Victory Results:
 100 %
Record a victory for BOTTOM ARMY  0 %
Total plays 1 - Last reported by JVHillegas-Elting on 2022-02-18 04:43:11

May 1940. With the success of Von Mannstein’s Sickle-Cut plan, the Wehrmacht had broken through the densely forested and hilly region of the Ardennes, bypassing the main Allied forces placing them in danger of being cut off. This led to an all-out withdrawal from Belgium. Soon the only escape route left open to the Allies was the port of Dunkirk, from which hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers would eventually be evacuated to safety by boat to England. This was to become known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk.” Many troops, however, did not make it there. This scenario depicts a group of BEF soldiers desperately pushing for Dunkirk with German vanguard units hot on their trail. Will they make it there in time? The answer lies in your hands.

 

  British German
Division 1

3 Squad Bases
- 6 Regular Infantry
- 3 Elite Infantry
- 1 Officer
- 1 Machine Gun Crew

2 Squad Bases
- 6 Regular Infantry
- 1 Elite Infantry
- 1 Officer
- 1 SdKfz251 Half-Track

1x Recon

Division 2

3 Squad Bases
- 8 Regular Infantry
- 3 Elite Infantry
- 1 Officer

2 Squad Bases
- 4 Regular Infantry
- 3 Elite Infantry
- 1 Officer
- 1 SdKfz251 Half-Track

1x Recon

Strategy Decks Command 1
Morale 1 (remove take down the Beast)
Artillery 1
German Air Support 1 ("Tactical Bombing" where the text on the card refers to "removing a neutral command objective marker", replace it by British command objective marker)
German Reinforcements 1
Starting Strategy Cards 1 (Take Cover in play area, so it can be used on round 1) 2 (See Special Rules)
Operations Cards 012 Massive Confusion
014 No surrender
-
Deployment Zone Any hex with an orange border on maps 10B and 8A. (Designer’s note: There is no longer any real unit cohesion. Therefore Divisions 1 and 2 share the same deployment zone.) -
Starting Initiative Initiative Token  
Objective The British need to exit at least three squads off the far end of maps 6A and/or 4A by the end of round 8. The Germans win if British fails to fulfill his objective.
Rounds 8
Actions per turn 3 3
Reinforcements - -
Special Rules
  • The Germans start the game with 4 available Command Ponts.
  • The Germans start the game with one card from the German Air Support 1 deck and one card from the Artillery 1 deck. Both cards need to give the possibility to make an actual attack. If other cards are drawn, keep drawing until an attack card is drawn. Replace the others and reshuffle the deck. These cards are placed in the German play area and considered paid for. Therefore they are immediately usable.
  • Spotter plane: The Germans may pay 1 command at the start of the action phase (so before either side takes turns). If they do, they may use a spotter plane. Use e.g. a victory marker to denote its position on the map. It may be put anywhere on the map board. For LOS purposes, consider it to be on a level 2 hill. It cannot be targeted by enemy units. It acts as a spotting unit and reduces the "Establish contact" number of artillery cards as well as the drift number, when applicable, by one. The drift number is "3". Remove immediately after it has spotted or failed to establish contact. If the establish contact roll is unsuccessful, the plane is removed regardless and a new use would have to be paid for again (NOT the card, just the plane). Note that use on the German first action turn of game round 1 is free!
  • German units start off-board. At the start of the first German action phase of each game round, beginning on game round 2, roll a die for each German division. On a die roll lower than the current game round, that division enters play. Then roll another die. This die roll determines the entry point of the division in question.
    • 1–2 any legal hex on map 8A
    • 3–4 any legal hex on map 11A
    • 5–6 any legal hex on map 12A.
  • The Germans move on board, so they are susceptible to any enemy Op Fire and the movement cost of the first hex they enter needs to be expended. If drift occurs, the artillery drifts one fewer hex (in addition to the Establish Contact number being reduced by 1).
  • Congested roads: Due to the large numbers of fleeing civilians, wrecked war material, etc. the roads are heavily congested. When entering a hex containing a road, a unit must end its move immediately.
  • German reinforcement cards may not be drawn until the Command Phase of the game round in which the latter of the two German divisions has entered play. Apply the same procedure as described above to determine their point of entry on the map (i.e., they may be placed once eligible for placement. It’s only the location that still needs to be determined).
  • Craters are placed after an Artillery card or Air Support card has been played (see Normandy rules booklet) and there has been a successful bombardment. An attack is considered to have been successful when two or more hits were rolled on the black dice, regardless of the results on any red dice. A crater adds +2 cover to existing terrain and the cost to enter is increased by 1. Note that a unit’s minimum movement is always one hex. (Example: A woods hex containing three crater tokens would normally cost a squad 2+1+1+1 movement points to enter. Even without an officer present this would be allowed if the unit started its move adjacent to the woods hex.) Trucks cannot enter terrain containing one or more craters. The effects of multiple craters are cumulative.
Terrain Features The stream is Deep.
Optional Rule As long as no German division has entered play, the German player receives 1 command point during the command phase of that round

 

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Discuss this article in the forums (5 replies).
boersma8 replied the topic:
1 year 6 months ago
Played this scenario again yesterday with a friend. Although I'm the designer, it had been a long time since I played and therefore made some capital blunders as the British player! Bunching up units is not a good idea with all those air and artillery cards stacked up against you! Sure they can miss or the German player can fail to establish contact, but this time that didn't happen and, to add insult to injury, he even rolled incredibly well and completely decimated my troops on round 1. Entirely preventable,so it certainly doesn't make the scenario broken or anything, but then you shouldn't give the opportunity! After this attack there were three British squads right on round 1 with only one figure left in it!

Also the British MG found itself out in the open while not being in op-fire mode when the Germans entered the board right next to it! Let's just say they were caught entirely by surprise!  . NOt how the British MG should be used!

We did play the scenario to its conclusion and three squads even made it close to exiting the boar, but combined fire by the Germans caused one hit (despite the use of the take cover card) and destroyed all these squads. In the end not a single one made it to the relative safety of the Dunkirk perimeter!
alecrespi replied the topic:
1 year 10 months ago

Considering that you liked this scenario,  I also strongly recommend another scenario of mine: A nasty surprise. Soviet tanks need to destroy a German foward supply depot during the early phases of Operation Barbarossa and then make it off the board quickly to prevent encirclement.

It's still unplayed, but interesting.
www.commandsandcolors.net/tideofiron/sce...-nasty-surprise.html

I really like the idea of destroying a supply depot but I've been scared by the long amount of special rules!
Maybe I should read them again and try to go over that obstale...
JVHillegas-Elting replied the topic:
1 year 10 months ago
Thanks Willem! I haven't yet played A Nasty Surprise, but look forward to doing so.
boersma8 replied the topic:
2 years 2 months ago
I'm glad you enjoyed the scenario. It was actually inspired by the book/movie Atonement. 

Yes,  due to the random timing and placement of the units, the scenario plays out differently each time!

Considering that you liked this scenario,  I also strongly recommend another scenario of mine: A nasty surprise. Soviet tanks need to destroy a German foward supply depot during the early phases of Operation Barbarossa and then make it off the board quickly to prevent encirclement.
JVHillegas-Elting replied the topic:
2 years 7 months ago
Last week I had the rare-these-days opportunity of playing in-person with two of my greatest friends. The friend I played with has a solid foundation of experience with this game, but among the two of us, I am the more experienced.

We played this scenario once. ScubaSeth as the Brits, me as the Germans. I won.

This scenario was extremely fun for me. We ran out of time to play it multiple times--as I generally like to do--but what I liked about it was the random timing of German units entering the battle; the random placement of German units on the map once entered; and the fact that the Brits' goal is merely to exit units at the other side of the map.

Neither of us had played a scenario with this dynamic, so it was a learning curve for both of us. As Germany, I definitely placed my first on-board units (which didn't happen until the end of Round 3) in a more exposed and offensive place than I needed to, and suffered the consequences in both casualties and having to move units quickly to other places on the board. As the Brits, ScubaSeth was more cautious than he ought to have been, which slowed him down greatly.

Germany had about 3-5 area attacks from bombers and artillery during the first three rounds that did not do much damage at all--either because of drift, or because Officers and Elites kept units from being pinned, or simply because Germany rolled crap dice a lot. These attacks seemed great on paper, but in reality they were very underwhelming. The Brits should not have been afraid of these.

This is a scenario I definitely want to play at least a few more times.