How game Works
This blog is dedicated to the Sabre Squadron but i think the game deserves a review. Having experience with various Modern Combat games for microarmor (featuring Fistfull of Tows, Cold War Commander, Able Archer - but this doesnt count as their are mine ruleset, and TAC II) i must say the Sabre Squadron is the spot here all rules i mentioned have some issues atleast for me. Cold War Commander and Fistfull of Tows are gaming systems in what gamers call 1:5 game when one vehicle or squad represents platoon and i have problem with this scaling, so when i was looking for game i searched for 1:1 (each vehicle representing vehicle, squad representing squad and so on). But to be honest Cold War Commander have great command and control system but hitpoint system is putting me off. Fistful of Tows III have extensive unit database which is without peer the best point of system. TAC II from Allen Rockwell is great but he have datacards only for few type vehicles and mostly ultramodern. And then we have Sabre Squadron so lets look at this game
So What is Sabre Squadron?
Sabre Squadron is Company level game meaning you will lead company or higher to the battle, so you will have around 4 platoons with additon of supporting elements like ATGW vehicles, AA , arty or airsupport. Games was created with combined arms in mind, but works well for armor or infantry only battles. My scale of choice is 6mm but game works well with 3mm,10mm, 15mm or even larger if you have sufficient space on table.
The Shiny
Now we will look at design of the book, full-color 144 pages, including index, QRS , Unit stats, tactics and pricing in points. What iam not fan of in rulebook is first two chapters, describing technology and basics which from POV was somewhat confusing refering to certain attribute of unit without explaing what it does but you find that later in book. There could be photos from gaming but author used realworld photos and pictures from artists and create good mood within the book.
The Diagrams showing certain rules like, direct fire for example are greatly done. The whole ruleset is segmented so you can try game without using advanced elements of game like Engineering, WMDs, Airsupport or Arty. Which is always good. Some Rules are little hard to get grasp at first sight like hull down and turret down but when you try it you will now how to use it
The Game of Sabre Squadron is divided in turns , turns are divided into bounds. In each bound player will perform various actions thru phases. The Sabre Squadron follows loose IGOYGO system so each in bound have active and responding player. Active is that guy who will give orders this bounds while responding will dodge ATGMs, Resolve Arty strikes or ward of enemy helicopters but lets look onto the phases in detail
- Phase 1 Responding player will resolve actions with aircrafts, while active player will resolve AA fire againts these planes.
- Phase 2 Active players will issue actions to his platoons, responding player can dodge ATGMs or ward off helicopters of table
- Phase 3 In this phase responding player will launch arty strikes or spot new targets which can be used in next turn
- Phase 4 could be called recovery - suppresed units can be removed or status neutralized (basicly bail out) can be changed to suppresed
- Phase 5 active player will now fire counter-battery arty fire and responding player will remove markers for batteries that performing shoot and scoot.
- Phase 6 is last phase from rolls for morale of units and "armies". Responding player than can attempt recover morale for untis that has dropped below "good"
This system keeps both players occupied durning turns. rarely other was is sitting and doing nothing.
The game uses D10s instead of classic D6s but system works well maybe even better than typical D6 systems. Almost every roll is on basic 5, there are modificators (and some worst trained or motivated force can have number higher) so almost always you are looking to throw 5 or more.
Movement - Movement of each units is divided to move segments depending on terrain the number of move segments can be lower or higher each type of vehicle or infantry have also attribute how fast it is meaning how long each MS is (Slow tracked vehicle have MS 1" while Fast Tracked Vehicle MS is 2". for example T80 which is tracked vehicle will move 2 move segments in open wood but on open ground it is 4MS.
Direct fire is pretty simple because for most weapons (Infantry weapons usually have small range) have infinite range, but vehicles with more modern fire control systems can preform pretty precise fire even on long ranges.
For armoured vehicles (as they use different modificators and resolution as softskin or infantry) there
isnt cover system as we know from different game but you either have hull down or turret down position or you are exposed. if you have one of these two positions are you are underfire from high angle or top attack ATGM you roll where you been hit , hull, turret or top. Meaning if you has been hit into hull while in hull down position that fire has no effect.
However there one issue i wrote about in previous article and thats damaging of AFVs which in basic game if you hit enemy armoured vehicle is almost 100% in most cases that vehicle will be destroyed however with house rule disscused the game will jump back to earth and became little more interesting and "realistic"
What i like about Sabre Squadron are their "Coherency" there is no such thing in common sense like we know but rather each command unit has some form of radius most of units will have two A4 cards if you are outside area and you want to move you must move near command vehicle/team (unless you are hightech force and you can override this rule by roll) or fire more than 18" which requires roll. The point is this coherency is for platoons so you wont propably see parking lot syndrome even in larger scales.
As units starting taking casualties they more can drop or they can even rout- this is in game given by 5 morale levels
Good- unit perform their action normaly
Uncertain - Moving towards the enemy requires motivation roll
Halt- your units will not move towards the enemy baseline at all
Withdraw - unit will move towards the your table edge and if not rally they will left the table
Rout- unit will disperse or surrender - they are removed from table
Every Platoon or section have Morale Points which are used to check if your force is broken and durning deployment in most scenarios you will deploy only part of your MPs.
There are ofcourse rules for Engineering - mines, trenches, dug-positions, pontoon bridges, WMDs, Aircrafts, Helicopters, Building destruction, Drones.
So basicly anything you want to play from Cold War to the recent conflicts in Middle east or Ukraine this game is for you it offer fairly large ammount of unit statistics to which author still adds new units - Along side US,Russia, China, British and other typical armies, you will find stats for both Korean vehicles, South Africa, Israel and so on. and these are for free which is excelent
But word of warning apart from Cold War there are no "armylists" as casual players know them but you can figure out TOE or Orbats from various sources like Micromark Armylist which are avaiible at
Wargaming Vault, books or even some Games if you are not purist (For example Steel Panthers MBT which are availible for free have extensive amount of Orbats)
All said and done Sabre Squadron is atleast for me great Combined Arms game, and great entry point
for new players because the rules arent really hard, they are well written, game have value points for ballancing, all types of scenarios you want for basic gaming (3 types of meeting engagements, and 4 types of Attack/defend scenarios) and if you want something extra well you can divised by yourself.
Ofcourse there points that could be better like overwatch but IMHO it will slowdown the game, so for modern gaming this game is way to go.
If you dont want to buy rabbit in bag you can always try "demo" rules they doesnt offer all options like "full" version but gives you real idea how the game is played and whatever or not are these rules for you. You can download them
here as well as stats for vehicles you want to use (thats what we did before we bought the rules)
P.S. Sorry for photos but these were only ones i found in my archive. i will hopefull exchange them for better soon.
