Operation Barclay is my first intro to war games and this is my first view of one of your videos. You are such a good game teacher! Learned everything very easily. Thanks!
This is an interesting way this game plays. It is one of those which needed you to run through the first turn just to be absolutely clear how it works (as I did have a few questions) - so I appreciated the look through turn 1!
One of the dangers in the physical production of a game like this is that the back sides of the secret tokens need to be EXACT. No offsets or defects. In this case, the token to the right of Benghazi has a dark spot near the center. They should probably provide an extra token of each type.
I'm pretty sure that was a speck that was resting on top of my token and not a defect on the token itself. I was using that area to clip counters a little while ago. But your point still stands, for sure. :)
Wow! What a fascinating choice for a game. I had a fun time playing Black Orchestra with friends and have always been on the lookout for games outside the wargame box. BTW, Operation Mincemeat was made into a great movie that was on Netflix, I believe.
Definitely a fun topic to explore, and I like the deep card play. I actually stumbled into that Netflix movie while looking up some stuff on this game. I haven't watched it yet but am going to soon! :)
I'm typically a crowdfunding-adverse game shopper, but missing out on The Hunt and Resist! has me rethinking my position. Both those games look so rad.
I just my copy this week but ran into a few questions. Does the straight need to be all different colors? The rules are ambiguous about this. I noticed you played the straight but two cards were the same color.
Hmm. Going from memory here but I think I probably assumed that the rules would mention any color requirements, so probably any color combination is okay. I wonder if Board Game Geek has any clarification on it? If you can’t find the answer I will be at a conference with the designer next weekend and can ask him there.
So, if you get 2 red in one path it's known to be bad! If you get 4 green in a path it's THE path! So the Germans could win in 4 flips, OR 8 flips if they got very lucky. Is there a rule that if all 5 tiles have been flipped on a path and the Germans win some intel on that path, that they can choose another path instead? (If you mentioned that I missed it as I did zone out for a bit during the vid...oops!) That might make it TOO easy for the German, though, as it seems the whole trick is to try and win the Intel in the paths to get the 2 reds ASAP.
I've added a correction to the video notes, but I had one thing wrong: The Germans have to identify both the main and secondary landing zones. So not just the main one. I don't recall a rule stating what happens if you've already uncovered all the tokens in a zone and get a new one for that zone, but I assumed that you just can't use it as the Germans in that case.
@@ZillaBlitz Hmmm, so that means 3 reds to prove bad (x 3 = 9) and if you do THAT, you KNOW the other two routes are primary and secondary. Then have to be able to prove which is which between those? Hmmm...
I think if you picked perfectly then you could do it in 11 choices, right? You get the 3 red ones on the 3 diversionary invasions and then 2 red ones on the secondary invasion.
I see you have the original Squad Leader. Avalon Hill's best selling wargame of all time. I played it Ad Nauseum (Latin) in the USAF back in the '80s. You should play that all your waking hours. You should buy the add on packs Crescendo of Doom (Americans), Cross of Iron (German armor), and a Brit pack. Can't remember the name. Forget ASL. SL is better IMO.
Operation Barclay is my first intro to war games and this is my first view of one of your videos. You are such a good game teacher! Learned everything very easily. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words and welcome to historical gaming! One of us one of us! :)
This is an interesting way this game plays. It is one of those which needed you to run through the first turn just to be absolutely clear how it works (as I did have a few questions) - so I appreciated the look through turn 1!
Yes, I think once you see it get played a bit it’s much easier to get a sense for how the game plays. It’s quite unique.
One of the dangers in the physical production of a game like this is that the back sides of the secret tokens need to be EXACT. No offsets or defects. In this case, the token to the right of Benghazi has a dark spot near the center. They should probably provide an extra token of each type.
I'm pretty sure that was a speck that was resting on top of my token and not a defect on the token itself. I was using that area to clip counters a little while ago. But your point still stands, for sure. :)
Wow! What a fascinating choice for a game. I had a fun time playing Black Orchestra with friends and have always been on the lookout for games outside the wargame box. BTW, Operation Mincemeat was made into a great movie that was on Netflix, I believe.
Definitely a fun topic to explore, and I like the deep card play. I actually stumbled into that Netflix movie while looking up some stuff on this game. I haven't watched it yet but am going to soon! :)
Ben McIntyre’s non fiction book on same is excellent as well…actually any of his books are excellent
Thanks for the book recommendations. I've not read anything of McIntyre yet. Looks like content I'd really enjoy. :)
I'm typically a crowdfunding-adverse game shopper, but missing out on The Hunt and Resist! has me rethinking my position. Both those games look so rad.
This one does remind me of Resist, fun thinking gameplay with a war theme wrapped around it.
Great job Zilla Blitz! Big fan of your videos and your channel.
Thank you much. :) I’m happy you liked it. :)
There’s a little bit of the game Watergate in this regarding some of the processes. Watergate is a good game as well.
Oh, interesting, I keep hearing good things about that one.
Very well explained, but I feel it could be shorter. Thanks!
My pleasure, thanks for the feedback! :)
I just my copy this week but ran into a few questions. Does the straight need to be all different colors? The rules are ambiguous about this. I noticed you played the straight but two cards were the same color.
Hmm. Going from memory here but I think I probably assumed that the rules would mention any color requirements, so probably any color combination is okay.
I wonder if Board Game Geek has any clarification on it? If you can’t find the answer I will be at a conference with the designer next weekend and can ask him there.
So, if you get 2 red in one path it's known to be bad! If you get 4 green in a path it's THE path! So the Germans could win in 4 flips, OR 8 flips if they got very lucky.
Is there a rule that if all 5 tiles have been flipped on a path and the Germans win some intel on that path, that they can choose another path instead? (If you mentioned that I missed it as I did zone out for a bit during the vid...oops!) That might make it TOO easy for the German, though, as it seems the whole trick is to try and win the Intel in the paths to get the 2 reds ASAP.
I've added a correction to the video notes, but I had one thing wrong: The Germans have to identify both the main and secondary landing zones. So not just the main one.
I don't recall a rule stating what happens if you've already uncovered all the tokens in a zone and get a new one for that zone, but I assumed that you just can't use it as the Germans in that case.
@@ZillaBlitz Hmmm, so that means 3 reds to prove bad (x 3 = 9) and if you do THAT, you KNOW the other two routes are primary and secondary. Then have to be able to prove which is which between those? Hmmm...
I think if you picked perfectly then you could do it in 11 choices, right? You get the 3 red ones on the 3 diversionary invasions and then 2 red ones on the secondary invasion.
I see you have the original Squad Leader. Avalon Hill's best selling wargame of all time. I played it Ad Nauseum (Latin) in the USAF back in the '80s. You should play that all your waking hours.
You should buy the add on packs Crescendo of Doom (Americans),
Cross of Iron (German armor),
and a Brit pack. Can't remember the name.
Forget ASL. SL is better IMO.
Interesting, I've not heard that before. What makes the original Squad Leader better?
@@ZillaBlitz Because I have all the original SL add on paks and never played ASL ::)
@@ZillaBlitz Sidebar- about Squad Leader. If you have the original purple packaging Squad Leader its very rare and worth big money.
@@Phalanx11 Haha!
@@Phalanx11 Purple packaging? Hmmm.