A friend brought by a copy of Rogue Regiment, a game for up to four players to play in as members of the SAS during WW2. Scenarios start with the players sneaking across a map populated by NPC German soldiers and vehicles to achieve objectives. The players must remain sneaky to prolong the stealth section of the game for as long as possible. Firearms going off, explosions, the sight of dead guards or SAS to the Germans will put them on alert to varying degrees. Once the overall German alertness level is fully tripped, reinforcements will come streaming in to gun down the players.

I took the role of Jock, a commando with a pair of grenades and a grappling hook. The grenades were useful as only explosive weapons were capable of harming the highly dangerous armored German halftrack. The climbing hook allowed me to scale specific points on the map that were otherwise inaccessible. I ended up flipping my loadout card over before the game started to trade out my 1911 handgun for a rifle which was a straight upgrade while losing my lucky rabbit’s foot that would have allowed a reroll once in the game.

The other players had different commandos with various special equipment. There was a sniper with a climbing hook and ghille suit, a sten gun equipped medic, and a sten gun welding commando with a reusable bear trap to silently take out patrolling guards.

The scenario was set up on a long map with a German controlled compound in the top left.

In the top corner of the compound was a ladder leading to a basement holding French resistance prisoners.

The goal of the mission was to free the prisoners and extract them off the bottom of the map without taking more than two casualties between the prisoners and SAS.

As a team we started off in the bottom right of the board and carefully worked our way around guards, silently knifing and bear trapping them as we went.

We approached the compound on the left side, being mindful of the halftrack which had both heavy armor and a front and rear facing machinegun.

We split into two groups, my commando and the sniper used our climbing hooks to enter the near side of the building while the other two players went around the back to go access the basement. The game had given us a special random ability in the form of a cigarette which we could put on any German guard causing them to take a smoke break and not watch their sector for a turn. Using that, the two other players killed the guard at the far end of the building and one of them snaked around into the basement while the other one prepared to fight of guards and a patroling motorcycle during the inevitable firefight that would be coming up.

The basement tile is cleverly on the inside of the box of the game.

Dropping down, the player inside was presented with difficulties but finally managed to free the prisoners while leaving a time delayed explosive charge planted.

The charge’s time delay was not precise and almost went off too late, but ended up going off perfectly to catch two of the alerted German guards, and keep the others confused behind a wall of smoke.

Up top the player keeping watch engaged the motorcycle, but failed to kill it. He found himself swarmed as a second motorcycle entered the board. He was killed in a hail of gunfire on all sides.

I had been knifing guards in the topside of the compound and gotten into a good position to throw grenades at the halftrack. Both of my grenades killed it in one turn, but then a squad of German submachinegun troops flooded in. I had no good option but to retreat, unfortunately some bad rolls meant a German sentry that hadn’t been taken care of earlier slowed me down in a firefight, where I killed him but was wounded in the process. The reinforcements caught up with me and shot me down while the sniper player expended the last of his limited ammo trying to stop them.

With two players down, that was the end of the game and a mission fail.

Overall a fun game. Once you learn the rules, it is mostly snappy, although sometimes measuring for line of sight can slow things down. The combat is very simple with D6 rolls to hit with simple modifiers and no armor or dodge rolls. That said, this game did take us about 4.5 hours, as a lot of the slowdown comes from group discussion planning, and thinking around that battlefield puzzles that get presented. A good game for people already familiar with boardgames or wargames, or people with the patience to sit down and seriously play a multi-hour game. Since it is co-op, if someone does have to leave part way through, another player can take over their character, which is a least an acceptable backup.