Designed by Robert Butler and published by Word Forge Games, SAS Rogue Regiment is your opportunity to channel the SAS soldier that lives within you to unleash your previously unrealised ability to sneak across enemy lines, set explosives, rescue comrades, destroy convoys, and get home in time for a nice cup of tea. The game can be played solo and works really well, but perhaps it's at its best when a team of friends take on a mission together.
The game comes with nine large double-sided game boards which allow for a multitude of setups with buildings, rivers, fields, compounds, forests and mountains (well, maybe small rockfaces, but you get the idea). Then pick a mission and a character, and away you go. The early missions are a little bit like those early days of basic training, and after you’ve played them once you probably won’t want to come back to them, but that’s ok – the later missions have a lot of content, from destroying convoys to taking out enemy leaders, to rescuing resistance fighters. Every time you play you’ll find a new way of approaching a mission and often the changing card-driven Events will keep you on your toes, forcing you to rethink your strategy.
The game system is fairly simple: each turn you have four action points to use, and these cover most actions you’d expect like move, attack, aim, climb, heal, etc. This is followed by drawing an Event card and moving the patrols and adjusting sentries as per the card. This is where the fun and unpredictability sits. The patrol you just snuck behind? Well, they might suddenly turn around and ruin your day. That sentry you thought you could dodge? Surprise! He’s looking out the window you were planning to sprint past. And that body you left in the road? Yeah, that’s going to come back to haunt you. All the time you are against the clock, as eventually the alarm will sound, and each small slip (and some Event cards) contribute towards that. There is also a battle phase once the alarm has sounded, but the process is very similar, and as enjoyable.
The rulebook isn’t easy to navigate, although all of the rules are in there somewhere. A good example is the sprint action. This creates noise, but that isn’t dealt with in the section detailing the action itself but in a later section on guards hearing operatives. That’s ok when reading the rules fully but frustrating when trying to find a particular rule during the game, and you’ll need to reference the rulebook often: with such a sandbox system, edge cases are frequent so a good understanding of the rules is essential when playing.
Some of the design options are challenging as well: the units all look very similar, and keeping track of where everything is can be confusing. One very strange choice is that Jock has a red beret and red tokens (great), Anders can use scuba gear, and has blue tokens (all good so far). However, Paddy has a green beret and orange tokens, and Ginger has orange hair but green tokens – go figure!
In order to keep the game enjoyable there are a few rules adaptations that are necessary but do sometimes detract from the experience. The guards can sometimes behave a little like Mr Magoo, unable to see the operative driving a jeep at them as they can only see 8 squares. If a guard does spot you, his shout can only be heard over 4 squares, so a sentry stood 5 squares away won’t react. If you shoot a harpoon at a guard and miss you can get away with it because there’s a good chance he simply can’t see you and so won’t react. But you know what? You don’t want these rules to change because, as silly as they sound, they make the game fun. It wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable if every guard was a military mastermind.
The most important thing to know is that SAS Rogue Regiment is a sandbox game – one of those rare gems where you actually create stories. I played a session with four players controlling four operatives, and let me tell you, it was constant fun. We ended the session with a wild story that we still talk about, like we’re all part of a top-secret operation. Seriously, it's a game that’ll leave you talking about it long after the game’s over.
If you’ve played V-Sabotage (aka V-Commandos) by Triton Noir, you’ll notice that SAS Rogue Regiment shares a similar vibe but with fewer moments where you wish you could throw your dice out the window. In V-Sabotage, when the alarm goes off, it feels like the game’s about to crush you under the weight of its difficulty. In SAS Rogue Regiment, the alarm’s a bit more predictable; it's mostly a result of your poor planning, not a cruel roll of the dice. That sense of control makes a big difference, especially with the time pressure to act quickly before the alarm sounds. Overall, SAS Rogue Regiment is an excellent game. It’s got all the content you want without being overwhelming. The sandbox nature lets you be clever, strategic and just a little bit reckless. And that chaps is something worth celebrating in the world of gaming.
(Review by Steve Berger)