{"id":28280,"date":"2024-03-20T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T19:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/?p=28280"},"modified":"2024-03-20T19:05:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T19:05:15","slug":"aar-sergi-and-ivan-in-trouble-what-an-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/03\/20\/aar-sergi-and-ivan-in-trouble-what-an-operator\/","title":{"rendered":"AAR: Sergi and Ivan in Trouble (What An Operator)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the last AAR I wrote<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

6 – 4 – 5 – 1 -1 – 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

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

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.<\/em> It does lack some of the simplicity of the original system (critical hits don’t remove a single figure<\/em> any more) but I think it feels a little more tactical.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

\n\n\n\n

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

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

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":28388,"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":[1130,1093,903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aar","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\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-LTGame.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["AAR<\/a>","Features<\/a>","Wargaming<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AAR<\/span>","Features<\/span>","Wargaming<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"5","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 20\/03\/2024","modified":"Updated on 20\/03\/2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 20\/03\/2024 7:05 pm","modified":"Updated on 20\/03\/2024 7:05 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pvEn5-7m8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24443,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/10\/31\/sitrep-whole-lot-of-necromunda-and-a-little-tank\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":0},"title":"SITREP – Whole lot of Necromunda and a Little Tank","author":"Michael Charge","date":"31\/10\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh boy, that was a lot of Necromunda. Two of my friends from University, along with the Regular Necromunda Opponent and his sneaky boys, decided to spend roughly 24 hours in my house to get in three games of Games Workshop's Underhive skirmish game as part of our current campaign.\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\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PXL_20211030_150200001.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32420,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/28\/underhive-blues-a-trio-of-necromunda-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":1},"title":"Underhive Blues: A Trio of Necromunda Games","author":"Michael Charge","date":"28\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Yep, it's time for another update from the Underhive. And this time we have three whole events to talk about!","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\/2025\/10\/SITREP-Necromunda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SITREP-Necromunda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SITREP-Necromunda.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SITREP-Necromunda.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SITREP-Necromunda.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28173,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/02\/19\/aar-the-shyluz-incident-trying-out-what-an-operator\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":2},"title":"AAR: The Shyluz Incident – Trying Out “What An Operator”","author":"Michael Charge","date":"19\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AAR_19022024.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31598,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/08\/26\/sitrep-blobby-blobby-blobby\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":3},"title":"SITREP: Blobby Blobby Blobby","author":"Michael Charge","date":"26\/08\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time. Lets talk about the horrors I have unleashed upon the underhive...","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\/2025\/08\/SITREP_Blobby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SITREP_Blobby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SITREP_Blobby.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SITREP_Blobby.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SITREP_Blobby.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4558,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/10\/28\/lead-mountain-update-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":4},"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":28374,"url":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/03\/22\/aar-cgs-recce-in-northern-shyluz\/","url_meta":{"origin":28280,"position":5},"title":"AAR: CGS: Recce In Northern Shyluz","author":"Michael Charge","date":"22\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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-FarmRecce.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-FarmRecce.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-FarmRecce.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-FarmRecce.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AAR-FarmRecce.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28280","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=28280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hntdaab.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}