Your favourite possible hypothetical scenario/CG

Honza

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The possible hypothetical scenarios for ASL are limitless. What is your favourite such scenario or CG? Downfall, Warsaw Pack vs Nato, the invasion of Britain etc.? Personally I am fascinated by Operation Downfall. Would love to create a CG for this...and hopefully will do.
 
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T34

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I'm not sure what you mean by Downfall, but I would like to see a civil war scenario between the Wehrmacht and SS following a successful assassination of Hitler in 1944.

I've played a Warsaw Pact vs. NATO scenario as part of a tournament in Colorado.

I think there are a number of Sealion scenarios out there, but the question is how realistic is this? Not very. It seems the historical consensus is that even Hitler never really considered invading England in a serious way. Here are the scenarios listed in the ASL Scenario Archive in England.
IDScenarioRatingAttackerS/A/GDefenderS/A/GDatePublication
DE 1A Mortifying Proposition: The Vicar's Lunch
German15/0/0British17/0/01940-09-01ASL Digest # 6.02
BB 1.1874
German14/3/2British / Polish17/6/11940-09-16Coastal Fortress
NEWS60Call Them Ironsides
German4/1/0British3/1/01940-07-02ASL News # 30
Round 2Falling On Folkestone
7.00​
German10/0/0British13/0/01940-07-14CanCon 1999
NEWS58Nemesis
New Zealand0/2/0German0/1/01940-07-03ASL News # 29
V15The Eagle Has Landed
American21/3/0German6/0/01943-06-30View From the Trenches # 24
KSM008The Eagle Has Landed
American7/1/0German3/1/01943-09-01Grumble Jones
 

M.Koch

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Personally i´m not much into hypothetical ASL...
Maybe in "Seelöwe" since it seems to me that this was the most realistic "hypothetical"?!
Or Japanese with German "Lend Lease" tanks and guns... Wouldn´t change the outcome of the war in the pacific, but maybe the outcome of some battles.
 

Honza

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German civil war sounds interesting. It is a situation that I have not considered before.
 

WuWei

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French (and Allies, plus some Germans) defending Paris against the Soviets after "Operation Unthinkable" spectacularly failed.
 

Jumbo

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The Japanese, armed with MG42s, Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks.
 

King Scott

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I would go with Operation Downfall...the most plausible of all suggested so far. Japan had developed some tanks that might have been a match for the Shermans (not so much for the Pershings), so interesting ASL potential there...also potential for Partisans on the Japanese side. In terms of ASL "nationalities" you could see use of Japanese, US Army/USMC, Brittish (they were slated to make a significant participation), and Partisans. If you want to extend the "what-if" then you could include the Soviets and their eventual invasion.

If you are interested in the "what-if" of Downfall, I would suggest reading the novels Death is Lighter Than a Feather by David Westheimer or The Burning Mountain by Alfred Coppel. These are not the typical "what if Sparticus had a Piper Cub airplane?" or "what if the Confederates had AK-47's?" type of fantasy alt-history that you typically see. In both books the authors base their novels around the two main invasion plans of Operations Olympic and Coronet.

Semper Fi!
Scott
 
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lluis61

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Operation Felix: German occupation of Gibraltar. Lots of possibilities: Paradrops, NOBA, climbing, caverns, commando ops, etc.
 

T34

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I would go with Operation Downfall...the most plausible of all suggested so far.
With respect, I'm not at all sure this is the case. Japan was starving. It couldn't use its navy and was on the verge of losing its air force due to lack of fuel. People frequently talk about whether the atom bomb was really necessary as the US had the capacity to do the same thing with incendiary bombs (in fact, it is arguable that incendiaries were far worse as you could keep the fires going for days, as was done at Dresden.) The US wanted the war to end before the Soviets could absorb all of mainland Asia--the Japanese China occupiers were starving as well. So there is a lot of question about whether the US would have actually put boots on the ground in Japan, rather than waited for Japan to starve out.

Having said that, Sealion was a total pipe dream. The Luftwaffe was never going to beat the RAF over its home territory--the pilot losses were just too lopsided. Further, Germany had wrecked its destroyer force in Norway and had no way to protect an invasion force across the Channel. I don't think Hitler ever seriously considered it.

Gibraltar is a little more intriguing, as it only required a bit of cooperation from Franco. but still, it would have meant bringing Spain in on the side of Germany. I haven't read much about why Spain stayed out of the war (other than simply war weariness generally), so I'd have to leave that to someone else.

On the other hand, if Staufenberg sits a little closer to Hitler... Boom, civil war in Germany.
 

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With respect, I'm not at all sure this is the case. Japan was starving. It couldn't use its navy and was on the verge of losing its air force due to lack of fuel. People frequently talk about whether the atom bomb was really necessary as the US had the capacity to do the same thing with incendiary bombs (in fact, it is arguable that incendiaries were far worse as you could keep the fires going for days, as was done at Dresden.) The US wanted the war to end before the Soviets could absorb all of mainland Asia--the Japanese China occupiers were starving as well. So there is a lot of question about whether the US would have actually put boots on the ground in Japan, rather than waited for Japan to starve out.

Having said that, Sealion was a total pipe dream. The Luftwaffe was never going to beat the RAF over its home territory--the pilot losses were just too lopsided. Further, Germany had wrecked its destroyer force in Norway and had no way to protect an invasion force across the Channel. I don't think Hitler ever seriously considered it.

Gibraltar is a little more intriguing, as it only required a bit of cooperation from Franco. but still, it would have meant bringing Spain in on the side of Germany. I haven't read much about why Spain stayed out of the war (other than simply war weariness generally), so I'd have to leave that to someone else.

On the other hand, if Staufenberg sits a little closer to Hitler... Boom, civil war in Germany.
DOWNFALL was already in the planning stages, forces allocated and steps underway for acquiring logistical support to include forward basing of supplies and allocation of shipping assets required for he landings plus Dates and operational plans set for OLYMPIC. The British Navy had also already started operating in the South China Sea area for potential invasions/occupations of Tiawan/Hong Kong as well though I'm not sure how far these plans had been finalized. In the United States the public was war weary but still determined to push the conflict to its inevitable end and as much as I am reticent to say, the war had taken on a life of its own and had become somewhat common-place; It was expected we would have invaded Japan and brought the war to a close and there's no doubt in my mind that it would have proceeded in that fashion. I deem it very doubtful that the U.S. especially would have stepped back from direct confrontation with an enemy at that time to simply let six million plus Japanese starve to death to win the war. Hate and revenge, though not laudable attributes, are huge motivators.
 
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RobZagnut

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Starship Troopers

Are you trying to be a hero Watkins?
Trying to kill some bugs sir!
 

gorkowskij

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Welcome to Downton
July, 1940

Prelude: What if German paratroopers invaded Britain after the fall of France? Could they have stumbled upon Downtown Abbey? Would it have been viewed as a local tactical objective?

Board 6, hex row A is north edge
Six turns
VC: The side that controls more hexes of building N4 at game end wins.

Order of Battle:
German, elements of the 1 Fallschirmjäger Regiment, 7th Air Division, ELR 5, SAN 2, enter anywhere along the south edge on turn 1.

1 x 8-1
5 x 5-4-8
1 x ATR
1 x LMG
1 x DC

British, ELR 2, SAN 5 (local game warden), set up as indicated.

Lords, Ladies, and Household Staff, set up anywhere within two hexes of N4.

1 x 1-3-8 wounded hero, Lady Grantham
1 x 4-3-6 household staff

Bampton Village Home Guard, set up anywhere on or north of row X.

1 x Armored Car Rolls Royce
1 x 8-0
2 x 4-4-7
1 x Roadblock
 

holdit

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Never mind the toffs in Downton Abbey, what about getting down with the peeps in Walmington-on-Sea?

"The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage"

?
 

Ric of The LBC

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Welcome to Downton
July, 1940

Prelude: What if German paratroopers invaded Britain after the fall of France? Could they have stumbled upon Downtown Abbey? Would it have been viewed as a local tactical objective?

Board 6, hex row A is north edge
Six turns
VC: The side that controls more hexes of building N4 at game end wins.

Order of Battle:
German, elements of the 1 Fallschirmjäger Regiment, 7th Air Division, ELR 5, SAN 2, enter anywhere along the south edge on turn 1.

1 x 8-1
5 x 5-4-8
1 x ATR
1 x LMG
1 x DC

British, ELR 2, SAN 5 (local game warden), set up as indicated.

Lords, Ladies, and Household Staff, set up anywhere within two hexes of N4.

1 x 1-3-8 wounded hero, Lady Grantham
1 x 4-3-6 household staff

Bampton Village Home Guard, set up anywhere on or north of row X.

1 x Armored Car Rolls Royce
1 x 8-0
2 x 4-4-7
1 x Roadblock
need a counter for Carson's eyebrows. prolly 5/8" size
 
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