drones – SP's Projects Blog

Last night Chris and I created a drone team and ran through the first rotatsyia for our team using the Game of Drone book that I recently reviewed.

First up was generating the team which was achieved with a quick set of dice rolls. The key member of the team: the drone pilot themselves was a dreamer with 1 pilotage, 4 sixth sense and 2 Moxie- these can be spent at a rate of once per day to improve the chances in dice throws. The Navigator was fairly decent with a skill level of 5, Both the Sapper and Driver had the same skill level of 4 each. Not the best team that the random table could have thrown up but not the worst either. We then determined that we would be at the ‘Rolls- Royce’ bunker and generated an extra 10 support points to purchase equipment with.

For equipment we went for a Toyota Stout truck- the basic model- a drone detector, a drone jammer, an upgraded antenna and some high-quality food. For drones we purchased two Mav recce drones, a Matrixe, a bigger recce, drone and a Classic small bomber drone which has the ability to drop two bomblets per mission. This was then rounded off with nineteen FPV drones that are used in one way suicide attacks. This brought us in just under budget and well under the weight restriction for carrying things in in one go.

The rotatsyia starts with the vehicle infiltration- given our drone detector and drone jammer we got a decent bonus for this so arrived at the vehicle hide without incident. The advantage of being at the ‘Rolls Royce’ bunker is it is very close to the vehicle hide so we only had one risky roll to make for the foot infiltration stage. Again, this was concluded safely. Each game day starts with determining the weather- can affect rolls as visibility changes, getting the daily taskings- these are points of interest and potential targets that need to be recced that day, and finally what priority target we are given in the handover from the night time drone team. We had to recce 4 sites looking for mechanised targets, there was also an infantry team at one of them that needed to be taken out. The weather was clear, so it didn’t hinder us. We decided to start by using our Classic bomber to fly to the target and take out the infantry team. We passed the defensive Russian Electronic Warfare test, we were able to drop our bomblets, sadly both missed. The drone then safely made it back to base. We then sent out a Mav to recce the gully as part of our daily taskings. This was lost due to Russian EW. Our second Mav was then sent out and recced the gully finding no targets. It then flew to the soccer field to recce there but was lost to Russian EW. Feeling a bit unlucky we sent the Matrixe to recce the last areas, it found no targets at the settlement but was lost at the gully to the Russian EW. Now we had lost all of our recce drones in the first morning. We sent the Classic out and that successfully recced the soccer field finding no targets. Upon its return to base, we decided to launch a FPV suicide drone attack and the infantry target we had to take out. Although the navigator flying the Classic successfully got in position to guide in the FPV drone, the latter was lost to EW, as was the second one wee tried. At that point we decided to bring the Classic back to base and load it up as a bomber again to try a third time at the infantry group. This was successful and the infantry was taken out earning us 20 SPs. This took us to the end of day one of our rotatsyia, although we had to roll for changes in weather and random events throughout the day we suffered no ill effects.

Day two started with hi8gh winds that meant we couldn’t fly any drones in the first early morning period. We were spared any daily recce taskings as we had no recce drones left. We did get another group of infantry that was to be taken out. This was easily accomplished the with bomblets from the Classic; this earned us another 20 SPs and ended the day. Day three saw yet another infantry group appear- again bomblets from the Classic put paid to them. Similarly to day one, days two and three saw no negative effects from the random events.

Say four saw clear weather and an MTLB APC at the soccer field that needed to be taken out. A FPV suicide attack gave us the best chance of success so that is whet we launched. However, the Russian EW was too strong, and the Classic was lost before it could guide in the attack. This left us with no effective means of offensive action, so it was fortunate that the rotatsyia was ended on the evening of the fourth day. After a successful foot exfil and vehicle exfil, we arrived back at base with 60 SPs earned, these could be banked for victory point or spent. We desperately needed to build our stocks back up. We decided to upgrade the antenna again, get some high-quality food, then buy two Classic bombers, one Martixe recce drone and three Mav small recce drones. The drone team got five days rest and recreation during which we received a bit of media attention, and our driver was interviewed on TV. The next rotatsyia will start of June 10^th. Chris and I will return to this campaign as soon as we get a chance.

As can clearly be seen the Game of Drones book really does produce an excellent narrative that seems plausible and thematic from what is essentially a solo RPG set of mechanics. Our drone team was lucky that we didn’t attract any negative attention from the Russians during our time in the bunker, out investments in drone detectors and jammers, as well as the antenna helped here. However, we were unlucky to lose so many drones to Russian EW, a cursory scan of defence news websites shows that this is also realistic. (There did not seem to be anything in the rules however on what did do if you lack offensive capability: does the rotatsyia end early?) The EW roll is an opposed 2D6 roll, the distance from the bunker is the biggest factor that helps the Russians, the further that the target is behind the front line in the Russian rear the stronger the EW is, also the inherent protection of the site factors into this too. As chance is lumpy, we were consistently unlucky here – losing four drones to EW, but we were lucky elsewhere suffering no negative attention. We never found anything during our recces either which would have generated extra targets for our team.

Game of Drones, now that I have had the chance to play it is very much recommended. As an game experience it feels very authentic, as a game to understand how tactical drone warfare is being prosecuted in Ukraine at the moment it is invaluable. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to take the drone team out on their next rotatsyia soon.

Cheers,

Pete.

Game of Drones by Joe “BigMac” McDonald and Thomas Van Hare 2024. Initial thoughts after first read through. Pete Sizer. 2024.

In Game of Drones the player takes the role the commander of a four person Ukrainian drone team and has to lead them through a series of rotatsiyta (rotations) making up a tour of duty. In essence the game uses solo roleplay style mechanics to play against the game, as expressed by a succession of tables, to try and complete daily tactical missions with your drone team. Whilst the game mechanics are similar to the roll-and-write genre of games use is made of various maps and counters to handle the tactical elements of the game: movement and combat. The game designers strongly encourage the player to keep a narrative diary of the events that the game generates, it is clear that the mechanisms would make this very easy and would add a lot of verisimilitude.

One of the game designers is currently an active drone operator in the Ukrainian Marine Corps, this personal experience, combined with the unclassified data that has gone into the game give it a very authoritative feel. The concentration of information in the book is very dense, collating information that I was aware of but hadn’t seen in one place before. Whilst some design notes with explicit references would be nice it is fully understandable, given that it is a game covering an ongoing conflict, why they haven’t been included.

The game book starts with the rules going through them step by step. As a personal note I prefer to see the tables that the rules refer to being included on the same page that they are introduced rather that in a separate section. Admittedly this would push the page count higher due to duplication and concomitantly the price. In a manner familiar to all RPG gamers the individual characteristics of the team are generated by dice rolls and extra points calculated that can be used during game play to provide bonuses, rerolls, etc. I think an alternative way of creating a team by allocating skills to each team member by spending points from a central pool would be a good addition here. It would give the player more agency in creating their team and possibly even favouring a distinct playstyle. At the time of writing, it is not clear which method would be more indicative of actual practice. After the team is created, points are spent buying equipment for the first deployment. A vehicle is a necessity as are a selection of drones, the difficult decision comes on what additional equipment to purchase, on the first playthrough the relative value of each is harder to ascertain. The additional equipment provides bonuses to different parts of the game mechanics, visual camo, electronic warfare (EW) kit, better food etc. A key component of the game is the team’s morale, this can go up and down over the course of the game, it also acts as a hard limit mechanically to certain attributes in the game.

The game starts with the team being allocated to a section of the front. After parking the vehicle the team must make the journey to the frontline bunker where they will spend the next 4-7 game days. During the different steps of this journey, hazards must be diced for using the Mistakes were made table (this table being the one used for most hazard checks). After reaching the bunker targets and missions are generated and must be attempted. The drones can be used to conduct a series of different missions: reconnaissance, bombing, FPV strikes and calling in artillery. Ensuring you have the right mix of drones purchased prior to the game is essential as different generated targets, from tanks and afvs to logistics and command nodes will need to be attacked in different ways with different drones. The drone missions are conducted by flying the drone to the targets, avoiding Russian EW (an opposed dice roll) and then carrying out the mission. Whilst a D20 roll on a table is used to determine the success of a strike it is the careful use of available assets, both equipment and character bonuses that will decide whether its is successful or not, especially against high value protected targets such as tanks and enemy HQs. Successful persecution of targets gains the player support points, these may be spent between rotatsyia, however the total numbers of unspent point s that the player has accrued is used to determine victory. A number of missions may be executed during a game day. If things go wrong, such as team member injuries, a rotatsyia may come to a premature end, otherwise the team stays out for a variable number of days. After some downtime, where certain ability pools and the teams morale are reset, the player’s team will return to the frontline for another rotation, this game play repeats until the end of a two month tour of duty, at which point the level of victory is ascertained. The game takes place in June and July 2024 around the area of Krasnhorivka.

The rulebook concludes with an informative essay detailing drone operations, contrasting their initial active combat use in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) to their current usage in the positional/ attrition stage of the current conflict in Ukraine covering both tactical employment and the lived experience of the drone teams. Compared to the drone pilots of the GWOT era who were geographically remote to their drones and area of operations the Ukrainian operators are right on the frontline of the war.

Game of Drones reads well. As much as one can recommend a game without playing it this game is definitely recommended. A playable version will be constructed as soon as practical. Whilst not a true game in the sense of the player fighting against an active opponent it looks like it will provide a very educational, vicarious experience of running a drone team in the Ukrainian War. Even without playing the game I feel that my knowledge of drone operations is much improved, provide the behind the scenes context to the drone attack videos that have proliferated on social media.

For my regular readerds: I’ve put the above here for uni related reasons. I’ll do a post after Christams itself on the future of this long neglected blog.

I’d like to take this oppertunity to wish everyonme a Merry Christmas.

Cheers,

Pete.

SP's Projects Blog

Tag: drones

Game of Drones: The first rotatsyia… Game Report.

Read through review of Game of Drones (2024).