JAMiAM
TOAW III Project Manager
...in the scenario archives, here.
Please give me any feedback here, and let me know how it plays. Thanks in advance.
From the scenario briefing...
Sealion 1940 (PBEM)
Hypothetical German invasion of England
Version 3.0, by James A. Mathews
Based on Sealion40, ver 2.1, by Greg Lawrence
Date: Sept 10 - Nov 5 1940
Location: England
Map scale: 10km per hex
Time scale: Half-week turns
Unit Scale: Division
Length: 17 Turns
UNIT COLORS:
German:
Wehrmacht - Grey on Grey
SS - Black on Black
Luftwaffe - White on Lt. Blue
Kreigsmarine - White on Grey
Fliegerkorps - Lt. Blue on Grey-Green
Commonwealth:
British Army - Blue on Brown
Canadian - White on Brown
New Zealand - Blue on Brown
Home Guard - Black on Brown
RAF - Lt. Blue on Lt. Brown
Royal Navy - Blue on Lt. Brown
US – White on Green
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:
50% Chance of a Cool Front turns 10-15
75% Chance of a Storms turns 10-15
German Sea Cap: Begins at 35000, dropping 5000 per turn until it reaches 5000.
German Air Cap: 5000 turn 1, 1000 from turn 2 onward.
British Rail Cap: Begins at 6000, drops to 3000 on turn 6, and 1500 on turn 8.
Theater Recon:
German: 30
British: 25
(Original) SCENARIO BRIEFING
On September 6th 1940 Adolf Hitler orders the commencement of Operation Sealion the Invasion of England. The Luftwaffe has given the Kreigsmarine and Wehrmacht the air cover it needs to complete the channel crossing virtually unopposed. The RAF having suffered significant losses during the German air campaign can only offer token resistance. The Royal Navy and the English Army, with the assistance of the Home Guard, are now the bulwark of the embattled islands defense. The Wehrmacht working on a limited timetable must complete operations before the weather can significantly effect operations. The German plan calls for the encirclement of London, which will be starved into submission, and a drive to the Industrial midlands capturing the means of production on the island and ending any hope of further resistance. Can England stand against the most powerful land army in Europe or will they fall as all others before the German Reich.
VERSION 3.0 SCENARIO BRIEFING:
The goal remains the same, to drive into the English midlands as the Germans. The British must seal up the German beachhead, before significant progress is made in order to win. A draw is based on roughly equal loss penalties and an approximate line of German advance that would include the capture of Southend, London, Newbury, and Southampton.
However, there have been some major changes to the OOB’s of both sides, some map and scale manipulations and a drastically altered supply situation for the Germans.
MAP CHANGES:
Some map adjustments include distance modifiers for the off map air bases, offshore German supply hexes (explained in more detail later), a few roads and rails bent here and there, and specific limits shown on map regarding German naval movement and invasions.
The manipulations regarding map scale involve changing the environment variable to 15 km per hex from 10 km, while increasing the global movement rate of the units by a multiple of 150%. This gives the ground units the same movement rates as in the original scenario but has three beneficial side effects. It puts a more realistic operational radius on the air units in the game. It does away with the atrocious stacking penalties that the game was saddled with previously. This affects both combat (hex density loss modifiers) as well as movement. Finally, it also reduces the range of the artillery in all of the various HQ’s to one, which prevents the excessively large support coverage that the UK 25 lb ER guns were able to exert.
OOB and TO&E CHANGES:
The Home Guard has been both enlarged, and made less useful. Stronger, in terms of actual strength, but the addition of 2 lb AA guns with no transport will result in movement rates of 1. This will prevent them from being used as “supply drainers” or soak off units, and essentially confine these units to garrison duty. They might also add a touch of stiffening to the English Corps HQ’s if stacked together. Then again, they may fall apart in retreat before combat situations and act as movement enhancers for the Germans, if left on the front lines by themselves. Those that are stacked with air units are no longer the kiss of death for the UK air units when German airborne units directly strike the airbases. They are strong enough to allow the planes to fly away to another airbase before evaporation. This was a major problem in version 2.1 and earlier. The two HG formations are deliberately fully packed so that the units will not be allowed to breakdown. They are locked in Garrison Status until turn 6, so only loss tolerances may be adjusted for those HG units that have not been previously retreated out of their starting hexes. Only every fourth unit will reconstitute and they begin in untried status.
Unit proficiencies have been tweaked. In general, RAF units have had their proficiencies raised to 85% from 75%, while Bomber Command remains at 75%. The Luftwaffe has had a general drop from 75% to 70%. This is to recreate the overall effects of the advantages that the UK would have in terms of pilot recovery, and being able to nurse damaged airframes back to friendly territory.
Replacement Priorities (not numbers) have been generally raised for the British and held roughly level for the Germans. This is due to the increased load on the shipping assets and logistical considerations of the German Army being supported over the channel. The UK will have the home field advantage here. It was not practical to simply drop the priorities for the Germans. See Chris Horn’s (aka General Staff) excellent analysis of replacements and reconstitutions, available at www.tdg.nu, for further enlightenment.
HQ units on both sides now have MP squads to reduce the equipment density movement penalties. This will allow force to be more efficiently concentrated.
Some of the naval units on both sides have been broken down into smaller flotillas to allow more flexibility in their use, ease of reconstitution, and resiliency in combat. Replacements that are assigned to the naval equipment types are not to be assumed to be fresh ships leaving the yards, but rather an emphasis on repair of damaged ships to account for the sometimes wildly inexplicable results that TOAW gives in naval combats.
The German Panzer Divisions have been granted a more accurate TO&E, which should be better able to take on the British Armored Brigades and Divisions, which have had their starting strengths adjusted downward due to presumed equipment shortages following the Dunkerque debacle. The Amphibious Panzer Battalions have been changed to regular Panzer Battalions, and augmented with an extra Company with generally better tanks. The Panzer Divisions will have a relatively higher replacement priority than most of the rest of the German Army.
The 7th Fleiger Division units, and the OKH Glider Regiments that arrive on turn 6, do not reconstitute and have Low replacement priority. This is due to the specialized training of these units. Given the length of time that this scenario represents, there is no way that these units would be replaced, and the available pool of trained replacements would restrict their rebuilding if seriously damaged in combat. Use these assets wisely. They have their obvious utility in directly assisting attacks, and cutting off retreats, but as a continual threat to grab rear area objectives, impede reserve movement, destroy bridges and rail lines, they are worth their weight in gold.
All air units that previously had mixed range equipment have been split into separate counters for each airframe. Exception being the RAF fighters, since the Hurricanes and Spitfires differ by only one hex in range.
Some minor tweaks in terms of ground unit proficiencies for the British, and the Germans have received a boost from 75% up to 85% in most cases. This is to reflect the morale difference between the protagonists, and the “Cortez effect” on the Germans. The Germans just came from a successful French Campaign, the British are assumed to have suffered the embarrassment (and possibly worse defeat) at Dunkerque. Finally, after being shipped to the British Isles, there would be nowhere to go but on to victory or into English POW camps for the Germans. Hitler would abide no ships bringing troops back to the continent otherwise.
Much of the starting British Force is now split up into regiment size, to more intelligently cover their rear areas, and lines of retreat. Historical accounts of the preparations against a German invasion of the Isles showed a great deal of thought being given the threat of “vertical envelopment” by German airborne forces, and given the performance of the German airborne assault on Holland earlier in the year, it is clear that they were still not able to project airborne power as strong and deep as earlier versions of this scenario allowed.
Note that the pre-splitting of the British units before the scenario begins will result in the usual loss of 20% of the unit proficiencies. This WILL be regained when the units are recombined. However, the dynamic that this effect introduces will be a general weakness in individual units, compensated by increased line coverage and operational flexibility in the early game. Thus, the British will end up giving ground more readily, but will lose fewer units to encirclement. Once their reserves are released, the reinforcements arrive, and the front stabilizes, it would probably be a good idea to recombine some of these divisions to take advantage of the higher unit proficiencies and the concentration of force (for overruns, etc.) that this allows.
The British Southern Command “S Command” formation has been split off into three different commands. These are the “S Command”, “E Anglia Com”, and “SW Command”. This is to introduce a greater degree of operational flexibility as the S Command in previous versions was too fully packed to allow unit splitting.
An eighth of the Bomber Command was axed, and replaced with two squadrons of American “Volunteers” arriving on turn 8.
CRUCIAL, YET NOT ENTIRELY OBVIOUS, GAME PLAY ELEMENTS:
Supply radius for the British is 2, and for the Germans is 1. Automatic rail repair for the British starts at 2, and drops to one on turn 8. The Germans have no automatic rail repair. Both sides have rail repair squads in their Army (Germans) and High Command (British) HQ’s. Supply stockpiles are set very high in this scenario, so feel free to be as active in attacks as you like. However, as the Germans, your supply situation can go from decent to the doghouse very quickly.
German supply is handled in a completely new fashion for this scenario. The Germans must successfully contest the Channel against the British Fleet in order to feed the troops. There are no German supply points in the UK. Just offshore, there are several hexes marked “Ge SP” which are the sole sources for supply to the Germans. Some of these hexes have distance +3 borders. Some important distinctions should be made on the interplay between non-distanced and distanced hexes for both supply and combat.
Supply sources that are in distance hexes only provide minimum supply outside of their hexes, until an unbroken friendly rail line is in an adjacent, friendly controlled hex, out of an uncontested EZOC. Supply hexes that are in sea hexes WILL supply onto and through adjacent land hexes without the need for “sea roads” or other tricks. Of course, they do still need to be friendly controlled during the Automatic Bookkeeping Phase to count as a friendly supply source. Only naval combat units can convert the control of sea hexes. Embarked land units will NOT. The supply sources that are in non-distance modified hexes will provide normal, full supply into adjacent hexes, with the standard drop offs due to terrain, et cetera. Why would one want to use a lesser supply source when a better one might be right next to it? There is a catch…
Distance hexes affect the range calculations for ranged support assets, for both the target hex and the firing unit’s hex. Thus, an air unit in a +5 hex, attacking a naval unit in a +3 hex that is 20 hexes away (by count) actually is attacking at a range of 28 hexes. This effect is, of course, more proportionally drastic given units that have shorter ranges – like artillery and ships.
Naval combat units can always attack adjacent enemy units at sea, regardless of distance modifiers. This will involve all the equipment in both attacking and target hexes. When naval units fight from non-adjacent hexes, they do so “at range” and only those pieces of equipment that are able to reach from one hex to the other, will participate in active firing (though other equipment on both sides might be targeted, during these duels). When ships fire at range, these battles are resolved like artillery battles, and no Ground Support air units will assist. However, when they are involved in adjacent hex battles, the battles are resolved like regular combats and air assets may support the battles.
So…the net effect of having both distanced hexes and non-modified hexes for the German supply is to allow the Germans the flexibility of getting an earlier supply boost, at the cost of increased exposure of their naval units to the Royal Navy, or to play it safer, and stack their forces into hexes that require the RN to engage the Kriegsmarine protected by the support umbrella offered by the Luftwaffe. Note, that as the German Army HQ’s are released from reserve (turns 2,3, and 4) they will be able to repair the rail lines in hexes adjacent to any supply source (modified distance or not) which will allow full supply to flow from these sources the length of the repaired rail line. To point out the obvious, the offshore sources must still be friendly controlled at the start of the automatic bookkeeping phase. Given British interference, this may be difficult for the Germans to maintain each turn and throughout the course of the game, particularly since the British move second. These effects are fully intended.
GERMAN PLAYER NOTES: The Ju-87 units of the Germans are extremely deadly against shipping. When the RN is caught with its units in the open sea, make ignore loss attacks against the units (within friendly fighter range, of course) with one or two units per naval unit. This is especially effective against the capital ships in the target hexes. Ignore loss attacks will burn three tactical rounds per attack, should they go the duration. This might very well affect your tactical planning for the progress on the ground, but if you don’t defeat the RN, your ground forces will wither quickly without supplies. It is a tough balancing act that you must perform – the entire game. When no RN units remain at sea from the previous turn, rest your Stukas throughout your turn, so that they are not drawn into ground attacks. Then set them on GS missions, ignore losses, before the end of the turn. Make sure that your naval units are sitting in distance modified supply hexes and if possible, base your Stukas, so that they can support the naval units, but are not drawn into land battles all along the front line, if the British player is active in attacking. You can base them closer, when his lines are primarily in static defense posture, or when (if) you can push back the lines away from the Channel supply hexes.
The possibility exists that Kriegsmarine may disappear for some portion of the game, and the Germans in England may be faced with starvation. It is fully allowed that portions of the Wehrmacht may be shipped or airlifted back to the Continent to resupply. Just keep in mind the rapidly dwindling shipping capacity will make this less effective than it might otherwise seem.
Besides the overriding logistical concern that the Germans must contend with throughout the game, they also have some very tough decisions to make on the first turn. Should they strive for a strong, shallow and wide bridgehead? Or drive deeply on a narrower front? Aim for London early and in strength, or swing to the West and try to breakout early into the flatter Midlands where their Panzers will be more effective? Should the 7th Fleiger Division be used to directly support the invasion, or should they drop deeper to create more havoc in the rear?
Bearing in mind the earlier notes about the low replacement priorities for the 7th Fleiger, the other concern is that many of the British Formations begin in Reserve. There are “tripwire” battalion units from three of these formations in and around London. Also, the SW Command has a tripwire regiment in Southampton. Unless the Germans move adjacent to, or attack any of the E Anglia Com, SW Command, or W Command units they will not come out of reserve until turn 4. Due to the turn sequence, the Germans can safely move next to any of these units on turn 3 without advancing their release. However, early deep penetrations, or airdrops may very well awaken these reserves earlier than you would like. The design concept here is that until the Panzers start landing, London was directly threatened, or in case of units running around in the rear, the British Command would not be certain that the initial invasion was not a feint, and would not denude the defenses of the island to rush pell-mell toward the first landing site.
HONOR RULES:
Neither side may voluntarily move their naval combat units into anchorage hexes, except for the cases listed below.
German naval units are not allowed to base in any German controlled, British anchorage hex. They may remain at sea, or base in any of the continental ports (French/Belgian). If driven into an British anchorage by retreating from an British naval attack on the previous turn, they must either immediately move out of the anchorage hex, if a path exists for them to leave, or make an ignore loss attack against at least one hex occupied by a British fleet unit, that is "blockading" the anchorage hex. They must continue to either attempt to move out, or make ignore loss attacks each available tactical phase until they are either destroyed, able to move out, or the turn ends.
The German Fleet, and all sea movement is restricted to those hexes which are south of the “+” marked hexes, i.e., no hex with a “+” may be entered by German naval units.
The British navy is restricted to the use of the following anchorage hexes: Birkenhead, and hex (29,4). If any British naval unit is forced into any anchorage other than those two, it must follow the same procedures as the Germans, in breaking free into the open sea. If in either of these two hexes, the British Navy is NOT under any restrictions in terms of shore bombardment.
British naval units are not otherwise restricted and can travel the entire map, and perform all missions, including airbase attacks and shore bombardment attacks against any hexes they can reach.
Disembarking of ground units and invasions are only allowed into anchorage hexes.
The 7th Fleiger Div HQ is the only HQ allowed to use air movement. All others must be transported by sea.
The scenario is intended for PBEM only.
Please give me any feedback here, and let me know how it plays. Thanks in advance.
From the scenario briefing...
Sealion 1940 (PBEM)
Hypothetical German invasion of England
Version 3.0, by James A. Mathews
Based on Sealion40, ver 2.1, by Greg Lawrence
Date: Sept 10 - Nov 5 1940
Location: England
Map scale: 10km per hex
Time scale: Half-week turns
Unit Scale: Division
Length: 17 Turns
UNIT COLORS:
German:
Wehrmacht - Grey on Grey
SS - Black on Black
Luftwaffe - White on Lt. Blue
Kreigsmarine - White on Grey
Fliegerkorps - Lt. Blue on Grey-Green
Commonwealth:
British Army - Blue on Brown
Canadian - White on Brown
New Zealand - Blue on Brown
Home Guard - Black on Brown
RAF - Lt. Blue on Lt. Brown
Royal Navy - Blue on Lt. Brown
US – White on Green
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:
50% Chance of a Cool Front turns 10-15
75% Chance of a Storms turns 10-15
German Sea Cap: Begins at 35000, dropping 5000 per turn until it reaches 5000.
German Air Cap: 5000 turn 1, 1000 from turn 2 onward.
British Rail Cap: Begins at 6000, drops to 3000 on turn 6, and 1500 on turn 8.
Theater Recon:
German: 30
British: 25
(Original) SCENARIO BRIEFING
On September 6th 1940 Adolf Hitler orders the commencement of Operation Sealion the Invasion of England. The Luftwaffe has given the Kreigsmarine and Wehrmacht the air cover it needs to complete the channel crossing virtually unopposed. The RAF having suffered significant losses during the German air campaign can only offer token resistance. The Royal Navy and the English Army, with the assistance of the Home Guard, are now the bulwark of the embattled islands defense. The Wehrmacht working on a limited timetable must complete operations before the weather can significantly effect operations. The German plan calls for the encirclement of London, which will be starved into submission, and a drive to the Industrial midlands capturing the means of production on the island and ending any hope of further resistance. Can England stand against the most powerful land army in Europe or will they fall as all others before the German Reich.
VERSION 3.0 SCENARIO BRIEFING:
The goal remains the same, to drive into the English midlands as the Germans. The British must seal up the German beachhead, before significant progress is made in order to win. A draw is based on roughly equal loss penalties and an approximate line of German advance that would include the capture of Southend, London, Newbury, and Southampton.
However, there have been some major changes to the OOB’s of both sides, some map and scale manipulations and a drastically altered supply situation for the Germans.
MAP CHANGES:
Some map adjustments include distance modifiers for the off map air bases, offshore German supply hexes (explained in more detail later), a few roads and rails bent here and there, and specific limits shown on map regarding German naval movement and invasions.
The manipulations regarding map scale involve changing the environment variable to 15 km per hex from 10 km, while increasing the global movement rate of the units by a multiple of 150%. This gives the ground units the same movement rates as in the original scenario but has three beneficial side effects. It puts a more realistic operational radius on the air units in the game. It does away with the atrocious stacking penalties that the game was saddled with previously. This affects both combat (hex density loss modifiers) as well as movement. Finally, it also reduces the range of the artillery in all of the various HQ’s to one, which prevents the excessively large support coverage that the UK 25 lb ER guns were able to exert.
OOB and TO&E CHANGES:
The Home Guard has been both enlarged, and made less useful. Stronger, in terms of actual strength, but the addition of 2 lb AA guns with no transport will result in movement rates of 1. This will prevent them from being used as “supply drainers” or soak off units, and essentially confine these units to garrison duty. They might also add a touch of stiffening to the English Corps HQ’s if stacked together. Then again, they may fall apart in retreat before combat situations and act as movement enhancers for the Germans, if left on the front lines by themselves. Those that are stacked with air units are no longer the kiss of death for the UK air units when German airborne units directly strike the airbases. They are strong enough to allow the planes to fly away to another airbase before evaporation. This was a major problem in version 2.1 and earlier. The two HG formations are deliberately fully packed so that the units will not be allowed to breakdown. They are locked in Garrison Status until turn 6, so only loss tolerances may be adjusted for those HG units that have not been previously retreated out of their starting hexes. Only every fourth unit will reconstitute and they begin in untried status.
Unit proficiencies have been tweaked. In general, RAF units have had their proficiencies raised to 85% from 75%, while Bomber Command remains at 75%. The Luftwaffe has had a general drop from 75% to 70%. This is to recreate the overall effects of the advantages that the UK would have in terms of pilot recovery, and being able to nurse damaged airframes back to friendly territory.
Replacement Priorities (not numbers) have been generally raised for the British and held roughly level for the Germans. This is due to the increased load on the shipping assets and logistical considerations of the German Army being supported over the channel. The UK will have the home field advantage here. It was not practical to simply drop the priorities for the Germans. See Chris Horn’s (aka General Staff) excellent analysis of replacements and reconstitutions, available at www.tdg.nu, for further enlightenment.
HQ units on both sides now have MP squads to reduce the equipment density movement penalties. This will allow force to be more efficiently concentrated.
Some of the naval units on both sides have been broken down into smaller flotillas to allow more flexibility in their use, ease of reconstitution, and resiliency in combat. Replacements that are assigned to the naval equipment types are not to be assumed to be fresh ships leaving the yards, but rather an emphasis on repair of damaged ships to account for the sometimes wildly inexplicable results that TOAW gives in naval combats.
The German Panzer Divisions have been granted a more accurate TO&E, which should be better able to take on the British Armored Brigades and Divisions, which have had their starting strengths adjusted downward due to presumed equipment shortages following the Dunkerque debacle. The Amphibious Panzer Battalions have been changed to regular Panzer Battalions, and augmented with an extra Company with generally better tanks. The Panzer Divisions will have a relatively higher replacement priority than most of the rest of the German Army.
The 7th Fleiger Division units, and the OKH Glider Regiments that arrive on turn 6, do not reconstitute and have Low replacement priority. This is due to the specialized training of these units. Given the length of time that this scenario represents, there is no way that these units would be replaced, and the available pool of trained replacements would restrict their rebuilding if seriously damaged in combat. Use these assets wisely. They have their obvious utility in directly assisting attacks, and cutting off retreats, but as a continual threat to grab rear area objectives, impede reserve movement, destroy bridges and rail lines, they are worth their weight in gold.
All air units that previously had mixed range equipment have been split into separate counters for each airframe. Exception being the RAF fighters, since the Hurricanes and Spitfires differ by only one hex in range.
Some minor tweaks in terms of ground unit proficiencies for the British, and the Germans have received a boost from 75% up to 85% in most cases. This is to reflect the morale difference between the protagonists, and the “Cortez effect” on the Germans. The Germans just came from a successful French Campaign, the British are assumed to have suffered the embarrassment (and possibly worse defeat) at Dunkerque. Finally, after being shipped to the British Isles, there would be nowhere to go but on to victory or into English POW camps for the Germans. Hitler would abide no ships bringing troops back to the continent otherwise.
Much of the starting British Force is now split up into regiment size, to more intelligently cover their rear areas, and lines of retreat. Historical accounts of the preparations against a German invasion of the Isles showed a great deal of thought being given the threat of “vertical envelopment” by German airborne forces, and given the performance of the German airborne assault on Holland earlier in the year, it is clear that they were still not able to project airborne power as strong and deep as earlier versions of this scenario allowed.
Note that the pre-splitting of the British units before the scenario begins will result in the usual loss of 20% of the unit proficiencies. This WILL be regained when the units are recombined. However, the dynamic that this effect introduces will be a general weakness in individual units, compensated by increased line coverage and operational flexibility in the early game. Thus, the British will end up giving ground more readily, but will lose fewer units to encirclement. Once their reserves are released, the reinforcements arrive, and the front stabilizes, it would probably be a good idea to recombine some of these divisions to take advantage of the higher unit proficiencies and the concentration of force (for overruns, etc.) that this allows.
The British Southern Command “S Command” formation has been split off into three different commands. These are the “S Command”, “E Anglia Com”, and “SW Command”. This is to introduce a greater degree of operational flexibility as the S Command in previous versions was too fully packed to allow unit splitting.
An eighth of the Bomber Command was axed, and replaced with two squadrons of American “Volunteers” arriving on turn 8.
CRUCIAL, YET NOT ENTIRELY OBVIOUS, GAME PLAY ELEMENTS:
Supply radius for the British is 2, and for the Germans is 1. Automatic rail repair for the British starts at 2, and drops to one on turn 8. The Germans have no automatic rail repair. Both sides have rail repair squads in their Army (Germans) and High Command (British) HQ’s. Supply stockpiles are set very high in this scenario, so feel free to be as active in attacks as you like. However, as the Germans, your supply situation can go from decent to the doghouse very quickly.
German supply is handled in a completely new fashion for this scenario. The Germans must successfully contest the Channel against the British Fleet in order to feed the troops. There are no German supply points in the UK. Just offshore, there are several hexes marked “Ge SP” which are the sole sources for supply to the Germans. Some of these hexes have distance +3 borders. Some important distinctions should be made on the interplay between non-distanced and distanced hexes for both supply and combat.
Supply sources that are in distance hexes only provide minimum supply outside of their hexes, until an unbroken friendly rail line is in an adjacent, friendly controlled hex, out of an uncontested EZOC. Supply hexes that are in sea hexes WILL supply onto and through adjacent land hexes without the need for “sea roads” or other tricks. Of course, they do still need to be friendly controlled during the Automatic Bookkeeping Phase to count as a friendly supply source. Only naval combat units can convert the control of sea hexes. Embarked land units will NOT. The supply sources that are in non-distance modified hexes will provide normal, full supply into adjacent hexes, with the standard drop offs due to terrain, et cetera. Why would one want to use a lesser supply source when a better one might be right next to it? There is a catch…
Distance hexes affect the range calculations for ranged support assets, for both the target hex and the firing unit’s hex. Thus, an air unit in a +5 hex, attacking a naval unit in a +3 hex that is 20 hexes away (by count) actually is attacking at a range of 28 hexes. This effect is, of course, more proportionally drastic given units that have shorter ranges – like artillery and ships.
Naval combat units can always attack adjacent enemy units at sea, regardless of distance modifiers. This will involve all the equipment in both attacking and target hexes. When naval units fight from non-adjacent hexes, they do so “at range” and only those pieces of equipment that are able to reach from one hex to the other, will participate in active firing (though other equipment on both sides might be targeted, during these duels). When ships fire at range, these battles are resolved like artillery battles, and no Ground Support air units will assist. However, when they are involved in adjacent hex battles, the battles are resolved like regular combats and air assets may support the battles.
So…the net effect of having both distanced hexes and non-modified hexes for the German supply is to allow the Germans the flexibility of getting an earlier supply boost, at the cost of increased exposure of their naval units to the Royal Navy, or to play it safer, and stack their forces into hexes that require the RN to engage the Kriegsmarine protected by the support umbrella offered by the Luftwaffe. Note, that as the German Army HQ’s are released from reserve (turns 2,3, and 4) they will be able to repair the rail lines in hexes adjacent to any supply source (modified distance or not) which will allow full supply to flow from these sources the length of the repaired rail line. To point out the obvious, the offshore sources must still be friendly controlled at the start of the automatic bookkeeping phase. Given British interference, this may be difficult for the Germans to maintain each turn and throughout the course of the game, particularly since the British move second. These effects are fully intended.
GERMAN PLAYER NOTES: The Ju-87 units of the Germans are extremely deadly against shipping. When the RN is caught with its units in the open sea, make ignore loss attacks against the units (within friendly fighter range, of course) with one or two units per naval unit. This is especially effective against the capital ships in the target hexes. Ignore loss attacks will burn three tactical rounds per attack, should they go the duration. This might very well affect your tactical planning for the progress on the ground, but if you don’t defeat the RN, your ground forces will wither quickly without supplies. It is a tough balancing act that you must perform – the entire game. When no RN units remain at sea from the previous turn, rest your Stukas throughout your turn, so that they are not drawn into ground attacks. Then set them on GS missions, ignore losses, before the end of the turn. Make sure that your naval units are sitting in distance modified supply hexes and if possible, base your Stukas, so that they can support the naval units, but are not drawn into land battles all along the front line, if the British player is active in attacking. You can base them closer, when his lines are primarily in static defense posture, or when (if) you can push back the lines away from the Channel supply hexes.
The possibility exists that Kriegsmarine may disappear for some portion of the game, and the Germans in England may be faced with starvation. It is fully allowed that portions of the Wehrmacht may be shipped or airlifted back to the Continent to resupply. Just keep in mind the rapidly dwindling shipping capacity will make this less effective than it might otherwise seem.
Besides the overriding logistical concern that the Germans must contend with throughout the game, they also have some very tough decisions to make on the first turn. Should they strive for a strong, shallow and wide bridgehead? Or drive deeply on a narrower front? Aim for London early and in strength, or swing to the West and try to breakout early into the flatter Midlands where their Panzers will be more effective? Should the 7th Fleiger Division be used to directly support the invasion, or should they drop deeper to create more havoc in the rear?
Bearing in mind the earlier notes about the low replacement priorities for the 7th Fleiger, the other concern is that many of the British Formations begin in Reserve. There are “tripwire” battalion units from three of these formations in and around London. Also, the SW Command has a tripwire regiment in Southampton. Unless the Germans move adjacent to, or attack any of the E Anglia Com, SW Command, or W Command units they will not come out of reserve until turn 4. Due to the turn sequence, the Germans can safely move next to any of these units on turn 3 without advancing their release. However, early deep penetrations, or airdrops may very well awaken these reserves earlier than you would like. The design concept here is that until the Panzers start landing, London was directly threatened, or in case of units running around in the rear, the British Command would not be certain that the initial invasion was not a feint, and would not denude the defenses of the island to rush pell-mell toward the first landing site.
HONOR RULES:
Neither side may voluntarily move their naval combat units into anchorage hexes, except for the cases listed below.
German naval units are not allowed to base in any German controlled, British anchorage hex. They may remain at sea, or base in any of the continental ports (French/Belgian). If driven into an British anchorage by retreating from an British naval attack on the previous turn, they must either immediately move out of the anchorage hex, if a path exists for them to leave, or make an ignore loss attack against at least one hex occupied by a British fleet unit, that is "blockading" the anchorage hex. They must continue to either attempt to move out, or make ignore loss attacks each available tactical phase until they are either destroyed, able to move out, or the turn ends.
The German Fleet, and all sea movement is restricted to those hexes which are south of the “+” marked hexes, i.e., no hex with a “+” may be entered by German naval units.
The British navy is restricted to the use of the following anchorage hexes: Birkenhead, and hex (29,4). If any British naval unit is forced into any anchorage other than those two, it must follow the same procedures as the Germans, in breaking free into the open sea. If in either of these two hexes, the British Navy is NOT under any restrictions in terms of shore bombardment.
British naval units are not otherwise restricted and can travel the entire map, and perform all missions, including airbase attacks and shore bombardment attacks against any hexes they can reach.
Disembarking of ground units and invasions are only allowed into anchorage hexes.
The 7th Fleiger Div HQ is the only HQ allowed to use air movement. All others must be transported by sea.
The scenario is intended for PBEM only.
