Anyone played BFP Operation Neptune CG?

[DVexile]

Curious if anyone has tried the Operation Neptune CG (the BFP one released last year)?

Doesn’t seem to be an entry for it on the scenario archive and can’t find any mention on the forums of folks playing it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Honza]

Funnily enough this is one of the few new releases which I did not buy. Maybe I will one day, but it will be for completion sake rather than wanting to play it.

 

[sswann]

Too bad.
It handles river crossing in a CG in a much simpler way than the Dinant CG in the French Module.

 

[DVexile]

Anyone... Anyone... Bueller... Bueller...

Checking on Discord I see @hongkongwargamer asked about Operation Neptune at the start of the year and was met with similar silence.

Looks fun and not overwhelming at least.

 

[Gunner Scott]

The issue is there is just way too much stuff out there to play, sure you have your crazy collectors who buy anything with an ASL label stamped on it, but the actual people that play this game perhaps numbers in the low 2000's, so your chances of seeing a product get played more then once is very low.

 

[Thunderchief]

The issue is there is just way too much stuff out there to play, sure you have your crazy collectors who buy anything with an ASL label stamped on it, but the actual people that play this game perhaps numbers in the low 2000's, so your chances of seeing a product get played more then once is very low.

I agree - the "time to make an impact" seems quite short these days, and if a product doesn't get enough attention/exposure then it will (probably) be taken over by the next product (or products).
Having said that, being "new" doesn't really influence my decision when it comes to choosing a scenario.

At the moment I am playing scenarios from MMP, BFP, LCP, LFT, CH, DftB and SP. Some of these scenarios are about 25 years old. It took me 10 years to get around to playing a scenario from Festung Budapest.

I've played just over 850 scenarios.
About 600 have been played once.
About 100 have been played twice.
About 20 have been played 3 or more times.

 

[cvetzor]

A friend and I started this CG we are in the first night scenario. The restrictions on the Germans on their purchases may be a problem. Things don’t became interesting until the British can purchase a bridge of some sort on scenario 3.

 

[volgaG68]

Curious if anyone has tried the Operation Neptune CG (the BFP one released last year)?

I've actually played all of the scenarios, and wanted to take a "environment break" before playing the CG. The same 'scene' slowly becomes monotonous to me after 5 or 6 scenarios, fun though they were! You know how difficult doubling back on something can be. I got sidetracked heavily by FTC12, LFT14, some XLs from CoS, and 2 of the final 3 from PiF I hadn't played yet.

I'm sure I'll double back on the CG before year's end, and the map will be refreshing and exciting again.

This article is well worth acquiring if your DUKW-rules knowledge is not up to speed.

DUKW Question

Question answered via DUKW article!

www.gamesquad.com

 

[DVexile]

A friend and I started this CG we are in the first night scenario. The restrictions on the Germans on their purchases may be a problem. Things don’t became interesting until the British can purchase a bridge of some sort on scenario 3.

Yay! Someone doing the CG!

The mixture of a night scenario and the river crossing seem like they would make this an interesting CG. I've got Red Factories because everyone says it is a "must play", but to be honest the urban/rubble slugfests appear as if they would mostly be and endless repetition of "Assault Move, Advance, Skulk, Assault Move, Advance, Skulk". Enjoying the maneuver in the Hatten in Flames CG I am playing right now and looking at other CGs that aren't just a creeping slog through a rubbled city.

I've actually played all of the scenarios, and wanted to take a "environment break" before playing the CG. The same 'scene' slowly becomes monotonous to me after 5 or 6 scenarios, fun though they were! You know how difficult doubling back on something can be. I got sidetracked heavily by FTC12, LFT14, some XLs from CoS, and 2 of the final 3 from PiF I hadn't played yet.

I'm sure I'll double back on the CG before year's end, and the map will be refreshing and exciting again.

This article is well worth acquiring if your DUKW-rules knowledge is not up to speed.

DUKW Question

Question answered via DUKW article!

www.gamesquad.com

That totally makes sense! There is a lot out there to play.

I see you also spent time earlier with Race to the Meuse. I know it is a very apples to oranges comparison, but what's your impression between these two? It looks like the Race to the Meuse scenarios are very small and maybe meant as an intro to the terrain/map in preparation for the CG. In Neptune there are more and seemingly more substantial scenarios in addition to the CG.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to post your experiences with the module so far!

 

[DVexile]

Replying to my own post here just for the sake of the archive should someone else ponder Operation Neptune and turn this up in a search...

First, my original searching skills were lacking. I eventually found a nice AAR of the first CG day over on BGG:

First Play Through of Initial CG Scenario | Operation Neptune

First Play Through of Initial CG Scenario | Operation Neptune

boardgamegeek.com

It handles river crossing in a CG in a much simpler way than the Dinant CG in the French Module.

This is a really good point. There are a lot of additional rules for the crossing in Dinant. Actually, more broadly Dinant just has far more rules overall (nine pages before even getting to CG specific rules).

In addition, the scale of Dinant is significantly larger. The Dinant map is three times the area of Neptune and not surprisingly the initial scenario squad counts are about a factor of three higher as well. In addition Dinant has a lot of AFVs which can of course increase play time.

So I think while one might view this as very similar to Dinant (river crossing, about the same number of CG dates, a night CG date) there is in fact such a significant difference in scale and complexity that these are really not interchangeable in a practical sense.

If looking for a grander scale, longer play time, and chromier experience then probably choose Dinant. If looking for a more manageable OB, lighter time obligation, and very little chrome then probably choose Operation Neptune.

As to my personal conclusion - Noble Knight is having a sale and ON is down to $49 while also pushing the rest of my order across the free shipping threshold, so one of these days (years?) I can hopefully report back on my impressions of playing the CG.

 

[Gunner Scott]

I would steer clear of NKG, I have had nothing but problems with them in the past.

Scott

 

[DVexile]

I would steer clear of NKG, I have had nothing but problems with them in the past.

Scott

It’s all new shrink wrapped stuff (and not CH garbage either) so I expect it will be fine, but thanks for the warning.

The vast majority of my ASL purchases go through the usual more ASL focused vendors or direct from the manufacturer. This time, however, with the sale and the coincidence that my top three things were all available at NK there was a fair bit of savings doing a single order through them. Normally there really isn’t anything to distinguish them for an ASL player (well, besides insanely high prices for OOP stuff better purchased elsewhere).

 

[Dave Lamb]

Replying to my own post here just for the sake of the archive should someone else ponder Operation Neptune and turn this up in a search...

First, my original searching skills were lacking. I eventually found a nice AAR of the first CG day over on BGG:

First Play Through of Initial CG Scenario | Operation Neptune

First Play Through of Initial CG Scenario | Operation Neptune

boardgamegeek.com

Thanks for the review. That was my intent when designing Operation Neptune. Even the scenarios were deliberately not overly complex.

 

[DVexile]

Thanks for the review. That was my intent when designing Operation Neptune. Even the scenarios were deliberately not overly complex.

Thanks of course for all the effort and time into designing a HASL!

I think CGs that are sort of "right sized" like this are a great to have available. I completely understand the appeal of a "monster CG" and all sorts of historically specific "chrome" as well. That said, some of the appeal of a CG has nothing to do with that. Having OB purchase choices, needing to conserve forces for following dates, and tactical choices in managing the perimeter between dates have their own appeal which is entirely separable from scale and chrome. Getting those aspects of a CG with more bounded playing time and complexity is an excellent option to have.

 

[DVexile]

Well, it's here! Like most of my ASL stuff, there is probably a long wait to actually play it... But being so compact it is likely to get played sooner than some of the big stuff I have on my shelf. I picked up Sword and Fire Manila in the same order and boy is that a whole different kettle of fish (more like an industrial sized vat of fish).