Module:The Scheldt Campaign

Files

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Comments
An operational level wargame of operations in the area of the Scheldt Estuary in Belgium and Holland in October and November of 1944. The crucially important port city of Antwerp had fallen to a rapid British advance in September, but the port could not be used until the coastal artillery defences at the mouth of the Scheldt had been neutralized and the river swept of thousands of mines. It fell to the First Canadian Army, already tired and overstretched after being in continuous combat since the D-Day invasion, to do this.

The nature of this campaign poses challenges to the players: the grinding, attritional nature of the fighting; the difficulty of the terrain fought over; and the limited resources available to either side. The Staff Card system, adapted from Joe Miranda's "Bulge 20" system, does not allow players to move and fight every unit every turn, as is often the case in other wargames - they must choose what they want to do, and where, and how to support it. The combat system, seemingly very simple because it does not rely on odds computations or column shifts, favours the defence and reflects the incremental nature of unit losses as they wear away in the fighting.

Historical Scenario Notes

Click the "Setups" button to place additional Allied and German units per instructions in that window. Draw the required number of German scratch battalions as shown using the "Scratch" button.

OOB Conditions: Some Allied and German Task Forces have specific instructions for set up. These include rolling 1d6 or 2d6 to distribute initial hits among the units in that Task Force. The German player may also start some units in hexes adjacent to the HQ unit (detached) as indicated on the OOB. Complete these tasks before starting the game. Players may delete the notes (white with black text) on the specific Task Force areas after setting the game up.

Instructions

Hits: Hits are assigned to units by right-clicking on a unit and selecting "Enter # of hits (CTRL-H)" and then entering a number of hits that are applicable to that unit. Use the same method and clear the input field to remove hits. Some units on the map and OOBs have pre-assigned hits at the start of the Historical scenario.

The sides are: German, Allied and Solo. Allied and German players will not be able to see the OOBs or card hands of their opponent. When playing Solo, all cards, units and OOBs are accessible to you.

German Scratch Battalions: When drawing German Scratch Battalions, right-click to draw multiple counters to drag that number off the pile. Only the German and Solo players have access to this window.

Battle: Units (*not* Task Forces/HQs) may be moved from the map or OOB to the Battle mat when combat is declared by right-clicking and selecting that option. They may subsequently be moved to the Dead Pile, back to the player's OOB, or removed from the game by right-clicking.

Version Notes v1.0 - Initial release.

Players

 * daveyjj@me.com@David Janik-Jones