I played this scenario at the UK Games Expo in 2018...it was my first experience of OWB, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find how well it plays, giving an authentic feel of the classic WW2 adventure films. This scenario, in particular, gives a great introduction and also provides a good sandbox experience within a time-bound mission. As such, provides a great one-shot that really captures the feel of a reconnassaince mission. Thoroughly enjoyable!

I've had the PDF for 2 years and recently pulled the trigger on getting the print book and I am glad I did. Sturdy, looks good, feels good

Quick review of the game, focus on vehicle rules.

OWB WWII is a fun game well worth it's money. The more modern aspects of combat such as full automatic and fire suppression rules are handled well and described very well to allow use without confusion. These along with optional rules to add more depth to the rules to give you a good dose of war-gaming fix mixed in with your role-playing.

It's OD&D/Swords & Wizardry used as a base, stripped of magic and fantasy from the base setting with appropriate WWII classes, weapons, etc bolted on for a tight and fun period piece game. Hit Points, Armor Class, Saving Throw: all of the recognizable bits of old school RPG's are here (and include the option of Ascending or Descending AC and hits.) Familiar to the old school crowd and easy enough to pick up to learn and play in one sitting for the younger kids.

For optional settings there are three mini-settings presented at the end of the book: Super Science, Nazi Occult, and Galaxy War 1939. Each setting is short and sweet with stats for creatures, super gadgets, spells, etc appropriate for each setting.

It also has vehicle rules. Lovely uncomplicated and quick to use base vehicle rules. Initiative, attacks, movement: all are handled the same as character combat. No fiddly extra rules to have to learn. Find position, roll for surprise and initiative, move and then get to the shooting! There's enough here to allow for quick vehicle combat and room to add on your own ideas.

A number of basic land vehicle stats (jeeps to tanks) are included. They are kept fairly generic (jeep, truck, light to heavy tank, etc) and each vehicle has a certain amount of 1d6 HD for HP. Average stats are given but it is easy enough to work out that a new vehicle would have full HP and a random vehicle on a battlefield would have HP rolled for to indicate it's condition. Simple and sweet.

Vehicle weapons are appropriately terrifying for the infantry. Stats for autocannons as well as light, medium, and heavy cannon are given. Damage is multiple 1d6 dice, and they add up fast as they head toward the heavy cannon. Vehicle, buildings, etc take normal damage and personnel, your poor grunts, take residual damage if caught in the explosion radius of shells. Given the low-HD of the setting this is potentially lethal to an entire squad of PC's if they're not on their toes and using tactics. Pretty hardcore.

Vehicles are allowed modifications. The most significant in a battle would be Reinforced Hull. This can be taken up to three times and each times gives you immunity or reduced damage from to a lower level of weapon compared to your armor rating. For example a tank with Reinforced Hull x3 is immune to damage from pretty much everything except a heavy cannon, etc. Quick, intuitive, and easy to add onto.

The base book also includes a profile for a patrol boat and two for airplanes, small and large. The base rules are infantry orientated and the rules in the book can be used for basic boat and plane combat and leaves room for improvisation.

I really enjoy this game. It feels 'old school' enough to trip my nostalgia trigger and is useful enough to keep coming back for more fun.

It's got a LOT in it's 180+ pages and the layout is easy on the eyes for an old guy like me.

Excellent product - perfect balance between playability and complexity / "realism" for those of us who like to track # of cartridges fired and determine LOS. Nice to not have to adapt rules from elsewhereanymore - looking forward to some crossover scenarios, and maybe figuring out some Mech / Maschinen Krieger house rules

Excellent work - personally I'm a big fan of rules interoperability and what this does in allowing S&W as well as White Star crossovers is awesome. Strikes right balance between realism and playability. The Pearl Harbor adventure (separate) is great - looking forward to the rumored "PacificTheater"supplement

Everything you need wihout bogging you down. Fantastic art, AWESOME MAPS! and written very well. Cant wait for my print copy to arrive! Great job SNG!

An OSR Zine, but filled with more usuable content than some books.

We get a new Elvish-Demon Lord, some elf-sub races and a castle to adventure in. I immediately decided that all of these are connected and the Demon Lord, Erebus has these elves in his castle.

There are some patron saints of Good. Some magical tools and some new lycanthropes.

The WW2 OSR

Roll your classic 6 attributes, select your nationality, profession (before the war), and class (during the war) and you're ready to go!

Includes a wealth of detail on the war itself (including a detailed timeline) and many ways to play. From frontline soliders to commandoes to spies to tank commanders. As well as Nazi Superscience, the Nazi Occult, and Space Wars campaign modes to inject some scifi and fantasy into the game if you desire (totally optional but well detailed)

I can't recommend this product highly enough to anyone wishing to play a WW2 campaign, or play out a military conflict in a similar era.

Excellent art throughout

J'attendais la traduction de ce jeu depuis longtemps et je n'ai pas été déçu. L'ouvrage est de qualité et complet. Les règles bien connues remplissent leur office et les classes de personnages sont bien adaptées à la période. Le module "Ponteville" permet de jouer une première mission très libre de sabotage en France. A noter aussi qu'il existe un mini scénario pour permettre aux joueurs d'appréhender les règles. Enfin, les informations sur la seconde guerre mondiale et les missions commandos sont complètes sans être encyclopédiques et donnent de bonnes idées de campagnes.

A fun, semi-detailed city. A small City State of the Invincible Overlord without some of the goofy Judge's Guild 1970ness (and I was a player and loyal customer!). This is one that I printed and will use.

I must admit the idea of "WW2 D&D" struck me as an incredibly poor fit, but I purchased the book anyways and was pleasantly surprised.

The writer has done a fantastic job making the game flow well, striking a good balance between rules simplicity and enough chrome to feel satisfying. A lot of gamers will go into a game like this with particular expectations and I think this game will meet them pretty well.

There are things I'd have liked to see added or expanded upon (as always) but you get a really playable package with a ton of ideas to get on a table and play.

This is well recommended and I actually regret not picking up the print version instead. This would look fantastic on a bookshelf along my wargames books.

Operation WhiteBox is excellent in many ways. First, the quality of writing and the attention to detail that went into the design of this game is excellent! Second, the support by the designer is amazing. There are a number of existing support products that give GMs lots of missions from which to choose from. The game gives a taste of war at the tactical level with familiar underlying mechanics. If you are a history afficiando or an OSR gam looking for something different, this is a game for you.

This is a great addition to the already great Operation Whitebox line of products. A detailed supplement detailing anything one needs to know for running Combat involving small scale squads to larger. Includes movement in difficult terrain, crawling and sneaking along etc. Any rule you can think of for a war-based game is here. The supplement has good graphics detailing the use of "minis" if you play that style and also enough details to strictly play "Theater of the Mind". A list of weapons and vehicles and their usage. Overall a A+.

I was very impressed by this book. Having owned/played/GM'ed many, many modern games over the years, I found this to be a refreshing take on an old system and a relatively under-used genre. I have been very impressed by many of the games coming from Small Niche Games and I plan to continue following them to see what other role playing gems they put out in the future. The support for this game has already been tremendous, with a prolific number of adventures already available in a short amount of time.

The system is still OD&D, but the class structure isn't overwhelming. One of the things I love about OWB is that it uses the grandfather of all fantasy rpg's without being one. You won't find a hint of elves, magic users or dragons in this book. It's a very good take on a modern (by that I mean guns and tanks, not swords and horses) historical rpg. It was nice that they tipped their hat toward weird science and Nazis in space, but the game isn't inherently set up around anything surreal.

At first I was a little dismayed reading through the stats, weapons and combat. I kept thinking, "What about Hit Dice? Why is the weapon damage so flat-rate? Why just d6's?" Of course I was expecting more of a D20 Modern layout to all these things. Then, after I read through the introductory scenario, it all hit me. This isn't an 80's movie action take on WW2. It's extremely realistic. You have 1d6 hit points. Most weapons do at least 1d6 damage. If you run out in the open yelling, "Shoot me Shoot me Shoot me!" Someone will likely quite lethally oblige you. It's a refreshing change of pace. In fairness, you can still play in heroic mode and bump up the Hit Dice, etc.

I also really like the fact that there is no advancement beyond Level 5. It totally makes sense given the war itself didn't last that long. It also helps keep the combat realistic and somewhat gritty. Your character is part of the war effort, not winning the war single-handedly in both theaters of operation, and not coming out at the end with millions of gold coins, his own castle, and hundreds of followers.

My only real recommendations for improving the game are an expanded list of equipment and vehicles, by primary country and dates of deployment. (US, USSR, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) There don't need to be volumous notes on everything, just enough to give each country's gear a somewhat realistic feel beyond "Rifle, Large." or "Tank, Medium." Also, it might have been a good idea to focus a little more on languages. The language barrier for Americans in Europe and Japan should probably come up on a regular basis in game. A little more detail overall on the timeline at the beginning of the book or in the GM section would have been helpful for a younger crowd or one with less familiarity with history. This is one of the only games I've ever seen where some outside research is fun and helpful in running and even playing the game. My players are getting brief history lessons with their rpg time Bwah ha-ha! and that's awesome.

I was also balked slightly when the hardcover was made available the day after my softcover arrived in the mail. If only I had waited... Oh well. I just have to take really good care of this softcover until I can find a friend to give it to and order the hardcover for me.

The wait for this was well worth it. Having a Swords and Wizardry White Box game with all the bells and whistles of WWII is an exciting prospect. The book itself is well organized and provides excellent advice on running a military campaign. Of special note was the advice on historical accuracy and limiting the scope of adventures so the Referee is not overwhelmed by the amount of detail that could bog them down. I think this is great advice for campaigns in any historical setting.

Overall, a wonderful game. I may throw in some schmeisser carrying orcs in my next Swords and Wizardry campaign.

A very flexible ruleset for historical WWII adventure gaming. Also includes guidance for running super science, occult, and even space games. Heck, you could run OD&D Modern with it, if you wanted to. Thumbs up!