Earlier this year Grey for Now Games announced they would be publishing 02 Hundred Hours, a new set of rules for night-time raids during World War 2. It sounded like an interesting topic, so I pre-ordered a starter set.
The starter set includes the rules, gaming cards, custom dice, counters, and 36 figures. The figures are multi-part plastic from Wargames Atlantic. I haven't had a chance to assemble my figures yet, but a few of us wanted to try out the system with stuff we already had. We decided go with our North Afrca figures and do an intelligence gathering mission by Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) on an Afrika Korps post. The game is normally for two players, but there were three of us playing and learning the system.
The system is interesting. You draw chits to see which of your fighters can take an action, but the actions are limited by the alert level and if you can see any of the enemy. Spotting the enemy is very important. Only the attacker can take offensive actions until the alarm is sounded. There are also Event/Order cards that each side can play to change things up a bit.
The game area is 3' x 3' and we set up lots of buildings on the board. The LRDG had an officer, a sergeant, and 8 troopers. The Germans had officer, a sergeant, and 16 sentries/military police, although half were off-map in reserve.
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| The initial setup with German patrols deployed |
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| Another view of the initial setup |
Once I set up my patrol routes, we got underway. Initially the LRDG were slow getting on the board and had trouble ambushing some of the sentries. But then their paratrooper Sergeant showed up and took out the German officer to get things rolling.
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| One German down |
The Germans struggled to sound the alarm, but eventually got there and called out the reserves. However, sounding the alarm sort of freed up the LRDG from having to be stealthy and they pummeled the initial German sentry force.
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| German sentries raising the alarm before getting shot to pieces |
With the initial sentry force out of the way, the LRDG still had to find the intelligence and get off the board. So there was a bit of a race to search the buildings, while the German reserves tried to get on the board. Gunfire was exchanged and the Germans began to knock down some of the LRDG. The LRDG officer found some good intel and began to make his way off the board, while both sides were trying to get into position around another building with intel.
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| LRDG Officer making off with the intel |
The game went back and forth or a while, then the LRDG found another intel marker that would give them the win. Meanwhile, the Germans needed to kill one more LRDG figure before they could get the intel off the board to win. But the Germans came up short and the LRDG escaped with the intel. It was an LRDG victory, but a costly one. Our first game was a lot closer than I expected.
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| German reserves move up to stop the LRDG |
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| LRDG troopers set up to cover the escape |
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| Germans in pursuit of the LRDG trooper with intel |
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| The LRDG trooper escapes, giving the win to the LRDG |
Overall, it was a fun game that can be played with not too many figures. The gameplay built up a nice narrative. There are several scenarios in the rules, so there is some variety in gameplay. The game worked fine with three players and would probably work with a fourth. But it may bog down with more than that.
If you are interested in small scale raid actions during World War 2, I would recommend you take a look at the game.
