Secrets of the 3rd Reich meets Xenos Rampant

So, from Abbeville in France 1940, our intrepid reporter just had to move several hundred miles and five years in time to “somewhere in Germany 1945”. With the arrival of “Xenos Rampant” I had volunteered to run a trial game using Greg and Tony as guinea pigs, plus I could dust-off my long-neglected “Secrets of the 3rd Reich“ figures and terrain. I read the rules quite carefully and wrote-up a crib-sheet as an addition to the fairly sketchy Osprey QRS which I downloaded from their website. Phil also kindly sent his more professionally produced QRS.

I used two of the set German and US forces from the rulebook, and the “snatch the VIP” scenario. A German scientist was hiding in an abandoned research facility. The American OSS were trying to locate him and the local German Werewolves trying to stop them. Greg had to pull out, so I took the Germans leaving Tony with the Yanks. Chris also popped in to see how things were going.

The scientist was placed as per the scenario in the centre of the board and Tony’s forces raced onto the table. His Command Group moved quickly in their half-track, and his OSS team used their “infiltrator” attribute to make a pre-game 12” move which allowed them to take the “high ground” of part of the complex in turn one. Things already looked tough for the Krauts.

I moved my sniper squad into a bunker from where they began to fire at the American infantry. The Hitler Youth, in this case my Pulp Nazi female figures, took cover in some undergrowth as did the Heer unit.

Soon the game had degenerated into a brutal firefight. Our two “large” units traded fire with the Yanks taking casualties. Tony’s OSS proved almost impossible to target and kill being in cover and benefitting from the “Hard to Target” skill. No German unit seemingly wanted to close within 12” to shoot. The one that finally did regretted it.

Eventually I managed to get off a Panzerfaust shot against the M3 Half-track which had deployed its team. Pretty useless. Tony now had the scientist and was hustling him to the rear. 

Time for the Germans to counter-attack. As the “SS Assassins” advanced in open, skirmish order they found the Yank flamethrower squad hiding in cover. Disaster! 

With four of the five men burnt to a crisp the survivor raced off the board in panic. Counter fire from other German units killed two of the squad but their morale held. When the final German fire forced the American “large unit” to retreat I conceded to Tony, as their withdrawal only helped his forces back to where they wanted to go.

After the battle Tony and I chewed things over. Our overall verdict was “OK but nothing special”. Playing with 28mm figures on a 4’ x 4’ table the ranges can look a bit weird, so we think they would play better with 15mm. We don’t think we got much if anything wrong, but probably missed some of the subtleties which were buried in unit -specific “special rules”. It is clear from reading them that they are aimed at the gamers who love pulling bespoke forces together with special skills and options, plus leaders with varying characteristics. Most of the book is devoted to assembling your forces and from memory the rules take only 30 of the circa 190 page count. Not quite my cup of tea but I acknowledge it has its place in the gaming pantheon. Actually somewhere near the bottom cleaning out the Augean stables. I think they will appeal to Chris...

Simon