Covert Operations

Over the last couple of weeks, Matt and I have been stealthily evading the rest of our gaming group and enacting our secret plan to try out his relatively new acquisition, 02 Hundred Hours from Grey For Now Games.

The game focuses on covert operations during WW2, with SAS teams launching raids on unsuspecting German targets.

The starter set comes with rules, cards, dice tokens and a good chunk of miniatures (from Wargames Atlantic), giving you everything you need to play, except for the MASSIVE amounts of terrain you need to not only make the games feel immersive, but also prevent the SAS getting spotted and gunned down in short order (something we discovered in the first game).

The rulebook contains a series of scenarios which seem to introduce rules slowly, which is handy because the game is a bit fiddly and it's easy to make mistakes when you are learning.

Activation is decided by drawing tokens out of a bag, special dice are used for skill checks and different types of cards can be used to mix things up.

Over the course of three evening, we've played through the first three scenarios and learned a fair amount along the way.

Mission 1 - Hunted

To keep things simple, I'm this scenario the SAS (Matt) needed to move across a board patrolled by the Germans (Me) without getting half of their squad killed.

The scenarios are all asymmetric as the small units of skilled British elites are pitted against larger numbers of somewhat less elite sentries.

We found out very early on that there was not really enough cover for the British to take advantage of, and so their chances of getting across the board undetected were almost zero.

Games are played at night and so visibility has its own mechanic, which helps. However, the nature of the missions means that ultimately the SAS have to move closer to the Germans and therefore are at a significant risk of being discovered.

In our first game, Matt made pretty good headway initially, especially as the random movement brought about by the roving patrols rules meant that the Germans spent the early turns marching around in circles and clearly shouting at each other to reveal their locations.

However, once the British were spotted, the lack of cover meant that weight of fire won the day as the Germans managed to take out three of the five SAS men.

We did actually play this again taking on different roles, but the outcome was pretty similar.

Mission 2 - Butcher and Bolt

This scenario saw the British attacking a German outpost intent on killing the occupants before reserves could arrive.

Much more terrain was put into plan to give the SAS a fighting chance of actually using stealth.

This game introduced the patrol route rules, which saw the German sentries following a set path with very little chance of them spotting attackers unless they made too much noise or got too close and set off the alarm.

This is an odd phase of the game as there's not a lot the German player can do to influence events, but equally the British player needs to cautiously advance towards their goal before striking.

Fortunately, this phase did not last too long as Matt, being Matt, decided that when a Feldgendarme got curious and came to investigate the area the British were in, he resorted to type and went for a full-blooded attack...

...which failed and raised the alarm.

However, he had got himself into a good position to attack and grenades and gunfire poured into the compound.

However, despite the force of the attack, German reserves arrive faster than expected (partly because some were already in buildings - due to those cards I mentioned) and with pretty much everybody visible (hence the tokens), the game devolved into a more conventional skirmish.

This was a close game in which victory was ultimately claimed by the Germans after a crack shot by a late arriving sentry, taking down the British Sergeant just before he could kill again.

Mission 3 - Sabotage

As hinted at by the name, this scenario saw the British trying to destroy a high value strategic target. In our case, this was a radar station.

It also introduced the rules for demolitions as the British goal was to reach the dish, plant a bomb and get clear before it detonated.

Once again, the Germans were patrolling and Matt made much more use of stealth, although the alarm did get raised again by his first actual attack (which failed again).

We made a bit of a mistake with bringing in the reserves, which meant I was on the back foot quickly.

Ultimately, despite card-based shenanigans, the SAS were able to destroy the radar station, but only secured a minor victory as they failed in their secondary objective to leave the table with more than half their squad intact.

All in all I think we've both enjoyed this game and we are starting to appreciate the tactical nuances as we get to grips with the rules. For example, due to marginally different stats, Feldgendarmes make better reserves than Sentries, who make better...well...erm...sentries.

We are still making mistakes, but that's not really due to complexity of the rules, but more to do with the fact that lots of the mechanics are fairly similar, but not the same.

If Matt hadn't already got everything we need to play, I'd probably be considering picking this up. If you are remotely interested in WW2 gaming but are daunted by building a full army, you should probably have a closer look.

A Bridge Not Near Enough - Part 2

Life got in the way for a couple of weeks and so we were finally able to finish off our big Halloween Christmas Easter Summer game, based on the Market Garden campaign.

We left things with Pete's Irish Guards pushing towards the bridge, whilst his Para's assaulted the town from the rear and Wes's US Glider troops continued their push to secure the road.

My Fallschirmjäger had been largely decimated by the Irish Guards, but had managed to destroy a Churchill and gold up the column.

Matt's Grenadiers were hard pressed in the town, but still held the bridge with the support of some heavy armour.

Turn 5 began with a largely ineffective US air strikes and the British tanks pushing further towards the bridge; we had a house rule allowing wrecked tanks to be pushed out if the way by a tank given an Advance order.

However, the lead Cromwell exposed its flank to the Fallschirmjäger light howitzer, which managed to score a direct hit, taking the tank commander out of commission.

The news was less good for the Germans beyond the town as the Flammpanzer that had been running riot was finally brought to a halt.

With the vulnerability of tanks being highlighted, the Tiger edged away from the advancing Paras and took up position at the end of the bridge, waiting for the British column to appear.

It was supported by a smattering of fire from surrounding buildings trying to keep the Allied infantry away, along with a squad of Grenadiers which launched a doomed assault against the Paras' jeep and were ultimately mowed down by its twin machine guns.

More Grenadiers moved across the bridge to support the remnants of the Fallschirmjäger, which were trying to hold the encroaching Americans at bay.

Meanwhile, the British tanks rumbled forwards, largely unmolested...

...whilst the British Paratroopers swarmed into the town

The sixth turn saw lots of action and very little accuracy as the Irish Guards made their final push for the bridge. Panzerfausts missed flank shots from point blank range; British guns fired in all directions to little effect; Americans and Fallschirmjäger watched on in futility as they lack the armaments to swing the battle either way.

On the other side of the bridge, the Paras finally reached the German tanks and two assaults were launched on the Tiger to no avail.

This left the Tiger free to swing its massive gun round at the start of Turb Seven and demolish the leading Cromwell as it was poised to cross the bridge.

It was at this point that we called the game as the Allies could no longer win. Unlike Arnhem, the airborne assault on the town had been a massive success, but it was the damage to the armoured column that caused the push to be abandoned.

The Allies would have to wait the enter Germany.

The game was lots of fun, and although it was a tough ask for the Allied force, there was a sense that they could have made it with a little more luck. Even something as simple as getting the first few Dice on the final turn could have put the German tanks out of commission and opened the route to victory.

It was also nice yo get lots of toys on the table for the first time in a long time, so everyone was a winner.

But the Germans were the proper winners, not consolation prize, participation certificate 'winners' like the Allies.

A Bridge Not Near Enough - Part 1

Having not been able to play a big Halloween game, a big Christmas game or a big Easter game (to be fair, we don't normally do this one, but had hoped to this year), Pete, Matt, Wes and I were finally able to get together to play a big mid-June game.

We took our lead from Operation Market Garden and based a scenario on the unsuccessful Allied push to Arnhem in September 1944.

The scenario was fairly simple: the Allies needed to get Pete's six Irish Guards tanks from the western table edge across the bridge in the centre and into 'Arnhem'. They would only enter from turn 3, and so they would have to move quickly to meet their deadline.

Arnhem itself would be held by Matt's ad hoc Kampfgruppe, including Flampanzer support from Panzer Kompanie 224.

Additional Panzer support would be rushed to the defence of the bridge from turn 3, but the Kampfgruppe had heavy guns of their own lying in wait.

To help the Irish Guards and draw off some of the defenders if the bridge, Arnhem would be attacked from the east by Pete's British Paratroopers moving in from their drop zone.

Additionally, Wes's Glider-borne US troops would be dropped to the south and moved to open up the road for the armoured spearhead.

However, my 6th Fallschirmjäger regiment would also rush to the defence of the bridge from the north, seeking to either destroy or delay the tanks long enough for the thrust to lose its impetus.

The first turn saw a lot of moving on to the board and a good deal of ineffective fire. The most incendiary moment was probably the Flammpanzer incinerating the Paras' armoured car.

Meanwhile, a Panther opened fire across the river, destroying one of the US half-tracks.

The second turn opened with the American advance severely hindered by an artillery strike liberally handing out pins to all and sundry.

The Fallschirmjäger moved into position to ambush the Guards when they advanced up the road, with a Panther rolling across the bridge in support.

Unfortunately, this left it vulnerable. The big cat was subjected to two air strikes and succumbed.

Meanwhile, the Paras continued to flood towards Arnhem, driving the German defenders from the ruins at the edge of town.

However, their progress was hindered somewhat by a rampaging Flammpanzer.

The critical third turn saw the Americans continue to push towards the road, despite taking fire from all directions and facing stiff opposition from the Fallschirmjäger.

The German Paratroopers were sent reeling when the Irish Guards burst in from the west, obliterating the squads that stood in their way.

However, the lead Churchill was abandoned when it was engulfed in fire from a flamethrower and had to be shunted out of the road by the lead Cromwell (shunting destroyed tanks is a house rule we created to prevent the Guards from simply being blocked).

The German defence was bolstered by the arrival of a second Panther, a Panzer IV and a Tiger I.

The Flammpanzer continued to burn to a crisp everything that came into range.

Despite this, the Red Devils were making significant inroads into Arnhem.

The fourth turn saw even more British tanks arrive, causing a somewhat of a bottleneck on the road.

This situation wasn't helped by two Panzerfausts, an airstrike and a blast from the Tiger placing a large number of pins on the lead Cromwell and stopping it in its tracks.

The Flammpanzer found itself suddenly assaulted by British Paratroopers armed with anti-tank grenades, but they couldn't penetrate its think armour.

The remains of the shattered 6th Fallschirmjäger repositioned to try to hold the line against the oncoming tanks and Americans.

And a reserve platoon of Wehrmacht emerged from the centre of Arnhem to defend the bridge.

But this left the Paras free to move into the town proper, virtually unopposed.

We actually ran out of time and will continue on another day, but this left things on a bit of a knife edge. The Allies are making significant inroads and inflicting a lot of damage on the Germans, but the tanks still have a long way to go and lot of obstacles to get past.

There a 2-3 turns to go and it remains to be seen whether the Irish Guards can make it.