Time for something a little different

[JudgeDredd]

I just bought SAS:Rogue Regiment 

[bob48]

Never heard of it. Board game or PC?

[Barthheart]

Board game.

Really interested in what you think and how it plays JD. 👍🏻

[bob48]

Yep, absolutely be interested in that one, JD.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I kickstarted the Black Box version and got it a few weeks ago.

It's basically the board game version of the old Commandos PC game.  It's somewhat similar to the V-Commandos board game but seems to play better.  I think it's because the maps are mission specific whereas V-Commando maps were just kinda random.

The rules are mostly straightforward but for some reason, I struggle a bit with them.  It's very important to play them exactly as written and some of the rules for sequencing and spotting give me trouble.

A friend and I played it co-op last weekend (It's mainly co-op  for 1-5 players depending on the mission, but there is an option for one player to play as the Germans).  It's very, very tough to beat after mission 3 in the book.  Once you start facing half-tracks and armoured cars, it's brutal.

I'm actually thinking of running it as a minis game in 28mm scale.  I think it'll work quite well.

[JudgeDredd]

Never heard of it. Board game or PC?

Popped up on my YT feed for some reason...GimpyGamer iirc. Then I found a couple of playthroughs by the developer. It looked very interesting.

[bob48]

Ah!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Never heard of it. Board game or PC?

Popped up on my YT feed for some reason...GimpyGamer iirc. Then I found a couple of playthroughs by the developer. It looked very interesting.

There's a guy who posted a lot of playthrough videos on YT.  His channel is called Hiemal's Forge.  They're nicely done but he does make a pretty significant mistake through all of the videos that I watched which ends up giving him an easier time of it that he should have had.  He allows his SAS troopers to pick up items from an adjacent square but the rules state that you have to move into the square where the object or item is located if you want to pick it up.  You can drop objects or items into adjacent squares but not pick up.  Just something to be aware of as I'd watched one of his videos after really struggling to get through a mission and assumed that I'd gotten the rule wrong. 

[bayonetbrant]

Popped up on my YT feed for some reason...GimpyGamer iirc.

Gimpy's a pretty decent dude.  He's actually local to me here - about 10-12 miles away down on the south side.

[bob48]

It reminds me a little of the Draco '2GM' games.

[JudgeDredd]

 

[bob48]

Looking forwards to see what you think of it,

[JudgeDredd]

Rules seem pretty straight forward AND, crucially, an index 

[JudgeDredd]

I've played the first mission 3 times. It's very enjoyable - I have to say.

One thing I do think - but there was obviously a design reason for it - is once the alarm goes off (explosion, gun shot, alarm timer reaching 0), every unit unit on the board is alerted to your presence and they head straight to you. You are to move the German units so they can get an optimal shot on you...so they are to head directly for you - EVEN if you aren't spotted because at the point of the alarm going off, you become spotted - even if you are not in LoS.

Obviously I don't know why they designed it that way and perhaps, given some info as to why, it would make sense.

I would have preferred that the enemy units made straight for the sound - or whatever set the alarm off. That makes sense to me. Additionally, you wouldn't become spotted until they actually had LoS to you. So you could hide...perhaps you could have a die roll where the units that got to the explosion (and you were nowhere in sight), the die roll could direct the German units so they randomly searched for you.

Using that system, if you were spotted, they would make directly for you, but if you got out of LoS, you would become unspotted and they would continue searching in a random fashion.

I think that would be a better cat and mouse game. Of course, I don't know how that would play out - but I think I'm going to give it a try. Everything else can stay, but

• enemies make straight for the source of the noise and if tthey can't find you, they walk a random pattern based on a die roll
• no LoS = no direct movement to you but random searching and facing
• LoS and then they head straight for you

I don't know if that will work - and it does seem like a MAJOR departure from the game design - but I'm just a little dissappointed with the fact that once the alarm goes, you are spotted (even if you aren't) and everyone heads directly for you. I'd prefer a better cat and mouse system...so I'm going to give it a go. It's my game, right? 

But - having said that - it's a very enjoyable game as is...up to the point where the alarm goes. Also it'd be nice to have diversionary explosions - and they're obviously not in play here.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[bob48]