"Has anyone played "Sting of the Scorpion"?" Topic

I got a great eBay deal on the Flames of War "Sting of the Scorpion" game and figures, and played two games of it last night.
First of all, the trucks are a hoot to paint up. They perfectly accept my vehicle scheme of prime black, spray with Krypon Camo Khaki, stain with Tamiya Smoke and drybrush with Desert Sand. Add sloppy stripes of Testor's Flat Gray and detail to taste.
Second, there is an eBay store that sells Corgi Stukas in 1/100 scale in Desert camo for $3.99, so I hjad a neat series of objectives to blow up on the runway.

Unfortunately, the game is TOTALLY dependent on the die roll for Bad Guy reinforcements.
My first game had the LRDG and SAS sneak up on foot. I ran at the double to get to the airstrip, and on Turn One, the first series of Bresaglieri reinforcements came on in the immediate quarter I was in. They shot me up to below half strength, and I failed morale. Game Over in Turn One.

In the second game, I stayed in the trucks, shot up the airfield, blew up enough planes and ammo dumps to get a victory, but got shot to pieces by armored cats before I got halfway up the road to exit.

Has anyone else played it? I may be far from gruntled because I lost, but I do think the game could use some tweaking. I do NOT propose tinkering with the basic FoW rules. They are what they are.
What I DO suggest is tinkering with the sentry rules.
In the game, sentries are placed to limit LRDG and SAS placement. Vehicles cannot come on within 16", or foot stands within 4" I propose that the LRDG or SAS be allowed to attempt to "take out" sentries on a Sklii Test. If they succeed, then they can "sneak" past the now silenced sentries. If they fail, gunfire triggers the reinforcement clock. Obviously, the first explosion or gunfire would trigger it, too. This would a cinematic flavor to what is already a cinematic game.
Note that to cash in the Victory Points, you must exit alive as well as blow things up.

Any thoughts?

I think you should have Faith in the Game Developers. As with Variable Ground Scale, they Know what they are Doing.

Allen

Faith is a great comfort, and a wonderful thing while being troubled with misery and defeat.
I just want to win a game every now and then.

I also thank you for not asking what a "Sklii Test" is.

Actually it was the Sting of the Scorpion set that pushed me over the edge and into the FoW world. Now, with an American armored company, an Italian armored and Bersagliari company, an Afrika Corps armored company, and an early war German armored company, in addition to the LRDG unit….damn FoW.

As to your question…win some, lose some -- I have. I personnally like the random reinforcement rules. In the case of a raid scenario there is an element of chance that I feel reflects the situation rather well. It does make it a bit of a challenge getting away, but I'm ok with that.

Funnily enough it wasn't the "Sklii" test that worried me. It was the Axis use of Armoured Cats that was the biggest cause for concern!

"I also thank you for not asking what a "Sklii Test" is."

No worries. I hvae sklii tesst in my gmaes all the tmie.

I thought the armored cats were a reference to Panther and Tiger tank reinforcements. I thought that might be a little harsh to the LRDG, but I'm not the Game Designer :-)

A variant could involve British Commmandoe raids on Narzi airfields in occupied Norway, involving reinforcement by armored bears.

I am glad to see that you have not become Immune to Irony, John. Naturally, you should feel perfectly free to fiddle with anything you think will give you a better game. In the privacy of your own home, of course.

Allen

One might also note that SAS and commando insertions in North Africa were remarkably prone to detection by Italian and German sentries and patrols. In turn, on a remarkable number of occasions, the insertees were able to talk their way past, rather than having to rely on various lethal means.

I don't suppose that would make as good a game, though: "On a D6 roll of 5-6, that year spent in Goettingen studying c.17th German psalms allows you to convince the Italian sentry that you are German officers, and you pass unchallenged."

Allen

John

In order to win a game, you could always change sides :o)

Hi John,
I don't play FOW, but we ran a very similar game at Fall-in. We used disposable heroes rules in 28mm with a lot of home rules to suit the scenerio. On the SAS/LRDG side, we had 10 SAS sneaking onto the German airstrip.The 5 brit players had 2 men each and 1 jeep or LRDG truck per player with a driver and gunner each. Each player had a 2 man team and had 4 chits to move onto any of the 3 board edges. Each chit was either a SAS man or a desert gerboa (or something). The Germans had 3 ME109s and a JU 88 to guard with 5 guards, two machine gun teams on buildings, one searchlight, as well as 3 squads of germans asleep in their bunks. Each brit player moved their chits (all numbered) and each german player could try to 'spot' using a sentry or spotlight (with a modified acquire roll -depending on the speed of the chit/man movement). Of course, if the germans spotted the SAS fellows (and the player turned over numbered cups to see if the tommies are there), and then they could shoot the tommies or engage in hand to hand combat. As shots are fired, a +1 is added each shot, +1 per complete turn, to wake the sleeping Luftwaffen units. The SAS fellow needed 1 turn to plant each bomb on plane, no shooting or other stuff. The germans did ,of course, wake up on 2nd and 3rd turn, and all hell did break loose. The brits called for their vehicles about then, and the jeeps and trucks started shooting planes and jerries up. The jerries shot up 3 jeeps/trucks and about half the brits were shot up, but because the brits shot-up and blew-up all the planes and some supplies, and got those victory points and snuck a slight victory. I hope that made some sense, it played rather well. The gents playing seemed to have a great deal of fun. Use any of those ideas if they seem useful or adaptable. Good luck, you can make it work, with the right rules tweaks.
Cheers.

"A variant could involve British Commmandoe raids on Narzi airfields in occupied Norway, involving reinforcement by armored bears."

That's the elite Panzerbehr division, right?