Assault on Algiers

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 back to North Africa after the events of the early war campaign, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands, although the two are not connected. Its set-up—and pretty much all of the scenario—is simple and straightforward. This because it is designed to be played as part of, and is included with, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Quickstart Pack, along with Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Ultimatum. The latter is designed to serve as a one-hour demonstration session, whereas Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is slightly more involved and will take a longer session in which to complete. It could easily be run using the players’ own characters, perhaps as a mission to run between the early part of the war and the mid- to late part of the war. However, the scenario is designed to be used as a quick-start, so includes four pre-generated agents. These consist of an indecisive American natural engineer and linguistic, an implacable British Commando with a reputation for surviving combat, a well-read Belgian police detective who has joined the Free French forces, and a French North African sorceress with an eye for clues and reading others. The latter is the only female pre-generated agent.

It is November 7, 1942. The Allies are about to launch their first combined operation—Operation Torch. This is an invasion of North Africa intended to help the British secure victory in North Africa and the Americans gain combat experience against the forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Three task forces are to launch amphibious attacks on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and the northern coast of Algeria, both under the control of Vichy France. As part of this co-operation, Britain’s Section M is to co-operate with the USA’s occult department, Majestic, as well as the French Resistance, in support of Operation Torch, specifically support Operation Terminal, the Allied landing in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The mission for the combined occult strike team has been named Operation Kindling.

Against the background of distrust between the French and the British because of the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir when the British attacked French vessels to prevent from falling into German hands, the Player Characters are ordered in turn to neutralise a force of Vichy troops at a police station, ideally by getting them to switch sides or surrender; destroy a radio tower; and ultimately, to capture a Nachtwölfe experimental artillery battery and hold it until relieved. The team is also warned that Black Sun forces may also be operating in the area. The set-up is this straightforward and the agents are likely to deal with the mundane Vichy forces very quickly. Only after than does the scenario get interesting. This is with the discovery of a Black Sun convoy which has clearly been ambushed and gunned down. The agents learn too that the ambushers took an object of importance—a ‘horn’. With this information in hand, the Player Characters still need to capture the gun battery, which turns out to be a Blauer Kristall-powered pair of lightning cannons! Once done, their orders are to hold the battery. Which the agents have to do against a force of Black Sun troops which is chasing the Nachtwölfe unit which was responsible for the ambush on the Black Sun convoy. The scenario will come to climax with the agents fighting alongside sudden and temporary allies—the fleeing Nachtwölfe soldiers—and discovering what the ‘horn’ is that they took from the Black Sun convoy.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is a combat-focused scenario. There is a little room for interaction, but not a lot. The orders given to the agents mean that they and their players have little room to manoeuvre and act outside of their parameters. For example, the agents cannot do anything with the lightning cannons except shut them down or blow them up. As a combat focused scenario, the easiest way to run the scenario’s climatic combat scene is to let the players roll dice and handle the actions of their agent’s temporary Nachtwölfe allies as well as their agents lest the Game Master be overwhelmed with dice rolls. One thing that the scenario does is expose both players and agents to three of the factions in the Secret War and learn that the relations between the Nazi factions are strained to say the least!

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is generally well presented, though it has clearly been rushed in places. Both maps and agent illustrations are fine.

Beyond the amusing play upon its name, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is a serviceable scenario. Its emphasis upon combat cannot lift it above that and its skirmish nature suggests that its finale really wants to be fought out using miniatures and terrain. Yet it does a reasonable job of showing off the rules and some basic elements of the setting, so it does do what it was written to do.