While this blog has been mostly focussed on 1860s, and to a lesser extent feudal Japan, a couple of recent life changes have meant that I've been pulled into a decidedly WW2 orbit in the last year to match the gaming preferences of my new neighbours. To dip my toes in, I decided to start with 02 Hundred Hours by Grey for Now Games, having had a good time with Test of Honour. And then I thought, 'let's get some of those expansions', and the rest of the story should be fairly obvious. Here we are, not only 9 months on from when I started, but also 107 men (and six dogs):
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| A temporary storage solution |
In the blue corner we have the Allies. The starter box is focussed on the SAS, of whom I ended up doing 7 with definitively identifiable headgear. I later grabbed the Operation Torchlight box which adds five character figures and two extra sprues, plus four heads specifically for the Royal Marines. In all, that's 24 customisable plastic figures and five metal character pieces. Of those plastics, I did up seven as SAS (airborne helmets or red berets), ten as Royal Marines (battle bowlers or green berets), and seven 'generic' figures (bare heads or woolen caps). The general advice is to have a roughly even mix of rifles and SMGs, but the rules also let you bring a limited number of troops with either silenced weapons or 'long-range' weapons (sniper rifles and LMGs), which is represented here.
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| Seven SAS. I think that's the title of the film anyway. |
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| Bit more of the same with the Royal Marines. |
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| This lot I did up mainly as specialists, hence the radio operator, the Welrod-armed fellow, and the demolitions men. The demo man on the left has some bonuses relating to setting time fuses. |
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| The Operation Torchlight box also comes with these rather snazzy specialist figures. I'm not sure if the 'SOE Agent' (right) and 'SOE Assassin' (left) have real-world inspirations, but the 'Highland Major' (centre) looks to be based on Tommy MacPherson of No. 11 Commando. |
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| This downed pilot is mainly there to be an objective marker for the Escape scenario, but he still deserves a good paintjob. |
The French Resistance also get some love here, with lower troop quality but access to a range of 'Plan' cards that can be used to trip up the Germans. Apart from a few metal pieces for characters including a Jedburgh team, the partisans are again mostly by Wargames Atlantic, and I grabbed an extra box on top of the sprues that came with the expansion, though I didn't end up painting them all.
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| A nice mix of figures to serve as specialists – note the stick of dynamite in the basket! |
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| A motley crew of patriots, just about enough for a standard-sized game. |
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| A trio of 'Jeds', which improve the partisans' Plan cards mechanic on top of being slightly better fighters. |
One of the more interesting sets (which I've already featured) is the Escape from Stalag Luft III, which as the name suggests is based on a mix of the historical and filmed 'Great Escape' in March 1944. On the Allied side, you get six men in uniform and four in disguise:
Over on the German side, things are a bit simpler. If you combine the starter box and expansions, you get five sprues, each with six men and two dogs, and six metal character figures (including a motorcycle rider!) Broadly speaking, troops are either ordinary infantry, Feldgendarmes, or (with the Facility 9 set) gas-masked men; these all have some small stat differences but essentially fill same mould as each other. The unique ones are the dog handlers, which cost more, but have much better detection and somewhat better melée than ordinary sentries.
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| Who let the dogs out? |
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| The Wehrmacht's grunts |
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| 'Are you meine Mummy?' |
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| 'For you, Tommy, ze war is over!' |
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| 'The odious apparatus of Nar-zee rule...' |
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| Objective and casualty markers |
Everything is in the process of being packed and moved for the summer, but these may well see action again soon!
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