This is Game 2 of our campaign. Check the Haywire tag for more.

Operation Thunder Run sees our units, composing Task Force Wayfarer, arriving on the scene to steal an enemy supply truck.

The truck departs on a random timer we can’t predict, so we know we’ve got limited time to make this work. Our secondary objective was to collect intel from an informant on the other side of the board. We drew an INFIL card which gave us an interesting deployment: we arrived in two covert vehicles, placed anywhere outside 12″ of the objective. Easy enough. We parked our white and red sedans just down the road.

We discussed and decided to split our efforts. Our plan was to send my son’s car (red) to meet the informant, then wait for an opportune moment to hop out and collect the intel, then hop back into the car. Easy. My car (white) was to drive down and park just across the street from the truck. When the enemies were looking away from the target, we would pop out, quickly take out the guards with silenced pistols, then take the truck and run.

We drew our Fog of War card and got redirected entirely. An HVT arrived on the board and our mission now became to kill or capture him. As it happened, he was near my son’s unit. We spent some time discussing how we could reposition, hop out of the cars, then leverage them for cover while we gunned down his unit. We figured we could hop back into the cars and drive off. With some good positioning and a bit of luck, we’d hit hard and get the hell out.

Then I remembered we had a support card from our campaign level upgrades. I drew it… and it was a AC-130J Ghostrider on standby, ready to solve all of life’s problems. The problem was that the target was near a civilian. We decided to wait a turn and see how enemy movements went, knowing full well they could spot us in the mean time.

But they didn’t. One Gun Run from the Ghostrider and we were driving off the board to safety. Mission accomplished.

What was interesting here was how the mission evolved as we played. The infil option we drew heavily shaped our approach. Then the Fog of War card completely changed the mission. Then the support card… well, resolved the mission. It was an unfolding narrative as we played and, despite the lack of “action,” we really enjoyed it.

Mission two is done and on the books. Our next mission is a Retaliation Mission as we’ve now gathered two Intel Points:

I don’t have much “Construction” stuff, but I’ll work something out. I don’t want to go printing a whole new set for just one game, so we’ll make do with a slightly improvised setup. Either way, the mission itself will be a nice change of pace after such a clean execution on our previous run.

Task Force Wayfarer is suiting up. Expect the next mission soon.