Operation Biting

[WuWei]

I recently stumbled over Operation Biting, a British airborne raid to capture a new German radar device. I couldn't find an ASL scenario covering this event, so I made my own. This is just a rough draft without any playtesting (obviously), but do you have any comments, recommendations, improvements? Are the SSRs clear, especially those regarding the terrain? Any questions?
Here's the link to the scenario: Biting A Giant

 

[dlazov]

I must be doing something wrong, I could not get the 5 most hexes of OC1 to display, only the first two hex rows.

Interesting scenario thus far.

 

[WuWei]

If you are using VASL, you have to put any other board to the left of board 19. Then the overlay is shown completely and you can then crop accordingly. I have put a picture of the map with overlays here for your convenience.

 

[Zakopious]

There was a scenario for the Bruneval Raid, but I cannot tell you much about it.

 

[lluis61]

Interesting. Very interesting. First of all, the terrain is very similar to that I've seen in articles about this operation... But, a question: Why the German player would choose enter their reinforcement groups so late as turn 6 or 7? (I know, I know: there are more and better reinforcements as turns progress, but by then the British could have won (or almost) the scenario.) Also, the entry points seem to follow the chronogram of the British operation as if was succesful, not their garrison ponts. (I know, also: "Go to the sound of gunfire".)

 

[WuWei]

My idea with the variable reinforcement turns was to add uncertainty for the British player. But perhaps it would be enough to let the German player simply choose two of the four reinforcement groups and ditch the option to delay the reinforcements?

 

[Turuk]

My idea with the variable reinforcement turns was to add uncertainty for the British player. But perhaps it would be enough to let the German player simply choose two of the four reinforcement groups and ditch the option to delay the reinforcements?

You could lock Groups B and C into a single turn without the increased value for delaying, but leave the wide spread for Group A. Group D enters the map 3 turns after Group A, with either a set amount or squads and trucks or a multiplier/equivalent of the turn (turn value x2 squads and turn value trucks).

So if I choose to enter Group A on turn 5, Group D enters on turn 8 and is 10 squads and 5 trucks.

You could also make it that the German player does not have to choose in advance, they can choose on that turn. It lets the Group A hit when the British may be off balance, but then the British know they have three turns to prep for Group D if they can.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I've never heard the operation name for this one, it's always been referred to in histories simply as "the Bruneval Raid." Which is neither here nor there, just of interest to me. Scenario seems fine. One suggestion to the aftermath, you have:

After a fierce retreating battle, they got away with minimal casualties.

I think this can be tweaked to something like

Despite fierce resistance by the alerted Germans, the raiders withdrew as planned with minimal casualties.

Not really a "retreat" so much as it was a planned withdrawal as part of the operation.

 

[Zakopious]

Operation Biting was an unusually complex raid relying on three British services: Air, Army, and Naval.
There were so many places where it could have failed but didn't that the British were incredibly lucky.
Short List of additional information:
1. The Bruneval Raid by George Millar, 1974.
2. The Bruneval Raid by Ken Ford, 2010. An Osprey Raid 13 book.
3. Operation Biting by Max Hastings, 2024. Written after many of the WWII source documents were declassified.
In 1962, Max Hastings was an officer cadet with 10 Para TA and writes from the perspective of a British Paratrooper.

 

[synicbast]

That Bruneval raid scenario from the Wargamer mag was not very good. IIRC the designer didn't understand how the Seaborne evacuation rules worked. Certainly it wasn't good enough to spend any time trying to fix it

 

[Zakopious]

It would be a difficult scenario to design.
The Luftwaffe soldiers were radar technicians with the ability of conscripts.
Night Rules.
Parachute Rules.
Seaborne Evacuation Rules.
The scattered drop confused the Germans, so the objective was not obvious.
The first Wehrmacht response was to send 685th Infantry to guard the big Freya radar rather than the small Würzburg radar.
The German 685th Infantry had to march three miles to La Presbytere due to lack of transportation.
The radios were either lost or did not work.
The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers took some flack hits on the approach.
There were German E Boats in the vicinity which failed to spot the British landing craft.
The landing craft were half an hour late and the rush to escape was less than orderly.
It would take a large map to cover the area, more like a historical module than a scenario.