Thinking Outside the Box

Finally had a chance to try out the rules for Operation Squad WW2 . It's, as you might expect by the name, a squad-level skirmish game set in World War 2. Shocking right? Anyway, we set up a basic table and just tried a straight-up fight, rather than using any of the six scenarios from the core rule book. We played using my Tamiya 1:48 scale Panzer Grenadiers and Russian Infantry sets. Rick chose the Germans, won the initiative and started setting up first. The deployment of your figures is done in alternative order. Once we were all set up we rolled for first round initiative and started declaring our actions and reactions. Without duplicating the entire rules here's an example of how it works. The player with initiative can decide to go first or second, and then we make declarations. Say my opponent decides to go first; he picks a figure on the table who hasn't acted and says what he'll do. Maybe he's going to run into the trees over to his left. The mini...

During the summer I went on a trip to PM Hobby, hoping to pick up some Gesso and ended up grabbing these Tamiya 1:48 scale  Panzer Grenadiers on a whim (impulse buying at its finest). There are nine soliders plus three tank crew models in the box, as well as a vehicle driver and a seated officer. I haven't got any vehicles to put them in, but I'm thinking that maybe now I need one! I'll have to take a look at what kind of vehicles are available in the "Vehicles!" expansion for Operation Squad WW2 . One thing that I liked about this box was the instruction sheet. Being a war gamer, most of us get so accustomed to receiving a box or blister container filled with a bunch of random parts and simply being expected to 'figure it out'. I suppose part of that is the manufacturer giving you the freedom to construct the model(s) as you like but for beginners, or lazy people (that'd be me) detailed instructions are great. The casting quality is ok, b...

Several months ago I mentioned having bought a set of rules for World War II era skirmish gaming called Operation Squad WW2 . Shortly after I picked up a set of 1:48 scale German Panzer Grenadier figures by Tamiya . Happy with the scale once I'd put a few together I headed off to pick up some more sets so that I could field squads from several different nations for the game. The second batch that I decided to put together was their Russian Infantry box. HMG and assistants The Tamiya figure sets are very price effective, costing anywhere between $12 and $16 Canadian. I put together 12 figures from the Russian set, and I believe there are still three figures left that can be constructed if I buy vehicles or want to add variety. sergeant and lieutenant Something to keep in mind is that these are not necessarily great gaming figures because they're a little fragile. They're models intended for display, not play. The construction time can be a little high due to th...