Spectre Runthrough

A test game of Spectre Ops

     I'm a big fan of modern/near future games and Spectre miniatures has a set of rules, Spectre Ops, that we gave a test play of.  The Spectre minis are comparable to Eureka and Empress.  The poses and various factions are great and would be a great addition to anyone's modern forces.  Very fine casting (yep, separate NVG to glue!) and well thought out equipment loads.  The Spectre Ops rules feel like a mix of Skirmish Sangin and Black Ops, enough detail for rivet counters but not so much that large force battles bog down to a stop.  Weapons are grouped by class and the thing I like most, ranges are long and damage is lethal.  Being hit is a bad thing, no hit points to absorb point-blank shotgun hits.  The game we played had two SF teams infiltrating a militia camp in Lbotu (my African imag-nation).  Their goals were to kill/capture the militia leader, rescue a doctor and nurse, rescue the chief's daughter from the guerrillas, and kill the guerrilla leader.  This was not meant to be a balanced game for points and it was unlikely the SF groups would get all the objectives, it was just  to see how the rules work, what we didn't understand, and get an overall feel for it.  Terrain is important in the game since ranges are long and when hit the effects are harsh.

  The board at the start.  The SF teams will come from the left and bottom.  The fur area is dense jungle and the Any area of scattered foliage is concealing terrain.

    One group of bad guys, guerrillas in the barracks.  They are unalert.

    Rebel army troops on stand-by near the supply dump.

   HVT in the form of a rebel leader, and bodyguarrds.

 The doc and his nurse, and militia overseer.  One SF team came in from the far left of the pic.

 HVT militia leader and local chief's daughter are in this 2-story house.  A gathering of militia troops are also present.

 Another view of the camp.

 A collection of tango casualties.  Sorry no in-game pics, too busy making sure we weren't doing something really wacky with the rules.  It is less than half of the total enemy force on the table.

     Some game notes:  high quality troops are better than low quality, and you'll notice it.  We played a narrative style game where I played the bad guys and Chuck & Bill played the SF teams.  I like this style play instead of point games as it allows for unknown tango reactions and hidden forces.  The tangos play as I've got it scripted in my head and "what would they really do", and I don't care if the SF team wins or not, just that we have fun.  With that said, I don't fudge dice or just walk into mg fire either, but if they are equipped with AK47's that's what they're getting, not restricted to a total point value.  Explosives can kill outright if you're in direct contact with them ("are hit") and also do damage to those in a radius.  The hit results are harsh compared to some games, lots of chances to be down and bleeding out.  Terrain therefore is vital to the game because of the range increments. and the hit results. That's not a problem for me since I like to make, and have a lot of terrain bits.  We didn't use snipers or have any fixed mg positions, we also didn't use IEDs or vehicles (those were just obstacles).  Overall I really like this game and the players had fun.  It plays quick but not in a way that it feels like just a roll off of dice.