Operation Rösselsprung

An A3 map depicts the area of the operation. Instead of hexes, movement/action is regulated on squares. A solo try your luck adventure in Yugoslavia where with your German troops you try to capture the Partisan HQ and its leader Tito. The counters have nice graphics easily distinguished. The rulebook looks that it was lost in translation when translated from French into English; there are words / sentences missing in some parts of the rules’ text. They need re-editing; one has to read carefully the whole booklet twice and play a test game to figure out how some details work in the game. For example there are 5 locations on the border of the map that bring in partisan reinforcements – yet the designer has forgotten to mention after placing them how they move and act; when placing menace counters it has been omitted to mention if they are placed by enemy stack or enemy units – what is a force? a stack of counters or a unit. By using common sense and house rules one can fix these details. There is an example of play but it still leaves gaps and question marks.

It is a game were partisans units pop-up all over the place. Your troops have to last for 10 game turns. Once your paratroopers land they can do limited things apart from fighting – as it was historically the case. The air strikes are used to level objectives at most. It is a game about tactics – having the right choice of troops and support weapons and of luck where you will find out whether dice hate you or not. Intriguing theme, fast pace and lots of fighting.

An unexpected present

G

great design fitting the military situation, betrayed by spotty rules. Also suffers from historical unwinnable situation without adjusts or scenarios.

Obscure topic. Interesting solitaire romp.