Europe 1944 Scenario File and Info FINAL VERSION
THIS IS THE FINAL VERSION AFTER PLAYTESTING. I wil submit it to the scenario depots very soon.
I have redesigned for TOAWIII my scenario 'Europe 1944', on the last year of WWII in Europe. You can retrieve a pdf file with all the info regarding how to play it at this link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1180829/Europe44v6.0.pdf
You can retrieve the whole scenario here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1180829/Europe44v6.0.zip
(last updated November 10th 2011)
Comments and screenshots are welcome. Send them to Fabio Governato: fabio.governato@gmail.com
Note: The attached image is of the Eastern Front in early July '44, after the start of Operation Bagration.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europe 44: The Last Year of WWII
V6.0 (NOV 2011) for TOAWIII v3.4 (NOTE: SMALL EDITS IN THE MOST UP TO DATE PDF FILE)
by F.Governato (Fabio.governato@gmail.com)
Historical Notes: June 44 marked a turning point for the War in the European Theater. The opening of the long awaited second front and the start of the Operation Bagration on June 22nd (3rd anniversary of the Axis attack to the Soviet Union) spelled the beginning of the end for the short lived Thousand Years Reich. About 10 million men, 20 thousand planes and tanks would fight over an area that spans from Italy to the North of Finland and from Normandy to Romania. The fight lasted almost another year with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers to the Allied forces after the disastrous defeats in Russia and Normandy, but also after several failed Allies offensives that had the potential to end the war well before the Winter of 1944. The many operational choices available to the players makes this historical campaign an almost ideal scenario for The Operational Art of War. What if the Western Allies had focused on the Italy campaign rather than invading southern France? What if they had landed in Greece, or the Balkans? What if Hitler had ordered an earlier retreat from Norway, Italy and the Balkans, freeing almost half a million fresh and experienced troops? What if the Ardennes Offensive had been only a limited (and far less costly) operation aimed at regaining the line of the Siegfried Wall? What if the Luftwaffe had tried a decisive operation to cripple Allied air forces based in Europe? As a last and very hypothetical scenario possibility what if Germany had started mass production of the revolutionary tanks, jet fighters and electric U-boats in time to stall the Allies before the conquest of Berlin and the Industrial Rhine/Ruhr region?
The emphasis of this scenario is on playability and operational choices rather than on details at the tactical level. The number of units has been kept to a relatively small
number for a scenario of this size (about 500 per side). Individual Armored divisions and heavy SS tank battalions have been maintained as separate units. This version of Europe44 includes several of the design improvements made possible by the upgrade to TOAWIII v3.4 and takes advantage of the flexibility allowed by support squads to model the flow of supplies to different theaters. It also models much better the crippling effects of Winter weather on supply and air operations (this was inspired by the game Great War in The East by Matrix, where weather plays a major role). The scenario has several Theater Options. Some are available for a limited amount of turns, most of them offer unique opportunities to the players, but often come with some downsides associated with diverting resources from one theater to another. For example Operation Anvil (the Allies landing in Southern France) permanently cuts supplies to the Italian theater. Players are advised to read these short notes and still be ready for some surprises. A small number of house rules are recommended.
Here it is the right place to give full acknowledgments To Trey Marshall (for some of the OOB) and Ulver Nielsen for the Map of Europe. I eventually modified both of them based on additional historical sources and my understanding of some regions (mostly Northern Italy and Normandy). They provided an extremely valuable starting point for this scenario. A few places of historical importance have been included across the map. They have no impact on the game itself, but they are there to remind us of some of the reasons why a war that cost almost 20 millions human lives was fought.
Scenario Design:
This scenario uses Opart300 and the old supply rules option.
Map scale: 32Km
Turn = 1 Week
Scenario length: 46 turns from June 22nd to early .May 1945. Additional 14 turns if the
“Long Game” option is activated. (by the allies failing to occupy the Ruhr region by April 45).
Units: From Army (mostly Red Army) to battalion scale.
Units Color backgrounds: US units: green
UK and Canada: brown
Italy & New Zealand: yellow.
Red Army: red
Romania: brown
Bulgaria and Yugoslavia Partisans: green
Germany: different shades of gray, blue (Luftwaffe) and black
Finnish: white
Unit Organizations: Armies and Corps for US, UK and Axis. Army Groups for the Red Army . Different shades of the main color mark different Armies, SS Corps and Red Army Fronts. Fronts and Axis Satellites have very limited cooperation, with better cooperation between US or UK Armies and even better one between German Forces. Air Forces have usually fair or good cooperation levels.
Game details:
Unit Cooperation: in TOAWIII combat penalties for non cooperating units (UK and US, German and satellites, different Soviet Fronts) are harsh. The players should use the attack planning.
screen often.
Shock Bonuses have intentionally been kept to a minimum. Other solutions were used to give non permanent advantages/disadvantages to individual Armies. However, the Allies player gets a small Shock bonus for the first two turns, mainly to make more likely that he gets enough combat phases at the opening of Operation Bagration. The Axis player gets a similar bonus if the “Ardennes Offensive” is activated
Weather: winter is harsh in North and Eastern Europe, and the weather is often bad over England. Several cold fronts will occur starting in Octobeer, (after turn 20) severely affecting air operations, recon and supply level for the Allies. These effects will gradually wane by February.
Supply and Replacements rates The Allied Player will receive additional static supply units or supply points when major ports on the western theater are captured, namely:
Brest (19,29)
Antwerp (40,36)
Le Havre (29,34)
Cherbourg (26,32)
Pola (44,65)
Sibenek (46,71)
Marseille (23,57)
Some supply points are subject to a probability check and delays and deliver less than the full supply rate (as of TOAWIII) The Red army will receive additional supply units timed with historical offensives to simulate the increasing efficiency of their supply distribution network. Both sides receive a few Railroad Repair units. Extensive usage of Support Units has been made. This will affect individual armies resupply rates. Axis HQs have low replacement rates for support Squads so keep them away from the front lines. Axis Armies in Normandy have low resupply rates to simulate the breakdown of supply lines due to Air interdiction. Axis supply, replacements and rail capabilities will improve during Winter, with the slowing down of the Allies Strategic bombing campaign. Axis Supply and replacements will decrease with the capture of the following objectives:
Ruhr (47,39) Repl. –30%
Breslau (63,52) Repl. –20%
Munich (46,53) Repl. –20%
Milan (36,57) Repl. –5%
Budapest (60,63) Repl . –5%
Ploesti (73,77) Supply –3%
Hungarian Oil Fields (56,66) Supply –2%
Oslo (72,21) Supply -2%
Allies supply will improve with the capture of Danzig and Antwerp
Danzig Allies +2% supply (German major sub base)
Antwerp Allies supply point when captured.
Rail, Sea and Airlift rates: Axis Rail capabilities will slowly decrease during '44, will resume during the winter and finally plunge in 1945. The Allies player has airlift capability for one airborne division/turn (higher while the Market Garden TO is activated).
Strategic Bombing: The Allied player has his strategic bombers available for carpet bombing during the first few turns. Use them to break out of Normandy. The effect of the strategic bombing of Germany is reflected by decreasing supply and replacement rates and by guerrilla and refugees events that will slow down movement and destroy railway hexes. At the beginning of the game many bridges in France start as destroyed, making impossible to reach the Normandy front by rail.
Theater Options:
All theater option reflect choices that both historically faced the allies and the Axis forces. Most of them come with some some drawbacks, usually in terms of reduced supplies to individual Armies. The Axis player should carefully decide how to employ his TOs.
While the Axis has the capability to start a major offensive during winter 44, it might be a costly idea.
Allied Player
Airborne Operation (Market Garden) : gives airlift for three airborne divisions for one turn. It also significantly decreases supplies for US Third Army for about a month. This option will disappear in late Summer 1944 (turn 20). The Allied player as about 1 division/turn airlift capability during most other turns. The Red Army did not carry any airborne operation after 1943, but it certainly could have.
Anvil: gives a large, one turn sealift boost. However, 5US Army and UK 8th
army supplies will be permanently cut by about 25%. This option disappears in Fall 1944. The Allied as a small sealift capability during the other turns.
Carpet Bombing: This TO appears in late Summer an has no downside. It gives 8th Bomber Command (about 1500 bombers) to the allied player for one turn. The units appear north of London. Historically they were used for a ( fairly unsuccessful) carpet bombing in the Aachen area.
Red Army Winter Offensive : This TO also provides additional Infantry Squads for the Red Army, so make sure you activate it. It has no downside. The Red Army has 4 powerful heavy artillery units (marked by the Hvy Art. Symbol, an heavy squared dot at the center)
When the Winter Offensive is activated (the Vistula—Oder Campaign started on January 15th 1945) a replacement unit is disbanded, allowing new rocket tubes to be issued to these units. They are useful to ‘undig’ fortified units, so use them in the first round of a turn.
Axis Player
“Ardennes Offensive” This TO has no downside. It appears in late November and disappears in early January. The Axis player receives an extra supply/ferry/rail repair unit, additional replacements and small supply and shock bonuses for a few turns, starting three turns after the TO has been activated. The supply unit will eventually be withdrawn. Given the assigned priorities, it is likely that replacements will bring SS Panzer divisions up to full strength . This TO represents the winter Offensive in the Ardennes. (code named Watch am Rhein), it will disappear by turn 32.
“Eastern Front Offensive” This TO appears in late January and has no downsides for the Axis player. The Axis player receives a supply unit. The 3SS Totenkopf and SS Viking divisions are withdrawn and reappear shortly after at full strength as IVSS PZ Corps. The supply unit will eventually be withdrawn. This TO represents the late winter Offensive in Hungary and will disappear as Spring comes (turn 37).
“ Operation Baseplate “ This TO appears in January. The Axis player receives a 150% Air Shock bonus for one turn. Historically, the Luftwaffe attacked Allied airfields in France
destroying almost 150 planes, but at a (too) great cost in trained pilots. The Allied quickly recovered from their losses.
THIS IS THE FINAL VERSION AFTER PLAYTESTING. I wil submit it to the scenario depots very soon.
I have redesigned for TOAWIII my scenario 'Europe 1944', on the last year of WWII in Europe. You can retrieve a pdf file with all the info regarding how to play it at this link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1180829/Europe44v6.0.pdf
You can retrieve the whole scenario here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1180829/Europe44v6.0.zip
(last updated November 10th 2011)
Comments and screenshots are welcome. Send them to Fabio Governato: fabio.governato@gmail.com
Note: The attached image is of the Eastern Front in early July '44, after the start of Operation Bagration.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europe 44: The Last Year of WWII
V6.0 (NOV 2011) for TOAWIII v3.4 (NOTE: SMALL EDITS IN THE MOST UP TO DATE PDF FILE)
by F.Governato (Fabio.governato@gmail.com)
Historical Notes: June 44 marked a turning point for the War in the European Theater. The opening of the long awaited second front and the start of the Operation Bagration on June 22nd (3rd anniversary of the Axis attack to the Soviet Union) spelled the beginning of the end for the short lived Thousand Years Reich. About 10 million men, 20 thousand planes and tanks would fight over an area that spans from Italy to the North of Finland and from Normandy to Romania. The fight lasted almost another year with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers to the Allied forces after the disastrous defeats in Russia and Normandy, but also after several failed Allies offensives that had the potential to end the war well before the Winter of 1944. The many operational choices available to the players makes this historical campaign an almost ideal scenario for The Operational Art of War. What if the Western Allies had focused on the Italy campaign rather than invading southern France? What if they had landed in Greece, or the Balkans? What if Hitler had ordered an earlier retreat from Norway, Italy and the Balkans, freeing almost half a million fresh and experienced troops? What if the Ardennes Offensive had been only a limited (and far less costly) operation aimed at regaining the line of the Siegfried Wall? What if the Luftwaffe had tried a decisive operation to cripple Allied air forces based in Europe? As a last and very hypothetical scenario possibility what if Germany had started mass production of the revolutionary tanks, jet fighters and electric U-boats in time to stall the Allies before the conquest of Berlin and the Industrial Rhine/Ruhr region?
The emphasis of this scenario is on playability and operational choices rather than on details at the tactical level. The number of units has been kept to a relatively small
number for a scenario of this size (about 500 per side). Individual Armored divisions and heavy SS tank battalions have been maintained as separate units. This version of Europe44 includes several of the design improvements made possible by the upgrade to TOAWIII v3.4 and takes advantage of the flexibility allowed by support squads to model the flow of supplies to different theaters. It also models much better the crippling effects of Winter weather on supply and air operations (this was inspired by the game Great War in The East by Matrix, where weather plays a major role). The scenario has several Theater Options. Some are available for a limited amount of turns, most of them offer unique opportunities to the players, but often come with some downsides associated with diverting resources from one theater to another. For example Operation Anvil (the Allies landing in Southern France) permanently cuts supplies to the Italian theater. Players are advised to read these short notes and still be ready for some surprises. A small number of house rules are recommended.
Here it is the right place to give full acknowledgments To Trey Marshall (for some of the OOB) and Ulver Nielsen for the Map of Europe. I eventually modified both of them based on additional historical sources and my understanding of some regions (mostly Northern Italy and Normandy). They provided an extremely valuable starting point for this scenario. A few places of historical importance have been included across the map. They have no impact on the game itself, but they are there to remind us of some of the reasons why a war that cost almost 20 millions human lives was fought.
Scenario Design:
This scenario uses Opart300 and the old supply rules option.
Map scale: 32Km
Turn = 1 Week
Scenario length: 46 turns from June 22nd to early .May 1945. Additional 14 turns if the
“Long Game” option is activated. (by the allies failing to occupy the Ruhr region by April 45).
Units: From Army (mostly Red Army) to battalion scale.
Units Color backgrounds: US units: green
UK and Canada: brown
Italy & New Zealand: yellow.
Red Army: red
Romania: brown
Bulgaria and Yugoslavia Partisans: green
Germany: different shades of gray, blue (Luftwaffe) and black
Finnish: white
Unit Organizations: Armies and Corps for US, UK and Axis. Army Groups for the Red Army . Different shades of the main color mark different Armies, SS Corps and Red Army Fronts. Fronts and Axis Satellites have very limited cooperation, with better cooperation between US or UK Armies and even better one between German Forces. Air Forces have usually fair or good cooperation levels.
Game details:
Unit Cooperation: in TOAWIII combat penalties for non cooperating units (UK and US, German and satellites, different Soviet Fronts) are harsh. The players should use the attack planning.
screen often.
Shock Bonuses have intentionally been kept to a minimum. Other solutions were used to give non permanent advantages/disadvantages to individual Armies. However, the Allies player gets a small Shock bonus for the first two turns, mainly to make more likely that he gets enough combat phases at the opening of Operation Bagration. The Axis player gets a similar bonus if the “Ardennes Offensive” is activated
Weather: winter is harsh in North and Eastern Europe, and the weather is often bad over England. Several cold fronts will occur starting in Octobeer, (after turn 20) severely affecting air operations, recon and supply level for the Allies. These effects will gradually wane by February.
Supply and Replacements rates The Allied Player will receive additional static supply units or supply points when major ports on the western theater are captured, namely:
Brest (19,29)
Antwerp (40,36)
Le Havre (29,34)
Cherbourg (26,32)
Pola (44,65)
Sibenek (46,71)
Marseille (23,57)
Some supply points are subject to a probability check and delays and deliver less than the full supply rate (as of TOAWIII) The Red army will receive additional supply units timed with historical offensives to simulate the increasing efficiency of their supply distribution network. Both sides receive a few Railroad Repair units. Extensive usage of Support Units has been made. This will affect individual armies resupply rates. Axis HQs have low replacement rates for support Squads so keep them away from the front lines. Axis Armies in Normandy have low resupply rates to simulate the breakdown of supply lines due to Air interdiction. Axis supply, replacements and rail capabilities will improve during Winter, with the slowing down of the Allies Strategic bombing campaign. Axis Supply and replacements will decrease with the capture of the following objectives:
Ruhr (47,39) Repl. –30%
Breslau (63,52) Repl. –20%
Munich (46,53) Repl. –20%
Milan (36,57) Repl. –5%
Budapest (60,63) Repl . –5%
Ploesti (73,77) Supply –3%
Hungarian Oil Fields (56,66) Supply –2%
Oslo (72,21) Supply -2%
Allies supply will improve with the capture of Danzig and Antwerp
Danzig Allies +2% supply (German major sub base)
Antwerp Allies supply point when captured.
Rail, Sea and Airlift rates: Axis Rail capabilities will slowly decrease during '44, will resume during the winter and finally plunge in 1945. The Allies player has airlift capability for one airborne division/turn (higher while the Market Garden TO is activated).
Strategic Bombing: The Allied player has his strategic bombers available for carpet bombing during the first few turns. Use them to break out of Normandy. The effect of the strategic bombing of Germany is reflected by decreasing supply and replacement rates and by guerrilla and refugees events that will slow down movement and destroy railway hexes. At the beginning of the game many bridges in France start as destroyed, making impossible to reach the Normandy front by rail.
Theater Options:
All theater option reflect choices that both historically faced the allies and the Axis forces. Most of them come with some some drawbacks, usually in terms of reduced supplies to individual Armies. The Axis player should carefully decide how to employ his TOs.
While the Axis has the capability to start a major offensive during winter 44, it might be a costly idea.
Allied Player
Airborne Operation (Market Garden) : gives airlift for three airborne divisions for one turn. It also significantly decreases supplies for US Third Army for about a month. This option will disappear in late Summer 1944 (turn 20). The Allied player as about 1 division/turn airlift capability during most other turns. The Red Army did not carry any airborne operation after 1943, but it certainly could have.
Anvil: gives a large, one turn sealift boost. However, 5US Army and UK 8th
army supplies will be permanently cut by about 25%. This option disappears in Fall 1944. The Allied as a small sealift capability during the other turns.
Carpet Bombing: This TO appears in late Summer an has no downside. It gives 8th Bomber Command (about 1500 bombers) to the allied player for one turn. The units appear north of London. Historically they were used for a ( fairly unsuccessful) carpet bombing in the Aachen area.
Red Army Winter Offensive : This TO also provides additional Infantry Squads for the Red Army, so make sure you activate it. It has no downside. The Red Army has 4 powerful heavy artillery units (marked by the Hvy Art. Symbol, an heavy squared dot at the center)
When the Winter Offensive is activated (the Vistula—Oder Campaign started on January 15th 1945) a replacement unit is disbanded, allowing new rocket tubes to be issued to these units. They are useful to ‘undig’ fortified units, so use them in the first round of a turn.
Axis Player
“Ardennes Offensive” This TO has no downside. It appears in late November and disappears in early January. The Axis player receives an extra supply/ferry/rail repair unit, additional replacements and small supply and shock bonuses for a few turns, starting three turns after the TO has been activated. The supply unit will eventually be withdrawn. Given the assigned priorities, it is likely that replacements will bring SS Panzer divisions up to full strength . This TO represents the winter Offensive in the Ardennes. (code named Watch am Rhein), it will disappear by turn 32.
“Eastern Front Offensive” This TO appears in late January and has no downsides for the Axis player. The Axis player receives a supply unit. The 3SS Totenkopf and SS Viking divisions are withdrawn and reappear shortly after at full strength as IVSS PZ Corps. The supply unit will eventually be withdrawn. This TO represents the late winter Offensive in Hungary and will disappear as Spring comes (turn 37).
“ Operation Baseplate “ This TO appears in January. The Axis player receives a 150% Air Shock bonus for one turn. Historically, the Luftwaffe attacked Allied airfields in France
destroying almost 150 planes, but at a (too) great cost in trained pilots. The Allied quickly recovered from their losses.
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