Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Spectre Operations

Spectre Operations is the newly produced set of modern skirmish rules by Spectre Miniatures .
It can arguably handle platoon actions with figures performing actions on an individual or sometime group basis. I'm not intending to review the rules here, but to give an AAR of a game we played recently and my thoughts on how the system performed. Dougie
Somewhere in Sudan an AQ affiliated group have captured an individual who they want to trade. They have an interest in keeping him alive, the west have an interest in freeing him. 
The game was set up on a 3' x 3' board. A adobe is in the centre of the table with irrigation/drainage ditches and crop fields surrounding it, a compound is nearby.
Myself, Alex and Karl were playing, the system is fully pointed up but I'm not a big fan of points so we ignored this and made the sides up. The points system is useful if you want to get a balanced game and I may possibly use it on occasion.
The AQ rebels consisted of a team leader and 10 militiamen, they were armed with AKs, an RPG7 and a PKM.
 The Operators attempting the rescue consisted of a 4 man team armed with HK416s, with full SOF spec, so red dot, laser sights, suppressors, stun and frag grenades as well as breaching equipment and night vision.
Karl had the AQ rebels, me and Alex the Tier one operators, the scenario took place at night, Karl placed his guys first then me and Alex deployed.
The hostage and 2 guards were housed in the adobe, 2 guys were out patrolling and the remainder were crashed out in the nearby compound all started the scenario "unalert". The 2 shots below show the AQ deployment, the hostage and 2 guys are inside the building, its roof isn't removable ! so ignore them! the 2 guys outside are the patrolling guards with a set pattern they are following until something kicks off. the guys in the compound are crashed out asleep.
Myself and Alex deploy

  The night, detection and alertness rules worked well we moved tactically towards the objective.
 First guard eliminated with a double tap, opposition not alerted!
3 of the team stacked at the target building, the 4th operator had tried to take out the 2nd patrolling guard but unfortunately he raised the alarm before being eliminated, Alex then pulled the operator back slightly into a drainage ditch and went onto overwatch covering the compound. Its about to go noisy.
The breaching rules worked like a dream, 1st operator achieved the breach, 2nd deployed a stun grenade, 3rd and 4th entered the building, 1 of Karls AQ guys was on overwatch but due to the negative effects of the stun grenade, fired at the operators, missed but caused suppression. This however was insufficient to halt the operators who shot dead both guards and marshalled the captive. By this stage the AQ guys in the compound had roused themselves and were heading towards the building to see what all the racket was about. Alex had deployed a pair of operators in cover on overwatch while my 2 guys escorted the hostage out and towards the extraction point.

Karls AQ guys put a brave face on deploying but the quality of the operators and their tactical and tech edge, night vision, made this a lost cause and the operators successfully exfilled.
We discussed the system at length after the game and we were all of the opinion that Spectre has done a cracking job in producing a fast playable set of modern skirmish rules, I could go on at length about all the nice touches that work together to give a really rounded simulation but all I'll say is that if you are at all interested in this period buy these rules!

13 comments:

  1. I was humming and hawing about this but now I'll buy a set.

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    1. I would Phil I was quite impressed with them!

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  2. This sounds like a fun set of rules.

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  3. Great game report. Will this set become your 'go to' set for moderns now?

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Hi Pete, I need to play some more but its looking quite good at the moment!

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  4. Dougie did you play the original version?
    How did compare?
    I seem to recall bleeding out was bad and being caught in the open.... nasty
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. I didn't play the original but this system is fairly "hard". If you're hit you're generally out of it and if your bleeding and don't get first aid off an oppo its goodnight Vienna. I've found you have to use realistic tactics so if your in a firefight and you want to cross open space you've either got to really suppress the opposition or throw smoke.

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  5. Pretty cool setup and fight, thanks for posting!

    V/R,
    Jack

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  6. I bought the rules yesterday. Have yet to try them or yet to read them (Real life gets in the way). But in your opinion how do they compare with Skirmish Sangin or Force on Force? And the big question will they function well for Vietnam wargames?

    Many thanks

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  7. A really well written and presented AAR. I may now have to purchase these rules.... enjoyed this a lot and I hope that you share more.

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