Skirmish Sangin rules review

I bought Skirmish Sangin rules during the christmas holidays. I have looked them for long, but only now got around buying them.

After reading them couple of times, I called Sami for a test game to get an example game and his opinion as well.
the rules are directed to US Afganistan conflict, but are easily usable with WW2. Due to the lack of painted modern miniatures, we agreed to make chindit - germany battle in Juha's excellent terrain.

So, the rules.
Basic unit has a body -value from 0 to 20. This defines the order of activation and initial weapon handling values (pistol, light, heavy, etc.) that range from 0 to 100. Unit has also an experience level (novice, average, veteran, elite).
On top of those, there is also morale (0-100) and potential body armor.
Each turn consists of 10 phases. Units activate in different phases, so for example phase 1 activates all units with body of 18-20, phase 2 body 16-17 and so on.
Outside the normal activation, units have a possibility to forgo their next activation, and shoot as reaction with pretty hefty penalties.

Once activated, units have 3 actions. They are the normal move, shoot, close combat and a little more orginal "spot".
Movement ranges from crawling to run. Nice feature is, that unless you spend 1 action to stop, your figure counts as moving until next activation with all benefits and penalties.
Unit has 180 degree field of vision, it takes 1 AP to turn beyond that.

To shoot someone, you have to first spot them unless they are in the open.
To spot someone, you start with base spotting characteristic of your figure (normally 100%), and add all the modifiers, for example are you running, is the enemy in cover, is it moving etc.
This'll get you your spotting percentage, which you have to pass with 2xd10 with the other d10 being tens, and the second ones.
If you spot, then you can shoot. Shooting follows the same guidelines as spotting with different modifiers.

If you hit the target, you do damage based on the weapon you are wielding, for example 2xd10, 3xd10 with cover reducing dies from the base damage.
Each figure has 12 "hit points" divided in groups of three. First comes light wounds, then moderate, etc. Each severity level has penalties it imposes to the target and growing chance to knock the target unconscious. For example light wounds (1-3) drop target's abilities 50% and has 20% chance to knock it unconscious. Having body armor allows the target to reduce the hits for some amount, ie. 1d10+4.

When bad things happen, units are given morale counters. Having at least one means that it has to pass a morale test with modifiers when it tries next to activate or roll failed morale chart.
As an example, Bob has 3 morale markers when it activatesafter receiving lots of fire. He has base morale of 55% and one conscious teammate within 6" (+10%), Bob is in medium cover (+20%). However, he sees and hears critically wounded teamate Joe within 12" (-20%), and also has two extra morale markers (-20%). This boils down to 55+10+20-20-20=45. So he has to pass 45% morale with 2xd10.

The system can comfortably support about up to 7-10 figures per side before bookkeeping becomes a chore. It definitely is playable with only 4 figures / side which is a nice feature. It feels more like a RPG battle system, so it probably shines in small unit campaigns where you name your soldiers and track their progress.
I can also see it performing very well with premade small unit scenarios.

There are some shortcomings however.
We both agreed that reactive snap shot needs a buff, or separate, more lethal overwatch action should be available. Now snapshot imposes -30% to hit, which makes it impossible to hit for example a running figure with normal 50-60% weapon skill (running target -20%)

Also, the rules, even if they look professional with all the nice pictures and colour scheme, could have used a lot of proof reading. There are some inconsistencies, or rules that are not clearly written. The worst of all, there is no movement section, index lists that it should start from page 51, but it just is not there :)
But, even despite these, I kind of like what the writers are trying to accomplish here. More personal, small encounters with more detailed events.
If you are looking for a rule set for smaller number of figures, and don't mind (or actually want to have) the bookkeeping and counters, give Skirmish Sanging a try.