{"id":28173,"date":"2024-02-19T10:04:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T10:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/?p=28173"},"modified":"2024-02-19T10:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T10:18:17","slug":"aar-the-shyluz-incident-trying-out-what-an-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/02\/19\/aar-the-shyluz-incident-trying-out-what-an-operator\/","title":{"rendered":"AAR: The Shyluz Incident – Trying Out “What An Operator”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter, What An Operator! John Savage the writer of What a Cowboy ran a rather cool cartel game<\/a> 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<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Operators from the Cyrenician<\/em> 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<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":28191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,1109,1093,903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aar","category-chargereal-2","category-features","category-wargaming"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Michael Charge","author_link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/author\/chargedog\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["AAR<\/a>","ChargeReal<\/a>","Features<\/a>","Wargaming<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AAR<\/span>","ChargeReal<\/span>","Features<\/span>","Wargaming<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 19\/02\/2024","modified":"Updated on 19\/02\/2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 19\/02\/2024 10:04 am","modified":"Updated on 19\/02\/2024 10:18 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pvEn5-7kp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6565,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2017\/10\/02\/wargaming-week-02102017\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":0},"title":"Wargaming Week 02\/10\/2017","author":"Michael Charge","date":"02\/10\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Let\u2019s start, covering the 25th of September through to the 1st of October. BLOG\u00a0STUFF Last weeks post was on the AAR for 100 Years of War! It was a really fun time and incredible fulfilling to get the game out and for people to play. But, there are still things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wargaming"","block_context":{"text":"Wargaming","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/wargaming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_20170924_152116-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4558,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/10\/28\/lead-mountain-update-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":1},"title":"Lead Mountain Update 7","author":"Michael Charge","date":"28\/10\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"No Updates this week due to busy weekend airsofting and watching American Football. Managed to get\u00a0two\u00a0games of Skirmish Sangin in and wrote an AAR of one over on the Skirmish Sangin forum at\u00a0https:\/\/www.hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/07\/27\/aar-street-fight\/. Apart from that, no other changes. The list stands as it did in update 6. This weekend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28280,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/03\/20\/aar-sergi-and-ivan-in-trouble-what-an-operator\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":2},"title":"AAR: Sergi and Ivan in Trouble (What An Operator)","author":"Michael Charge","date":"20\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AAR"","block_context":{"text":"AAR","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/wargaming\/battle-reports\/aar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7152,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2018\/01\/09\/2017-in-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":3},"title":"2017 in Review","author":"Michael Charge","date":"09\/01\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Time to talk State of the Union. My Christmas break blog reading was packed with people talking about how their blog had done in 2017 and what they had planned for 2018. I always like reading these posts so I think it's time to add my own to the pile.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/stats.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/stats.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/stats.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12003,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2019\/06\/17\/wargaming-week-17-06-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":4},"title":"Wargaming Week 17\/06\/2019","author":"Michael Charge","date":"17\/06\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Let\u2019s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 10th through to the 16th of June. BLOG\u00a0STUFF New post this week (only just) looking at the Drone systems from Spectre Miniatures. I think none of these are required to play ultramodern wargames but having them lets you expand out what you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wargaming"","block_context":{"text":"Wargaming","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/wargaming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_20190613_225228-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24947,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2022\/01\/17\/news-podcast-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":28173,"position":5},"title":"News- Podcast Time!","author":"Michael Charge","date":"17\/01\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Surprise! The guys over at The Table's Edge (a Spectre Operations podcast) invited me on to chat about all thing Ultramodern Wargaming. We talked a lot about a wide selection of things from how I started in the hobby up to my thoughts on rulesets and even the ChargeReal, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/artworks-0JIv3rcevVepqVax-OyOerA-t500x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}