Operation Squad WW2: The new Crew.

Nathan was by last weekend and we got in some more 28mm WW2 with 'Operation Squad'. I was fresh off getting schooled by Jeff in tiny little 15mm WW2 so was very happy to get back to the one true scale.

I had some Spetsnaz by Artisan Designs WW2 lying around alongside the Assault Engineers so I painted up eight of them plus a sergeant for the occasion. There is not official Spetsnaz list in the game so I just used the Soviet Assault Squad, with no LMG or HMG options and the ability to swap out SMGs for Rifles and pay 70pts to make riflemen into marksmen. This reflected the tendency of the Spetsnaz units to have some guys as marksmen quite well. I STILL miss the fact that FOW V1 had Spetsnaz as rifle/smg teams. On to the game!

Nathan had the Italian Paras once more. Remembering last time's effort, we were both resolved to advance cautiously. This, combined with Nathan's resolve to have LOTS of areas of cover meant that LOS was quite closed and the two force took a while to come to grips. Lesson for today: in Operation Squad, you add up the effects of all intervening terrain....

We used the basic recon mission again, table was as above but with about three times as many fields (not a keeper), a curved road (probably a keeper) and lots of Nathan's cool hedges (definitely a keeper).

The Italians were deployed in two groups, to advance either side of the road. I put a corporal and the two riflemen on my left to try and pin the advance on one side, the Sniper on the right (the side with the house, in our game) to try and cause mayhem there, while I had a reserve squad with the Sarge to counter whatever Nathan did while a third trio of Spetsnaz made ready to sneak up to the house, via the curving road.

The Italian secret weapon was to advance slowly, no doubt weighed down by all those hidden markers.

Once I realised Nathan meant to avoid the road completely, I had the middle Spetsnaz squad leg it up to the building, while reinforcing them with most of the boys lurking by the Sniper. If Nathans troops were going to swing wide to envelope me - then it was going to take a while via those VERY SLOW fields.

I had made some provision to slow them down further via helpful rifle-fire but that had to wait for the targets to emerge from the chest-high crops... The rifle-men were actually relatively vulnerable there so I did have to pull them back at one stage to encourage my quarry to bypass them for the objective!

Meanwhile on the right, I considered sending Spetsnaz forward but just gave the idea up for the time-being, since they would be so slow. Despite two intervening rules, my trusty sniper actually got in a pin. Pity I forgot that his scope means that actually becomes a wound.

We didn't just sit around shooting rifles at the shadowy Italian Paras all evening though. I had managed through good planning (ie good luck, movement though terrain is modified by dice) to win the race to the house. A couple of Nathan's guys had got slowed on the approach so he had the rest wait for stragglers.

Then, it was basically a 1930's gangster shootout. As you can see, the Italians must be the laziest Paras ever. Perhaps they enlisted as plane-jumpers because they hated the thought of ever having to walk anywhere? For the moment, there were a lot more Soviets than Italians but I was more than a little concerned by the fact another section was going to appear through the hedges and assault me from over the road.

Luckily for me, I managed to get the kills sooner rather than later. Spetsnaz SMGs were awesome at the close range and the Italians basically got buried in lead. Once bodies fell, the morale checks began... For kicks, we tried out a close assault on the right - as if I had tried to actually get to grips there rather than letting the boys in the middle do all the work. Close-assault is surprisingly in-decisive in this game, though having the melee occur in a tall cornfield probably didn't help. Cheers for another fun game, Nathan. Can't wait to play again. 

Here is the new Crew all lined up. All figs by Artizan Designs. I actually quite like the models now they are painted. Unpainted, I thought they didn't compare well to the Warlord figs.

Another squad of the Assault Engineers has also recently arrived so, with the Spetsnaz and the HQ figs, I almost have enough for Bolt-Action. I just need to decide on a fun AFV and/or some guns and possibly consider throwing in a plain rifle platoon. Perhaps with one of those cool Red Flags? Getting way ahead of myself though. I have two boxes of tanks for the tiny WW2 game (Al Alamein themed even in October) and then will need to add another five tanks to that to call the new force done. Better sort that before taking on more!