My second Skirmish Sangin Game (Low-rez)

Talk about excellent terrain!
Courtesy of Knights of Dice

This week I played my second Skirmish Sangin game with Viv.  Viv brought the minis, terrain, umm we used his books, and I brought... some prep and rudimentary knowledge of modern warfare.  Not to worry, it was an enjoyable game regardless.

The game itself was a repeat of my last 'Ambush' scenario, played with more appreciation of the rules and providing for a somewhat more considered deployment - both of which certainly helped!

The game was pretty straight-forward: 8 British soldiers are ambushed by 8 insurgents.  I played the British and deployed in the board's centre-region.  I was able to make use of what little cover that was available but had to deploy, knowing that Viv's Insurgents would deploy second.  I spread my Team out, huddling around corners etc., trying to simulate what might happen if they had suddenly received word from HQ that there were hostiles inbound.  Viv deployed the Insurgents from the board's corners, moving in to attack the British.  Gentlemen's rules applied, and Viv ensured that his Insurgents weren't deployed in LoS of my British - worth remembering for future repeats of the game.

This time around, we collectively had a better appreciation as to how the Spot-Shoot-Morale mechanics interplayed which made for some tense (in a good way) gaming.  Some of my troops were caught in the Insurgent's cross-fire - but for their body armour, they'd been knocked out within the first couple of combat phases.  Viv was able to exploit the fact that the Brits were in the open (negating the need to Spot) and just poured on the dakka.

A Rifleman and Insurgent tussle to the lower right, observed by more
Insurgents to the left.  An "Ambush" it was!

During the course of the first Turn (we only played one! but more on that later) the engagement slowly swung in favour of the Brits despite trying to defend themselves on multiple fronts.  The rules are intricate relative to the standard wargaming fare, to say the least - it was observed more than once that it felt more like a simulation than most games.  But for all the effort and overhead that goes into the standard game, it does produce moments of magic.

For example, one of the Brit riflemen was activated, out of cover in the street.  With the first of his three Actions, he had to run to cover the necessary distance to reach the corner of an adjacent building to spot and fire on a nearby insurgent.  Unfortunately running adversely impacts a units ability to spot and he failed his attempt, leaving him in an even more precarious position.  As turning costs action points and he only had one left, he couldn't turn on the spot - instead, he ran again, vaulted a fence and kept going trusting in his speed to save him.

Later in the game, Viv considered his options and decided that his ill-trained Insurgent was better served to attempt close combat on the fleeing rifleman.  A melee developed resulting in the Insurgent being critically injured and left screaming (yes, he had only a 20% of remaining conscious and did so).  That had the added result of forcing morale checks on other nearby Insurgents and things just kind of went from bad to worse from there.

Two Insurgents kneeling behind a stone wall surrounding the village square managed to keep
four riflemen pinned down and hurting, despite their inaccurate fire.  I suppose that is quite
realistic and it certainly did feel tense as I had to make choices like whether to fire back or dash for cover.

That gives you a sense of the depth and detail you can squeeze out of this game.  Consciousness is tracked.  Have you braced your weapon?  Who has spotted who?  Are you firing at someone who had previously fired their gun?  Was their gun an assault rifle?  All these and more things need to be considered while playing the game.  Which is probably why we completed only the first 6 of 10 Combat Phases in the games first Turn.  Just wow.

Everything has a price and in the case of Skirmish Sangin, it's record keeping.  I read something written by one of the designers (I think) who suggested that people who play the game often use a laptop to keep track of stuff.  That I can understand.  A serious amount of tracking is required, and even with some careful prep, it is easy to get things confused.  We were playing a small 8 vs 8 game, and I shudder to think about what would be required to play a big game.  That being said, I suspect as a solo ruleset it could shine or for a lazy weekend marathon gaming session with someone else who knows the rules (we are still learning).  For a club game - in a pub and all that - I suspect that that level of management overhead just isn't desired.  I'm going to stick with it for the moment, however, as the simulation feel is very addictive.

---

An afterthought: last night was the final Axes & Ales club meet for 2019.  I must have gotten to 3 out of 4 sessions, so that would amount to 30 or something evenings of gaming during the course of the year.  Wow!  If you're ever wanting to learn about such things, drink fine craft beers or both, by all means, drop by one Thursday evening here in Preston, Melbourne Australia.  Here's a link to some details.