0200 Hours: First Impressions

Stu popped over from Cirencester today which gave me the perfect chance to break out the newest game in my collection, 0200 Hours. This pits an elite raiding force against a less well trained defending force in a boys own style adventure. The starter box comes with British Commando and German Static Defence forces so we played those. I've not yet got all the correct greys and khaki paints so went for a basic black undercoat and grey to white dry brush to bring out the details on the model. Even this small effort looks much better than plain grey plastic and as all the battles are set at night, it gives a decent night fighting vibe.

We played out the first scenario in the book which sees the British trying to cross the table in the face of an already alerted enemy. Perhaps they are attempting to escape after a successful sabotage mission. I added a couple of extra models per side to give us more to play with as I'd stuck them together.

As the game progresses you have to make tests against the various stats on your troop cards with you looking to roll equal to or less than the number of chevrons for that stat on the dice. The dice come in white a grey varieties with the following sides:

White: 2 * one chevron, 1 * two chevrons, 1 * three chevrons, 1 * medal, 1 * spotted

Grey: 1 * one chevron, 1 * two chevrons, 1 * three chevrons, 2 * medals, 1 * hide

 Essentially the louder an action the more white dice you are going to roll and the more likely it is you will be revealed. As you can only shoot / fight against revealed targets then staying hidden is extremely useful. Each side starts with none of it's models revealed.

In this first scenario the defenders start occupying two thirds of the table and need to kill three of the attackers as they try to cross it, the attackers need to get three men off the opposite side. Players take it in turns to draw a chit from a cup and then assign it to a model to activate. Also in the cup are three clock chits and once the third one is drawn the turn is over and all the active chits go back in the cup. Each normal model gets 1 activation chit with leaders getting 2.

The early part of the game saw the Commando's enter the table split between each flank and then start to advance. The attackers can use a Sneak action to stay hidden and more importantly move in a direction chosen by their commander. The defenders need to use a patrol action which by default moves straight ahead but can also have it's direction determined by the direction the chevrons on their dice point. This lead to many of my Germans wandering backwards or towards table edges away from the approaching British.

In fairly short order however my Germans had managed to wander close enough to the British for some fire to be exchanged. The first shot was by a Commando who took out a Feld gendarmerie without being spotted. Then on the opposite side of the table a clumsy Commando attracted the attention of the dog handler and a pair of SMG toting guards. He avoided the rifle shot of the dog handler but went down in a hail of MP 40 bullets. His death gave the his two comrades pause for thought and failing a trauma test they opted to stay in place for a turn.

The Commando Officer also took out another guard on the German right and continued his advance trailed by the pair of rifle armed Commando's. Only the German Officer stood between British on this side and escape, and he spent a lot of timing tramping around in some bushes and never actually spotted any Brits.

On the German left one of the Commando's made a dash for it as they became hemmed in but he fell to the SMG fire of the guard who up to this point had been walking up and down a hill to the rear. We left him standing so we could have a try at the melee rules which we hadn't managed to get in thus far.

As the game drew to a close the British managed to get three men off in a rush to secure a win, but they did leave two bodies in the woods with a third man being in a perilous position with Germans closing in. 

By the nature of the way the patrol action works you can end up with some models who don't really get involved as a defender and these three didn't make a massive contribution to the war effort having not fired a single shot.

Overall it was an enjoyable game with a bit of rule checking as you would expect for a first game but we got through the turns quickly and many of the tests became second nature even during such a short time. I expect us to play again, perhaps in the desert as Stu said he had plenty of terrain and was planning on getting some Italians.