[Review+Battle Report] Operation Squad Evolution

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey, last weekend I had a lovely game of Operation Squad!

Wrote a review and battle report about Operation Squad (squad-level WW2 skirmishy things).

https://tabletopstories.net/language/en/2025/04/operation-squad-review-and-battle-report/



In my mind Operation Squad does squad-level modern firefights like no other game I played. Really solid fun.
Hope you like the article!

As always, the article is available in German and English.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Interesting stuff, I’d never considered this ruleset before but your write up has definitely put it onto my radar. I always enjoyed the reaction system of force on force and tomorrow’s war so this sounds like it’ll be up my street. Thank you for posting.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Thanks very much!

Yup, the reaction system isn't unlike FoF's/TW's, but in my mind it's a bit easier to grasp. And with a rules set all about modern firefights you just need some sort of reaction system, I think.

[Burgundavia]

Read your blog. The action/reaction system is really interesting to me and definitely something I'd love to try out.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Read your blog. The action/reaction system is really interesting to me and definitely something I'd love to try out.

Cheers! Yeah, I'm still impressed with these rules, because it's not easy to get structure into 20 dudes running around, shooting at each other. I think that Operation Squad is really good at doing that.

[john Hollyoak]

Absolutely loved this game. Don't get to play at all now, more's the pity. The reaction system is excellent and I always thought firing was realistic (caught in the open you are almost certainly dead).
John

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Absolutely loved this game. Don't get to play at all now, more's the pity. The reaction system is excellent and I always thought firing was realistic (caught in the open you are almost certainly dead).
John

Cheers! Yeah, it's one of those games I got on the shelf, only ever played it with one guy, he moved away (and out of wargaming altogether for a while as he was building a house for a bunch of years). Now he's back with a vengeance, but far away. It was cool though to play it again, because it's really good. That reaction system hits that sweet spot between 'gives plausible results via a plausible course of actions' (to avoid the world 'realistic') and 'fun'. Also, it plays so well.

Force on Force (okay, not quite squad-level, but also models firefights, close to the ground), does super plausible firefights, but you really have to wrap your head around them first to get to the 'fun' part in my experience. Great rules set, but wrinkles my brain.

Chain Reaction (or any other Two Hour Wargames game) of course is also really well known for its reaction system. Extremely interesting, because it's so unlike anything else.

The other squad-level firefight game I tried was Flying Lead by Ganesha Games (with a few bits from the Hearts and Minds supplement). I'm a big fan of Ganesha Games and their rules based on Song of Blades and Heroes. Flying Lead does a really good job, but for modern firefights I think I prefer having a reaction system in place. I mean Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes (excellent, my go-to fantasy skirmish game) adds a reaction system which can be implemented in any Ganesha rules set without a problem and works super well. But for frantic firefight-y stuff I think that the Operation Squad reaction system is superior.