroom opened up, helped out by the German Senior Leader and the Maschinengewehr dropping Storm of Steel like it was going out of fashion. To make things even worse, the German player received a grand total of four consecutive phases of activation, the multiple 6s rolled by the German player causing great concern to the British. Unable to activate or reposition and already hugging the ground, the Paras found themselves whittled down, made worse by the Junior Leader being stunned and rendered incapable of command just as a new turn started. Truly, the nightmare of any soldier – under a machine gun’s fire, leadership unable to command, pinned in place.

(The good side of the turn ending was that the objective in the building was discarded as per the rules for the mission, saving a close-quarters bloodbath through the structure.)

One reason why the Paras were unable to reposition was the use of the new Command points to React Fire to the Germans seeking to move into position around the Tiger. As you might expect, two Bren guns are nothing to sniff at, and the burst managed to put suppression and kills down on the Panzer Grenadiers moving into position. The smaller of the teams in the exposed unit would eventually be taken out while trying to rake the attic with MG fire chipping away at German morale.

At this point, we got into a little bit of a two-way firing range across the board. With the Paras in the woods being shot up to the point of being combat ineffective, the MG shifted fire to put suppressing fire down on the Paras in the attic. However, this fire wasn’t continually maintained, leading to a little bit of back and forth as the Brits attempted to gain fire superiority (something that’s hard to do against belt feds). However, the position did manage to keep the fire on the Germans in the yard, slowly whittling them down as they popped in and out of cover.

A double phase for the Brits allowed for a pile of admin work and deployments to prepare the Paras for an actual assault, rather than getting shot up. The two other sections entered the board, with one forming up alongside the Weapons Section on edge of the building while the other… entered into the copse. In what must be a pretty grim scene, the newly arrived Paras would see their comrades reposition to the back of the woods (thanks Command Points) before taking up position among the positions their friends had just occupied. Unfortunately, they were about to suffer a similar fate, as the MG directed by the German Senior Leader opened up and started dropping bodies, as well as suppression. This copse was obviously a bad place to be, but occupying it was causing the German player to hold a section back, just in case an assault came from that direction.

The other section also found itself mauled by the machine gun, its Bren team reduced to a single soldier within moments of deploying. However, the focus of the MG on firing for effect (rather than suppression) meant that the weapons section in the attic could whittle the defending Germans inside the yard down to just the Junior Leader, wounded from a Bren gun hit and now alone.

The Junior Leader rearranged his damaged section, bringing the lone Bren gunner into the rifle team. Joined by the Platoon Leader, we then saw some of the most balls-to-the-wall action I’ve seen in Chain of Command.

The pop of a white phosphorus grenade put up enough of a smoke cloud to let this assault team (with two Sten guns, a Bren and two leaders packed full of initiatives) push across the street. MG fire ripped out, but the only hit was to the Junior Leader. Seeing as it caused no Force Morale change, I can only imagine the Platoon Commander kept him upright with a stiff upper lip response before getting into the defilade caused by the roof of the yard buildings. After clearing suppression and with covering fire from the pair of Bren guns above them, the assault team was then given an order that was specifically to “take up position in the yard”. Now, anyone who knows Too Fat Lardies movement will understand the specificity of wording when it comes to movement – many an infantry command has declared they are advancing, rolled up their movement, overshot the nice solid wall and found themselves in the field beyond. In this case, a truly colossal amount of movement allowed the assault team to round the corner, get into cover behind the Tiger, keep going across the small gap behind it and then burst through the door into the objective (and presumably a shed full of terrified mechanics, surprised tank crew and various spare parts). Not even German React Fire could halt them, putting the assault team on the objective and sat in a defensible position.

Now, at this point, we had (for the first time in my Chain of Command career) actually had a unit fulfilling the objective of the mission (as opposed to simply giving the enemy a hard enough kicking that they leave). This also meant that, if the Brits gained one more Command point, they could begin the Final Countdown. The Germans had actually been getting a kicking on the morale side, with injured leaders being the biggest blows (thanks mostly to the sniper and the Weapons Section hammering anything they could see with Concentrated Fire and its Storm of Steel) and had now reached two on the force morale chart. This meant that once the Brits started the final Countdown by spending the Command Points, we’d have two phases before the game ended with an objective win. The German player saw this and decided to join in the shennighans. Using the German Handgranaten special rules with one of his Gruppe (accompanied by the surviving Junior Leader to provide SMG support), the group attacked the shed. A grenade landing short was a bad start, but then came the close combat dice.

The British ended up with such an overwhelming number of dice to roll in combat (16 to 3) thanks to their LMG, Stens and two leaders, that the Germans bottled the assault and broke – presumably the collection of pissed off Paras firing from the hip like it was a Commando comic made them realise getting into that barn was going to be a bad idea. This caused another Bad Things Happen roll that put the Germans to 0, ending the battle with a very bloody British victory.

This was truly one of our favourite games so far, and not the ending we expected a few phases in. The Dastardly Regular Opponent was even considering calling off the assault when it bogged down (planning to come back once the Shermans turned up). However, in the end, it was incredibly exciting to play and shows how the right moves at the right time can carry the day. The creation of an assault section in the final few phases was something out of the history books, a senior leader pulling a shattered section together to do something heroic. The downside of this, especially if we turned this into the first mission of a campaign, is that this force of Paras had been absolutely shattered – 19 figures across the four sections removed as casualties means it’s above the values that the Post Game Casualties table in At The Sharp End covers and while the CO would be happy with the progress, the Men’s Opinion is already in the toilet.

The Germans also had some great moments – the MG was perfectly positioned and accounted for the bulk of casualties in the game, helped by a Senior Leader literally sat behind hit pointing out targets until he took a shot from the Para’s sniper team that, put politely, reduced his effectiveness. Additionally, with a few more phases, the Gruppe in the field would have managed to vault the wall and joined in the fray which would have brought an almost intact unit into an area filled with the under-strength. It was also impressive how well they managed to lock down sectors of the map, really pushing the British to expend men and smoke grenades to get the job done.

The best sign was what happened afterwards – as we packed up, we discussed how things could have gone differently. Maybe the Paras should have brought a Sherman, using it’s HE and smokes to cover the advance, at the loss of the extra section. That would have forced the German player back a little bit, although the pile of Panzerfausts would have given the tank crew pause for thought. We left the game day already thinking about the next one, as well as possibilities for our big game in February – turns out someone else (me) might need to paint up some Red Devils for an operation.

How about the rules? Well, V2 of Chain of Command isn’t a complete revolution, and frankly, I wouldn’t want it to be – Chain of Command was already in a pretty good place. It’s great to see a lot of the changes from 12 years of supplements making its way back into the main rules (such as the Red Dice, the Leader variants and limited ammo rules), while the simplification and removal of major sticking blocks (Elite/Green ratings have much more focused effects than lots of little small ones, while mortar barages are far less a “fuck you, I win” button) means that a lot of the house rules people have come up with are gone. Command Points are also a fantastic addition, giving you more to do during your enemy’s phases, while being easy enough to gain that you use them, while also not being an infinite resource. Storm of Steel was another rule that we really liked – it’s basically adding the concept of exploding 6s when rolling to hit, usually linked to special rules such as the National Characteristics. The British player especially found himself using it, helping to turn the Bren guns into more of a damage dealer.

I also like how the force lists have been changed up – Panzer Grenadiers are still a nightmare with two MGs per Gruppe but they now don’t also have a pile of rifles chipping in, while the Paras being able to get more machine guns and removing the odd additional sniper in Section 3 (as well dropping them back to Regular rather than Elite) makes them feel like the more aggressive alternative to the regular Infantry. The book is also far easier to use, with a clear index at the back and a layout that makes finding specific rules far quicker.

You can expect to see plenty more Chain of Command V2 over the next year as all three of us have things planned for it. It’s also a chance for me to finish off some of my other projects, as well as giving my Winter Brits (who I truly love) some Germans to fight – the Volksgrenadier list seems especially interesting…

The Dastardly Regular Opponent and I live roughly 45 minutes away from each other – a little too far for a school night game but perfect for me to nip over on a Saturday evening. We’re aiming for at least one game day a month which so far we’ve managed to hit. When I gave him the options for this session, he moved rather quickly to sign up for another game of What An Operator – in part because we both enjoy ultramodern stuff but also because he’s fresh off running a few games of What A Cowboy derivatives (mostly underhive gangers) for his scout group. Now knowing a game just enough to get yourself into trouble, I began roughly planning out what the mission would be.

All it needed was me to quickly get some terrain together…

Last time we followed the adventures of Commando Global Solutions, they had just captured special forces working for a foreign nation inside the borders of Shyluz. Luckily for CGS, nothing bad has come from this (yet) and so the team are free to continue their contract working for the Shyluz Ministry Of Interior. Which means they are taking a trip up north.

While in Southern Shyluz most of the rebel groups are related to the Bazi Empire, the North sees an underlying tension with the Tsardom, especially among isolated communities that see themselves more closely linked culturally with their former rulers rather than the government to the south. There is a background level of support for Tsarist insurgent groups, with the wooded valleys providing ideal locations for training and hideaways before attacking symbols of the “godless illegitimate regime” as online recordings of such attacks refer to them.

Imagery from Rettung’s Mimir satellite observation system (for which Shyluz pays for access) allows for easy monitoring of the large-scale picture in the region, letting the ministry gather large. However, the intelligence recovered can only act as the first step to reacting – actually confirming the presence of rebels and their equipment at these locations means the Ministry must rely on contractors and local law enforcement to perform inspections and gather on-the-ground intelligence where possible before committing to direct raids (which are unpopular with the population).

Commando Global Solutions has been hired to perform one of these intelligence missions in the far north of Shyluz close to the border with the Tsardom. The farm has seen an unexpected level of activity, with multiple satellite passes showing an unusual amount of goods being moved to and from the barn as well as the root cellar under the property. CGS are to perform a touch reconnaissance – enter the property under the cover of night, and check the outbuildings for evidence. ROE is only to engage in self-defence – this is supposed to be a recce, not a raid.

After the briefing of the task, I let the Dastardly Regular Opponent decide how he was to perform this recce. He settled on a four-person team, who would have parked up a valley or two over and trekked in on foot to perform his operation at night. Out of the four, one would sit just out of the play area providing overwatch (limited in his actions but harder to hit due to being so far away) armed with a sniper rifle with an NVG optic. The setting of ChargeReal has a much wider tech level, so we decided that CGS (being a PMC with a limited funding base) is rolling relatively low tech – no NVGs but weapon lights.

However, both teams get to have some say in how the mission will go. Although CGS entered the area relatively covertly (arriving in a single vehicle with only a single team), the presence of an unknown SUV in the hills quickly spread among the communities, reaching the ear of the rebels. Different strong points in the surrounding area react differently but the target of the recce decides to pack up and move key assets out of the farm before they are discovered. This means when the CGS team reaches the area, personnel are hard at work, with limited illumination, moving objects from the barn to the vehicles.

Before the first turn started, I shifted a few things around to represent the information that CGS had received being slightly out of date. It was mostly a few subtle things, such as moving vehicles around and shifting the piles of construction material.

As you can see, the farm comprises two structures, a small barn and a farmhouse. An outside toilet and the root cellar entrance filled out the rest of the points-of-interest, while an under-construction structure sat at the edge of the woods. We assumed all terrain outside of the groups of trees was dense woodland, preventing easy line of sight. My opponent was aiming to recce the barn and the root cellar by simply moving into contact with them, while avoiding being spotted.

Also yep, apologies for not getting the root cellar and toilet entrance painted up, I ended up spending a chunk of time getting the newly printed buildings and ran out of time on the other pieces. I’ll get them painted for the next time.

The team began their infiltration from the woods, taking advantage of the in-construction shed to hopefully break line of sight and stop themselves from being spotted in the darkness. They managed to get a little bit of movement before suddenly, the pair of guards outside the barn looked into the darkness and managed to activate with 4 spotting dice, letting them peek into the gloom and realise they had guests. A pistol shot rang out and suddenly we were action on.

As a quick side note, for sneaking around at night we had to add some nightfighting rule. We decided to keep it simple – spotting at night requires an additional spotting dice to be spent. This rule is nullified if the character has NVGs (in this scenario, no one does), NVG/thermal optics (only the CGS sniper does), a torch is used (by either the shooter or the target) or if the target has been firing. This means that most targets will need at least one spotting dice to engage now, but actually shooting has the potential to set off a chain of shots that make spotting the force even easier. We also added radio comms, which let you use wild die and spotting die to share information around the team.

Now technically at this point the team could have backed away and reported in but circumstantial evidence isn’t evidence. While two operators found cover and started returning fire at the pair behind the truck, one of the more cover operators headed to flank around, keeping to the forest surrounding the farm to get a better angle and approach from the rear.

Out front, while the marksman was busy keeping the pair of gunmen by the outside toilet busy, the main pair found themselves stuck in the construction yard, popping off shots at the pair with pistols as things started to go away from the plan.

The appearance of a gunman with a PKM from the barn was definitely a cause for concern – the first burst sent the team leader sprawling in the dirt after a successful dodge while the second was only prevented by a well-timed bonanza token to interrupt. The gunner finished his activation by diving behind cover.

Moments after spotting the machine gunner frantically reload, the flanking element spotted the root cellar door opening to reveal more enemies joining the fight. Interestingly, this fighter was not dressed as a civilian, with Rettung pattern web gear and helmet breaking up his outline. Worried about the possibility of being overrun, the flanking element snapped off an ambushing shot with a bonanza token, forcing his target to dive back into cover.

Unable to get the angle on the remaining CGS operative from the truck, the machine gunner started looking for where best to shift to get a good firing arc. Unfortunately, the dice were against me this turn – only one movement dice and I almost rolled snake eyes on it. However, it did give them a reasonable position, setting him up with a narrow-angle just in case the final CGS operator on this side decided to advance.

The team leader, after having been shot at by a machine gun somewhere in the darkness directly in front of him, decided to shift around the barn to attempt to get a better angle and to maintain momentum rounding the corner, he spotted a shadow at the far end so, bringing his rifle up and thumbing the switch on the weapon light, he illuminated the rebel lurking there. One quick burst saw the enemy fighter injured, unable to dodge the sudden attack.

Of course, all this gunfire attracted the attention of the machine gunner. Stumbling through the darkness towards the source, he rounded the corner to see the CGS leader standing against the barn, rifle still low at the man he’s shot at. Bracing the weapon against the metalwork on the cellar entrance, it looked like it was going to be a very painful burst of fire when…

The flanking operative spent a bonanza token to interrupt. Rolling very well on the activation dice, he managed to get enough movement to sneak up behind the machine gunner before dropping multiple shoot and wild dice to deliver a good old round of brawlin. The end result was a critical hit, closely followed by a roll on the crit table that delivered… instantly dead. It’s easy to visualise, just a pair of hands emerging from the gloom, the knife shining in one as it embeds itself in the gunner’s neck before he can get a shot off – and then the professional nod between the two operators.

We were getting into the late stages and unfortunately it was only at this point I got to deploy the rest of the rebels hiding in the root cellar. This pair, armed with the Rettung G36 and wearing Shyluz Army web gear came busting up the stairs and managed to put some shock down before nipping into cover. However, man of the game, fresh off murdering the machine gunner, decided to pitch a grenade over the bunker top – a grenade that landed perfectly, didn’t scatter and then delivered multiple critical hits to both the new arrivals and the rebel leader, taking them both out of action. This guy will be receiving the bonus for this operation.

Not pictured throughout this entire game was what was going on over on the far side. The CGS marksman off-board managed to get some shots on the pair of goons with AKs behind the white SUV, killing one and forcing the other to attempt a risky crossing across the open to take part in the fighting, whereupon he got taken out. There was also a rebel marksman hiding in the bushes who was entirely useless, not able to get a good angle on any opponents and failing to even get off the board once the time ran out. Overall, a disappointing result for the rebels!

In the post-game, I revealed to the Dastardly Regular Opponent that a quick scan of the area revealed that the barn was stacked with fuel drums, and not the usual stuff for your truck or tractor – we’re talking aviation gas. The root cellar also revealed a stockpile of arms and equipment, including body armour and rifles still wrapped in plastic and bearing the markings of a freshly imported package complete with paperwork detailing the unit of Shyluz Airmobile Infantry it was destined for; obviously signs that the rebels are up to something. Having captured the last squirter, the CGS team was able to stop the exact details of what went down getting out, although the gunfire echoing down the valleys may put some of the surrounding settlements on high alert. We’ll have to see what the next game is going to be…

Overall, a very fun game for a Saturday night – exciting narrative action and some absolutely glorious/disgraceful dice rolls for both parties involved. Our little tweaks are still fun to play even as we add more, with basic stealth and night fighting helping to make it feel a little less Wild West and a bit more Call of Duty 4. That said, I think I might be going a little too easy on the heroes – time to up the ante!

On a personal note, one thing I have noticed recently is that I am out of practice with writing battle report – well more accurately, I’m out of practice remembering to get all the photos! Usually, I’m able to reconstruct battle reports purely from the photos but the last few have been a touch harder. For the next game I’m going to try and get as many photos as possible soI guess I’ll just need to get some more painted terrain on the board!

In the last AAR I wrote, I was introducing the Corporate and Dastardly Regular Opponents to What an Operator, a variant of What A Cowboy. Well, there is another regular opponent who needed his introduction to the current game as the Former Housemate is someone who usually lightly suffers through my Ultramodern games while dreaming of his true love Necromunda (although actually, I assume he spends most of his time dreaming of Necromunda). However, he always enjoys a chance to roll some dice, play some games and usually get away with some madness. So, after a Thai Green Curry and good catchup, we broke out the BSS buildings and began the latest game of What An Operator.

Somewhere in Southern Shyluz, a group of fighters belonging to the Greater Bazi Reunification Front (an active revolutionary group seeking to reclaim parts of Bazi Empire that have been taken by other nations such as Southern Shyluz, Al-Baawba and more) are making a deal with two arms dealers (Sergi a former paratrooper and Ivan the brains of the organisation) from the Perun League, a nation of states far to the North West that used to be ruled by the Tsar and home to several underground arsenals after the Decade of Strife. This meeting is an introduction, a chance for the parties involved to have an initial face-to-face before weapons and money are put on the table and deals made.

The problem is that Sergi and Ivan are not actually from the Perun League and are not arms dealers – in fact, they aren’t even called Sergi and Ivan. Instead, they are agents of the Shyluz Ministry of the Interior, working to build a picture of the various groups seeking to destabilize the current republic. Unfortunately for this, this face-to-face meeting is about to go horribly wrong – Sergi and Ivan aren’t as clever as they think they are and the GBRF have friends in high places who have access to the details of undercover operatives in the region. Luckily they aren’t alone – four operators from Causeway International (a PMC headquartered in Arcadia) accompanied them to the meeting and have taken up positions close by to assist if needed.

As the meeting breaks down, the conversation switching from a common language over to angry Bazi, Sergie looks at the two fighters in front of him and gently takes the safety off his AK…

Luckily for Sergi and Ivan, the first card out of the activation deck was Sergi. Even better, the very first dice roll of the game came up with exactly what my opponent needed to get his two guys out of harm’s way.

6 – 4 – 5 – 1 -1 – 6

First up, a shoot dice (4 or 5) was swiftly turned into a fully automatic burst that delivered a critical hit to the pair of gunmen they were fighting.

One of the sixes was combined with a movement to perform some Hollywood action. In this case, Sergi grabbed Ivan under the arm and dived into cover, getting the pair of them out of harm’s way. Getting up to his feet, another burst of fire from cover did little thanks to the gun going click (rolling two ones on the shoot roll causes a stoppage that must be handled in the next activation).

Brought in by the sound of gunfire, one of the Causeway International teams moved from the garage building they had secured and push into the fight. After putting a few shots down (causing more shock to the attacking rebels) the pair worked together to climb up to the elevated position, ready to provide cover.

As an aside, I’ve dropped down the number of figures in groups of henchmen from the three of the original ruleset down to two. With groups of figures only able to spend the same number of shoot dice as they have figures in a group but also having full auto weapons (with two/three shots per dice) means you can absolutely shred, especially at close range. The fewer figures also mean that if you’re playing squad-based games, it lets you fit in several rifle pairs alongside your characters or specialists. It does lack some of the simplicity of the original system (critical hits don’t remove a single figure any more) but I think it feels a little more tactical.

The other pair of operators hit their own rooftop, taking the high ground to start pouring fire into the group below. What they weren’t expecting was the revel with the PKM to open up on them in his activation, putting the pair of them into a two-way firing range with rounds ripping the railings apart.

Pinned down behind the brick piles (and with Ivan a little busy handling bad guys pushing in from the other side), Sergi soon found himself in trouble. With a rebel pushing on him, he had to pull a Bonanza token and interrupt. With his rifle empty, Sergi pulled the pistol from his belt holster and put some more shock onto the attacker. However, it wasn’t enough to stop a pistol shot hit the ex-paratrooper in the shoulder and dropping him backwards with a wound (and one less activation dice).

On the other side, Ivan hadn’t managed to activate reliably all game (enjoying the friction of sudden turns ending, we’re playing around with hiding two jokers in the deck that once pulled end the turn and reset the activation deck). So when the other group of rebels decided to advance on him, frankly we were all expecting him to immediately get the crap beaten out of him. So we were shocked when instead Ivan pulled a John Wick and rolled hits on all his close combat dice, including a wild dice. Safe to say, the attacking rebels got absolutely wiped out by the furious intelligence operator.

With that devastating round of combat over, and after some further gunfire from the PMC Operators that tore apart the other rebels (and more importantly the hour growing late), we decided to call the game then. Sergi and Ivan had managed to survive their little encounter. We’ll have to see if we return to these two later, but it was a fun intro to What An Operator for another member of the Regular Opponents.

Overall, What An Operator continues to be a game that fits very well for the evening games at the moment – it’s hitting the narrative-focused parts of my brain that Skirmish Sangin did when I first got into Ultramodern Wargaming, while requiring far less prep work than many other games need. In fact, for this particular game, I was literally able to prepare everything while talking through the basics. It’s also a simple enough system that you can easily bolt on other parts to the core to expand it in different ways while still being flexible that its just fun to sit down and play.

Now it’s just time to play some more games – there has been a distinct lack of battle reports on the blog and I have an understanding that they are among the most popular articles, as well as being the most fun to write. In fact, I’ve been having so much fun with them, there may be another battle report in the pipe as we speak…

As I mentioned in my last post about Warcry, many of my regular opponents (specifically the Dastardly and the Corporate) play games with me in situations where something easy to setup and hit the table is handy. Starting late at night or trying to get into a lunch break game during a work day requires a certain speed of play but also an ease in picking forces and running, as well as carefully looking at the mental load of a game – something with too much paperwork or tokens can actually be a little much if you want the drive home or afternoon of work to go well.

There is a wide variety of games for Ultramodern wargames, ranging from the incredibly crunchy and detailed for the simulation fans down to sets designed for competitive head-to-head play, where you use the tools of the Ultramodern genre to utterly defeat your opponent. Which is great! I adore BPRE 28mm and it’s been a fantastic challenge to play, pitting the minds of the Regular Opponents as well as teaching a lot of good habits when it comes to playing. But sometimes you want a game that is less focused on the competitive side and a bit more laid back, a chance for you and your friend to get cool figures on the table, play through what is basically a movie action scene and leave me filled with ideas for the next scenario. I adore the narrative that games can provide, actually above the core fact of who actually won the game.

Enter, What An Operator! John Savage the writer of What a Cowboy ran a rather cool cartel game the system with a few tweaks and I was able to have a little chat about some of them early in the project (unfortunately it was 2021 so I didn’t manage to get figures on the tabletop. I get on well with the Lardy style of rules writing, while What a Tanker and What a Cowboy definitely hits a good balance between rolling dice because it’s fun, while still being something that takes barely any time to get on the table and less time to explain the fundamentals. With a few tweaks to cover automatic weapons from this year’s Lardie Annual (and a few more from myself to account for using teams of trained soldiers rather than mere cowpokes and outlaws), figures hit the board with rapid speed.

I managed to get a test game in with the Corporate Opponent during the week, going from 0 knowledge to a complete game in roughly an hour; a good start, even if we couldn’t take any photos due to playing inside the company office. However, we skipped a few systems that I actually realised are kind of vital so we’ll be doing another game soon. But the things I learnt helped me to set up a game to run during my monthly trip to see the Dastardly Regular Opponent – the perfect setup for a battle report taking place in the ChargeReal.

Operators from the Cyrenician 201st Logical Support Group have been deployed to Shyluz Highlands to locate and secure a missing convoy belonging to a non-government group. Following the tyre tracks of the protected vehicles into dense woodland close to the Bazi border, the team soon find themselves in close proximity to contractors from the Commando Global Solutions PMC who are also in the area investigating the vehicles for the employer. With both teams attempting to secure the objective and prevent the other from reporting back, it would be a bloody contact

To focus on the game, and play something that I’d need to be able to fit on any table we can find in the office, we played a VERY small game, folding down the mat to something tiny. In the middle

I would play the forces of Cyrenice, elite operators operating in a foreign country to secure a national interest, while the Dastardly Regular Oponent took control of the contractors belonging to Commando Global Solutions, a group that has appeared on here in the past (usually getting into trouble).

The two forces were mechanically mirrors of each other – a single Gunslinger-level figure to represent the “hero” of each side and two pairs (one armed with only assault rifles, the other one with a machine gun on one of the operators). These pairs were basically tweaked versions of the Henchmen groups in the core game, reducing the figure count on each base to the more tactical two but adding some more control, over them elevating them from mere background troops to a tactical piece. In regular games, more elite forces will be more of the regular characters, able to act much more on their initiative and take full advantage of their equipment. Assault rifles were set to allow some automatic fire (although not enough to mean troopers would be jamming any time soon) while the LMGs got rules to incentivise finding a firing lane and spending the time to set up and cover it. Although Henchmen can only spend a single dice per character shooting each activation, a single dice for a LMG can still bring the pain if they go fully automatic.

We began in opposite corners, with a convoy of Bushmaster armoured vehicles between us to represent the goal of our investigations. In a bigger game, we’d use these vehicles as task objectives but for this? They were merely chunks of metal to sit between our figures and stop them getting wiped out.

Commando Global Solutions got the first move, advancing their MG team into an area of woodland and setting up, taking cover among the pine needles and watching the gap between the two vehicles.

Rather than setting up my own machine gun to turn the gap in the centre into a two way firing range, I instead set up the Cyrenician operators covering the rear of the second Bushmaster, hoping to prevent any move to outflank me.

As a side note, I’m going to invest in some small mat pieces to make woodland area terrain easier to see without having to have the trees touching each other.

I also advanced my own troops up to the front of the armoured vehicle, aiming to push the flanks and stay away from the large open area, at least for now. However, there was going to be a need to push the enemy and rather than charge a dug-in machine gun, I instead sprinted across the gap.

At which point the Bonanza tokens kicked in, the resource by which characters can pull off moves that change the games usual flow such as interrupts – the machine gun team spotting two operators crossing in their firing line obscured by only light cover, bringing the weapon to bear before hammering away. Luckily my two operators were able to rush to the safety of the vehicle infront, taking only temporary shock which could be cleared later.

However, it was just enough shock to prevent them from using their own Bonanza tokens against the advancing CGS team that lurked behind the vehicle. Bonanza interrupts only lets you use a fraction of your action dice, meaning its quite possible to be left with only a single action dice. I decided to hold my fire and prepare for future engagements.

Which allowed the CGS leader to prepare to do some Holywood Stuff. If you have a wild dice (a six) among your Action Dice that you roll at the start of each turn, you can combine it with other actions to perform the type of heroics you can see on the silver screen. In this case, combining it with a Move dice to allow a Rapid Transition to Dynamic Prone, letting him come around the corner without being engaged.

And this is where playing with a friend who is in this game for the visuals as much as you are really comes into play. For a moment he and I were sat there at the table, trying to work out how this manevoure would look on the silver screen.

It’s just a shame the dice rolls didn’t go quite as well as he hoped. As the leader sailed through the air and landed prone, the shots he hammered at the advancing operators did little more than suppress them. But, suppressing these guys forced them to use a Bonanza token next turn to attempt to return dice to their hand, pinning them in place for now.

It was at this point that we started breaking out the frag grenades to clear the opposition, the battle escalating. Using the dynamite rules, the Cyrenician troops were the first to deploy them, landing one behind the bushmaster. However, the CGS guys were lucky, with only one trooper being removed and the others just dealing with ringing ears and shock.

The Cyrenician MG team however was less lucky, as a scattering grenade thrown by the CGS leader that was intended for the rifle team bounced next to their position and delivered a catastrophic set of three Critical hits. With each critical hit removing two Action dice permanently and each element having only six to begin with, it’s safe these guys got shredded.

With time running out and having lost a portion of his team, the Cyrenician team leader went forward to brawl, pushing forward to close with the opponents, ignoring an attempt to engage him before he could close. Much as with many other TFL games, brawlin is pretty nasty, with the shoot dice being converted to close range attacked that wounded the opponent and forced him back.

However, even with the Cyrenician rifle team moving forward to surround the CGS operators, they were put into an unfortunate situation. The CGS MG team, having bounced forward from it’s key position got an outflank and setup to cover them. At the risk of being overwhelmed, and with the CGS team demanding a surrender, the Cyrenician SF raised their hands and surrendered, not quite willing to risk everything for this particular mission. With two men out of action on each side, this was a bloody encounter that ended due to poor positioning and sheer weight of firepower.

Overall, that was an excellent game for something that was put on the table in 5 minutes, rules explained in another 10 (plus some in-game flicking back and forth to check the specifics) and then a blast was had for the rest of the evening. It felt very much that the rules provided the possibility space for both of us to play in and then stood back for us to choose what made sense tactically and dramatically, only sticking its hand back in where absolutely needed. We’re going to use the events of this game to decide what’s going to happen next – will the Cyrenician attempt a rescue mission or will it be a tense exchange between the interested parties?

The other bonus for us liking this game is that it provides a mechanical core that, with a few tweaks, can easily be played for a whole host of genres while keeping that narrative feel that both myself and opponents enjoy. Knowing a core set of rules means we can actually get to playing the game much faster than jumping between different ways to roll their dice, letting us focus on the worlds of Cowboys, Operators, Commandos or more. Dedicated systems designed from the ground up for a particular era may provide a more “realistic” game, one where each aspect plays into simulating, but having something everyone knows and can get into (along with a smattering of changes to theme it) with easily means we’re going to be playing a lot more games this year. In fact, we’re already planning a campaign using What An Operator for a project that my patrons have been informed about, something that I’ll be detailing more tomorrow.

Last weekend was Vapnartak in York and, as much as I enjoy the show, I mainly use it as an excuse to gather my Regular Opponents together so we can disappear off to the nearby scout hut and take part in one of our game days. In the past we’ve used this place to play Chain of Command on a big table, a mix of Too Fat Lardies things and more. This year, the plan was Tanks – specifically lots of tanks and the Too Fat Lardies game “What a Tanker”. My original plan of taking the week to prepare the game, assemble and paint the missing tank in my collection AND gather everything together had to be cut down to a two-day mad sprint due to an unfortunate bout of illness, meaning I was up late the night before getting vehicles ready for the game.

Although my tank selection is smaller than the Creative and Dastardly Opponents, I wanted to get them out of storage and onto the board. With a full platoon of Churchills painted up, I was left with a task list. My AVRE, Crocodile and the first Comet were undercoated, my Stuart was just assembled but a pair of Comets to finish off the platoon were sat waiting to be glued to. So it was time to rush the assembly!

The good news is that my Comets are from Rubicon and Rubicon makes some gloriously easy kits to assemble. They really do hit the mid-point between “model kit” and “wargaming kit”, letting you get them ready for the board in record time (I think the second was assembled in roughly 45 minutes). For these two, I decided to go with the uncovered gun mantle (partially so you can actually move the gun up and down) and did one of them with the hatch open so I could add one of Empress’s tank commanders when I painted them up.

And then it was painting time. By which I mean it was also 10pm and quite frankly I should have been heading to bed as I was on the exit stage of the lurgy that had knocked me for six for the previous few days. Instead, I rushed out to my recently upgraded garage to get to spraying. Due to being an idiot, my painting is always based around a black undercoat, even if I’m about to spray over the top with Army Painter’s Angel Green spray, so there was a frantic moment of running a heater to speed up the drying of the primer ready for layer two. It’s also roughly around this time that one of the exhaust cowling pieces from one of the Comets decided to escape leaving me with some unexpected but not entirely unwanted variation.

Once sprayed up, the next stage was to break out the makeup brush and Vallejo Russian uniform for the actual colour, applying the lighter colour over the surface while leaving the dark colour underneath in the recesses. If I wanted to actually finish them, I’d have painted the small touches and then hit them with white streaks for my winter of 1945 look. However, it was now late and I had to be up early to drive to collect one of the players so having put three colours on them (black, green and different green), it was time for bed.

Having driven south to collect the Former Housemate to then drive north to York, we rolled into Vappa at the sensible time of 11am after the mad rush. The show is still great (the Scarif battle picture especially grabbed my eye) but after collecting my pre-orders (a visit to Empress and Warbases) and wandering around, we nipped back to get playing.

The game of the day was something I’d scrawled down called The Great Swan. Using What a Tanker as the base ruleset, we made a scenario focused on getting your tanks off the enemy board edge, in a mode that at one point had been nicknamed “tank rugby” (we had to talk down the idea of having an actual ball). To add a little depth/chaos, a selection of Points of Interest located around the board pushed teams forward, both to incentivise movement but also to generate Command Points that could be spent on calling in support (we’ll get back to it later).

We’re lucky that the venue available to us thanks to the Dastardly Regular Opponent is both incredibly close to York Racecourse and also has enough space and tables that we can put up some seriously big boards. After bringing all the tables in, it took three full-size gaming mats to cover it in various shades of green, before the pile of buildings, trees and hills were fetched and put into place. We wanted plenty of cover for the advancing tanks, although I did warn them about the issues of what could be lurking in the trees and buildings…

Now if I was to be sensible, we had FAR too many tanks on the day compared to how many got knocked out or even hit the table. However, we were also definitely getting the vehicles out to show off. Which if we’re honest is what wargaming can be all about – getting your newly painted collection on the tabletop and showing off the cool things to the delight of your friends. As you can see, we’ve managed to assemble several platoons of the usual suspects (Shermans and Panzer 4s) while mixing in a few of the classic fun toys such as the Dastardly Regular Opponent’s latest additions with his big cats. There was also a smattering of lighter vehicles, ideal for shooting across the board or appearing in a player’s hand when they least expected it.

So let’s talk about the game. First up, the slightly tongue-in-cheek introduction:

“Gentlemen! Fellow Cavalry Officers! Terrible news!

We have heard rumours from the most reliable of sources (the wives and valets of the General Staff) that our Dastardly Enemies to our East/West are planning to invade our verdant land. As we are all cavalry officers it makes sense that, rather than wait for our enemy to advance and win the initiative, we shall instead take the bull by the horns and prepare a counter-attack BEFORE they can advance! Gather your forces and we shall swan through the green lands of the border regions and into the sweet civilisation beyond! I’ll see you in the enemy’s Capital in time for Afternoon tea!”

After the teams were set up (three vs three, roughly splitting into a York-based team and one assembled from those who travelled to be there), the players rolled off to gain an advantage. The Away team won the roll and decided to gain the initiative in the first turn. This meant that the Home team were able to pick their tanks first. This meant that the game began with the Home Team comprising of a Stuart, Churchill and King Tiger facing off against the Away Team with Comet, Tiger and a Universal Carrier.

The smaller vehicles were listed as Recce tanks in my scenario, meaning they got an extra turn before the battle kicked off. This meant I got to use the Universal Carrier to help demo the game, whereupon it rolled very poor movement while the test firing of the onboard Panzerfaust (the crew needed something to deal with the big boys) only managed to reduce one of the cows to immobile. As the actual first turn began, the Big Boys surged forward, powering down the slope and heading off to battle.

On the other side of the board, the Churchill struggled off the starting line, the King Tiger rolled forward but the star was the Stuart tank SPEEDING off to capture the Point of Interest by ending the turn within 6″ of it. POIs generated 1 CP each at the start of the turn, a generation we had to adjust midway through as the sheer amount of special abilities being thrown around became an issue. You’ll see what I mean in a second.

In the centre, the two vehicles that had already captured one Point of Interest each found themselves rushing to capture the central POI, even as the Tiger on the hilltop tried to range in the Stuart. The Universal Carrier eventually was able to speed into position, forcing the Stuart to push past them to get a flank.

A push that took it into the line of sight of the Comet. The two vehicles were able to bring the other into firing solutions, only for the rounds to go whizzing over their opponent’s head.

This led to the only logical solution. High-speed close-quarters combat around the Point of Interest. Both tanks came roaring around the woods, fired and only caused temporary damage.

At this point, both teams decided to delve into the big box of tricks and call in support. This was done with a deck of cards, with different suits doing different things. The Clubs meant both teams were able to bring in artillery on their positions, the large blast template meaning 2D6 wasn’t enough to stop each tank’s radio operator directing fire onto their rival. First kills of the game and it was down to the artillery behind the lines! Artillery spotted by the King Tiger then managed to shred the Tiger tank before it got too close, adding another point to the Gunners (who then gained a line on the tally board that was tracking points).

However, this skirmish allowed the Universal Carrier to slip through, capturing one of the Points of Interest before streaming towards the board edge. Not even the return of the Stuart’s player in his Matilda (chosen by his opponents after an unlucky dice roll) could stop the carrier from scoring the first point of the day.

Using a pile of Command Points, the Tiger commander decided to deploy his IS-2 far forward, rolling off the newly captured point before planning to advance forward. However, the promise of a gun duel with the King Tiger was too tempting. That said, it was hard to do anything when dealing with the King Tiger’s massive armour value, rolling 12 dice to attempt to save any hits which the player managed to do pretty much every time.

Unfortunately at this point, I was too busy running the game to snap more photos but there were a few more moments of glorious silliness. The Matlida ramming the IS-2, a rogue pilot deciding to strafe the unfortunate Churchill still stuck in its deployment area, said Churchill being pinned down and pummelled so hard that the player decided to abandon it rather than attempting to repair the temporary damage. The game eventually ended when we ran out of time, although pretty much everyone was buzzing with excitement as we packed the game away.

Overall, the game was a great success. Everyone had fun, we slapped some tanks on the table and ridiculous things happened. The rules for What A Tanker were taught in a single session and did nothing to slow the game down, the dice gods showed their full range of blessings and in the end we left the venue planning to get several more large games in this year. Maybe even some of my Ultramoderns will end up on the biggest board?

At the same time, before I do anything with The Great Swan, I’ll need to go back and rebalance the game. Bringing in the support pieces from the cards was fun, but they ended up being a little bit overpowered due to the sheer amount of Command Points being generated each turn. I’m going to have a little play with this scenario and rebalance a few things but if you want to take a look it is linked here.

Next though, I should probably finish painting those tanks…

I have already talked much about my love for Skirmish Sangin, and having played V2 remotely over the last few months, I found my energy for it returned. However, I definitely found a few places where the systems in the Beta rules just didn’t seem to work, missing the point of the game or requiring far too much busy work for my tastes. And so I got to work thinking up some ways to take the game I adore.

This has obviously taken some time – writing rules and working through the basics requires some thought. But, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had its campaign released the weekend before this game and I had a good time playing it. More importantly, as I was crossing over a border in pursuit of the villain, I suddenly realised what my next game of Sangin was going to be. Luckily, I also had a game arranged with my former housemate and as a recovering player of Inquisitor and the 40k RPGs, the sight of D100s wouldn’t terrify him fast enough to cause a problem.

So with all this arranged, and with a few custom rule sheets printed out, we return to the Albion/Bazistan border for a new operation.

Cross-border actions by criminals operating in the metro area of Pani (the capital of Al-Bawaaba province, Albion Commonwealth) and Barakat(2nd largest city in Bazi Emirate) have been an increasing issue for the Albion and Bazi Security forces over the last few years. While cross-border negotiations are ongoing to formalise joint efforts, local area commanders often turn a blind eye to operations launched by their counterparts when dealing with certain criminal groups. 

These raids are exceptionally dangerous for the officers involved – after crossing the river, any combatants are technically violating the laws of the other nation and are outside their jurisidcation, leading to the potential for political drama. Local criminals take advantage of this problem, calling in the local police as protection from the outsiders.

For six months, the Special Counter-Drug Squad (SCDS) operating in Barakat has been building a case against an Albion national (codenamed “The Jackal”) operating a crime ring across the border. While the squad was preparing to launch a raid to capture him, inteligence reported he had managed to escape into Al-Bawaaba, taking up residence in a slum close to border. Interceptied phone communications revealed his plan to escape to an estate in the mountains deeper in Al-Bawaaba.

Major Saleem Baraca, head of the Special Division in Barakat, has managed to communicate with his opposite number in the Pani Police Force (PPF) and requested approval to perform a cross-border raid to arrest The Jackal. This has been granted, although due to the situation (it is believed The Jackal has bribed officers of the PPF to provide information), only a limited number of local law enforcement has been alerted to the operation. SCDS has one night to cross the border, capture The Jackal and return back to Barakat.

In this situation, we were following the adventures of Captain Bashim Al-Zuri, leader of Barakat’s Special Counter-Drug Squad (SCDS). Al-Zuri is attempting to arrest The Jackal alongside three other officers (Master Sgt Kaheer, Sgt Baraca and Sgt Jaleel) as well as sniper cover provided by Sgt Amari (safely sat in a hide on top of a building somewhere across the river). All of the team is either Veteran or Elite (the SCDS are well trained and pretty busy dealing with smuggling in the region seeing as the city is the midpoint between drug producers and users) except for Sgt Baraca, the youngest son of Major Saleem who has only recently joined the team after a few months on the street. Based on the agreement with the Pani Police force and to prevent misunderstandings, the squad is crossing the border in full uniform and tactical gear – this is not an undercover raid. Weapons in the squad are a mix of suppressed ARs and SMGs, along with sidearms and two frag grenades each. Each officer also has light raid-style body armour. They deploy outside this fortified area of the old town, the lights of Barakat glittering behind them across the river.

The target compound is in the midst of one of the slums of Pani, in an area under the control of one of the criminal groups. The team is assaulting during the early hours of dawn, the streets mostly empty except for a skeleton crew protecting the Jackal.

The man of the hour was safely hidden upstairs in the only two-storey building in the area alongside two of his protection detail. Interestingly, these two fighters were not in the same civilian-style clothing as the rest, with one acting as an NCO and the other carrying a medium machine gun (along with a rucksack full of ammo). It seems there are some shenanigans at play!

(Because Sarissa’s buildings continue to be incredibly unfriendly to skirmish gaming where people actually go in the buildings and need things like stairs, we counted the area currently unoccupied on the top floor as containing a way up and down floors)

Outside, the other fighters in the area have set up some patrol routes, guarding the area around the target building. On the right, two average fighters and one veteran stand on sentry, the veteran dressed slightly less obviously that he’s an armed member of the group.

Something similar is taking place on the left – a group of average fighters under their commander are getting to work preparing the pickups for transport, all under the careful eye of a veteran.

The SCDS start the game hidden meaning that for the first few activations, I moved the enemy around like they were on simple patrols. The group on the right clearing up the alleyway before taking a smoke break, the group on the left moving to crowd around the pickup truck. In contrast, SCDS worked their way into position.

During this time, Sgt Amari in her sniper perch across the river was spending her AP spotting possible targets, which means it’s a good time to mention my tweaks to the spotting system! Rather than having to set up a matrix of who has spotted who, my changes now track how “spotted” a character is on their character sheet. This is done via a bar on the top of the sheet – aside from two special locations for scenario-specific levels of spotted (Covert/Hidden), the bar goes from Undetected (the enemy has no idea this character exists) up to Confirmed (multiple enemies have spotted this character so more people are aware of them and get bonuses to spot). Every successful spot check on a character increases this bar, every activation of this character outside of enemy LOS reduces it. To shoot a character, I’ve also changed it so that you have to spot a character every time you shoot. However, at higher levels of “spotted-ness”, spotting the target character becomes 0AP for the first attempt at it which, combined with the bonuses and the rule that spotting with no negatives is an automatic pass, means that characters still get to engage the enemy they have spotted.

With Amari having radio’d in the location of the enemy contacts, it didn’t take long for the SCDS to start the party. While Baraca took his suppressed P90 for a flank down the right side and to watch for squirters, the other three setup on the group near the vehicles. Jaleel started the party with a single aimed shot, dropping his target and then confirming with a spot.

Lets talk about the damage system. The HP tracker of the core game is a very RPG-esque system but I definitely find it can feel very gamey, require too much tracking and can often lead you to having a load of people who are functionally useless but still taking up activation time. My tweaks turn it into another tracker, with unharmed at the top, Lightly wounded (-20% on all tests), Heavily wounded (-60% on all tests), Combat Ineffective (no longer activates but is in need of medical support) and KIA (dead so no longer activates). This helps to streamline the effects of injuries.

However, actually causing damage has also changed. Once an attack hits, rather than rolling however many D10s to match the firepower stat, you instead place that many injury tokens on on a character. And that’s it! You know you’ve hit them but rather than immediately knowing their situation, you just know they have come under fire. Instead, when the injured character activates (or if a friend/foe manages to spot them) then you roll an injury test. First of all, you roll to see if body armour has absorbed any of the hits; roll a D10 for each injury token, aiming to roll equal to or under your armour value (for light armour in this game I used 3). Once that’s done, you roll a D10 and compare it to a table, with the result depending on how many injury tokens are left. With the fickleness of combat, 1s always count as no effect (other than having been knocked to the ground and suppressed) while 10s are always KIA, while the other injury values vary between how much fire has been poured into the character before the test. The only exception is if you manage to reduce the number of injury tokens down to 0 – in this case, the effects range from nothing up to Heavily Wounded (by all accounts, cracked ribs from a plate hit still hurt like hell). The system isn’t perfect (there is still some confusion when it comes to what happens with follow-up injuries) but we found it quick to handle and slightly tense when you fired a shot and didn’t have enough AP to make sure the guy was actually dead.

Of course, after Jaleel puts the first shot in one guy, the rest of the squad opens up. Amari and Kabeer soon put rounds into the rest of the group in the group, the sound of suppressed gunfire slightly overwhelmed by the THUMP of a .50cal rifle.

Of course, with gunfire coming in, the Jackal’s men would start reacting. Starting on the left, the injured fighters had activated and were revealed to be Heavily Injured, with both barely able to function other than getting out of the firing line. The veteran that had been with them sought cover in the maze of buildings, going to ground to avoid appearing in the firing line of the sniper. He did however manage to spot the source of the incoming fire.

On the right, the other veteran had managed to make it up to the corner to see what was going on. However, he reached the corner at the same time as one Sgt Baraca did who, while still moving, managed to stop and drop the criminal veteran causing an instant KIA. The other two criminals on that side split up, one hunkering down in cover to protect the street, the other using the alleyways to move up to a flanking position once the SCDS pushed into the compound.

However, the big news was the machine gunner on the top floor. Spending some of the tempo generated by his NCO, the big guy managed to spot Amari’s position aim and unleash a burst of machine gun fire in response to hopefully suppress. Despite an incredibly low chance to hit (being in cover and gone to ground makes things pretty hard) the machine gun hits managed to slam home causing three injury tokens. When Amari next activated, her body armour had absorbed some of the hit, and the result was only a light injury – we imagined the gunfire had managed to rip up the cover she was behind, sending splinters into her rather than any direct hits. However, this burst had knocked her to ground, so it would take some time for her to set back up.

Not that it would save the poor unfortunate militia out in the open. Before one of them had a chance to activate (and while the other had managed to crawl away slightly), my opponent was introduced to the possibility of what frag grenades can do in Sangin. Despite his skills, the throw landed a little short, bouncing off the back of the pickup and rolling along the floor before exploding. The scatter actually meant that the thrower was barely out of the damage zone. However, the two criminals were both within the zone taking shrapnel hits and taking one of them completely out of commission. The other however managed to roll up a 1, leaving him dazed in the aftermath but still barely alive.

As SCDS advanced, they ended up in a close-range gun battle with one of the criminals. This almost ended in disaster when the team leader, while crossing a gap, attempted to spot and then shoot the enemy. However, the spot roll?

Yeah, he rolled a 00.

What this means is it’s time to hit up the fumbles table to see what happens. In this case, he rolled exceptionally well, resulting in the Captain lining up his rifle on the bad guy, pulling the trigger and suffering a stoppage. This forced his final AP to be spent diving for cover rather than pushing on into the fight.

This is something I really like about Skirmish Sangin, these little moments of madness where for one moment the dice take a wrench and throw it in the works, which ends up giving you the moments it’s easy to visualise.

After the stoppage, Captain Al-Zuri decided he didn’t have time to clear it and so swapped to his sidearm to continue the fight. This actually worked out well as, in the following activation, Jaleel called a CQB action and charged in, spending a point of Focus to bring Al-Zuri in with him for the +20% bonus in CQB. This helped him easily take out the insurgent, causing a KIA and removing the enemy from the board.

The CQB action continued as one of the Veteran criminals found himself assaulted as he advanced down the alleyway into contact. This time however, Al-Zuri didn’t finish the job, instead critically wounding the Veteran before pushing forward to advance on the Jackal’s location seeing as time was rolling on.

However, this caused a pretty major problem as the injured Veteran, rather than simply lying there, instead rolled over and (through a haze of pain) sent a burst of SMG fire down the alleyway at Al-Zuri’s back. Luckily (and thanks to having some left over points of focus), Al-Zuri was able to react to the contact and dive into cover. Kaber, bringing up the rear of his long time commander, finished off the criminal before he could cause any more problems.

Sgt Baraca, having delivered a killing blow to the first militia fighter, advanced further down the right side roadway heading to the rear entrance. However, he only got a little way along when suddenly he found himself in a two way shooting range with one of the locals. Both had gone to ground and were in cover (a total of -70% modifer), leading to a suppression war back and forth as the two traded shots.

Until eventually, in his first activation of turn 2, Baraca popped up with a final burst of P90 fire and took his opponent down, causing a Combat Ineffective result. Not bad for a relative rookie – nepotism might be strong in the Emirate but in this case it seems to have worked out well.

While the squad was moving towards the building, and avoiding the advice of his handler, The Jackal decided now was the time to escape out the back door. He actually managed to get pretty far before anyone had realised he was gone. Jaleel however ducked out to the main road, and spotted a figure fleeing the compound. He managed to spot it was an enemy combatant, brought his rifle up and shot the figure down. This led to a rather tense wait for the injury check and at the end…

The Jackal was unharmed. Dusting himself off, he managed to disappear off into the morning mist, vanishing into the slums while the SCDS were too busy finishing clearing the compound.

As we ran out of time before we got to going room by room in the the final building, we ended up talking our way through what might have happened in order to setup the next mission. With the Jackal gone, and with a team of operators about to kick the door in, we decided that the two remaining fighters in camo (having spent most of the game being pinned down by Amari’s fire) decided to surrender… by speaking Bazi.

Turns out these two are actually members of one of the Bazi Army’s many Special Forces teams, hailing from somewhere in the Kingdom itself. For all the talk of the Jackal working with allies on the Albion side of the border, it seems that someone in Bazistan is wanting to support this particular criminal. However, SCDS would have to get answers to this question back across the river as dawn was breaking and their allotted time without local police kicking the door in to arrest them. Bagging as much intel as possible, and cuffing their two new friends, the police officers made a break for the crossing point.

Overall, the game went really well. Both of us had a good time (the most important part) and there was definitely a few dicey moments in the game with some close calls. My former housemate picked up the basics quickly, wrapping his head around the AP system quickly and experience the same frag joy everyone who plays Sangin gets

For the new rules, I think they worked out pretty well with a much faster flow and less confusion (such as who spotted who). They aren’t perfect, with some tweaking needed to help reduce odd behaviour (how best to handle Injury rolls on a character already injured) and the layout needs to be worked on above and beyond what my hasilty printed character sheets can do. But that’s a future problem.

Finally, this is going to be the start of a new campaign. I’ve been wanting a story using the forces in Bazistan as the lead, and these guys should be able to be fitted into a selection of mission types using the terrain I have.

Speaking of, I really have to get my adobe buildings painted up…

My original plan for last weekend was to spend my Saturday relaxing – I’d had a busy weekend on the one previous (with family events and running a game for one half of TTE), the Sunday was to be airsoft, so Saturday would be a lazy, lazy day.

And then Ben, the other half of TTE casually mentioned an interest in a game of Sangin and so, I offered to run a quick game. After quickly writing up a basic idea, sending off the in-character brief and then cursing myself for not having written a character creator app yet, I had a prepared battle good to go.

Unfortunately, the gods were against us and Ben had to drop out for some real-world stuff. Luckily, we had a backup man in the form of Evan, the fourth soul in charge of moderating the Ultramodern Discord and an all-round great fellow. He found himself with an evening to kill and so was promoted from “watching with interest” to “running his team”. Luckily, this is one benefit of remote play – if something happens all the usual concerns of travel and having people on hand don’t really matter, you can just swap out the person at the other end of the camera.

(All times are Bazi local time)

0900: TTE squad arrives at vehicle interdiction point in SUV (Vic1) and a Pickup truck
(Vic2)

0903: Target vehicle enters interdiction point

0905: Vic2 impacts target vehicle. TTE employees recover target. Team and HVT exit the scene in SUV

0907: Unknown hostiles begin high-speed pursuit of Vic1. TTE HQ begins calls to an Unknown number in Albion to request additional support.

0917: Vic1 receives catastrophic damage and is forced to halt at roadside. TTE Team disembarks with HVT and takes shelter in a nearby garage awaiting collection.

0920: 2x vehicles halt at crashed Vic1 and begin sweep of the area

0925: Predicted arrival of extraction vehicle sourced from Albion Contact

Transcription of logs recovered by AESA Remote Communications Team from servers of Tactical Training Enterprises (TTE) after the Al-Khoufra Affair

Translated to English, the four-man contractor team Evan would be controlling had been hired to snatch an HVT from his morning commute. After successfully executing a traffic stop (forcibly) and bundling their target into the main vehicle, the contractors then found themselves in a high-speed pursuit and exchanging gunfire with their pursuers. Receiving enough damage to cause them to halt, the TTE team went to ground in a civilian area waiting for their evac. Unfortunately, their pursuers followed behind and are now sweeping to clear the area.

The game takes place as they decide to make a move, needing to return to the road to be ready to be collected. However, they aren’t 100% when the extraction will appear, forcing them to potentially sprint out of line under fire.

As for the table layout, I decided to swap out the buildings on the table and go with some of Sarissa’s colonial buildings to make more of a suburban area feel. As well as the large civilian buildings, I also added the construction buildings from Supreme Littleness Designs for a little variation (and because they would offer a potential overwatch point). Because of the civilian setting, I got to break out all my vehicles to fill the streets, as well as a few figures for civilians to help set the mood.

I think the one thing missing is some pavement pieces to sit under the buildings to help make it look a little less “buildings plopped on a baseboard”. I think I’ll work on some separate pieces to allow different arrangements of the buildings, or even leaving them open topped for some area under construction or as a marketplace.

While the local civilians stood around gawping at the crashed car and taking photos, the two pursuing vehicles rolled up and came to halt, letting the figures inside disembark. The locals quickly spotted the unmarked black cars and decided not to risk stealing from people packing PKMs in the boot.

Down the other end of the board, we had the garage where the TTE team of Contractors had gone to ground along with their HVT. The contractors were a mix of Elite (Evan), two Veterans (Wolf and Fox) and an Average (Bear) – all armed with assault rifles, pistols, body armour and frag grenades except Bear who swapped out his assault rifle for an LMG (automatic rifle in the rules).

If that squad layout seems pretty familiar, that’s because this is a learning game much like the first one I played remotely. For a new player, four characters is a reasonable number to activate and get used to running around (especially if they also have body armour) while the mix of ratings provides a range of values to marvel/shout at based on how skilled they are. Assault rifles are the basic weapon everyone uses but adding in an LMG or DMR gives you a feel for some of the different weapons.

Sidenote – This is a personal point, but I still really dislike the fact this version of the game refers to LMGs as Automatic Rifles. Although the term is still used by the US Army for the role of the SAW gunner, when referring to weapons it is a term that refers specifically to the BAR and similar weapons in the era of the Bolt Action/Semi-auto rifle. It also acronyms down to AR, the same as Assault Rifle which leads to some confusion.

With their command providing updates from the overhead drone, the Contractors started moving out to take up defensive positions. Evan took up cover behind the roller door, watching the street as Fox bounded across the gap. Both ended their move having “Gone Firm”, making the best use of cover to avoid being spotted or engaged.

Side note: while in the first game we managed to maintain pretending to be adults, playing at late night meant we all started finding “Going Firm” funnier than perhaps a group of grown men should. Going forward, I’ll be referring to it as “Gone To Ground”.

Wolf, the contractor keeping an eye on the HVT, went out the back door of the garage to stick to cover, dragging his captive with him.

Out on the streets, the Bazi locals in leather jackets pushed past the civilians, as the smart started finding cover.

Bear moved outside to the street corner and Went To Ground, setting up a pretty terrifying field of fire down the street.

Wanting to get a good line of sight, and potentially work on a plan to get the hell out of here, Evan moves up to the concrete walls and peeked around the corner. He quickly spots some attackers, probably not helped by the man with the PKM swaggering down the street.

Unfortunately, this quick look around the corner did attract the attention of some of the pursurers. Luckily for Evan, this spot occurred at the end of his movement, meaning that I had to stop him (because -40% to spot while moving is a nightmare) leaving me without enough AP to actually take a shot.

From the north side, the local bad guys reached the point where they rounded the corner and got into contact. Unfortunately, the lead fighter was completely lacking in observation skills and ended up in the centre of the street.

The guy behind him was a little better trained, so rather than rushing out of cover, he instead managed to get behind the sofa on the street, Go To Ground and then spot Fox as he lurked at the street corner.

What a horrible sofa to hide behind.

Down the other end of the street, the Contractors had spotted the approaching bad guys and decided to do something about it. Fox at the front started the part off with a few shots after reporting in the target, but Bear was already on the ball to unleash hell with the LMG.

And down goes the first enemy contact. Luckily his teammate behind the sofa was just out of the LMG’s burst zone (and it was safe to say the civilian pieces would have gotten out of the way rather quickly when the rounds start flying).

With his teammates having opened up, Evan took another peek around the corner and managed to actually get a good line of sight on the attackers starting to advance to the sound of gunfire as it echoes off the surrounding buildings.

Things were starting to get a little spicy for the Contractors – there were now multiple groups of OPFOR converging on their location. Admittedly they have some pretty secure firing lines too, with the static defence letting them spend the AP on shooting AND spotting in the same turn. However, that didn’t stop the enemy fighters from moving closer and closer, bounding from cover to cover.

That said, the enemy was not invulnerable – Fox managed to put two shots into the enemy that attempt to hide behind the column basically blunting the northern offensive group.

Perhaps most worrying was the masked figure totting the PKM – he had dug in behind the concrete, taking full advantage of both the Cover and the -30% Going To Ground modifier. This makes him a pain to actually spot and hard to hit, giving him a pretty great defensive position, even against troops with far superior training.

Of course, he was going to need it. After spotting the two bad guys closing on him, Evan pulled the pin on a frag grenade and tossed it around the corner. Both fighters were inside the inner kill zone and so receive the full blast of shrapnel tearing them apart. Even the machine gunner was on the edge of the damage zone although luckily the concrete blocks absorbed the flying shrapnel.

As a side note, we spotted after the game that we had been using the wrong AP costs for throwing grenades. It actually uses 3AP to prime and throw a grenade. We’ll remember it for the future.

With the rounds flying outside (and having just been covered in dust from his own frag), Evan’s next activation put him inside the building and in cover.

More concerning was the Bad Guys now literally on top of the team. The lead gunman came round the corner, saw Fox and put two pistol rounds into his chest. Luckily the body armour managed to absorb the damage (1d10 damage vs 1d10+4 armour) and fired back, joined rather swiftly by Wolf who repositioned to shoot past him and deliver a wounding blow that dropped the pistol fighter to the deck.

Evan, having just seen the injured bad guy crawling past the window and another OPFOR having left the cover of the sofa down the street to regroup with his team, realised they were probably about to be overrun by another push. And so rather than risking himself, Evan simply pull the pin and posted it through the window.

The injured gunman, his back to the car in the street had a brief moment to spot something land in front of him before roughly 180g of Composition B ignited. The fragments wiped out both guys right next to it almost instantly, while the gunman on the other side of the car was taken out, even with the cover benefit.

Something I’ve noticed in Skirmish Sangin players is a concept I’d call Frag Rage. Basically, as soon as you discover just how powerful frag grenades can be, you soon realise that the best solution for many problems is 3″ Kill Zone, 3D10 damage.

With this detonation, there was now a single enemy bad guy left standing. Unfortunately for the Contractors, the specific bad guy left standing was totting 100 rounds in a box magazine, a foul mood and in a pretty good position behind a set of cinder blocks and able to lay down a storm of fire.

Time for the Contractors to work the problem.

First step? Spot the guy. The cinder blocks + Going To Ground modifier made him hard to spot. That said, opening fire with a weapon using the Infantry Weapons skill reveals your position rather well, and with another AP (thanks to using Tempo Points) to boost the skill, Evan got the spot. With the final AP, the spot was passed to the team via radio.

Having had the target passed to him from his teammates, Bear was able to bring his LMG onto the target. The way suppression works in V2 means that, even though the enemy was in heavy cover, when you miss you can start to degrade the capabilities of whoever you’re shooting at. With the combined fire from Evan, Bear and even Wolf inside the single-room house (after telling the HVT to open his mouth and cover his ears), the suppression was able to keep the MG positions head down.

With the MG down to 90% suppression, and rounds pitting the cinder blocks, Fox decided to pull the hail mary move. Busting down the flank, Fox came to a halt and fired an aimed burst at the target… that reduced him to pinned and rendered him basically combat ineffective.

And at this stage, the game ended. But then again, this is a narrative wargame. And so Evan decided to add some narrative – picking one of the unattended vehicles nearby, the contractors bundled their HVT into the back, as well as dragging the last gunman with them. He may prove a useful source of intel for the TTE team in the region.

At the start of each turn, I’d had Dan (the other half of TTE and Bazi Prince murderer) roll a D10 to decide when the extraction team would actually arrive. Unfortunately, the rolling was not on the best side for the contractors, leaving them delayed and waiting for extract.

Which of course made it amusing that, having borrowed a local vehicle in a real “we’ll do it ourselves” move, guess who decided it was time to show up? A certain Tsarist contractor and his friend, fresh off a previous job and still in the area after their last gig, luckily put in contact with the TTE team thanks to a mutual friend on the other end of a telephone line.

And with that, the game was over! Everyone involved had a really good time, and even in places where we got the rules wrong, it was still really fun to play and pretty satisfying for everyone crowded around the table, even if it was done virtually. And for all my comments about things I’d tweak and change, the core of the game is everything I loved about the first version of Sangin when I played it in 2014, now updated and improved, slimming down some of the nitty-gritty that could lead to extra mental work while adding in a few new systems to really make the game feel realistic.

From a scenario designer’s perspective, it didn’t quite go as planned – my intention was to force the player to move, to have to do a running gun battle down the streets against the fore, rather than turtling up in the corner. Talking to Evan during the game, he pointed out I’d given him far too good of a defensible position and, with no evac in sight, it didn’t make sense to move. What I should have done is either position the starting building in the centre of the map or at the very least put it in the centre of the far side, with multiple firing lines on to it. The other option would have been to deploy OPFOR figures a little closer in, forcing some reaction other than digging in.

Finally, in terms of the setting, this is maybe not the best place to be. Although the mission was successful, they did decide to potentially poke the bear by kidnapping one of their pursuers. Hopefully, they aren’t related to any form of local government… right?

Okay, unlike the last two times, this was entirely on me.

I’ve recently been chatting with Dan over on the Ultramodern Wargaming Group/The Table’s Edge podcast/DeskOps store (Christ he’s busy) about Skirmish Sangin and how it plays as an alternative to Spectre. So, after realising I was spending a whole Saturday doing family stuff, I decided to treat myself to an afternoon of wargaming and offered to run him through a quick game of the playtest rules currently on the Sangin group. Plus, it gave me a chance to scribble down a new scenario taking place in the ChargeReal.

Of course, there is one tiny problem – Geography. Dan is based in Germany so it’s a little long distance for a quick afternoon game. Luckily, the last few years have been rather good for showing off the various ways of connecting people remotely. I’ve seen a few people trying different things, but I eventually settled on a platform I’m used to – Discord. Thanks to a dice roller bot to keep our dice rolls synced (and accurate) and multiple accounts across phones to allow a selection of video angles, we were able to play pretty easily. It helps that Sangin has much less accurate measuring than something like Spectre or Warhammer 40k and that the general mood is less “competitive wargaming” and more “playing out an action scene”.

Additionally, I’d already passed over a briefing doc and troop profiles to Dan before the game started and more importantly I’d given him an overhead map of the board. With this information, remote players are able to keep track of what’s going on, without needing constant camera adjustments meaning more time focused on the game rather than trying to understand where everything is.

Of course, this didn’t mean all the details I passed him were 100% correct. One thing I really enjoy when writing up scenarios is playing around with the opponent. Telling them one thing and then tweaking to represent the different intel. In this case, a few moved cars and an SUV that wasn’t there the previous day.

But on with the game we actually played.

“Hey man. Glad to get your message – happy to hear you managed to pay Volk back after he pulled your ass out of the fire back in Jefferson. F***** Goshie nutcases.

You still looking for a job? Got a Bazi Prince needing someone to whack his cousin while he’s out in the boonies along the Albion border. Got a few hired guns I trust (ex-Tsarist army so they know what they are doing) but I’d rather have someone I’ve bled with get me the biometrics and snap the photos. Don’t worry about gear – got an AK, some mags, a few limonka and a chest rig in an SUV at Al-Khoufra Airport (don’t worry, paperwork is all good on them) waiting for you to collect. GPS in the car will take you to the meetup point, then infill on foot the last few metres. Good luck man, don’t forget the biometrics or else none of us are getting paid.”

Transcription of voicemail intercepted by AESA Remote Communications Team from Suspect A (Albion national) to Suspect B (Unknown)

So translated to English? Dan was in charge of a team of Contractors hired to sneak into a compound somewhere in the Bazi Highlands to hunt down a Bazi Prince and deal with him.

The board layout was of a relatively large but remote compound, split across three large buildings from Black Site Studios Warzone Arabia range – a garage, a large residential building and a separate guard house. The compound itself was missing any large walls (I still need to make some) but had plenty of internal barriers and cover. There was also an arrangement of vehicles, including one that wasn’t on the photos I sent over to Dan.

For the forces, Sangin is very much a section vs section level game (plus maybe a few friends). Dan’s contractors consisted of himself (rated Elite) and three ex-Tsarist soldiers (Colbalt and Nickel rated Veterans and the young pup Lithium playing the “Sean Bean in Ronin” role of the guy bigging himself up being only Average). All had body armour, sidearms and grenades while long arms were mostly Assault Rifles, except one of the team was armed with a Marksman Rifle to cover the rest at range. Their objective was to get in and eliminate the Bazi Prince, before gathering biometric information to confirm his death.

Against them, the Bazi Prince was surrounded by his protection detail. This was a mix of guys armed with AKs and pistols (assembled from my Counter-Intelligence figures), all rated Average having received their basic training in crushing dissidents and smoking cheap cigarettes alongside a bit of range time.

I left it a little bit up in the air if there was a QRF force just off the board, as well as how many enemies there might be inside the compound. As a scenario writer, you gain a lot by making certain information fuzzy, giving people just enough to plan but not giving them the entire picture that you can throw in some thinking on your feet.

The game began with the Contractors appearing on the board at the western edge, having spent the night before camped out and trekking the last stretch. The group split into two, with Dan and the rookie heading for the main building, while the two Veterans moved into an overwatch position on the other side of the road.

Dan’s movement brought him up to the outside door to the garage, giving him the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse of the guard inside working on the disabled car, Makarov hanging out of the back of his jeans. Although tempting to run in, grab the guy and shove him under the bonnet until he stops squirming, a quick glance beyond showed other guards moving around the compound.

Instead, Dan went Firm (Skirmish Sangin V2’s simplified crouch/prone posture system) and waited for his teammate Lithium to catch up. Once his young friend arrived, Dan (the player) started asking about the new Tempo rules and how they work. And then proceeded to spend a full activation using 98 command skill to gain enough tempo points for everyone in the squad to do all manner of tricks. Tempo and the command skill is quickly becoming one of my favourite things from V2 – it takes the NCO class and makes them actually play their role. For example, in this case, it’s easy to visualise Contractor Dan on the headset radio, passing forth commands and setting up their final assault plan.

Good, because the stealth plan was about to go down the toilet. One of the pistol-armed guards on the balcony, spotting a 6ft something guy in a blue hat sliding into cover behind the roadside barrier, shouted out a warning and then fired off a risky pistol shot. It didn’t actually hit but still caused some suppression even with Colbalt’s familiarity with bullets flying past his head since his time on the Albion-Dazhbog front.

With the alarm in the process of being raised, the young pup Lithium decided it was time to get the party started. And rather than risking a CQB move, he instead (keeping in cover) propped the door open and double tapped the unaware guard in the back, watching him bounce off the car bumper before sliding to the floor.

At the same time, Colbalt was starting to get to work. Seeing a pair of guards armed with AKs peeking their heads around the t-barrier separating both sides of the compound. To dissuade them from advancing and getting close enough, Colbalt saw the first head come round the corner and dropped them with a single shot.

What was perhaps more disconcerting was the arrival of figures in black fatigues, fast helmets and moving with some purpose. As a veteran of the Great Game in this part of the world, the old Merc keyed his radio and instructed his teammates to avoid shooting the soldiers in black – after all, it’s usually best to avoid aggravating anyone involved with the Arcadian External Security Agency, mostly because those that do usually find themselves either in box travelling air freight or having their evening sleep being interrupted by 9kg of high explosive dropped from an unmanned loitering platform. Besides, the newcomers seemed to not be in any rush to get into a full-on firefight.

And this is where I got to add some role-playing – the AESA were here to make a deal with the Bazi Prince but weren’t in any rush to protect him. Their main goal was to evac their principal to the armoured SUV and then escape. Unless Dan chose to come with 6″ or god forbid engage them, the highly trained and armoured soldiers would just attempt to get the VIP in the vehicle and then get the hell out of there.

Safe to say, the other guard with the AK coming from the guard house (the leader of the Prince’s bodyguard) would probably have a bit of a bad time having just seen his buddy drop to the ground. V2 doesn’t seem to have brought over the rule that seeing a friendly figure go down will cause those around some amount of concern. I decided to house rule in that anyone seeing someone get injured within Line of Sight would roll the equivalent suppression test to see if they can hold the line.

Fittingly for the leader of this security detail, this guy totally ignored the death of his underling, instead using it as a recommendation that maybe he should stay away from the road.

At the end of turn 1 (10 combat phases with each character having four activation chances), the Contractors were well on their way to infiltrating the compound. They had already downed two guards while another on the balcony was currently pulling himself inside for cover. The appearance of heavily armed figures in black was not particularly promising but for now, things hadn’t escalated.

Having remembered one of this team was in the garage repairing the car, the guard patrolling the area under construction crept inside before stepping into the slowly growing pool of blood. Looking down for a moment, he missed the shadow of someone running past the door repositioning before suddenly another double tap from Lithium took him to the ground. Unable to stand back up due to their level of injury, he would eventually attempt to crawl across the open ground before being finished off outside.

Dan, the man of the hour, was attempting to take advantage of the running gun battle on the other side of the board to make a break for the main house. Keenly aware of the first-floor window overlooking the in-construction extension, he carefully moved up using the walls to jump from cover to cover before entering the parking yard from the flank.

What he didn’t notice was the lead guard, having seen his ally enter the garage and hearing the gun shots, decided that perhaps it makes more sense to go protect this principal. He fell back to the staircase before rushing to find the Prince.

Having taken a shot from Nickel’s DMR that took his legs out from under him, the other guard on the balcony managed to crawl his way inside and get out of the line of sight, just across the room from the first guard to get hit. In the centre, the lead guard managed to interrupt the Prince being shouted at by his hosts (obviously annoyed that his actions had brought this violence down upon them) and set up a defensive position.

Outside, Dan moved up to the pickup truck and suddenly found himself under the barrel of one of the Arcadian Special Operations soldiers. Managing to resist the idea of fragging them, Dan instead watched as the rest of the team (along with their VIP) got into their car, reversed up into a protected spot for everyone to embark and then sped off, the last man keeping his gun aimed at the contractors even as he clipped himself into the boot and banged on the exterior bodywork to signal they were good to go.

The contractors even managed to resist the urge to open up on the SUV as it drove past and instead it disappeared off the map. This left Dan and his crew to focus on breaching into the final structure.

Lithium was the first to move into position, sneaking into the side room and listening to the raised voices next door.

However, he wasn’t sneaky enough as the last remaining active guard moved to a position beside his door and went firm, setting up a perfect ambush if someone was to attempt to bust in.

Out on the balcony, after climbing over the railing by the main staircase, Dan and Colbalt set up to prepare for a CQB action.

In V2, CQB actions are less purely melee fights and much more anything at close quarters, including short-range gun battles or room clearing. The benefit to them is that, by using tempo, you can get multiple figures into the action at the same time – they can’t attack until it’s their activation but they can tie down enemy figures to stop them from attacking your allies or running away.

Speaking of which, Lithium kicked off the CQB action by rushing through the door, attacking the bodyguard and… fluffing it, he failed to land the required hit (obviously his opponent grabbed his gun and shoved it out of his face during the scuffle. At the same time, Dan and Colbalt kicked in the front door and quickly got rid of the two injured fighters before they even had a chance to raise their guns.

After the bodyguard also failed to land a strike, Lithium finally managed to finish him off in his second combat activation, leaving just the target and some angry civilians in the centre of the room.

With the compound secure, the Prince tried all he could to bribe his attackers – right up until a bullet somewhere vital (avoiding the face to improve identification). The Contractors had achieved their objective!

Of course, they have also just knocked off a Bazi Prince, and as a rule, their relatives are usually not the most forgiving types – even if one of them hired Dan and his crew to do it, it’s quite possible there might be trouble ahead for our merc.

And that was Sangin V2 – I’m really happy at how the game played out, providing a great intro to the system to someone new AND showing off that remote play can work with the tools I have. The rules are not complete yet (the weapon list needs fleshing out as well as the dealing with casualty rules) but I think it works out to be a super cinematic and immersive game once you get your head around things like the activation system.

I’ll let Dan give the details of how much he enjoyed the game in a future episode of TTE but he was definitely excited once we finished off. And has continued to be excited for the rest of the week.

Having been working like a mad person, I decided to actually take the easter bank holidays off this year. And so, as is tradition, I messaged my Dastardly Regular opponent to request a scuffle/setup a game. After a misunderstanding of days and me declining to run an Ultramoderns game (the rules still being WIP), I was greeted with an unusual idea thanks to the addition of my Creative Regular Opponent.

“Napoleonic Sharp Practise?”

Now, as you might know, I have a limited interest in the era of black powder games (probably due to falling asleep during games of Black Powder during the frequent rules arguments) – I’m not a huge fan of the massed gun lines on the battlefield, even if I can approve of the visual aesthetics of the eras involved, especially with Napoleonics. However I have enjoyed my time with Sharp Practise, much as I have with most of the Too Fat Lardies rules I’ve sat down to play – despite the setting not doing much, there are just enough fun mechanics to keep me excited.

Also I’m not a heartless man – I like Sharpe novels and TV adaptations as much as anyone else.

We find ourselves somewhere in Southern Spain (honest). On the left, the forces of the British find themselves in a meeting engagement against the French and their Genovian allies. Both forces were similar, with a block of line infantry, a block of light infantry, skirmishers, a block of impact cavalry and enough leaders for each. The Genovians were an additional unit of infantry to help match the points values – although highly trained, they are not to happy about serving the French and so their leaders can not command the other nation.

As this was a meeting engagement, both forces would eventually deploy from the centre. The drummer boys would find a use as deployment points.

(please ignore the forces further up, they hadn’t been put in the correct place for starting the game as we were too busy getting the scuffle going)

I chose not to actually play in this game, instead taking on the role of checking rules and pulling out the activation chits for this game. I quite like this activation system (it’s one of the few things I genuinely like about Bolt Action) and taking on this role was actually a lot of fun – you get to have a little bit of showmanship when pulling out the cards as well as still being involved in the game. Downside, remember to put the tiffin card BACK in the hat once it’s been used – this minor mistake might explain how the entire game took place in a single Chapter.

As for the game itself, it reminds me very much of all the bits I like from Chain of Command. Things like Force Morale and Bad Things Happening, the dice rolling for shooting and more. And yet – it feels like it’s own game. There is a greater focus on activating leaders, the infantry is slower but cavalry is lighting fast and shooting is… well it’s either terribly innaccurate or a crashing volley that smashes all before it (as you might expect).

Now, as for this game, both players planned to utilise the flanks and form some proper gun lines. However, as you might expect, both groups of skirmishers ended up getting into a spat across the shortest route between the jumping off points. The first rifle volley was pretty damn effective, reducing the Voltigeur leader to level 0.

The forces involved all belonged to the Creative Regular Opponent, assembled over the last year and a bit and painted at a disturbingly rapid rate. He does like to claim it’s all down to things like “contrast paint” and “batch painting” but frankly I just think he’s rather good at it. Having nicely painted models for this period especially really helps, especially when they are all fully lined up in proper order or preparing a marching order. I went to double check where the models were from and I got a handy list.

• Perry:
  • British line
  • French Cuirassiers
  • French skirmishers
• Warlord:
  • British light
  • British rifles
  • British dragoons
  • French line
  • French light
• Victrix:
  • Genovian line

As the battle went on, we some of the glorious battle lines that make Napoleonic scuffles look like geometry lessons gone wrong. The British managed to setup pretty well around the rough ground the riflemen were in. The French on the other hand ended up having to deploy a little further back than they might have wanted to, especially once the speedy British cavalry (who started the game at a gallop and had to slow down before they left the board) managed to get onto the flank of the French line before they retreated.

This didn’t stop the cavalry slamming into the front of the two of the line units and WRECKING them. In fact, they hit so hard that over half the figures were removed as casualties, pushing them back far enough they almost ran off the board. However, the line infantry were not entirely useless – half of the cavalry found itself taken out by bayonet and prepared shot. Overall, a nice reminder of just how devastating fisticuffs and impact cavalry are.

The French cavalry attempted something similar – however, they ended in front of a light infantry in formation that was loaded, prepared… and then activated before they could bring the strike home.

As you can see from the dice tower, that is an OVERWHELMING number of fives and sixes to land hits. The cavalry got ripped to shreds, forcing them to fall back and spend the rest of the game getting themselves together.

Up north, the main infantry managed to eventually slam (well, half of the French) thanks to the assistance of the Dishonourable D’Baguette who was frantically clearing off shock with every activation. I quite like how the officers were able to move between different groups, with D’Baguette having been assisting the skirmishers just up until the enemy got closer.

Speaking of Dishonourable, I (as the voice of God/GM) decided to borrow some of the cool character rules from the box and assigned one officer on each side to be classed as Dishonourable. To reclaim their honour, and to make this seem like the final battle in a Sharpe episode, they would need to fulfil one of the three objectives (win a duel, get injured in battle or lead a group in fisticuffs) to have been redeemed. Normally you would need to do all three in a campaign, but we thought that was a little ambitious for a single round.

As the sun continued up past mid-day, we found ourselves reaching the end (and running out of shock markers). The French were getting absolutely hammered, finding their main line being out flanked by the British line. To finish them off, the Rifles decided to charge in.

After all, this was a chance for Rifle Captain Blount, dishonoured after his previous escapades, to redeem himself! Both players decided that this was the only right way to finished the battle and so we began the duelling minigame!

This is something I really like in Sharp Practise – all the ways you can make the leaders feel like characters (even more if the minor characters appear on the board). I’d also love to get into a campaign using the Dawns and Departures expansion so we can setup the glorious rivalries and all the various shenanigans you can get up to.

But, eventually and after taking a wound, Blount found himself the victor, killing his rival and breaking the enemy force morale. Victory to the British!

So that was how I spent my Easter Saturday. After a rather excellent game of Sharpe Practise, we retreated to the garden for BBQ food and wargaming chat (as might be expected). I think we might end up playing a fair bit more of Sharp Practise – I’m very lucky that my Creative Regular Opponent has enough Napoleonics to run certain Reisswitz Press games using 28mm figures without breaking a sweat so I can save my time for Ultramoderns and other things.

That said…

Playing Sharpe Practise might have me looking at another Too Fat Lardies ruleset. After all, the forces of Midgard might have to go through some deep dark forests, full of orcs and northern raiders. Perhaps some fantasy Infamy Infamy might be on the cards.

February 6th 2022 – as the hordes descend on York Racecourse for Vapanartak, for many the first wargames show of the year, a few streets over in the local scout hut, a different horde was appearing. From North, South and even the wrong side of the Pennines, a group of friends assembled…

Surprise, it’s time for more Big Chain of Command!

The Dastardly Regular Opponent decided that we would be taking a trip to North Africa, thanks to his collection of adobe buildings and hessian sack matting. By pooling forces with the Creative Regular Opponent, they managed to assemble three platoons for each side, ideal for the number of players we managed to wrangle (until one unfortunately had to drop out due to illness).

It’s November 1941 and Operation Crusader is underway. As part of the offensive, New Zealand forces and British Guards are to capture a ridgeline outside of Tobruk to help break the siege and rescue the Aussies trapped inside the perimeter. Against them, the Afrika Korps and an advanced element of the newly arrived Fallschirmjäger have dug in, including several anti-tank guns that managed to push back the previous day’s armoured assault.

More intriguing is the arrival of two other platoons. For the Germans, a special unit has appeared in very small numbers and seems very interested in an ancient tomb under the sands. For the Allies, a group of scruffy Recce boys have arrived and are joining in the assault although they seems slightly distracted, looking for something in particular.

I was in charge of a British Infantry platoon, part of my fictional Scots/Yorks Regiment that would go on to be involved in Operation Carronade later in the war. My instructions were pretty simple – break through the enemy positions on the right flank, destroying enemy AT guns and minimising armoured casualties. Command had given me access to a 25pdr Stonk… and then I forgot to bring in a Forward Observer. Oops.

In the centre, the Recce Platoon (a modified Motor Infanry Platoon) was given to my former Housemate turned Delaque gang leader. Finishing off the British side, the left flank was the responsibility of the Creative Regular Opponent and his Maori Infantry platoon (and a lethally awful NZ accent).

In terms of support, we had a pretty large stockpile to be shared between us. Not quite the torrent that we had for Carronade, but enough that each player was able to pick up a toy or two. During our brief O-Group, tank support was shared among the three platoon, with the Recce calling in a Crusader (appropriate for a motor platoon) while the Infantry platoons took an infantry tank each to assist in the advance – the Queens of the Desert had arrived. Artillery also provided support – the Kiwi’s (obviously because the Creative Regular Opponent remembered the taste of being under a mortar barrage in Operation Carronade) took a FOO team while I decided to shell the rear areas with a pre-game barrage. The Recce platoon decided to expand their high speed assault, bringing up a Recce section in the carriers.

Finally, we decided to throw a curve ball – I’ve become a big fan of the snipers in Chain of Command and, although more designed for the defensive platoon, they might be handy to remove any defensive positions during the advance. We all decided to take a sniper which, in addition to one the Recce boys already had, meant we had a total of 4 of them available to deploy. Obviously too many officers have been spending their break in the deserts outside Cairo hunting game.

As the game began there was a general advance across the British lines… except for the Scots/Yorks. I wanted to see what the DAK directly across from me were about to do.

The Kiwi advance encountered it’s first issue as a German minefield was detected on the flank of the compound directly in front of their route. Obviously the advance party of FJs had brought their engineers with them, funnelling the allies through a more central killing zone that might actually catch two platoons in their firing arc.

My pause was rewarded as the DAK lines echoed to the sound of a 12 cylinder Maybach engine. A Panzer 3 rolling up was a concern but nothing too terrible for the moment. Hopefully I would lure it closer where the Matilda and the Boys could take it out (or at least remove it as a threat).

As the Kiwis and Recce boys advanced, they started taking fire from emplaced FJs. Thanks to the two more unconventional forces (in comparison to the stiff upper lip on my side of the board) getting along rather well, the call for smoke went out and was answered.

Due to the terrain, the Kiwis and Recce boys were both heading to the centre of the map, forced through a small gap between the compounds. It’s very easy to imagine the two groups pushing each other on with some shouted jibes. Or that might just be the two players.

On the other hand, “Clara” supporting the Scots and Yorks rumbled into the operational area, setting the stage for some possible tank on tank operations.

And it arrived just in time as the first section of the Scots/Yorks reached the lead compound on my flank after a brisk run. My intent was to use this first section to force the enemy to deploy some more forces so I could see what I was up against.

On the other flank, the FJs continued their long range firefight with the Maori, forcing them to hug cover and slow their advance.

The groups of riflemen in the centre continued their advance, crossing some of the depressions while their team mates put the fire down.

That bridge seems… oddly familiar

At this stage, the Germans grabbed a double phase. Thanks to the swing in momentum, the DAK were able to emerge from their positions in the centre of the town…

Before sweeping their way into the building. The building DIRECTLY in front of my advancing section. Time to prepare for an MG onslaught.

Note: Although the DAK are on the roof, we were treating them as being inside the building.

To add insult to injury, the Panzer 3 also began rolling forward slowly getting into a position where it could put fire down on the advancing British, as well as preparing for a tank on tank duel with the arriving Mathilda.

Luckily, fortune flowed back to the British and I gained a double phase. And with it, I hatched a cunning plan.

Okay, not so cunning. Using a Team dice, I advanced the rifle team and attached Junior Leader up to the windows. Then, with the Junior Leader’s two Command Initiatives… I handed out the frag grenades.

Posting the grenades through the openings, the explosions rumbled around the inside. But we weren’t done yet. In the next phase? The last of the frag grenades went through the window, accompanied by a collection of booms.

By the time the smoke cleared, the germans inside had had their ears well and truly rung. With one team almost eliminated and plenty of shock on both the grenades had been handy. But using them two phases in a row and they were now out… And the germans inside still had plenty.

The return grenades did some deadly work (although thankfully less HE dice to play around with due to the open air). Two riflemen out for the count and an additional point shock definitely slowed down the assault. The advancing Panzer was also a concern, although I doubt the riflemen could hear it after the ear ringing from the collection of stick grenades.

Now what’s going on in the centre…

Ah. A change of turn removes the smoke, putting the Recce chaps into a fire fight again against the enemy around the dig site. The terrain is causing a problem, with both the Kiwis and the Recce boys managing to get to the cover in the centre before getting pinned down in a hail of MG34 fire from the dug in DAK and FJs.

Seeing the Panzer 3 advance, the Platoon NCO and Boys AT team deployed to take a shot at it. The first round pinged off the armour, causing some concern but little else. Oh dear.

With the Germans taking the phase, they decided to put the force on. The Panzer 3 rolled forward, only able to rotate the turret to point menacingly at the British cowering by the wall.

At the same time, the squad inside the building were able to fire over the heads of the enemy outside, hitting the Bren team hard enough that it forced them to break and fall back.

The other team managed to shoot at the recently arrived Boys AT and oh man the DAK player rolled incredibly well. The team was immediately removed, leaving the Senior Leader in the wadi with some very suppressed Bren Gunners.

Overall, it was looking pretty grim for the Scots/Yorks. But that wasn’t the biggest news this turn.

It turns out our assault was merely a side show, a ruse. The Recce boys were here with a secret mission to stop the Germans from evacuating… a mysterious gold box!

After we all stopped laughing at the surprise reveal, I asked the Dastardly regular opponent how he’d made it. The Ark was converted from a Perry Miniatures stretcher party and carefully assembled so he can swap between then for less supernatural missions.

Of course, upon seeing the scrum of activity around the dig site and disregarding the possible clerical implications of their actions, the Kiwi player decided to use his FOO and bring the 3″ rounds on target. With the ranging shot landing basically on target, he called in the full battery.

Which proceeded to cover the entire area in a hail of explosive shells, including one that annihilated the team carrying the Ark, forcing them to drop it. Everyone else underneath the barrage were pinned in place.

As you might expect, the German Archaeological Boys were quick to use their Chain of Command dice to end the turn and clear off the barrage. The Sinister Colonel was also rather sharpish in pulling troops from the defenders to pick up the prize and get it away to the waiting half-track!

Speaking of the Germans, the FJs were a touch surprised to see the 2″ mortar land directly in front of them. Only slightly off target, but still enough to block the ongoing two way shooting range.

Meanwhile back on the Scots/Yorks side of the board, it was time for what we’ve all been waiting for… a tank battle!

Relying on the enemy being distracted, the gunner lined up the 2pdr on the Panzer 3 and…

The cameraman failed to line up the turret correctly

But also the gunner sent a 1.2kg lump of metal directly through the turret ring, blowing the Panzer 3 to pieces. Good job!

Buoyed up by the success of the Matilda, I decided it was time to really start my push on the enemy. First step? Deploy my second section and Senior Leader.

Second Step? Pop smoke directly in front of my position.

At which point the DAK player decided to not mess around with a possible advance and deployed HIS next section and set them up on overwatch covering my arc.

I also used this opportunity to break up the stalemate on the right hand side. While their Bren team may have been wiped out, the junior leader and part of his rifle team were still in the fight. With the JL activation, I popped smoke to mask the building before using the team activation to fall back behind the wrecked Panzer 3.

Looking across the board, the German FJs deployed their AT gun and then very soon after found themselves under an emergency mortar barrage (not bothering to wait for the ranging shot and luckily doing rather well! The FJs would find themselves under this barrage for a while, giving the Kiwi troops time to advance.

Perhaps more concerning for us was that the Germans had managed to move their prize into a nearby halftrack. With the Recce boys unable to intercede, it would fall to the armour to save the day (even if they didn’t know quite what was going on). Sighting in the speeding halftrack, the gunner aimed, fired and…

Boom, vehicle destroyed! And with that, the fate of the world as we know it has been saved, the Recce Commander had fulfilled the objectives without actually engaging it and some poor REME is about to be very surprised when he finds an untouched golden box in the burnt out shell of a half-track after the battle was over.

Of course, just because we’d taken out the shiny thing didn’t mean we’d won the whole thing – the two AT guns were still on the ridgeline stopping the general advance so it was time for an assault. With that, I deployed my second Senior Leader and my final infantry section.

Between my position and the enemy ridgeline, there were multiple enemy squads, each bristling with MG42s and in pretty reasonable cover. The smoke pots would provide some cover but to do this properly I’d need some good dice rolls and (fingers crossed) a double phase.

Luckily, the dice gods were on my side and gave me exactly what I needed.

Through the smoke clouds came thundering form of a Matilda II, closely followed by supporting infantry. I only managed to push one of the two sections forward, but it was enough to get the ball rolling on the assault. I’m sure nothing would stop them, right?

Turns out all it took was one German Senior Leader with a machine pistol in cover. The DAK at this stage were starting to look a bit wobbly and so, distracted by this chance to really kick their morale down, I initiated close combat with the separated DAK platoon leader. Alas, I only had enough movement get four of that squad into close quarters distance.

Between the command initiatives, the cover and the machine pistol, the German Senior Leader managed to gun down all of his attackers (including the junior leader) before being taken out. I’d done the job, but at what cost?

Turns out the cost was a lot. As the phase switched back to the Germans, the forward British infantry found themselves charged in the rear by the Infantry squad emerging from the building. Even without their handgrenades, they still managed to make short work of the Tommies, forcing them to flee across the courtyard….

And directly into an ambush from a MG34 team appearing in the building on the far side leaving no survivors. Well, the combined Infantry-Tank push was cool while it lasted.

In a similarly brutal bit of combat, the Maori infantry followed the barrage and engaged the Germany FJs hiding behind the rocky outcrop. Through the dust they rushed into melee.

Once it cleared, all that was left was one very angry German Paratrooper commander shouting for the Kiwis to come and have another go.

And then one of the Recce snipers popped up and took him out with a single shot. Another bad things happen roll!

Back on my side of the board, I decided that I should really focus back on doing my job and take the damn ridge line. Pushing the infantry through the enemy lines was a bad idea so I went to assist the Recce in the centre.

And then I had a terrible, terrible idea.

The Matilda crew would not have realised that their escort had been cleaned off. And between them and the ridgeline there was only one (so far ineffective) AT gun. It was possible some of the infantry might have an AT grenade but that was a risk I was willing to take.

Time for a death or glory ride!

With the assistance of a Chain of Command Dice to interrupt the German phase, my Matilda surged through the DAK lines. Scattering the enemy infantry before it (and with the Commander probably quoting Tennyson), the tank climbed the hill until…

Ramped over the the sandbags and onto the German AT gun. Seemingly the crewman on the right was only slight perturbed at sight of 25 tons of British Steel attempting to smash his position.

I will admit, at this point the rules were a little squiffy – we agreed the sandbag pile wasn’t really a fortification and so the team should have fled rather than have the tank ram it. We ended up playing it that the AT gun got a chance to make one final shot for the cinematic feeling. Once the dust cleared, all that it had done was stun the driver. Luckily forward movement wasn’t exactly a requirement any more – the British were on the ridgeline and had dislodged the German AT gun.

Having removed that threat, I realised that this could be leveraged into another hammer blow against the DAK force morale. Once my crewman was back in action, I could shift the vehicle to sit on the enemy JOP, shutting it down fully and then, with a waiting CoC dice, end the turn to potentially force the DAK player to retreat.

And honestly, removing one of the German platoons would be very handy right now. The Special Detachment and the DAK had managed to get both myself and the Recce player into a nasty crossfire that had stopped our advance.

Luckily my push went exactly as planned, the Adjutant pushing troops forward obviously much less enthusiastic about this with a British tank on top of him. With the turn ended, the DAK lost their last morale and were forced to rout.

With time marching on, the FJs (who had held out pretty well all things considered, despite being sat under a mortar barrage for most of the game) managed to deliver a final hammer blow. The Kiwis managed to push through the edge of the minefield with a second assault attempt but were halted in place when finally, after a whole game being worried about them, a German AT gun managed to blow the supporting Matilda to pieces.

At the battle end, the Allies had just about managed to achieve an overall victory, hitting two of their three objectives. Overall, it had been a meat grinder of a game, with the German MGs causing havoc only for the British mortars to answer back. It was also incredibly fun – I really like the Big CoC format, it makes you feel like you’re one platoon commander alongside many, with lots of back and forth trying to arrange combined assaults to overwhelm the enemy.

Personally, I’m just really happy I managed to smash through the enemy lines with the lone Matilda at the end. There is no way that would have worked in the late war (too many Panzerfausts hanging around for that) but in the early/mid-war, the Matilda is gloriously chunky. I also think my time on Ultramodern CoC has definitely illuminated just how useful smoke grenades can be – I was definitely using them and the 2″ mortar’s smoke a lot more than I have in the past.

Seeing as everyone who played seemed to enjoy it, I think we’re planning to do a Big Chain of Command game every quarter at least. So look forward to more updates on that!

With my work on Ultramodern Chain of Command continuing, as well as campaign in the planning, I would need to recruit some additional players. Luckily, I have a former housemate/Delaque player to recruit. Of course, recruiting a new player to game is always interesting, especially as his other tabletop experience had been entirely Games Workshop small model number games (such as Inquisitor, Necromunda and Blood Bowl) so being given a full platoon might be considered a bit of a jump.

That said, I managed to get him over on Sunday to have a game, heading back to the Invasion of Bazistan. We’re using the same rules, so for more details on the changes I’ll refer you back to the first battle report, Operation Rubicon.

Alongside the main advance into the Bazi Empire, elements of the Cynerician 18th Division have been engaging in probes along the flanks in order to find and destroy scattered elements of the Bazi forces before they can reform.

Following the route of Highway 212, the forward elements of a Cynerician platoon, accompanied by a small team of the highly trained Cynerician 31st Logistical Studies Group, find themselves against a Bazi Army Platoon among the ruins of several family compounds in the Nahr Highlands region.

CYNERICIAN ARMY

My Opponent received an understrength Cynerician platoon, roughly patterned after the US Army Infantry platoon. As before, the Cynericians only has two of the usual three infantry squads, with the supporting Medium Machine gun squad only able to provide a single team. However, as before each squad had it’s mix of Team Leaders and firepower in addition to the faction benefits of body armour, medical gear and optics and the drawback of being Heavily Laden that should act as force multipliers.

They also had a new addition, a team of Special Forces from the euphemistically named “Cynerician 31st Logistical Studies Group”. Using the rather awesome Operation Red Wings figures from Empress, this Team comprised of a Junior Leader with UGL, Team Leader with UGL and a pair of DMRs. As well as being classed as Elite, there would be some other benefits to them (some of which are still under wraps). However, it should be noted that my opponent (obviously playing the role of a Cynerician infantry commander with an axe to grind against the glory boys) would end up declaring he would try and carry the game without using the Special Forces Team.

Army of the Emitrate of BAzistan

I would find myself in command of a platoon of regular Bazi Army. This force is the same as the previous game but missing the pair of police units that added some flexibilty. The rest remains the same – 8 man sections with Junior leader, RPG and a PKM with no loader. The Command HQ is the same, Ranking Senior Leader, Senior Leader and medic. And as you might expect, the communications, body armour and Questionable Marksmanship also applies.

However, I had gained some support. A Bazi Army Sniper was available to me (which should help cause some problems for the enemy) and I had a technical to hand. With a PKM on the back, the vehicle should be handy as a high speed machine gun platform, the only downside being it not having a leader in it so limited to fire or move each time. Oh and it is unarmoured, so it will need to avoid being in the open too long.

The battlefield was assembled again from the various pieces of Sarissa Alamo compound. I decided to go a little more ruined this time, removing many of the roof pieces to make the area look like it’s been hit by enemy fighting. I also made sure not to make things too squared off – this needs to look like the rugged uplands that haven’t followed European farming patterns.

We decided to play the Patrol mission (scenario 1 in the rulebook) seeing as the objective was reasonably simple for a new player. The dice rolls for the patrol makers arrival ended up mostly on the same central/flank positions, meaning out encounter would be focused on one side of the board. Once we ran through the Patrol phase, we deployed our JOPs.

For the Bazis, the trio of JOPs were in a pretty reasonable position. The furtherest forward was close enough to let me deploy over the wall of the L compound and push towards the enemy at the top. The central position gave me a good setup location on the board edge in cover while the final position would setup an assault on the centre.

On the Cynerician side, there was obviously a bit of traffic jam of JOPs around the gatehouse due to how the Patrol phase had ended, which would possibly make it easy to lock them both down if I could get into those structures. If being the main word there.

The JOP in the centre would be the main push however – close enough to the buildings to allow the Cynerician squads to deploy almost directly into cover (or at least move up to it carefully).

With the higher force morale (11 to my opponent’s 9), I activated first. Not wishing to put all my cards on the table too quickly, I placed one of my three squads around the shrubbery JOP, before putting them into overwatch focusing on the front arc.

The Cynericians also deployed quickly, getting the first of their two squads out and heading towards the only real height on the board, the central compound.

The following phase also belonged to the Cynericians. While building up a Chain of Command dice relatively quickly, the deployment of a senior leader allowed the advancing squad to move into the building, take up positions on the floor above and then enter enhanced overwatch, covering the open ground between the treeline and the compound.

A junior leader activation put the other Cynerician squad onto the field, heading towards the road way in an attempt to out manevoure the overwatching enemy.

Getting a reasonable idea of my enemy’s plan, I deployed the technical to the board to act as a mobile MG team.

I then made a catastrophic mistake.

Seeing the distance between my jumping off point and the corner cluster belonging to the enemy, and looking for a way to destroy my opponent’s force morale, I realised if I could capture them both and deliver a heck of a punch.

However, I only had a squad activation – I couldn’t use the junior leader to go on Overwatch or pop smoke.

At which point, the phase shifted. My opponent reached over and picked up his machine gun team, dropping them into the ruins of the compound. It’s really easy to picture it:

The Bazi squad climbs over the wall on the flank moving from cover to cover. But alas, before they can cross the passageway…. muzzle flash lights up the shadows of the ruin, and GPMG rounds started shredding the wall behind them.

The first burst forced the squad to hit the deck, taking 6 points of suppression. Only body armour had stopped them from taking any casualties but it wasn’t a good start to a lynchpin assault.

To add insult to injury, my opponent decided to add an infantry squad’s worth of fire. However, being careful of my squad sat on Overwatch, his junior leader decided to pop smoke across the opening.

Moving forward at slow rate, the squad then rained in additional fire. Lucky for the Bazi’s the shots were mostly ineffective, but also not a good sign as more enemies were advancing.

The Senior Leader on the other hand had more violence on his mind. Spotting that the first Bazi infantry section had started advancing on his position and setup an overwatch (thanks to them being joined by a Senior Leader), the Cynerician Platoon Sergeant left one of his fireteams on overwatch while the other team were ordered to begin throwing frag grenades over the wall.

Three grenades later and the Bazis had taken their first casualty (as well as some shock). The battle was truly joined.

The phase switching to myself, I now had some movements to do With infantry advancing into the open, the technical moved up to meet them.

I also decided to be sensible with the infantry in the centre. Rather than dragging a casualty around, my junior leader activated and detached a soldier to carry my casualty back to the JOP, making sure that when the turn ended I wouldn’t have any lingering casulties well out of safe CASEVAC zones. Right?

Oh no. Oh no no no.

By activating the Senior Leader with the squad, I rallied off the two points of shock and then put down a simple order “move as fast as possible across the gap”. Two men down, and with the Platoon leader’s right hand man pushing them forward, the squad began a sprint.

With the benefit of hindsight, I should have spent one of those points to pop smoke. But hindsight is 20/20.

Instead, as the Bazis crossed a gap, the Cynerician fireteam on the first floor opened up. With a range that was close enough for the carbines to be within close range, a literal hail of 5.56 (and a single DMR shot) tore through the moving squad. Being that they were in the open, the results were devastating. Thankfully, body armour stopped there being any immediate KIA but instead, the team would now have to deal with three casualties and a pile of shock. The squad was immediately pinned in place.

And then it got worse. As the phase changed over, the other fireteam from the ambushing Cynerician took up firing positions and the entire squad opened up. Being pinned did help, stopping most of the fire, but it didn’t help entirely. Taking another casualty and saving a shot via body armour added enough shock to break the squad, forcing it to fall back with it’s casualties. A Bad Thing had occured.

Side note: After the game (and discussing with the Regular Opponents) we decided that excess casualties in this case should have been left behind. A very bad thing!

Speaking of bad things, at this point, my opponent remembered my mention of what ending the turn does. Dropping a chain of command dice down, I had to take a pile of Bad Things Happen tests due to all the casualties. In a single phase, my morale plunged from the heights of 11 down to 4. Damn.

Finally, the Cynerician infantry squad spread out, ready to finish off my other Infantry section and prepare to hit my technical with the AT4 one of the soldiers is lugging around.

With my reduced command dice, I realised I need to get to work. The Technical opened up with the PKM, causing some shock but not much else. More useful was deploying my final Infantry squad. Emerging in the yard of the outbuilding, the Junior Leader pointed out the Cynerician machine gun team. The RPG round detonated against the top of the building, covering the dug in defensive team in shrapnel and pinning them (while quietly thanking the rules writer that he gave them a team leader).

Side note: This is an interesting thing to note – although Ultramodern teams and squads/sections can put out an obscene amount of firepower, they are often smaller than their WW2 counterparts and more vulnerable to being pinned.

Speaking of being pinned, the Bazi squad on the far left attempted to perform some fire and manevoure – by which I mean advancing towards the enemy, firing on full auto (thanks to the Questionable Marksmanship, firing at full effectiveness while moving is possible even if you probably won’t actually hit anything). Alas, between some poor dice rolls and the shock, I was only able to get one infantry man into cover.

I can see where this is going.

Of course, a pinned machine gun team is still a machine gun team. And 10 dice at half effectiveness is still 5 dice. So after dusting themselves off, the MG team let it rip again.

Between the MMG team and the assisting Cynerician infantry, the Bazi squad on the left flank got hammered. With one KIA, a casualty and a pile of shock markers, the Bazis broke and routed off the board. With the loss of a junior leader AND the squad, I lost my remaining force morale and left the board.

Victory to the Cynericians! After the traditional hand shaking across the board, we retired to the kitchen to talk over the game and cook up a Thai Chicken curry.

That was a really fun game! I’ll admit, I didn’t expect to win it (partially as I was helping a new player learn) but I still had a good time. One thing I’m definitely learning is just how useful things like smoke grenades and Covering Fire will be when you’re having to deal with just how much firepower is floating around a modern battlefield. The basic mechanics and Modern tweaks are working rather well, but I think the next step is to add the platoon lists and support options. To the CoCulator!

More importantly, my opponent had a good time and so will be joining us for the campaign as another commander. Expect more games coming soon.

Well it’s finally here. After almost 6 months of pondering, mulling over ideas, hunting through forums for tidbits of a hint of shadow, we finally put figures on the table and played a game of Chain of Command in an ultramodern setting, using forces from the ChargeReal setting I’m working on.

And oh boy, we had a brilliant time.

Before we get into the game, there is something I need to say first – I’m not attempting to make Fighting Season word for word. That ruleset is someone else’s baby and focused on a very specific time period and setting. In contrast, I want my tweaks to be usable for anything from Special Forces operations to COIN operations and all the way up to platoon on platoon in a war where jammers are turning the airwaves into so much electrical noise. For this reason, I’m abstracting things, smoothing down edges and removing some of the detail that might be needed to be 100% accurate in favour of a game that evokes the feelings without being too bogged down. Although ChargeReal is fictional, it’s heavily inspired by the modern day and I’m loath to abandon reality in favour of making it simpler – the reason I play ultramoderns is to understand current events in a way you can only get through simulation. Even if you have changed all the names and setup unique political situations.

I also have to once again thank the various rulesets, modifications, lardy articles and PDFs I have found online in the process of assembling this first version we played. Without them, this compilation of ideas would have taken much MUCH longer to get together.

My resources were:

• Chain of Command by Too Fat Lardies – a core game so enjoyable and gripping I doubt I would have tried to do this otherwise. Much like my beloved Skirmish Sangin, I am yet to have a bad game of it.
• Fighting Season by Leigh Neville – They may not be out (still waiting for the eternal Easter) but from the mentions and little drips of information (as well as a random general question a few years ago), it really fired up my brain to think about Ultramoderns in platoon scale rather than merely a skirmish.
  • https://toofatlardies.co.uk/category/coc-fighting-season/
  • https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/2014-christmas-special/
• Chain of Command: DMZ and Chain of Command: MOG by Jason Sendjirdjian – These two supplements were my first stop when it came to updating, in order to see what else people have been up to. Features like the Team Leaders would not exist without these addons.
• The Longest Yomp by Ioan Davies-John – Although not quite the modern day, this article was a good inspiration to think about how to update Chain of Command without completely overhauling it making “Another Game but with Command Dice”

With the setup out of the way, lets get on with the game!

In the last 8 hours, tensions between the Bazi Empire and the Albion Commonwealth have reached a breaking point. After an overnight exchange of artillery fire and close air support, Albion Commonwealth forces (and their allies) have begun an advance into disputed territory inside the Bazi Empire.

The Republic of Cynerice, a former Albion territory that broke away in the Civil War, has elements of it’s forces to assist their ally. With F18s and F117s striking targets deep within the Emirate of Bazistan, the 18th Division has begun it’s advance to claim all land between the Nahr and Buhayra rivers.

One of it’s leading elements, after dealing with an ambush by Bazistan forces in the night, has begun it’s advance into the Nahr district, moving through an area that is believed to house an artillery battery and was the target of counter-battery fire during the previous evening. It seems deserted initially, but the appearance of concrete barricades and enemy forces means that the recce elements have stumbled into an enemy force, with the forward patrols engaging with enemy sentries as the rest of the weakened platoon arrives.

So what does that all mean? Well, seeing as this was the first game with a cobbled together ruleset, we decided to play a force on force, regulars vs regulars game. The COIN ops can come later. Additionally, neither force would receive any additional support choices – I was roughly attempting to get a feel for the balance in this game with basic platoons and support lists will come later once I sit down with the Coculator.

But first, the forces. With a surprise last minute guest appearances from the Creative Regular Opponent (who obviously managed to finish cleaning the ghosts out of his gaming room), I decided to sit back to GM and explain the rules, splitting the forces up between my two most frequent opponents.

Cynerician Army

The Dastardly Regular Opponent received an understrength Cynerician platoon, roughly patterned after the US Army Infantry platoon. Due to errrrr “supply issues” (I didn’t have enough figures), the Cynericians only has two of the usual three infantry squads, with the supporting Medium Machine gun squad only able to provide a single team.

However, even with these limited numbers, the Cynerician Army is able to throw it’s weight around. Each rifle squad is split into two fireteams, each with Team Leader. This addition to the regular CoC rules (pulled from CoC:Mog and DMZ) I think really shows the flexibility of a modern professional army – when activated by their Squad Leader or on a 2 Command Dice, the Team Leaders have enough initiatives to command use of the UGL or other support weapons while directing regular fire down. With the right command rolls, you can also end up being able to activate the Team Leaders individually, leaving the Squad leader to clear shock and keep them in the loop. Each Squad leader also carried a radio, allowing a link back to the Platoon Commander (and his signaller) with a platoon NCO assisting. Weapon wise, the usual mix of M249 SAWs and M203s abounded, with most soldiers carrying a Carbine (shorter close range but offering more firepower than the toned down assault rifle in the new rules.)

Even better, each platoon in the ChargeReal will reccive a selection of “upgrades” to show how advanced they are. Being a modern force, the Cynerician have a whole collection of additional rules – body armour, optics for every infantryman, personal radios in each section and excellent comms (to prevent single 6s being wasted). However, not all these upgrades are positive – because of the weight of all their gear, the platoon is Heavily Laden and can not choose to advance At The Double.

Emirate of Bazistan Defence Forces

The Creative Regular Opponent was in charge of an Emirate Defence Platoon. A fictional arrangement, this platoon combined three squads of Bazi Emirate Infantry with a pair of local police squads. The Bazi troops had numbers on their side but suffered from a lack of flexibility. The regular army troops were arranged into sections with no fireteams underneath, all built around a PKM (with no additional crew members so with a reduced firepower stat) and an RPG with only three rounds. The police squads, although smaller, were split into the rifle equipped Patrol team (complete with a team leader) and the Command team (with the Junior Leader keeping a close eye on the RPG and PKM). Leading them was a Force Commander (Ranking Senior Leader), his Right Hand Man (Senior Leader) and a Medic to make up for the lack of training elsewhere.

The Bazi’s had body armour and excellent communications (they are a functioning nation state after all) but also had a major flaw – “Questionable Marksmanship”. Inspired by a rule often mentioned in discussions on Fighting Season, a force with this “upgrade” always counts as firing at Effective range when it comes to scoring hits even when technically within close range (they do gain any firepower bonuses based on distance). However, forces of this style do have a habit of being somewhat heavy on the trigger, letting them fire full effect while moving rather than the usual half, ideal for causing shock but less likely to cause kills as the target counts as having gone tactical.

The exact mission was Scenario 4 from the Chain of Command rulebook, Delaying Action. With the Cynerician forces on the advance, this forward element was attempt to find a weak point in the Bazi Emirate’s defensive lines. This semi-urban area is comprised of multiple family compounds in various states of disrepair, a situation not helped by a misdirected counter battery strike.

As an aside, I’m actually kind of impressed how good these Sarissa Terrain Tiles look on the Geek Villan matt. With some actual painting and texturing, adding just enough scrubby green pieces, they should look pretty damn great.

Of course, the Bazi Emirate is actually holding this position in an attempt to block this MSR. With no friendly forces forward of them, the Bazis have dropped two concrete barricades across the road and prepared defences (including stopping a civilian vehicle that attempted to rush through without being checked).

After some chat through the rule tweaks and getting the force morale rolled up (the Cynerician forces with 9, the Bazis with 10) we started off one of the best parts of Chain of Command – the Patrol phase! With the Defenders starting spread out, the Bazis were able to move along a wide front, advancing faster than the single entry of the Cynerician attackers. The forward patrols met about half way down the board allowing for the Jumping Off Points to be placed.

Here, you can see the Bazi Jumping Off points. With the target Jumping Off Point back by the white pickup, the Bazi forces had plenty of defensive depth. A second JOP in the rear most compound held the far edge but the absolute steal was getting the JOP up behind the white minivan. Having forces close to the central compound would be a pain in the ass for the Cynerician advance.

The Cyernic jumping off points were strong pointing the gatehouse compound, with a pair in the main structures. The final JOP was behind the small building in the foreground, just off the road and ready to threaten the central intact compound.

With game on, the Bazi Forces took immediate action and didn’t mess around. The first rifle section piled out of the white minivan and took up defensive positions, going tactical.

Behind them, the first Police squad deployed and setup on Overwatch. The RPG gunner would not be able to fire from this position but covering the rear of their infantry allies would be very handy.

The phase switched and the Cynerician forces deployed, taking full advantage of the double phase. One squad moved up along the road, while the GPMG team took up position on the gate house before going into Overwatch.

In a move that had myself and the Creative Opponent looking at each other with concern, the Cynericians also deployed their second squad into the front buildings of their compound. This now meant almost the entire force was on the board in the first phase.

Moving onto the second part of the phase, the team on the road moved into undergrowth on the side of the road. Thanks to the weight of their gear, this movement slowed them slightly, having to pick through the undergrowth.

A tweak I’ve added is around Overwatch. By default, Overwatch is declared for a specific arc. However, in a game that will soon have you dealing with snipers, insurgents and more, I decided to add an option of all-round security at reduced firepower – ideal when strong pointing a building or setting up in hostile territory. Another tool in the toolbox!

However, something that came up in Fighting Season articles was an “enhanced overwatch” concept. Not having the playtest rules in front of me, I started thinking about just what could be added to make the professional forces standout. I eventually settled on an upgraded Overwatch, letting you combine the best features of the options (all round security + full firepower + going tactical) in exchange for additional command initiatives (useful for when you have a team leader). In terms of visualising, this is a squad/section commander taking the time to setup his squad in a position, working out how best to deal with incoming contacts. It takes some time to setup and once activated it still disappears. We found it a nice way to differentiate between the highly professional and those lacking flexibility, the better trained more easily being able to setup and keep an eye on areas of the battlefield.

In fact, Enhanced Overwatch seemed to be the aim of the game here, with plenty of eyes setup and cover taken care of. Having talked to the Dastardly Opponent after the game, a lot of this came down to concern over how limited his force was – with only two sections (and a GPMG team), every movement would be protected as possible.

A new phase and the Bazi infantry setup in all round protection.

The right move, seeing as the first team of the Cynerician platoon paused at the opening to the compound, narrowly avoid setting off Overwatch.

Popping smoke, it filled the gap between the buildings, making it safe for the infantry to advance.

First team and Junior Leader through, second team (and Senior Leader) moving on behind.

The first team moved in close to the wall. There was some discussion about entering the rooms, but realising that they would be at risk of both Overwatch from two sections AND frag grenades being posted in the windows left them outside

Instead, they started the grenade part early, throwing a pair of them high over the building before landing among the Bazi infantry. One soldier took the hit, but another had his body armour save him, turning the casulty into two points of shock.

In response, the second Police squad deployed on the roof top of the compound, ringing the walls with their support weapons and shooters. However, this action put them within line of sight of the GPMG team and pointing at the Overwatch token, the Dastardly regular opponent started rolling.

As you can see, a withering hail of fire based on the dice rolls.

As well as the normal shock, more hits to the body armour caused a stack of suppression to appear

As the phase shifted back to the Cynericians, we got our first taste the of sheer horror of a fireteam unleashed. At close range, with a SAW and four Carbines, the fire team and junior leader dropped a colossal 18 dice to hit. A lot of these managed to, delivering a metric ton of suppression that broke the squad. Worse, they also caused a Casualty among the police team.

From reading accounts, you realise how important body armour is. Able to take a lot of glancing blows and shrapnel that might over cause major injury. In my tweaks, you roll for body armour with each kill. Most of the time, the body armour takes the blow and delivers two points of shock. However, it is still possible for a direct kill or having to deal with a critically wounded Casualty.

Casualties count as additional shock that can only be cleared once the turn ends. When this happens you really want the casualty marker to be on a team within the casualty collection radius of a jumping off point or board edge. It’s handy to have a medic nearby or, like the Cynerian troops, have combat lifesaving as an upgrade; this is because when a Casualty is removed you roll on the Bad Things Happen table. Do well on the roll, or have positive modifiers, and the casulty is evacuated safety with no morale effect. Do poorly, or worse leave them unattended outside of the evac zone and it can cause a major drop in your force morale as the details trickle down the line or back to command.

Although maybe not as gritty or realistic as some rulesets, this system requires you to deal with the situation (an important part of warfare in the modern day) while still using systems that Chain of Command includes.

As you might expect, the unit broke, fell back off the board (narrowly avoiding running through their own comrades) and then disappeared off. The first blow to force morale had been struck.

Some more relocation, and a phase where the Bazis managed to go onto the next level of Overwatch, soon led to a Command Roll that led to a double phase. With a Chain of Command dice in hand, we saw a pretty amazing play. First step? Relocate forces using the smoke for cover.

Step 2 – End the turn. Overwatch is removed. Smoke is Removed.

Step 3 – Advance and open up at close range (although not quite fisticuffs). Cause a literal pile of shock that pins the enemy section due to the multiple assault rifles and the SAW. (Ignore the figure with the DMR, we were just using them as Carbines for this game).

Step 4 – While the enemy senior leader attempts to clear off the pinning amount of shock, move the entire squad into fisticuffs range.

After an incredibly bloody (and incredibly close with both sides rolling similar dice) close combat phase, the Cynerican troops were victorious, wiping the enemy from the position. After rolling for the two leaders engaged in the fight (the junior squad leader and the senior NCO) both were unharmed, leaving them to be captured. The intel boys would have a field day with them. It was also a massive blow to the Bazi Force Morale, losing a section AND two leaders very quickly

Unfortunately, this was not all one sided – the attackers took one KIA in the end and unfortunately it was the Squad Leader. As we found out later, losing half your Junior Leaders would make Command Rolls later on a pain in the backside.

(This situation was a bit messy – we’re going to take another run through at this and work out what really should have happened)

Seeing a close quarters fight going down, the Bazi player pushed another squad into position, taking cover in the shrubs to cover the road between the compounds.

After using a Chain of Command dice to move the JOP forward, the victorious section did some reorganisation. Dropping prisoners off at the JOP to be pushed to the rear, the rest of section took up position in the building and behind the white minivan.

This however set off the police squad’s overwatch. From inside the building, the PKM and 5 assault rifles opened up at the shadows flittering in the building across the field.

The team in the heavy cover of the building were able to blow off the fire but the sheet metal of the minivan dented, caved and then was sent spinning around shrapnel. Two of the fire team behind the van were taken down and became casualties.

At this point, the Bazi player dropped a Chain of Command dice and ended the turn. Because these two casualties were away from the collection point, only the combat lifesaving skills of their teammates were able to minimise force morale damage.

On the northern side of the board, the other section saw where the fire was coming from and moved to outflank the Bazi unit in the shrubery.

Another phase saw the Bazi Army and Police open up on the Cynerican section hiding in the recently cleared compound. Despite the building being heavy cover, a mixture of RPG rounds and suppressing fire started pocking the heavy cover with holes. Even at effective range, this was a lot of incoming.

The troops inside were actually really starting to get pinned down, a situation made worse when another soldier was lost to incoming fire an became a casualty. Even worse, it was one of the Team Leaders, causing another drop in command capabilities.

After some horrible dice rolls, the two teams eventually managed to withdraw, taking the casualty with them. And just in time, as the turn ended with them well inside the casualty collection zone.

Using their activations, the team leaders of the two pairs reformed into a single team.

At this stage, my Dastardly Regular Opponent made a smart observation. Was this a campaign, he would have chosen to fall back. With only three fireteams (and a machine gun as support) and a lack of junior leaders, it would be very hard to achieve the objectives. Seeing as his force was the recce of a larger push (and having captured two command figures), we agreed that although not a complete victory, it would at least assist in the advance in this area.

We agreed the next game might be playing this map but tweaked – open up the flanks and deploy a full platoon with assets to properly assault this semi-prepared position.

One thing I agree with Too Fat Lardies about is the importance of a campaign system. It’s very easy to produce a key set of rules but you lose some of the background for your actions in a single one off skirmish game. By running in a campaign, you think twice about frittering away your troops or wasting them in an unending battle. It’s very easy for the wargaming red mist to descend and forget the setting of the game or that you’re controlling people.

I’m already thinking about how ultramodern would work with the rules in “At the Sharp End” – I’m tempted to add additional reactions to your results (other than your men and your CO). Having to balance the political and media fallout of your actions will definitely make players think carefully about what they do.

Some of this may also come as a GM running a campaign – listening to players attempting to explain how their failure of a mission was actually a success in disguise will be amusing.

Of course, this is a playtest. And so, after agreement from high command/the Creative Regular Opponent, I traded a Chain of Command dice for an additional asset.

With a rumble, a JLTV arrived on the board. With a .50cal in the turret (and relatively high armour), this as a good chance to see how a vehicle might affect the game. It’s also a cool model and much more at home in a platoon level game vs most skirmish games.

Naturally, it’s suddenly arrival didn’t stop one of the RPG gunners taking a pot shot at it from 5 range bands away in the following phase. It naturally missed and the .50cal in return took him out.

On the northern side, the second Cynerican section managed to take up positions in the ruined compound and unleash hell on the enemy who were still re-arranging themselves after falling back from the scrubs. Their fire dropped a huge amount of shock on the squad in the first phase (enough to pin them) and then in the next phase added enough to cause them to break and retreat, reducing the Bazi morale down to 1. We did notice that at close range, if you managed to unleash your fire first, you would usually get the enemy pinned very quickly.

With Bazi morale at 1 (and with time ticking on) my Creative Regular Opponent decided to withdraw his forces. With only one command die and a whole host of possible casualties coming up, it made sense to fall back and preserve what was left. The Cynericans had take the field, and I assume the Platoon commander was currently radioing in about the complete lack of enemy artillery in the area.

Overall, I’m calling this game a success. Both players mentioned how much they enjoyed it – with only a few changes, the game had a very different feel to the WW2 game while still being familiar and with many of the same pleasing systems. Both players also immediately start theory crafting around the systems, thinking about how other forces and support options might play, excited at the possibilities.

I personally was very happy with how little extra stuff it felt like was added. There wasn’t whole diversions into pages and pages of rules for minor things. Movement, shooting, close combat all the core systems have remained true to how Chain of Command plays.

Of course, the rules are nowhere near ready for prime time (playing in the campaign with the rest of the group). Outside of writing all the various forces and creating support lists, we need to add rules for dealing with both irregular forces and special operations teams. Insurgency rules I think will be a big change – you need to make a force that is on paper incredibly weak be as threatening to the enemy as possible through lots of other soft effects. That said, I’m very excited to see what can be done – Chain of Command has such a glorious collection of systems that with a few tweaks and pokes can play entirely differently.

Two years ago, the Dastardly Regular Opponent and myself were summoned North to the home of our Creative Regular opponent to take part in Operation Chisel, a scenario written by our host and featuring four platoons in total on the board. It was a great introduction to Big Chain of Command, as well as a chance to spend an afternoon with friends, rolling some dice and blowing up tanks. We finished off planning to get plenty more games of Chain of Command in, helped by the fact I was planning to transfer to Leeds.

And then 2020 happened. The winter time slot saw us still in lockdown. 2021 was busy for everyone, including our Creative Regular Opponent who managed to move house after a frankly dizzing amount of bullshit. Part of this house move has meant that he has ended up with an attic floor just asking for a hobby/wargames room, and luckily it was among the first rooms finished off (mostly). So when the Christmas break came around, the Dastardly Regular Opponent and myself were once again invited North to partake in more Big CoC.

Once again, rather than playing a preset mission in the Chain of Command rulebook, the Creative Regular Opponent (or CRO) had prepared an operation, complete with briefing for all parties. And once again, I found myself with a different briefing and set of instructions. Something I found out about 5 minutes into the journey when the topic of engaging buildings with high explosives came up. Turns out the Para commander was allowed to be a touch more aggressive with his forces.

There was also a mention of the Soviet Army and an urging to react quickly to prevent something “Unthinkable”.

Our battle site for the day was Rheinburg, a town on the Kermisdahl river just over the German border from the operational area of our previous game With the action having shifted to February 1945, the invasion of Germany rumbled on. My orders were to capture the town and church, allowing the advance of friendly force further into Germany. It was not going to be easy – according to the briefing, elements of the 655th Heavy Anti-Tank Battalion, 84th Infantry Division, 180th Infantry Division, 47th Panzer Corps, 7th Parachute Division, and 15th Panzergrenadier Division were all in the area, so our opposition would be varied. What was also concerning was the appearance of a halftrack and a 88mm position in the churchyard during the recce flyover, signs of emplaced AA/AT forces.

In a major difference from last time we played, I now had my own force under control. The 25th Infantry Regt. (Scots and Yorks) which I spent the start of last year painting would get their first taste of table top action, alongside the freshly painted Churchill tanks. With this being a Big CoC game, I actually got to control a platoon of each, something I definitely appreciated.

My Dastardly Regular Opponent Ally would be taking on control of the Paras (recently reconstituted after their trip to Holland in the Autumn) and accompanied by a platoon of Guards Armour (the platoon I had controlled in our last game).

We were then informed by our host/opponent that we had the grand total of 50 support points to spend between us. This of course was answered with “What the Hell are we up against” and “Damn why didn’t I finish the Avre” but eventually we made our selections

To accompany my Regular Infantry Platoon and the Churchill Platoon, I chose:

• Infantry Platoon
  • Adjutant – Not as vital for the Brits as it is a German platoon, but still a nice to have when both senior leaders hit the board.
  • Vickers MMG – A British Infantry Section is not going to outgun a German Infantry Zug
  • Pre-Game Barrage – With the Germans throwing 4 platoons at us, having the ability to slow their arrival might be handy.
  • Forward Observer – In a platoon engagement, having a load of mortars to drop on the enemy is a useful way of forcing enemies off a position. With my force, I think the more important element of a mortar barrage would be popping smoke to cut down on the enemy’s sightlines.
  • Sniper – I am a big fan of the humble sniper in Chain of Command. The ability to reach out and touch the enemy is always useful, especially when the enemy can only return fire by burning command initiative and locking someone in place on overwatch to maybe catch sight of you. I also have a very nice sniper team waiting for action.
• Armoured Platoon
  • Supporting Parachute Veteran Infantry Section – The parachute infantry section perfectly matches what the Warlord Winter Brits are armed with. Giving them to the Armoured Platoon represented some Veterans riding on the tanks as close security before disembarking just before they entered the board.
  • Recce Section – Borrowing a few carriers from the host, I added another bit of infantry support to the Churchills to hopefully speed down the board. This section was sadly wasted as I totally forgot to bring them on before… events transpired.

To use the other points, the Parachute Infantry Platoon and Guard armour took:

• Parachute Infantry Platoon
  • Adjutant
  • Vickers MG
  • Forward Observer + 3″ Mortar Barrage
  • An additional section
  • PIAT team
• Guards Armoured Platoon
  • Adjutant
  • Cromwell Recce Tank

Arrayed against us were elements of a German Tank Platoon (with supports), a Fallschirmjager Infantry platoon and a German Infantry Platoon. There was also mention of an SS Platoon, although it only came into play later on. Additionally, the Germans started off with multiple full Chain of Command dice, as they had several non-standard ways of using them.

As you’d expect, the Para’s stormed forward off their jumping off point, heading for the first piece of cover.

In contrast, my first roll for my Infantry Platoon was that combination above. Sadly, the single 6 is wasted but a massive four pips on the Chain of Command dice had me well on my way.

The paras also deployed their sniper to cover the the long sightlines down the board towards the known 88mm position.

After rolling for my armoured platoon, I managed to activate my tanks. The Junior boy in the platoon (one of the 75mm gun tanks) started off slowly, rolling slowly along the bridge past the regular jumping off point.

In it’s shadow, the 6pdr tank rolled into position and setup an overwatch just in case anything was to appear from the town itself.

I wasn’t the only armoured commander moving forces around. At the same, the recce Cromwell blasted across the bridge, putting it’s speed to good use.

The empty windows of the town overlooked the Cromwell as it came to a pause ready for future operation.

A shot the other way reveals the 88mm gun shield lurking behind the church wall.

The Guards Commander, rolling onto the board, setup on overwatch to cover the left flank.

The Germans now took their turn and started it off by rolling one of their Panzer IVs onto the table coming down the road.

Barely coming to a halt, the Panzer IV managed to line up a shot on the advancing Churchill and send a 75mm shell hurtling across the field, resulting in a damaged mantlet and a VERY concerned gunner.

Zooming past the gunfire, a Puma armoured car begin heading for the centre of town. I’m not super worried about it against the Churchill but it’s still something I don’t want running around too badly.

On the other side, the German 88mm crew disembarked from the protection of their half track and rushed to start manning the gun. Although not technically a support option in the game, we went with a 8 man crew for it (junior leader and 7 crew) which seemed about right.

It was also located in the centre of town, a very real danger for any force attempted to cross it’s arc… such as the Cromwell currently in the open.

The FJs decided now would be a good time to deploy and begin taking up fire positions to repulse the oncoming infantry.

Having just seen the shell bounce off it’s partner tank, the other Churchill dropped overwatch and engaged the enemy. The first shot would do nothing but, thanks to a double phase, the second shot sent a solid lump of metal through the turrets spaced armour and straight into the ammo rack. First tank killed.

While the tanks duelled, their escort moved into position. With the Infantry still waiting for orders (the fault of a poor platoon officer recently promoted after a much loved veteran has been moved to Company HQ), it fell to the 10th Regiment of Rifles (Teesside) to push forward and secure forward positions. In game terms, I wanted to move my JOPs forward into the town rather having to foot slog all the way in.

Having seen the problem with the 88mm (and experienced a 88mm shell flying past his Cromwell), the Dastardly Ally was quick to drop 2inch smoke rounds to block the line of sight.

Having moved my tanks forward, we swapped to the German player who immediately placed…

An AT gun in the side streets. A PAK40 in fact. This is something to be worried about, especially with it being on my flank. Luckily the shell hit the bridge support rather than

Of course this was made worse when one of the uses for the German player’s Chain of Command dice came into effect. With a supersonic woosh, a Pak 43 shell came crashing in from off map and barely missed the Churchill tank on the bridge. At this point, I know realised I needed to pop smoke to break up the sight line on the right flank.

On the left flank, my ally was also about to bring his mortars to bear. The difference was he was calling for HE. After reading the rules, he decided to go with a ranging shot rather than risking a full on stonk. Luckily, he managed to land bang on the target so next activation would bring the rain.

Back at the bridge, the Paras were taking cover behind the house, unwilling to advance through the open area ahead of them. With a JOP close to the main buildings, that open ground would leave them exposed to germans hiding in the buildings ahead.

Rolling a 4 among my Command dice, I decided to bring my Senior leader and his tank onto the board. With the potential of having multiple enemy tanks attacking my flank, the risk of it turning into a shell slinging match had me realising that I should get more guns on the table than the other guy.

On the right, the Paras were massing in preparation for a push on the town, with the Senior NCO ordering the 2inch mortar and the Forward Observer to keep firing.

The armour’s attached infantry continued the advance – seeing as I only had a team activation (a command dice of 1) left, I decided to leave the Junior Leader and the Bren gun team back to provide cover as the rifle team stormed forward.

On the left, the British Mortars really started causing havoc. As rounds dropped out of the sky, the halftrack took a direct hit, knocking it out and forcing the crew manning the MG42s to dismeark. It also started dropping shock markers.

It had taken a while but finally the main infantry platoon is beginning to arrive. My dice rolls weren’t great, but putting the Senior NCO on the table would put me in a good position in future turns. It’s also a good story moment – the experienced NCO making his way forward to see what’s going on before his boys turn up.

As the Paras began to cross the open ground, the Germans started appearing in the building in the centre of this picture. This would lead into a slugging match, with the armour and infanty taking advantage of Covering Fire to keep the Grenadiers inside bottled up

The arrival of the Germans in the building was not the only movement. The FJs left the cover of the town hall and started heading to meet the approaching Brits.

Another German deployment was in the multistory building covering the British Infantry approach.

The first burst caused some damage among the veteran infantry, with one casualty and two points of shock, putting the team at risk of being pinned. In addition, the squad leader caught a round, injuring him and reducing his command initiatives.

Unfortunately I missed getting a photo of the carnage but the British took their first tank loss. Thanks to a Chain of Command dice being spent, an 88mm shell came screaming in off the board and found a new home in the turret ring of the forward advanced Churchill. This is what’s know as a “Serious Emotional Event”.

With an AFV being destroyed and a junior leader lost, it took a rather sizeable chunk out of the armoured platoon’s morale.

Almost as concerning as is the appearance of a Tiger tank behind the church. This meant that there were now two heavy AT guns covering the Para’s flank, even if the mortar barrage (kept running through several turn ends via via the use of Chain of Command dice) was picking away at anyone in the open.

After a pretty horrifying turn of events in the German turn, it was now back to the Allies. My first deployment was the Infantry’s Sniper team. Due to what’s required to engage a sniper in CoC (going on overwatch followed by a lucky dice roll), placing them in LOS of the machine gun would let them start putting shock or kills on it with a much lower risk than engaging it directly.

My next action was getting the some more Infantry on the board. The first Section pushed out along the fence line, moving to link up with the Guards armour advancing down the road.

I wasn’t the only one bringing forces onto the field. The FJs had deployed their Stug in the churchyard, another AT gun to blunt the Guard’s advance up the field.

A FJ sniper team also appeared, taking up position in the church tower (as war movie stereotypes demand). The sniper obviously didn’t mind the mortar rounds dropping around them, which would perhaps end up being a touch risky as the Paras kept bringing the barrage in closer and closer

The German tank platoon brought on another Panzer IV. Before it even finished it’s first advance, it sent a shell right into the Churchill III’s ammo rack, blowing it to pieces.

As you might expect, this caused another shift in the Tank Platoon’s morale. Dropping it down to only 2, I found myself with much less flexibility in the upcoming phases. A jumping off point would also be removed, but for this scenario we left it in place.

Back with the Allied activation, and the mortar barrage continued, finally clearing out the 88mm crew and silencing the gun. Shells also started to land on the Tiger, causing some mild discomfort.

With two of his Squadron members out of action and activations draining away, the Senior Leader’s tank stepped up into the firing line. Sighting on the Panzer 4, the first shot stunned the gunner, giving plenty of time to prepare for another round.

Sadly on the other side of the table, the Guard’s took their first casualty of the game when a newly arrived Panther tank managed to thread the needle and sink a shell into the side of the Recce Cromwell.

Back with the Allies, the Infantry continued their advance behind the Veterans. Additionally, seeking to disengage from the tank battle, I deployed the forward observer to prepare a smoke barrage.

Taking the Paras off the chain, the deployment of a Vickers team to keep fire on the enemy held buildings allowed the second section to move off from it’s cover point, moving all out to keep ahead of the enemy fire screaming overhead.

…. There isn’t anything new actually happening here, I just like the Airborne Senior Leader and his crew of support elements setup by the bridge.

Meanwhile, despite the crashing barrage, the FJ deployed an infantry section into the graveyard, ready to ambush the advancing paras.

With more infantry on the board, I also deployed my second British Infantry section. My plan here was I now have a sizeable infantry force that could then push forward, allowing for me to then move the jumping off point into the town.

It seems the Germans realised what was going on and moved to counter my advance, the FJs moving all out.

Next activation, one of the Guards Sherman tanks started rolling down the street in an attempt to capture the town centre.

Much to the horror of the FJs, who found themselves frantically needing to get out of the street before the tank could open fire.

My Infantry were also heading in the same direction and so the firefight would all come down to who would activate first.

And then the Germans got a double phase.

At which point the FJs managed to secure a building, drop the MG42 down and open up on my advancing Brits. The veterans taking the lead took the fire, with several casualties and points of shock before being able to move into cover.

The Guards spot a Puma entering the town square and prepares to engage.

To assist with the advance moving forward, the Paras were quick to move another jumping off point next to their base of fire.

With the MG in the centre of town shifting it’s focus from my Infantry to the Paras crossing the field, I decided to relocate my sniper team to cover the gap into the centre of town. In what would be a glorious Call of Duty style set piece, it’s easy to imagine the snipers ducking along the banks of the river as tank shells fly overhead, before climbing up into the new position under the bridge.

In the town hall, the Germans deployed their light mortar, eager to halt any further para advances.

In a similar way, the another unit of Grenadiers appeared in the old farm buildings, pushing into the courtyard and putting fire down against the building full of Paras, in a scene very familiar to the last time we played Big CoC.

Watching another Panzer IV appear, the Tank Platoon leader decided to finish the fight and slammed home a 75mm AP shell into the lead vehicle. With a deafening explosion, the turret was sent spiralling away, the tank duel now with equal results for both sides.

The Paras had managed to move into position in a certain farmhouse that fans may remember from last time we played Big CoC, preparing a good defensive position and trading gunfire with the building marked with the white counter.

The falling mortar bombs started to worry the Stug commander as they rained down closer and closer. One lucky round even managed to wound the Sniper in the tower, removing that threat.

The Tiger tank, gunning the engine, smashed it’s way through the churchyard walls and began advancing towards the enemy at a slow steady pace. This let the gunner draw a line of fire on the Firefly and….

BOOM! Direct hit on the Firefly sends bits of tank everywhere as the crew hastily disembarked and run for cover.

Return fire however was brutal. Para fire managed to pin the 5cm mortar team on the rooftop, while the Vickers hammering the grenadiers made the German player relocate.

On my flank, I was reorganising my infantry sections, the veterans reforming to move together while the two regulars prepared to push on the recently vacated FJ positions (one moving into the house on the left). The FJs had sprinted into the next building along and would have probably proved to be a difficult problem to crack.

And then the Skeletons arrived

I feel like I should explain.

Every time we rolled for the turn to end (rather than the end of our activation phase), the German player/host would reach for his phone and read a forboding piece of text. Originally it could all be explained away as bad weather. But soon the shadows were moving unnaturally, a sense of unease fill the air and strange lights illuminated the church. And then…

Surprise, it was actually a Weird War 2 game.

Thanks to the ritual of the SS commander in the church (who had spent every activation attempting to build up Chain of Command dice, was now able to begin spending them to summon up groups of skeletons. They were run using some Zombie rules found on the TFL forum, with the only tweak being their numbers worked out using D6+6 seeing as we were in a Big CoC game

Of course, the appearance of the undead did unnerve most people around the board. Only the Paras and the SS were unaffected. The duelling tank platoons (both mine and the Germans) routed immediately at the sight of the undead horde, while the Guards took a knock down hard enough to lose command dice. My Regulars were still relatively game, an advantage of having held them back for now and being relatively free of their concerns up until this point..

With the twist in the game revealed, it was now time for a mission change. I soon learnt what my allies actual objective was – seize the church and eliminate any SS officers who might be leading the ritual.

As the turn had ended during the skeleton’s arrival, and without enough Chain of Command dice to keep the bombardment going, the Allied FOs called in a new bombardment. There was some discussions about ignoring the ranging shot but luckily it was decided to go with one. Luckily, because it dropped far, FAR too short and would have caught the forward Para section.

On my side of the board, I decided to bring the JOP up, giving me a foothold in the town. From here, I’d be able to organise my remaining assets (the Vickers, PIAT and Rifle Section) and get them directly into the fight.

Excuse the blurry photo but this was our first sign just what we were up against when we got our first battle between the skeletons and the fleeing Germans. Fisticuffs in Chain of Command is brutal at the best of times but each skeleton was doing the damage of four men and were hard to kill (seeing as all kills have to be confirmed by another dice roll), not even the STGs and MP40s could help, especially being attacked in the rear.

Once the skeletons struck back, it was all over – the Grenadiers torn apart as the horde advanced.

Luckily ancient skeletons lack armoured piercing weapons capable of dealing with modern vehicles – something the Puma crew were obviously happy about.

Ready to counter the skeleton horde, I brought in a Hail Mary – my Senior Officer, the PIAT team, Vickers MG and the final rifle section. With the game approaching an end, it was time to get everything moving. The Rifles and Vickers setup on the road alongside the Guards’ armour.

I also began working the other two sections around the flank, attempting to reach the Church while avoiding the bulk of the skeletons.

The bulk that were now swarming the square, past the cowering Puma and the fleeing MG team.

Luckily, before the undead could activate, the combined gunfire was able to open up, dropping many of them with HE rounds and automatic fire.

The final few advanced further, eventually charging in to cause some damage but were eventually beaten back.

Of course, further skeletons were still advancing and managed to get into combat range, charging in to the section beside the tank.

Most of the shock markers on this section was actually from where I opened up and cause barely any casualties or shock. Horrified as the undead managed to shrug off rifle shots like they were nothing, the close quarters fisticuffs eventually took them down (turns out it easier to skill a skeleton beating it to death with a rifle butt).

The paras on the other side also came up against the skeleton hordes, defending their bullet filled farmhouse from the oncoming horde. There was definitely plenty of Dog Soldiers references made at this point, and luckily the walls held firm.

One problem with fighting the undead is that they have a habit of continuing to rise as long as the ritual behind them continues. Seems like the stack of Chain of Command dice kept giving us bad guys, with each full one being exchanged to summon another group (made worse by the German player handing us the dice to roll every time a new group appeared).

Of course, the Para player, being a Dastardly man with practical plans, soon worked out that continuing the barrage would cause absolute havoc on the slow moving skeletal warriors (helped by HE kills not needing to be confirmed). The barrage really did save that flank, preventing full sized hordes from reaching the paras.

With the bulk of the undead being drawn towards the Paras, I managed to setup two of my rifle teams to prepare an L shaped assult on the church. However, before we could advance we first had to take out the enemy – fanatical SS troopers right out of a 1960s pulp film. I ended up getting into a two way firing range with them, the dual MGs managing to hold back the two British sections.

Eventually though, I managed to bring up my PIAT and Vickers, able to form the base of fire before the infantry could advance. I didn’t get a chance to do my expertly tactical push on the Nazi filled mausoleum before the game ended but there was a little bit of satisfaction setting up the tactical puzzle.

The mortar barrage, buoyed up yet more Chain of Command dice, continued to scythe down the undead (even after they chewed their way through the Germans at the farm building). The remaining shambling survivors were then taken down by the Paras as they advanced towards the church.

The mortar barrage was also causing havoc inside the church as well, slowly chipping at the fanatical defenders. Eventually, as the night in the real world grew darker, the mortars managed to reduce the SS defenders to a junior leader and the target for the operation, the Villainous SS Colonel.

Deciding to make a break for the board edge, the SS NCO rushed two flanking paras while the Colonel tried to slink away to perform dastardly deeds somewhere else.

Alas, the heroic last stand was all in vain, and a burst of Bren fire finally managed to kill the target. Mission accomplished!

I will admit, when the skeletons appeared I was a touch surprised – I’d expected some twist based on the briefing documents but the appearance of the Undead did have me burst out laughing, even more so once the boxes of skeletons arrived! We all agreed the scenario could do with a tweak or two (we had progressed through the turns far quicker than the host had anticipated and so had a fair chunk of ground to cover against an enemy that didn’t shoot back. I still really like the Big CoC formula for having everyone involved – even with one player with four platoons, the game didn’t really feel to drag at all

Overall, the game reminded me why I’m really excited about playing Chain of Command – the thrill of the command dice, the friction when shooting or moving that really makes you think on your feet. There were a few cases of carefully picking dice to get everything I wanted done, as well as some annoyances at fluffed dice rolls. The game continues to be my favourite platoon level game and one I’m eager to prepare for Ultramodern use.

Getting a chance to control my own force as well was something new and exciting – I’m really happy with how my winter Brits look, not too overwhelming with the snow effects that they seem too out of place on the regular European board. I’m definitely going to get them finished and will probably (later in the year once I can get to a show Empress is at) pick up some of Paul Hick’s Germans and Americans to similarly paint up for 1945.

Just around a year ago, the first playtest version of Skirmish Sangin V2 was put up on the facebook group to be tested. It has taken me this long to actually sit down and get it ready to play, mostly due to finally getting my mojo back to play some Ultramoderns.

With the first game of my newly planned monthly schedule against the Dastardly Regular Opponent coming up, what better time to jump back into Skirmish Sangin, one of our preferred rulesets for Ultramoderns, especially with the new Version 2 and all it’s changes. This is also the first game in the ChargeReal setting, using my fictional nation of Shyluz.

We begin our mission on the outskirts of Al-Khalas, a small village in the south of Shyluz, close to the border with the Emirate of Bazistan. Last night, PMC operators from TIJ moved into the village and took cover for the night, the civilians fleeing into the hills. This alerted the forces pursuing them, elements from the 1st Airmobile Division of the Republic of Shyluz Army.

After deploying from their transport helicopters (a variant of the Mi-17) at a safe distance from the town, the platoon spread out out over the various hillsides. Our section moved into the main buildings, splitting into the three teams that form a Republic of Shyluz Infantry Squad.

The Scout Team, a pair of Veteran soldiers who had completed the Shyluz Ranger course, were the foremost element. The moved into town, unable to spot any of the hidden defenders.

On the right flank, the Gun group (based around the MG3) moves into an overwatch position to cover the rest of the village.

The main group, including the NCO, radio operator (required due to the outdated comms equipment the squad use), Light AT weapon team and combat lifesaver, started moving down the main road into town. Pictured here taking a pause before the advance.

Against them, the PMC force was comprised of 7 operators (a mix of Elite and Veterans). Four of them were armed with assault rifles, the machine gunner with a PKM and the team leader with a P90 SMG. The final member was an elite sniper, hidden under camo netting. All of them had body armour and several grenades each (which will come into use).

To lay an ambush, a team based around the machine gunner took up a hidden position on a compound roof, while the commander lead a three man team hidden in the marketplace. Overwatching both, the sniper took up position in the main compound. All of them started off as hidden, giving a pretty useful -75% to being spotted by the opposing force. They also had three claymore mines, hidden among six possible locations. These were treated as a hand grenade but only in one direction, set off after a demolitions check.

For the first few phases of the game, the Operators held their fire, waiting for opposition to get closer. The Scout team, despite having Gone Firm (the replacement for being prone) are quickly spotted by their sniper thanks to their impressive Spotting skill. Additionally, the operators are sharing information between each other, helping the others to spot targets.

The main Shyluz force is slow to move off, partially due to being lulled into false sense of security by the lack of contact. Or maybe it’s the squad leader trying to get orders through the limited radio network thats being hampered by the surrounding hills.

On the right, the base of fire team moved into their covering position, blissfully unaware of the possible danger in front of them. Again, the PMC team wait to open fire, instead spotting and reporting positions to the rest of the team.

Despite the NCO and radioman holding position to get orders from command, the rest of the team moved up to the field edge and went to ground.

These crop fields took advantage of the new cover rules – obstacles fall into three categories: Concealment, Cover and Buildings. For these troopers, the fields are concealment – good at blocking line of sight, bad at stopping bullets. A nice simplification that rapidly sped up playing the game.

Meanwhile in the square, the squad leader continued to hide while slowly cranking out Tempo points for the squad, passing out commands and keeping the squad updated as to the attackers movements.

Tempo is a brand new mechanic that both myself and my Dastardly Regular Opponent found REALLY changed how the game played. Tempo points represent a soldier understanding the flow of the battle and being able to push ahead. They can be gained through either command actions (assuming you are a character with that skill) or lucky rolls, and then can be spent to do actions that modify the usual flow of the game, such as interupting enemy actions, reacting to coming under fire in ways other than “hitting the deck” or even adding an additional action point for when you really need to move.

Speaking of which…

The NCO managed to lag behind the rest of the squad, keeping an eye on the village. While sprinting towards cover, the enemy sniper called an interrupt and sent a round downrange. A successful hit (elevated position, target in the open and using two AP to focus easily overcoming the penalty for targeting a moving target) only saved by the NCO’s body armour roll being especially lucky.

As an aside, the body armour and overall damage was perhaps a little bit swingy. Maybe not enough to cause a problem or ruin the game and it’s easy enough to rationalise it (sometimes the hit might be more of splinters or ricochets or maybe it just slams into the armour).

The next stage of the PMC ambush was for the group in the centre to prepare to fire. First up was someone attempting to spot a target when… A Fumble was rolled. Much like in V1, fumbles occur when you roll a “00-0” on the D100 and can lead to some bad things. They have changed since the first version, now giving the possibility of draining your Tempo, losing track of your spotted targets… or making yourself exposed for someone else to spot.

Obviously the movement of the PMC in the town centre drew just the wrong sort of attention. Naturally I selected him to be spotted by the machine gunner in the Base of Fire Team, already set up in a perfect flanking position. However, part of me was aware that I’d have to wait a little bit before actually being able to drop that 2″ burst of MG fire.

At a similar time, just as the fireworks kicked off, I decided to push my scout team up to the buildings. They would not be aware of the enemy forces above them, their spotting being unable to work out what the noise coming from above them was. Behind them, one of the Base of Fire team also attempted to spot but failed.

At this stage I unfortunately had a minor issue – all of the activations coming up were for the PMC force. And worse, my Dastardly Opponent was all ready to use them. First action?

Flipping over the claymore marker and rolling to detonate…

It went off successfully, the mine slinging a torrent of ball bearings at the two soldiers within the blast radius. Not even the protection of the rocks was able to reduce the damage to a manageable level. The Machine Gunner was killed outright, while the loader took enough points to permanently pin him, effectively taking him out of action.

The next thunderous explosion was a PMC operator posting a frag grenade off the room and into the scouts below. This time there was no cover to reduce the damage and again, both operators were severely injured.

This of course was made worse when the next PMC decided to finish the job with another frag grenade. This finished off both scouts, the deadly amount of damage (3d10 inside the kill zone) easily overcoming the armour protection.

Overall, this flank was starting to look like a nightmare. Two thirds of the total number of troops on that side taken out, leaving only the team leader and a rifleman still in action.

However, the fight wasn’t over yet. Despite some small arms injuries from the PMC machine gun, the team leader was able to slide into cover next to his subordinate and hand him a frag granade. The rifleman then activated, winding his arm up to fling the bomb…

And Nailing the guys on the roof with it. One PMC operator was taken out immediately, while the others all took damage and suppression from flying debris.

On the opposing flank, having spotted the gunfire from the elevated positions, the main team decided to attempt to flank around the compounds. Interestingly at this point they were unaware of the group still in them market.

Until they managed to work out a good flank onto the hidden bad guys. Looking through the gap behind the buildings, the pair of riflemen were able to spot the hidden enmies and start putting shots down, although none managed to cause damage.

In response to the advanacing enemies, the sniper fired a final shot down the road at the edge of the field and then relocated to cover the rear. Getting an additional AP via tempo points, the sniper went firm in cover, giving them a little more survivability.

Meanwhile, the Shyluz Infantry started moving up a little closer, working their way around the field to avoid being cut down by the machine gun fire. It should be noted that the NCO of the team lagged behind a touch, using most of his actions to attempt to get more tempo and interrupt some of the enemy movement. However, this was not as successful as the Elite PMC Commander, and much of the dice rolling was unsuccessful.

Unfortunately I managed to miss out on getting a photo of the action but the Infantry ran into a major issue when the PMC operators pulled out frag grenades and lobbed them over the cover. There was less immediate KIAs than on the other flank, but it was definitely spreading the suppression and wounds around.

At this point, the PMC team realised they could slowly start peeling out, having delivered a pretty destructive ambush on the pursuing force. The machine gun team on the building moved first, with one of the riflemen picking up the body of his teammate. The small group left the back door and kept moving.

However, their retreat left an opening on the right flank, meaning the two remaining members of the Base of Fire team could move up. The team leader reached the edge of the wall and fired a few shots at the retreating team in the marketplace, who had managed to disengage behind the thunderous explosions. However, being injured meant most of the shots whistled overhead.

Of course, shooting off the rifle caught the attention of the PMC Machine Gunner who managed to spot and then shoot through the field. The rounds shredded the foliage, removing the Shyluz team leader from play.

With a smoke grenade popped and most of the pursing force pinned down, the only obstacle between them and escaping was the enemy Radio operator, who had managed to find a gap in cover that neither the PMC riflemen or the sniper could engage. It was of course at this stage that the Dastardly Regular Opponent decided to try out the CQB rules. A quick combat move, a very high CQB skill + sidearm and the radio operator was in the dust.

With the entire Shyluz infantry squad in various stages of out of action, the International Janissaries managed to break contact and escape into the wild forest that covers the border between Shyluz and the Emirate of Bazistan. They had taken casualties and injuries but managed to get everyone out and to safety.

Overall, it was a really fun game to sit down and play. The new version of Skirmish Sangin keeps a lot of the stuff I loved from the original, slims down a lots of the bulk in the older systems and then adds some new twists.

In addition to the ingame tweaks I am also a big fan of the new character creation process. By breaking the link between activation order and skill level, you can now have much more varied soldier types at the different levels. Additionally, each character is built from a template, giving you some preset to values to then adjust to give them the specific feel. Building the two sides took a fraction of the time it used to.

In terms of the game, we both had a really good time, quickly getting back into the swing of it. I’m already planning out a new scenario in the setting, looking at some other operations in the ChargeReal. Maybe over the border in Emirate of Bazistan. There are a few little things I think I need to prep before next time – the character sheets have a lot going on on them (wounds, tempo and suppression especially) that need to be tracked during the game. I’m think of using some pins on a backing board so I can move them back and forth. But expect more games soon!

If you want more information on what’s going on, as well as the story so far, don’t forget to read the introduction page.

Scene 1 – Forest Clearing. Alistair Von Ferrumgard, leader of this band of Swordmasters watches stoically as his pupils form up in two groups of two and prepare for a mock duel

Introducing a player to a new game is tricky. You usually have to find a good scenario that is interesting yet not overwhelming, showing the game off without deluging them in details. Luckily, Open Combat is simple yet interesting enough that you can easily play it on a flat barren plain but see the ins and out of the combat system, enjoying the movement back and forth that comes from rolling a lot of 3’s and 4’s.

The Sister took the pair of Jochman and O’Dicca (who secretly are the main characters but don’t tell anyone), while I took the less teamwork focused (and less heroic) pair of Wolfgang and Zorros. All of them, as well as their master, use the Swashbuckler profile from the Sword Masters expansion to Open Combat, giving a pretty reasonable statline with a few of the special tricks that expansion added such as Lunging and Riposting (as you’d expect from a sword fighting expert). To add some variation, I tweaked each of the statlines for the heroes to play into the rough character archetypes I had scrawled down for them. Alaistair is the Old Leader (slower movement and increased mind to improve his use of Inspire), O’Dicca the Brash Youngster (increased attack), Jochman the Stotic Ally (increased fortitude) and Zorros as the the Cocky Bastard (increased mind to make him better at taunting opponents as well as some items to better suit the model).

Wolfgang did not receive any such additions – he is a mere swashbuckler. Take from that what you will.

One part of playing to tell a cool story rather than playing just to win is trying to play how best to suit the characters. I started off by not using Wolfgang and Zorros as a team – Zorros is more likely to push his junior assistant forward and wait for the moment to strike. Instead, I attempted to drag Jochman out of position, using the Taunt skill (which pulls a target model towards the character. Jochman however has no time for such childish behaviour.

Remember what I mentioned above about playing narratively? Well my sister managed to use her pair of characters exceptionally well. Despite Wolfgang getting up in both of their faces, the back and forth of Push Backs and Impasses went in her the pair’s favour. Eventually, Jochman was able to hold Wolfgang long enough for O’Dicca to flank around an deliver a strike from the rear arc, taking advantage of the massive reduction in character defence included in the Open Combat rules.

However, despite outflanking Wolfgang, it did not stop Lacele in turn being attacked from the rear (a move befitting a slippery character such as Zorros). In fact, he was able to land two good attacks, definitely a danger when you only have a fortitude of 4. Open Combat actually lets you land multiple hits depending on how many dice match the target result, so having a character with high ATK means you might end up with a maximum of 6 damage per turn (assuming you roll perfectly).

O’Dicca was easily able to turn around and fight back against her attacker (you can already hear the witty dialogue between the pair of them) using a combination of knock backs followed by lunges. Lunge is an interesting move in Open Combat, letting you attack with your speed rather than your attack state as well as giving you the ability to attack from 1″ away. The downside, rolling a 1 means you end up stepping into the fray, a mistimed lunge leaving you vulnerable. Rolling a 1 also means that you lose the initiative, leaving other characters on you team without an activation and at the mercy of your opponent.

Inevitable, with the fall of Wolfgang letting the pair gang up on Zorros, he soon lost the last of his Fortitude and the mock battle was over. Not even the use of his fine hat or cloak as a distraction would save him.

A good intro to the rules, as well as a fine start to the story of this group. The ruleset was really easy to teach a new player, with only a few core fundamentals to learn so you can focus on the actual gameplay. We forgot a few of the minor abilities (only remembering them part way through) but overall a success.

In the next game, I’ll be taking control of the bad guys, letting The Sister take control of the entire party and taking the first steps into The Estate of Vorpass!

An advantage of moving back to Leeds was bringing me closer to friends and family which brings with it the advantage that I have a much wider base of people to see and play games with. One of which is my Sister, who runs her own blog covering her hobbies. She is not really a wargamer, having only had the classic experience of being dragged through a game of Warhammer or two and collecting a few of the old Bretonnian figures. However, she is a keen board gamer and a fan of all things fantasy.

One day last year while we were hanging out (thanks to me being a single-person household I was able to bubble with family), she expressed an interest in giving my hobby a go. And as you might have seen, I have been lacking in wargames in the last 18 months. Because of this, the idea of running a game ever two weeks sounded pretty damn great.

However, the eternal question is what to play?

After a few weekends of thinking about it, as well as watching some classic swashbuckling films and trying out a ruleset, we finally decided we’d play some Fantasy skirmish (and not just due to the pile of models I’ve been collecting for it).

Part of this was also down to the rules – Open Combat is a system with plenty of potential for including a whole variety of troops (everything from hordes of rats up to large beasts), easy to expand with a collection of house rules and most importantly – it was simple. There isn’t 101 moving parts that need to be pulled together, there isn’t a host of cards that each player must learn. Instead, all you need is a few D6s, a few models, a small board and the 1 page quick reference guide.

The other part was down to the story telling element of wargaming. Neither my sister and I are rushing into games for the competitive side – it’s much more interesting to use them as ways of creating an exciting plot. For this reason, we both got especially excited about the idea of using our games as the starting point for content for both our websites – I’d be writing the game focused side (as well as detailing the scenarios) while The Sister on her blog (https://wolfishwritten.wordpress.com/) will provide the ongoing narrative written in universe.

However, we’d need a setting. And luckily I had one in mind…

The Setting

(map coming soon)

Midgard is a fantasy setting that I’ve been writing over the past few years as an excuse to let me use all the wonderful fantasy figures out there. It is a setting that contains elements of many other fantasy settings (such as the Old World from Warhammer, the Continent of the Witcher, Westeros, etc). At some point, I’ll write more about it but it’s a merging of low fantasy mud and grime while still containing elements of high fantasy and legends (such as encountering gods and there being other races without going too hard on the “humans are big racists”).

The main characters of the story so far are a group of the Swordmasters. These are the key agents of the main ruler in the world of Midgard, The Empress. At her command, they crisscross the realm to solve issues and protect her rule. It’s best to describe them as diplomats, spies and assassins all rolled into one, occupying the same slot as famous characters such as the Musketeers of the Guard in The Three Musketeers.

Going forward, we may encounter other groups working through the empire. There are a wide number of groups that go about their trade throughout the Imperial Lands and it’s kingdoms and into the unclaimed Marches, from the usual Mercenaries and Templars to Vampire Knights, Garou Scouts and Elven monks from secret temples hidden away where the average citizen would not expect to find them.

The Episodes

Of course, you can have all the setting you want but there must be a story within them. When writing the campaign, I’ve worked out that I want it to feel a bit like a premium TV show crossed with a little bit of the feel of the old Sharpe TV Movies. Each episode will contain a number of a scenarios (often using similar or the same terrain) while the actual plotlines may cross over between episodes, assuming the required dramatic cliffhanger is reached.

The Core cast will naturally move between Episodes and storylines (as well as having some bonuses to keep them around for longer), but you will see other characters join in for a few battles depending on how the fates go. Depending on how long we play, certain reoccurring characters might crop up, for good or for ill.

Prologue

In the Prologue, a group of the Empress’s Swordmasters went up against some death cultists that had captured a member of the Siccarian Nobility.

Episode 1: The Estate of Vorpass

In Episode 1, the group of Swordmasters headed out into the Marches (accompanied by another trainee) on a brand new quest:

– Game 1 saw an intro game, explaining the basics of Open Combat in the form of a training fight.

– Game 2 took them to the ruins of the Estate of Vorpass, where they came upon a servant of the Emperess in distress. (Link coming soon)

– Game 3 followed up on the events of Game 2, the party being ambushed as they prepared for a trip into the vaults of the Vorpass Estate. (Link coming soon)

The account of this episode from the scribes of the Swordmasters can be found at Wolfish Written

Episode 2 continues the adventures at the Estate of Vorpass.

COMING SOON

– ???

– ???

– ???

Well it’s been quite a while – I started talking about Fantasy Skirmish way back in August 2018, with the purchase of Open Combat and the Frostgrave sprue. Fast forward almost 3 years and I FINALLY have put some fantasty figures on the table and played a game of them using Open Combat by Second Thunder

The idea behind this game was something a little simple, to get myself and my Dastardly Regular Opponent up to speed with the system and have fun over a couple of hours on a sunny day. Combine this with the Sword Masters expansion sitting on my desk and having been planning some Swashbuckling games with The Sister to introduce her to wargaming, well it was time to actually play something. And for the first time since September, actually rolling dice against someone else!

As you can see from the handy paper prepared by a friend of mine, The Swordmasters of the Empire (think a combination of diplomat, spy and assassin) have been sent off into the wilds to hunt down a group of cultists that have captured a nobleman from one of the Empire’s client states. These Cultists are from a group worshipping the undead, seeking to summon various undead creatures to go forward and attack the Empire itself.

The team of Swordmasters have managed to catch up with the Cultists just as they prepare their ritual to summon a Shadow Knight from behind the curtain of unlife. The ruined Chapel amongst the trees is a suitable place for such a ritual, and the cultists have gathered in numbers.

Here we have our group of Swordmaster, their horses left further up the road for purposes of sneaking up on their opponents. All of them were made using the Swashbucklers profile in the Sword Masters addon book, but I tweaked each to fit their characters better with a profile adjustment and a new ability.

From left to right

• Benfrey Jochman – The oldest of the three Initiates into the ways of being a Swordmaster. He’s the tankiest of the three, used to taking hits in a bar brawl.
• Alastair von Ferrumgard – One of the leaders of the Swordsmasters, an inspiring Tutor to the Juinior initiates. He has trained the other three and, although age has slowed him, he is still able to inspire his students.
• Lacelle O’Dicca – A rising star within the Swordmaster, Lacelle has proven herself to be deadly with the blade and quick on her feet.
• Zorros Colvieri – The son of another Swordmaster, Zorros is… an asshole. Delighting in taunting his rivals, he also wears a suitable extravagant hat and cloak (and yes, these are items in the rule set).

All of them also have sword fighting skills like Lunge, Parry and Riposte which lets them do all sorts of things you’d expect from a group of heroes ala The Musketeers.

Zorros start off the plan by doing what he does best – distracting the enemy by making a lot of noise and standing out in the open, Taunting his opponent to lure them out of positions. However, as good as his skills were, the cultists were still wary.

Of course, Zorros hadn’t expected one of the cultists to step forward and pull his hood back to reveal a grinning skull! Turns out the cultists already had two undead servants, able to Intimidate our heroes to reduce their courage. This reveal may have shocked Zorros for a moment but he quickly continued his part of the plan, calling out the cultists and luring the guardians towards him.

Meanwhile, the other Swordmasters crept into position nearby, ready to sneak into try and disturb the ritual.

Of course, the Swordmasters hadn’t expect the cultists to have brought bows with them. As Zorros continued to heckle the guardians closer, one of the archers pulled his bow string and let loose. The arrow struck home, wounding the flamboyant Swordmaster.

Who responded by leaping upon the nearest piece of cover, insulting the cultists and dragging them closer to him.

Eager for the fight, the cultists joined in.

On the other side, Lacelle crept forward, planning to outflank the archers. However, the other skeleton warrior spotted her, revealing his frightening facade to her and causing a sense of dread in her. No one had mentioned there would be skeletons!

Despite their personal difference, Jochman considers it unwise to leave Zorros alone, and so creeps into position.

Pushing past her fear, and leaving Alastair to deal with the Skeleton, Lacelle instead climbed the wall, preparing to sneak up on one of the archers too focused on their ally.

Speaking of which, Jochman decided to take a more direct approach to assist Zorros. While the fight stood atop the barrels lunging forward to land strikes on his opponents, Jochman came barrelling in, trapping the Cultist Guardian between his and Zorro’s assaults

(Rules note: Landing a solid hit pushes a figure backwards, but if they can’t actually move the full distance they take an extra wound)

Very quickly, the skill of the two fighters took out the first of the cultists.

With a shout, Lavelle also managed to land a solid hit. As well as stabbing the archer, the battle pushed him off the top of the ruins and, with a cry, he fell to the floor, sustain almost enough damage to kill him. Almost.

While his younger colleagues got into the main fight, Alastair squared up against the skeleton… and entered into a multi-turn duel that had them moving back and forth like it was a fencing match.

With a cry, Zorros lept down from his cover and quickly finished off the other skeleton with a fancy set of sword fighting moves that pulled the undead creature apart.

In contrast, Jochman simply took a single strike to bring down his foe, before turning to hunt down a new target.

One of the archers, having just recovered from a fall off the ruins and starting to dust himself off, was surprised to see a very angry Swordmaster in black sprinting across the field towards him.

Meanwhile, Lacelle, seeing that the ritual was reaching a high point, decided that enough was enough and now was the time for drastic action. Running to the edge of the ruins, she dived towards to the Cult Leader…

Failed. Terribly. Landing short, she managed to attract the attention of the cult leader who turned around and, as all swashbuckling films tell us villains do, began to monologue.

Alastair, after several turns of back and forth with his skeletal rival, finally managed to land a killing blow.

Meanwhile, filled with revenge for the arrow that pierced his cloak, Zorros proceeded to run towards the archer. Sadly, an attempt to throw his hat (to distract the archer) ended with it fluttering gently towards the ground.

At the same time, Jochman also finished off the downed archer, knocking him down with a shoulder charge before rushing past to….

Come to the aid of Lacelle! Jochman interrupted the crazed rambling of the cult leader, giving time for O’Dicca to quickly recover and leap to her feet.

Now outnumbered, and with Alastair joining the fight too, the Cult Leader did the only thing sensible. Turning around to the captive and finishing the ritual, he slayed the Siccarian noble.

With a terrifying hiss and a sudden fog, the crumpled corpse of the nobleman was replaced with a Shadow Knight, a terrifying creature of undead bones and metal. With more attack, defence and fortitude than any other figures on the board, this would be a challenge.

Now, what the cult leader hadn’t realised it that Shadow Knight obeys no masters. So, when he attempted to order it around, it instead went and knocked a chunk out of his fortitude.

Facing such a betrayal, and unwilling to hang around to see who won between the Swordmasters and the horrible creature, he instead managed to disengage and flee the battlefield. Perhaps we’ll see him again?

Back in the centre of the battlefield, the three Swordmasters now engaged the horror from beyond space and time. Despite losing some mind to the Intimation of a such a monster, and wounds from it’s sweeping sword strikes, the Swordmasters managed to get in a good few hits…

And eventually, with one final rasping hiss, the Shadow Knight was defeated!

With only one model left, Zorros decided to end the battle with a final taunt. Finally, after a game of partial successes, he managed to fully succeed drawing the evil archer forward. In his rage, he failed to see that the platform ended where he stepped, leaving him to fall down and lose his final point of fortitude.

Well that was a pretty awesome game! I think Open Combat is a really great little system – it’s a quite simple core setup, using only D6s with a very small number of modifiers. In terms of play, it’s light enough that you can pick it up quickly but not too light that it feels simply like an excuse to roll dice with a beer or two – there are still plenty of tactical challenges and actions to consider. There is also so much you can play around with in the system, making it perfect for setting up a wide variety of characters to play around with, with various abilities, skills and weapons to let you create anything, especially with the Sword Masters add-on to include that final few touches.

You will be seeing a lot more of Open Combat in the future. I still want to try out Warcry properly (as well as other games) but Open Combat has (after this first game) definitely fit the niche I was want of some rules sit behind the narrative I’m wanting to write with my games. Not sure when the next game I play will be, but you’ll know for sure when it goes up!

Well… it’s been a while since I last did these. Like literally 18 months (18 months and 19 days to be exact) since the last time I planned, wrote and played an Ultramodern game set in Bazistan. A lot has happened in that time – “losing my cool” during that last game was the sign of something a little worse, I move 200 miles south and then we got stuck inside for almost a year.

But now? Well, I had the hankering to roll a dice or two. So why not take a step back to the fictional nation of Bazistan and carry on the story.

Background

It has been almost two years since the events that lead to the capture of Captain Amari of the AESA by elements of the Bazi Interior forces on the outskirts of Bazi City (see The House on the Corner). Alongside her and two of her Adenese colleagues, the capture of SAS Trooper Robert Chalk proved to be a political bomb, leading to the resignation of the Minister of Defence and (among other things), the collapse of the British government at the time. 

After being paraded on Bazi Television as spies, Amari, Chalk and others have been disappeared into a series of Military Prisons that the Bazi regime maintains. Bazistan has refused to return any of the prisoners while they are still alive. In the past year, the bodies of the two other AESA agents have been returned to the Republic of Aden’s government but there has been no sign of Amari or Chalk.

At the same time, counter-government forces in Bazistan have shifted to small scale open combat, especially around the second city of Alriyah. As the combat has increased in intensity, Bazi security forces have begun extracting important assets from the region. This has included the last two prisoners held in a secret prison. Thanks to dissidents in the Alriyah Police, British and Aden governments have been told that these prisoners are Captain Amari and Trooper Chalk.

In case you didn’t know, my games are set in an alternative universe where Yemen is actually split into two nations – the West leaning Aden and the monarchy ruled Bazistan (you can find. If you want more ways to tell it’s a fictional universe, the fact a scandal involving the parading of a British operative on TV actually causes the British Government to collapse.

Also yep, it’s time for a time skip. Last time the country was definitely at the tipping point but not quite into open warfare, mostly because most of the games I was playing were much more focused on small scale sneaky stuff or gradual skirmishing in the hills between Aden and Bazistan. This was mostly due to how my collection was themed, with larger forces not really existing.

Bazistan now, however, is in the early stages of collapse, mainly because having checked through my collection I realise I have plenty of figures that would be suitable for a larger set of games, possibly using Ultramodern or Chain of Command. With this larger size, it was time to turn the heat up a touch. Hopefully, we’ll be breaking out a few more insurgents and platoons of infantry to get into the fight.

Mission Briefing

UK Special Forces Command has drafted up a recovery plan. Taking advantage of the current insurrection taking place in Bazistan, UKSF has managed to infiltrate a small number of SAS operative into the region. As well as assisting the opposition forces, these SAS operatives have been on standby to attempt a rescue operation when Chalk and Amari were located.

Chalk and Amari are being extracted in a pair of Interior Ministry SUVs, accompanied by humvees belonging to Bazi Special Forces and regular Bazi Army forces. The convoy will be escorted by a Mi-35 Hind gunship. However, due to the current security situation, the gunship will only join the convoy once they have cleared the outskirts of the city.

This leaves a window of opportunity for the SAS to take advantage of. The element has discovered a possible ambush site in one of the city’s suburbs along the vehicle’s exit route. The goal will be to strike the convoy, recover the two passengers and then exfil the target area before any back up arrives.

I gave my Dastardly Regular Opponent the option to decide exactly how the SAS would recover the two targets and he chose a vehicle interdiction (the other option being a prison break). After a little bit of setup, and remembering the ramming rules in Spectre operations, it was time to break out the uprated vehicles and commit a traffic accident.

Forces

BLUFOR (the SAS) are rolling with a pretty stocked team of operators (as you’d expect for them planning an operation). The Ambush team (dressed in the desert robes) comprised of six Elite operators, armed with a mix of Carbines, suppressed MP7s and a combat shotgun. Knowing they would be up against vehicles and needing rapid armour penetration, the Carbines and shotgunner decided to use Armour Piercing ammo.

The BLUFOR support team of five Elite operators would take up overwatch positions. The key elements to this would be a heavy sniper rifle and medium machine gun (with an assistant), both set up on rooftops to create a killzone. For additional support, the team also has a medical specialist (to make sure the recovered objectives can be treated) as well as a UAV co-ordinator for overwatch. He also has access to a loitering glide munition just in case they need to blow the crap out of something. The team is definitely lacking in AT weapons, so having a contingency may be handy.

Finally were the BLUFOR vehicles. To create the traffic block, the shotgunner of the Ambush team would be driving an uprated civilian pickup, with improved engine and brakes, as well as a toughened front end (counting as a bullbar in the Spectre Operations rules). The extraction vehicle would be a white minivan, which would take the core team away quickly while the rest moved offboard to nearby transport.

On the other side, OPFOR were split into several groups. The main force was a convoy, comprised of two light humvees and two unarmoured SUVs. Both Humvees are armed with HMGs, but differ in their crew – the lead vehicle with Trained Bazi Army forces (with Assault Rifles and a MMG) while the rear vehicle was crewed by the Professional Bazi Special Forces.

Each SUV has four occupants – a hostage (either Chalk or Amari), a professional Operative from the Bazi Interior Ministry, a Professional Bazi Special Forces Operator and a Trained Bazi Army driver.

If the convoy runs into trouble, there are three tiers of response. The lowest level is a pair of Bazistan police in a civilian vehicle. These two are only militia fighters, but do come with G3 battle rifles stored in the car. The next level is a Bazi Army technical with four Bazi Army soldiers that is waiting to link up with the convoy. If it’s late, they will come looking for their objective. And if the SAS really cocks it up, well then a BTR-80a is following the convoy as a rearguard, complete with a squad of Bazi Republican guard.

SOP for the Bazi Army is to attempt to escape any ambush by pushing through. If held in place, the Bazi Interior Ministry operatives are ordered to eliminate the hostages. However, due to the situation in the Bazi government, not all Interior Ministry operatives are as loyal as they should be. A command roll may be required to see if their will holds…

Play-by-Play

We begin with the Bazi convoy speeding through the suburbs of Alriyah, bumping through the empty streets as the distant sound of gunfire fills the air, the sound of the dissidents being crushed by the Bazi Army.

The convoy keeps close together, turret gunners rotating left and right to cover the rooftops.

In a side street, the driver of a heavily armoured pickup truck pulls the shemagh over his face as the British voice in his ear counts down. “5… 4… 3… 2…”

Before the driver of the lead humvee can respond, the roar of a high powered engine fills the air, followed by a sickening “CRONCH” of metal on metal.

The impact of the armoured front onto the humvee knocks it off the road, the driver jarred by the impact until they slam into the jersey barrier at the side of the road. With a hiss, the engine stops working as the crew slump forward in their seats.

In contrast, the driver of the vehicle shrugs off the impact, pulls the Origin 12 shotgun off the dashboard and climbs out, leveling at the oncoming SUV.

With this impact, the rest of the SF operators appear out of cover. Covering the killzone, the marksman shifts his Heavy Sniper Rifle into position.

On another rooftop, the rest of the Overwatch team also setup, the MMG resting on the cover as his asistant prepares the belt.

Additionally, the rest of the Ambush team move out of the nearby buildings, taking up positions in cover to aim at the oncoming vehicles.

At the same time, two final Ambush operators move into cover beside an abandoned vehuicle and open up on the rear humvee with Armour Piercing rounds. These rounds shred the vehicle causing a mobility kill and killing the driver and gunner,

The Medium Machine gunner then opens up on the damaged lead humvee, the heavy 7.62mm rounds shredding the light armour and bouncing around the interior. Both the driver and passenger go down, taking the Bazi Army squad leader out of commission.

The first SUV continues driving attempting to smash through the now immobilised vehicles, the radio screaming “PUSH PUSH PUSH”. The SUV however is not an upgraded vehicle. It slams and comes to a halt, the engine softly smoking.

Before anyone in the car can react, the SAS shotgunner (having just moved out of the road as the SUV kept coming) runs up to the front passenger window, levels the shotgun at them and fills the front seats with multiple slugs, killing the driver instantly.

The other SUV decides to risk going off road and turns off into the desert. As it hits a divot in the ground, it bounces slightly.

Seeing the gunfight starting, and not wanting to be trapped in a light humvee against an opposition with serious firepower, the Bazi Army regulars disembark from the lead vehicle and into cover.

The cover however is not good enough. The MMG gunner shifts fire and hammers another burst, taking down the two regulars.

At the rear of the convoy, the two remaining Bazi SF guys manage to pull themselves out of the vehicle, taking cover behind the vehicle while frantically calling for reinforcements.

However, a few moments later the heavy sniper rifle hammers and takes out the Bazi SF trooper, leaving only the team leader alive.

SUV 2, unable to take the corner fully to escape, slams into the building, resulting in a mobility kill and knocking the crew out for a moment. However, in SUV 1, the survivors have disembarked. Their ears ringing, the Bazi SF trooper and Interior Ministry start trying to get the SAS to back off, holding a gun to the female hostage.

The SAS, fully aware of the upper hand they have in the situation, move closer keeping their guns trained on the Bazis.

At the rear of the convoy, the Ambush Team Leader and two members move forward towards where the Bazi SF had gone to ground, ready to take out the survivors

Still stunned, the crew of SUV 2 falls out of the vehicle leaving the male hostage inside. The Bazi Army trooper attempts to engage one of the SAS in the open but is rewarded with a burst of MP7 fire that takes them down.

Into this scene drives… The Police

Luckily a cross map heavy sniper rifle shot hits the civilian vehicle before it can get too close, hitting the engine block before it coasts to a stop.

The policemen dive into cover behind their car, pulling out their battle rifles from the back seat while demanding reinforcements at their location. They attempt to engage the SAS troopers, who are too busy dealing with the last remaining Bazi SF operator.

Coming under (Semi-)accurate battle rifle fire, the operator dealing with the Bazi SF team leader ends up simply smacking him around the face before turning round to deal with the threat.

After managing to suppress them with multiple Rapid Fire bursts from their carbines, the trio began to peel back towards the rest of the team.

Around the two damaged SUVs, the SAS team moved in to clean up.

Taking advantage of maintaining the initiative, the operators managed to move and clean up the bad guys, with a mix of close combat and close-range shooting.

And just in time, as the main Bazi army began to arrive. The technical, pausing at the end of the road start trading MMG fire with the team on the roof.

With the action about to hot up, the Ambush team leader reached into SUV 2 and dragged Trooper Chalk out before hoisting him over his shoulder

Trooper Chalk was reported to have hissed “You took your bloody time didn’t you?”.

And speaking of hotting up, the sound of grumbling engines announced the arrival of a BTR-80A and it’s troops. Heavy armour, an autocannon and a full belly of troops means this is not something to stick around and fight.

With very little able to actually deal with the BTR (and both hostages in their hands), the SAS beat a quick retreat. Bundling the two hostages into the minivan and driving off, the rest of the operators disappearing into the suburbs.

Wrap-Up

So, as you’d hope from a crack team of special forces, they successfully managed to extract the hostages and escape. Elite troops in Spectre Operations are exceedingly effective at their job and, in a situation like this, can rip the enemy apart. By getting the drop on the enemy, they were able to achieve the objectives.

Of course, this does leave them trying to evac a pair of hostages out of a hostile country in the opening stages of armed revolt. Not the simplest task, but it should be possible. On the other hand, the Bazi Army is not going to let themselves be made fools of.

Man, it felt good to be back rolling dice. And as much as I love Skirmish Sangin and all it’s details, Spectre has a lovely level of detail to it while still not requiring quite so much paperwork. It has lots of fun toys to play around with and a simple core that keeps it exciting. I’m looking forward to playing a few more games (even in solo) but hopefully we’ll be back to some multi-player games soon.

Christmas is the time I return home to Leeds. As well as family events, I usually end up using it to encounter my Regular Opponent and get a game of something in. This year, myself and Regular Opponent got invited up North to partake in some Chain of Command, my favourite set of WW2 rules (and one that I dearly wish was still coming to modern-day). With three of us ready to play, we decided to play Big Coc and, in between chuckling, started looking up all the tank rules we had not got round to ever using before.

As the only player who didn’t have a painted army (my Brits still sat waiting for me to get my act together), I took control of one of The Host’s armies. Seeing as the three of us are very interested in Operation Market Garden, The Host decided we’d be working our way up Hell’s Highway and he’d be the one blocking us with “old men and boys” (Translated from Intel: a Panzergrenadier platoon and a Panzer 4 platoon). My Regular Opponent was in charge of the Paras while I would be taking charge of XXX Corps.

While the other two rolled up support choices, I ( Lt. Michael Mather-Charge II of the Grenadier Guards) was presented with a simple force – A Sherman V with Senior Leader, two Sherman V’s with Junior Leaders and a Sherman Vc Firefly with Junior Leader. To provide support, a pair of Universal Carriers transported a section of Motor Infantry.

The other side of the game was the scenario. Rather than simply running a standard setup from the rule book, The Host instead decided to expand and make it a little more interesting. Each player received a different briefing, meaning that myself and My Regular Opponent actually had different goals despite being on the same team. Worse, we actually had different information as well, with our maps having different key locations on them.

Put simply, my goal was to capture the central plaza of Elst, before pushing north to continue on the road to Arnhem. However, I couldn’t actually get onto the board until the Paras had captured a foothold in the town referred to as HIGH TOP. Until they popped smoke, I was forced to sit on the sidelines (with my CO making sure I didn’t try any funny business). If I gained enough COC dice through lucky dice rolls, I could start off early – this task would be made easier if enemy armour was spotted from my Jumping Off Position or enemy infantry started to advance on the bridge.

Here we have the town of Elst, as it was established on our arrival at Our Host’s residence. Shown here is the bulk of the village, the bridge in the south and the road to Arnhem in the north.

As well as the road signs, this image captures three vital locations – the tall building known as HIGH TOP on the left, the leafy town plaza I was ordered to secure and the local town hall, which the German would have inevitably fortified.

The view from the bridge shows XXX Corps route of arrival. On the left, the first house in that row is also the bridge control building – it would be vital to secure this to prevent the Germans from cutting off the main advance.

Patrol Phase

Before the Patrol Phase had actually begun, The Host showed off his wonderful patrol markers, detailed with kettenkrads and scouts.

As the rest of the XXX Corps boys wait for the signal, a lone rifleman sneaks forward to spot the Germans moving into location.

Sadly, I failed to capture the useful photos of how the patrol phase actually went. The Para’s were able to get their markers relatively far forward, but the Germans stormed across the plaza and lockdown was achieved relatively quickly. German JOPs ran from the comms hut in the north down to the plaza, while the Paras managed to get one very close to HIGHTOP target building.

Combat

The Allies grabbed the first action… and thus began my dice rolling/waiting. However, the Paras were much faster. The third sections deployed into the roof of the northern farmhouse, setting up their pair of brens and marksman team.

In the Windmill, an Airborne sniper gently opened up the shutters and set up, his scope covering the road outside the church.

The other two sections of the Platoon also deployed and began their advance onto the objectives. The section at HIGHTOP moved relatively quickly, getting into the small back garden while the Bridge section moved through the cover alongside the road.

And not a moment too soon as the ripping paper sound of dual MG42s announced the arrival of a PanzerGren squad in the inn beside the bridge.

As the rifle team advanced, the MG team (pausing to cover 1st Section’s advance on the objective HIGHTOP) suddenly found itself under inaccurate light mortar fire.

Yep, the Germans had turned up with the 5cm mortar, digging in close to the church.

At this point, there was some discussion of how annoying it is the German mortar doesn’t come with smoke. My Regular Opponent is a big fan dropping all the smoke hey possibly can, influenced no doubt by the events of our first game of Spectre.

The Germans had snatched a double turn and immediately took advantage of it, opening up another hail of MG fire that put shock down Paras, forcing them to hit the dirt even while trying to move tactically.

The team at HIGHTOP also noticed more Germans advancing out of the Town Hall and again started wondering who thought this lot counted as “old men and boys”

The Paras also spotted a German officer come racing out of the Town Hall. This was Hans von Gruber, recently arrived leader of a new Kampfgruppe. Although not able to activate other units (the veterans are not going to listen to this unknown officer who showed up), his survival was a German objective.

And as a way of supporting that objective, the Panzer 4 platoon sprung into life, deploying the platoon leader and one of the other tanks onto the board. Despite the Paras reporting their arrival over the radio, a lack of line of sight to my JOP at the bridge meant we couldn’t deploy just yet, despite the rumble echoing between the buildings.

However, the tanks immediately got to work, hammering main gun rounds into the British secured farmhouse. The Paras didn’t take any damage, simply hitting the deck and waiting for the enemy gunners to realise they were just increasing the airflow rather than causing damage.

Meanwhile, at HIGHTOP, the Paras finally burst into the objective (vaulting through a downstairs window. At this point, the Airborne realised they would need to pop smoke from the top floor window and just how many stars would need to be climbed.

Of course, the plight of the Paras wasn’t helped as a burst of fire shredding the windows announced the setup of a tripod-mounted MG42 in the building across the square.

Of course, the MG wasn’t the only thing attempting to slow them down. As the team of elite soldiers pounded up the stairs, an explosion from the main gun managed to cut down two Paras. However, the section kept pushing, eventually reaching the top floor.

Not part of the action, just a good image of My Regular Opponent’s bugler in a pumpkin patch. Perhaps telling XXX Corps to stand ready?

The Panzer IV Platoon Leader decided now was the time to roll forward and continue engaging the Paras sat in the farmhouse.

The Germans continued to move forward, the camouflaged Panzer IV moving out to allow one of its comrades to join them in the AO. Additionally, Hans von Gruber’s staff car arrived, disembarking another squad of Panzer Grenadiers and allow the senior commander to prepare for this daring escape.

The Tanks Arrive!

Finally, even as the Germans prepared a force to retake HIGHTOP, they finally popped green smoke. Immediately upon seeing it, Galahad (one of my Shermans) was the first one over the bridge, spotting enemies dead ahead and preparing the machine guns.

Close behind Galahad was Arthur, the lead vehicle (and technically my command tank), storming across the bridge and preparing to flank around and meet up with the rest of the Paras. As they drove past the infantry in the row of houses, cries of “took your time didn’t you?” rang out.

Of course, this is where my inexperience with tanks showed up. After unleashing a literal mountain of dice to brass up the squad near the town square, the German player pulled out a CoC dice and shoved a Panzerschrek round up the rear of Galahad, immediately knocking it out.

Even as the first tank across started burning, the rest of my force appeared. Gaiwan (another Sherman V) moved past the burning wreck of its teammate while Lancelot (the Firefly) moved to link up with the command element and prepare to knock out the pile of tanks in the main square.

Additionally, the motor infantry arrived, preparing to support the tanks and secure the inn.

Speaking of killing tanks, the Airborne PIATs claimed the first Allied tank kill, the bomb lazily arching in to destroy a Panzer IV.

Inside HIGHTOP, The Paras began a desperate close-quarters battle. Leaving the Bren team upstairs, the Section Leader and his rifle team bust downstairs to secure the building. Grenades were thrown, killing some of the Germans before closing to contact. The end result? Even as the few remaining Germans fled outside, the only Para survivor was the Junior Leader, staggering back up the stairs covered in dust.

With the battle advancing, the Para Senior Leader hit the board, ready to take control of the Airlanding Section that had joined the assault.

At the northern end of the board, the British Paras attempt to fight across to the comms shack but ends up taking fire from the Panzer IV.

In another shock, the dreaded Ambush popped up again with the second round from the Panzerschreck team carved through the front armour of my command tank. Not only was it entirely knocked out, but the ammo cooked off, putting shock onto the Airlanding teams.

Due to the turn ordering, the Germans managed to box my armoured units in at the Bridge, kicking my Command Dice down a dangerous amount. Worse, the German armour platoon pulled in a Panther. Myself and The Regular Opponent started to get a little concerned…

…Until the Panther’s attempted shortcut through HIGHTOP simply ended up putting it into the cellar (we used a modified version of What A Tanker’s smashing through buildings). Worse, the damage to the building would mean it was about to collapse at the turn end.

And then the turn ended. Meaning the four Paras who had just survived so much now had to dig themselves out of the rubble and fall back.

Cruising past the wreck of their boss’s tank, the crew of Lancelot were ready to get some payback. Spotting a Panzer IV rolling forward, the 17pdr blew the tank to pieces, burning pieces of tank shredding the vegetation around it.

Time was rapidly moving on, and having spent the whole game fighting off the Allies, The Host suddenly remembered his objectives. Hans Von Gruber’s staff car, with the support of the Panzer IV platoon leader, put the pedal to the metal and raced down the board. Brushing off fire like it was nothing (including multiple sniper hits) the halftrack actually reached the very end of the board…

At which point we had to break out the “grenades on open-topped vehicle” rules as the Paras did a last chance rush on the vehicle as it slowed slightly at the gate. Despite one grenade bouncing back and causing shock, the Paras did manage to stop the vehicle in its tracks before dragging Von Gruber out.

After 5 hours of non-stop play/rules checking, we finally called it here. Looking at the various objectives, we decided that the Allies had won a pyrrhic victory – they had prevented Von Gruber from reaching his forces to the north and the bridge was secure but the Germans were still contesting the town plaza, the German Comms broadcast had been uninterrupted and a tank wreck just off the bridge would take some time to actually move it and open the road for the rest of XXX Corps to advance.

Once again, Chain of Command is a great game to play. Even just this one game has got me very excited about playing more, and was the kick in the backside to get a move on with my own platoon of Brits. Going to need some tanks of my own as well – having them in-game was glorious fun but definitely something I’ll have to practise with (and get more infantry co-operation).

So here we go, the direct follow on to the last game.

After the events during the attempted hand over of two Aden citizens, Captain Amari and her rescuing SAS team have fallen back to an Aden External Security Agency (AESA) safehouse on the outskirts of Bazi City. The team has decided to go to ground, waiting for a security gap to allow them to escape back across the southern border.

Meanwhile, the rebel leader has taken the intelligence gained from the captured local fixer and used it to locate the enemy safehouse. Rather than risking his own forces, the leader has instead sold the information to the Internal Security Forces of Bazistan (ISFB). 

After all, when you find a criminal den, you call the police.

The Forces

Limping away from their firefight in the badlands, the forces of the AESA and SAS were limited to a small number of operators. Six Elite operators, mostly using carbines but supported by an LMG would be the main force. Along with the Elite Captain Amari, three other Trained AESA staff members were on-site and armed with assault rifles which would provide some extra guns.

The BLUFOR objectives were to prevent any opposing forces from capturing evidence of illicit activity taking place on Bazi soil by the Aden Government. This would mean holding off the opposing force long enough to destroy the pair of servers holding operations data, demoing the supplies in the garage building and then extracting as much of the personel as possible, including the unarmed civilian AESA station chief.

Prompted by details of the safe house, the Bazi Ministry of the Interior assembled a large force to deal with the security threat. To provide the training core, the Bazi Army hired six Professional Argo Contractors, each armed with modern CQB small arms and grenades, body armour and NVGs. These troops could be parcelled out, either mentoring the lower skill Bazi units or acting as a close-quarters assault force.

And speaking of the Bazi Army, they are providing two units. The elite(ish) Bazi Special Forces would be taking part in the assault. Although only Trained, the 6 man Bazi SF team were equipped with CQB weapon systems. They are also arriving in a Tigr armour vehicle, mounting an MMG (the automatic grenade launcher being banned due to the ROE). A much larger presence was the regular Trained Bazi Army, bringing an 8 man squad in body armour and carrying an MMG and an RPG (just in case). They also arrive on the board in a BTR-80A – despite having its main claws trimmed by the ROE, it can still help the assault through using the armour and its Medium Machine Gun. Finally, a Technical from the Bazi Army would provide MMG support.

OPFOR objectives are simple – capture as much evidence of insidious actions against the Bazi Royal Family and Government taking place on Bazi soil. Ideally, the Interior Ministry would love to have some captives to parade on TV and so capturing the opposing force is a priority.

The Setup

First of all, let’s take an overview of the setup. Taking place in the suburbs of Bazi City, strict ROE is in place regarding the use of explosive weaponry such as the RPGs or autocannons. The mission also takes place at night. (Although this may have been forgotten once the action kicked off)

(As an aside, I really want to get some more of my buildings painted up and ready for play. As much as I like the layout, a few more buildings would have really set the suburban scenes)

The AESA compound in the photo above is located south of the road and focused on the main safehouse, with two other smaller buildings acting as annex’s, including a garage. Several concrete walls and barriers provide cover. On the other side of the road, a multi-level construction as well as several smaller buildings filled with non-combatants.

The Special Forces in the Tigr slowly rumbled down the side road. Pausing only to let three of the team disembark, the vehicle prepared to push on into the main compound. Upfront, an Argo contractor kept an eye on the gentleman in the orange outdoors coat, listed as a possible AESA agent.

On the other side, a technical from the Bazi Army rolls up, MMG swinging to focus on the target building.

Inside the safehouse, the BLUFOR operators were unalert but at risk of a future assault. For this reason, they were checking entrances. Upstairs, the SAS were taking positions at the windows and doors, trying to cover all the angles.

On the ground floor, the AESA statin chief, a SAS operator and Captain Amari were in discussion. Two AESA agents were also on this floor, one in the makeshift server room and the other checking keeping watch.

Events

As the night rolls on, the Bazi Army makes it’s assault.

Three of the Bazi SF operators setup on and then breach into the garage building, the sound of boots on wood echoing through the night. Inside, they find a stockpile of supplies destined for anti-government rebels – in other words, jackpot.

With the sound of vehicles moving the raised voices, the inhabitants inside the building start to setup. Table are flipped, guns checked and made ready to go.

Making a tight turn, the Tigr bursts into the compound, causing the AESA agent to make a break for the annexe. The civilian he was talking to, after adopting a surrendering gesture then attempted to run. Twigged by this movement, the Tigr’s gunner opened up with a burst of fire, dropping a suspect to the dirt. The first casualty had taken place.

The Tigr also ended up being a bit of bullet magnet, with SAS troopers both inside the main building and the annexe engaging it and piling on suppression.

On the other side, a fireteam of the Bazi Army troops were moving alongside the BTR and getting ready to stack up on the back door. However, with a smash, a frag grenade thrown by one of the SAS came flying out, landing in the middle of the attackers and shredding most of the force.

Hearing the gun battle outside rising, Captain Amari snatched thermite grenades off the AESA agents and got to work, placing them on the server racks to destroy the lists of operations inside Bazistan.

At this point, the three man infiltration set of contractors were getting ready to rush the building, sprinting across the road. The squad leader suddenly looked to his left when, with a roar of an engine, the BTR came flying down the road, turning the corner and then…

BOOM

It collided with the building, it’s prow smashing through the wall, the driver’s head coming flying forward and breaking his neck. The rest of the crew and passengers were stunned, leaving the three operators outside to keep pushing.

Inside the room, as the dust settled, the room was a mess. After talking it through, we decided that everyone in the room would be stunned, the cloud of dust and rubble smashing things aside.

On the other side, the Bazi SF split up, starting to assault the two buildings. Unfortunately, they ended up being caught in the cross of the SAS LMG and a riflemen, eliminating the trio on the ground floor.

The PKM gunner, his ears ringing, hit the deck and got ready to open up while his Argo buddy got ready to move up. However, a quick burst of assault rifle fire and the MMG went silent. The contractor hower brought his SMG up and trained it on the window when…

BOOM

A thunderous blast of from the upstairs, accompanied by a pile of shrapnel, and suddenly the fire from the upstairs windows slowed. The SAS team leader was preparing to drop a grenade on the assault for below when he fluffed his throw. Landing on the window sill in front of him, the blast took him out, the concussion echoing around the roof the room and stunning his teammates.

The operator, who had taken out almost a whole team by himself, was caught standing in the window stunned by a burst from the Argo contractor. He dropped dead, leaving only two SAS operators standing upstairs.

In the Annexe, the SAS operator and AESA agent looked at each other and decided to make a move, busting out the window and getting ready to make a run for it.

After a short scuffle, one of the Argo Contractors managed to tackle and drag the AESA Station chief back outside of the ruined front room, letting the main Bazi Army push inside. Another contractor around this time also attempted to knock unconscious one of the SAS operatives. After a short scuffle hower, the SAS operative was killed in the fighting.

Outside, the last of the Bazi SF were taken down, the SAW in the SAS gunner’s hands hammering away and shredding what was left of the door.

As a final push, the last rifle operator upstairs attempted to rush down and rescue the AESA station chief. However, the Contractor holding the captive simply swung around and clocked him around the face with his rifle, knocking the operator unconscious and adding him to the captive pile.

Inside, the Bazi Army and Argo contractors burst into the server room, finding Captain Amari slowly raising her hands and kneeling down.

On the other side, the servers gently smoulded, useless to anyone. Amari was still smirking when the rifle butt came down on her face from an irate Bazi Army trooper.

The last AESA agent, crying out for updates from the explosion behind him while still keeping an eye on the Bazi SF before they were cut down, was very surprised when an Argo Corporation merc grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the door. And with that, resistance at the compound was ended.

AFTERMATH

Although missing out on the data, the Bazi force did manage to take four inhabitants of the compound hostage. Three AESA agents, including the famed Captain, and a single British citizen should be a handy group to show on Al-Jeezra as proof Aden is not to be trusted. The stockpile of material in the garage would help with this, providing shocking evidence.

Of course, three BLUFOR operators did manage to get away. Perhaps they may return in future missions?

Overall, it was one hell of a game. I did not expect the BTR to be used as a battering ram, nor for just the sheer number of grenade fails. I did lose my cool a little (I blame the heatwave we’re in) when it came to keeping the game flowing and also forgot a rule or two (such as sidearms in CQB). On the other hand, the Spectre rules still play fast and feel brutal.

But this is setting up the next mission in the campaign. With Captain Amari in chains, I think it’s time for someone to build a prison (I’m thinking a few of the Knights of Dice apartment buildings) and prepare a rescue. The question is… who will be doing the rescuing?