Secrets of the Third Reich demo games 16/7

I ran a demo of SoTR yesterday, showing the game to a friend of a member down at the club, who showed great interest in the game and Germans in particular.

The demo was a small "bash" made up the following:

Germans
Veteran+Body armor 5RP
Command + Panzerfaust 5RP
Infantry squad + LMG team upgrade 8RP
Vampire 8RP

US
Green+Body armor 2RP
Command 6RP
Infantry Squad + Packed LMG 7RP
Liberty (Sentinel of freedoml) 8RP

The forces covered pretty much all the core infantry rules, most weapon categories and showed off some special rules. After going through the rules we played two games, changing sides during game 2. Both nations managed to win 1 time.


Brief game 1 summary
Germans came under heavy fire from the US side resulting in members of the German command squad becoming DOWN, their Lieutenant being picked off by the US Sniper. The German fire team containing the LMG were heading for a tall building but took casualties on their way and ended up disorganized - they remained disorganized for the following 4 turns as well rendering them useless as there were no officer to give them a "Just do it" order.

Shattered remains of the German force still managed to shoot down Liberty, and a lone German sergeant killed 4 US troops and inflicted a DOWN to the US Sergeant with a single grenade. He was later killed by the surviving US sergeant, German LMG team that was disorganized on the flank were mopped up in close combat by what remained off the German fire team.

The German Vampire moved around in mist form, materializing inside a building and fired at some nearby US troops failing to hit any. In return a US corporal fired his SMG and scored 3x 6's to hit and rolled a 6 to wound, killing the vamp!

That marked the end of the German presence on the table during  turn 1.

Having learned most of the rules, we swapped sides.

Brief game 2 summary
US starting out where the Germans started out last Game and vice versa. The US moved into buildings very quickly and fired from hard cover at the German teams inflicting some losses. The German LMG fire team ran into some woods for cover and later opened fire at the US sniper inflicting a DOWN before he could start to pick them off one by one. The Sniper bled to death during the maintenance phase.

The LMG also cut down members of the US command team which used standing members to drag DOWN'ned survivors out of LoS. US fire teams inside the intact building opened fire and pretty much wiped out the German command and the second fire team. The German medic was heading for some wounded but changed his mind, instead he ran towards the tall ruined building and threw a grenade up to the 3rd floor and inflicted kills and injuries to temporarily knock out the US threat. One member of the German command fired off his Panzerfaust, hit the tall building and blew up the covering wall exposing the wounded inside.

The Vampire moved in mist form towards the position of Liberty at the center of the table, ending his movement inside the same building. However plans to attack her were thwarted by the enthusiastic German LMG team which peppered her full with lead. The Vampire instead turned his attention to the US command north of the building and charged them. In the fighting the vampire killed the remaining 3 members of the command squad.

US troops moved out of the intact building to face him with their guns ready. The Vampire moved on their flank and attacked them and killed one soldier making the others rout back towards cover. Catching up with them a small distance away he proceeded to kill 3 more men before being killed himself with 1 single lucky hit!

What remained of the US side was gunned down as the Germans moved in from both flanks throwing grenades and firing directly at the defenders.
.............

The person I ran the demo for really liked SoTR and said it had everything he missed in WH40, such as alternating activations, ability to fire at and destroy terrain and that everything was sort of categorized in an easy manner so he did not have to learn every single unit in every codex to understand how the enemy army works. He was interested in coming back, so next time I hope to introduce some vehicles and slightly larger platoons for a more advanced demo.

As a sidenote, I also realized how messed up I was by playing all the games I play, at a certain point all the rules merge into one grey sludgy matter haha. "Yeah close combat works pretty much like in Strange Aeons", "No you can fire over obstacles, it's in Legends of the Old West where you have to roll to bypass each obstacle", "It's in Malifaux where you have to charge in a straight line, in SoTR you can charge your movement range in any way you like" haha. I'm really glad my buddy Calle has his vacation now so we can pick up a few SoTR games, maybe try out our tournament armies and refresh our memories a little.