Operation Barclay: The Highest Stakes For A Game Of Poker

In 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in France. One year earlier, they landed on the Italian island of Sicily in Operation Husky.

But Operation Husky was only possible thanks to Operation Barclay. Operation Barclay was a misinformation campaign conducted by the London Controlling Section. LCS was the Allies’ lead intelligence agency during World War II.

This is the setting for the game Operation Barclay, where two players wage a war of intelligence. One player is trying to hide the location of the Allied invasion. The other is seeking to find it out.

Operation Barclay is a two-player card game for players ages 14+ and takes 25-40 minutes. It is designed by Maurice Suckling and published by Salt & Pepper Games and 25th Century Games.

Setup

Players decide which role they want to take on: the London Controlling Section (LCS), or the German Abwehr. To begin, the LCS player secretly distributes the 25 intelligence tokens among the five sectors of the board. The primary and secondary offensive sectors have mostly green radar tokens, while the three diversions receive mostly red radar tokens. Face-down, all tokens look the same.

Then, deal each player four Intelligence Channels cards. Each player takes their two Intelligence Assessment tokens and places them in front of themselves.

Gameplay

Before each round, the LCS player randomly distributes the Evidence tokens into the Alpha, Beta, and Reconnaissance boxes on the board.

In Operation Barclay, players move through a high-stakes game of poker for these Evidence tokens. Later in each round, they’re used to reveal intelligence.

Players take turns playing cards in front of them, starting with the Abwehr player. Play the first three cards face up and resolve any effects, if applicable.

Each time a player plays a card they draw another. They can choose frome the Intelligence Channels deck, their role’s special deck, or the Double-Cross deck, when available.

Then, both sides bet on who they think will have the better hand by using their Intelligence Assessment tokens. On the back is the role’s logo on a black background. On the reverse side, one token will have the LCS logo and the other token will have the Abwehr logo. Each player picks the token of the player they believe will win and places it face-down on the corresponding spot on the board.

Players then take turns playing their last two cards face-down. Once both players have played all five cards, they simultaneously reveal the two face-down cards. Then, any cards with an Evidence phase power activate, with the Abwehr player going first.

The Cards Of Operation Barclay

The cards in this game are not like your standard deck of playing cards, though there are some similarities. Most cards have a number ranging from 1 to 13. Some cards have multiple values, with the player who played said card choosing one when making the best hand possible. The five different “suits” correspond to the color and icon of the five sectors on the game board.

Some cards also have descriptions about the historical nature of the featured person or event. The powers on these cards can activate when the card is played, is revealed, or during the Evidence phase. Some cards will also have a Reconnaissance (plane) icon or Raid (landing craft) icon. These are used to determine the winner of the final piece of Evidence each month.

The player with the best five-card hand receives the two Evidence tokens in the Alpha box. Operation Barclay includes a nice player aid card that shows the hand rankings. A few are quite different than a standard poker game!

If the players tie for the best hand, the Abwehr player chooses one of the tokens in the Alpha box. The other is discarded.

Then, the players simultaneously reveal their bets for who had the best hand. If only one player bet correctly, they receive all three Evidence tokens in the Beta box on the board. Only the Abwehr player receives one token from the Beta box if both players bet correctly. And if neither bet correctly, no one gets the tokens.

Finally, the players compare their Reconnaissance (airplane) and Raid (landing craft) icons from their finished poker hands. Whoever has the highest total of either of the icons wins. If the players tie, the Abwehr player receives the Evidence token.

Finally, the Abwehr player flips one intelligence token corresponding to each Evidence token they won.

• Pink token: Southern France sector
• Red token: Sardinia/Corsica sector
• Blue token: Sicily sector
• Green token: Peloponnese sector
• Purple token: Dodecanese sector
• Black token: Wild. The Abwehr player flips an intelligence token in any sector of their choice

If the Abwehr player reveals enough intelligence tokens to identify or deduce the primary and secondary offensive sectors, they win. If not, play proceeds to the next month. Place a red X token on the first empty spot on the Calendar track.

Play continues as above, resetting the Evidence tokens to their three boxes on the board. Instead of drawing new cards, players instead retain their four cards from the previous round. But they do clear their played cards into a face-up discard pile next to the play area.

End Of Game

If the Abwehr player cannot pinpoint the locations of the offensive sectors after six months (rounds), the LCS player wins.

Impressions

When I first heard of Operation Barclay, I was quite intrigued. Besides being a board gamer, I received my bachelor’s degree in history. So, needless to say, the theme of this game caught my attention. Everyone knows the Normandy invasion. But the lesser-known Operations Husky and Barclay are fascinating.

Plus, my dad taught me poker when I was younger, so I enjoyed the basis of the main game mechanic.

Also, I have to tip my hat to the designer and the publishers of this game. They’ve included one of the most interesting things I’ve seen in a game: The Design Diary. It doesn’t affect the actual gameplay, but it gives us a window into the development of the game, from art direction to historical research. For example, you might be curious why the LCS’ logo in Operation Barclay is the head of a mythological faun.

“We discovered that the LCS kept a replica of a dancing faun statue found at Pompeii on its conference table, symbolic of ‘ruse de guerre’ – deception warfare.”

That’s a fascinating little tidbit, and the Design Diary is full of that.

Speaking of design, I also enjoy the art from Meeple Factory throughout this game. It’s cartoon without being silly. There’s plenty of detail. And it pulls me in to these moments in history.

That’s a whole lot of words without discussing the actual gameplay, I know. Operation Barclay is no slouch as a game, too. I enjoyed each time I took to the table, whether I was the LCS trying to hide the Allied invasion, or the Abwehr trying to see through the deception of Operation Mincemeat; another British operation during the larger Operation Barclay.

There is plenty of strategy here. If you’re the Abwehr player, you’re obviously trying to win as many Evidence tokens each month as possible. If you’re playing the LCS player, the betting stage is critically important. This one part of the round could give your opponent three Evidence tokens for the right there! So, do you sometimes intentionally throw your poker hand to ensure your opponent doesn’t get those three tokens? Some of the cards also let you manipulate the position of tokens. This is another aspect you’ll want to use that to your advantage.

Operation Barclay does a fantastic job pulling in real-world events and people into a high-stakes game of poker. Of course, the real-world Operation Barclay was so much more than two players at a poker table. But this is a fun and strategic depiction of the intelligence war that preceded a full-blown island invasion.

Would you like to try your hand at some espionage? Get a copy of Operation Barclay directly from 25th Century Games, on Amazon, or ask for it at your friendly local game store.

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2th Century Games provided The Family Gamers with a promotional copy of Operation Barclay for this review.

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