"Operation Sealion - Ideas Needed" Topic

I'm thinking of doing an Operation Sealion campaign, and I'm looking for a few ideas.

My campaign will focus on the land element of the fighting, but obviously the ability of the Germans to get troops and supplies across the channel will have a huge influence on the land campaign.

I've tons of info on the OOB for both sides and the German invasion plans. What I'm after is some way to include the effectiveness of the naval operations (including the air attacks on shipping).

I don't want this to end up being a discussion of who would have won if the invasion went ahead, what I'd like are some ideas on how to game this.

I'm imagining that we'll either roll on some tables or play a short naval scenario representing a day of land fighting, then go on to play some land scenarios for the day, and repeat for each day of the campaign.

So, are there any existing rules or resources for this naval element I can use, or do you have any ideas how I can do it?

I helped run Operation Sealion (twice) earlier this year, amongst my duties was air umpire and naval umpire (for the first game anyway).

Each day I got the Luftwaffe to divvy up their air assets into mission groups (tac air, strategic bombing, anti-shipping, escort etc etc), RAF did the same. I then just made up a simple combat resolution system, fighters vs fighters then any interceptors making it got to attack bombers. Non aborted missions then went in and tac air etc was available for the days land fighting and any anti-shipping was resolved too. I just allocated one combat dice per squadron, hits on a 6 with a simple replacement system. Air attacks went in as one attack per squadron, again, hits on anything from 4+ up to 6 depending what they were attacking (which included stuff like ports, supplies stockpiled on the beach etc). If anything complicated, like ports or capital ships, I rolled a 2D6 effect roll, big numbers lots of damage, low numbers, not much damage.

Naval combat was much the same and resolved after air combat (unless at night). The naval comamnders gave orders for the task forces who then moved around according to their order schedule. Sea battles I ended up resolving using War at Sea (the old AHGC boardgame) or just chucking a lot of dice and looking for 6s.

Really, the game is won or lost on the ability of the RAF and RN to interdict the Germans supply routes, so you need to think about what are acceptable loss rates for the game timeframe you have in mind. I would strongly recommend trying to find a copy of Richard Cox's 'Sealion' which covers the Sandhurst refight. Although they used computer assistance for the combat resolution, the general flow of events gives you an idea of what to aim for.

Main thing is to keep it quick and simple, particularly as you want to emphasise the land element. You could almost just do a random reinforcement table modified by the amount of airpower the RAF and Germans allocate to naval/logistic operations. Will you have air and naval commanders or will it be sort of factored in? In our last game the Luftwaffe ended up converting bombers into transports to try and keep the land effort going.

Expect to lose the entire Kriegsmarine very quickly, apart from any ships you've got running the Channel in daylight under overwhelming air cover. Sadly much of the German supply 'fleet' isn't fast enough to make the trip in daylight….

German airlift capacity should be enough to keep 7th FJ and 22nd Luftlande Div in supply, unless you get all your Ju52s shot down.

Have fun and don't get too bogged down. If all else fails a simple table will do the trick. I found running the air/naval game quite hard work, but we were trying to get through several days combat in one sitting, so I had to hurry up or all the land comamnders were left sitting around.

Thanks, Martin. That's a great idea to get the air assets tasked by mission group. Did you have the attacker sub-divide into individual raids, with escorts assigned, or was that too complicated?

Hmmmm, plenty to think about.

There will be one player on each side, and I'm hoping we can play the naval / air side of things by e-mail in the time between the club nights, when we'll meet up to run a land scenario.

I guess I could work the naval side like the air side – how many ships to escort, how many to screen, how many to shore bombardment.

Hmmmm. That ticking sound you can here is my brain slowly chugging.

Thanks!

"Thanks, Martin. That's a great idea to get the air assets tasked by mission group. Did you have the attacker sub-divide into individual raids, with escorts assigned, or was that too complicated?"

To keep it quick I just made them assign planes to broad mission categories (plus escorts). Within each category some planes could be held on standby (say anti-shipping waiting for targets of opportunity) but generally once the interceptions were resolved for each mission type the planes went on their merry way. The air commanders set targets for strategic bombing etc, but the ground commanders were just given X squadrons of tac air to allocate that day.

Obviously you could make it more complex but we were trying to keep this bit fairly quick. I suppose the system could be open to exploitation, but in fact the players were so busy that it seemed to work in practice.

Yes, the same approach would work for the naval side, although I think you need to resolve the actual naval combat by task forces and maybe do the supply interdiction a bit more abstractly in terms of lost lift capacity. Prob a good idea to keep track of logistics generally in terms of lift and loading/unloading capacity for ports/beaches as well as the tonnage of supplies. I wouldn't bother tracking fuel, ammo, spares etc just do a daily tonnage requirement for different types of unit engaged in different types of activities. Tracked vehicles moving and artillery firing use lots and lots of supplies, horses require fodder whether they are moving or not.

Heh, the more info I get the more questions I have! Do you have any data on unloading rates for ships in port and at beaches? I guess there must be something detailed somewhere from the seige of Malta, as well as Operation Torch, Overlord / Neptune, Anzio etc etc.

I know in Malta it took days to unload some ships, but I heard that this was partly due to poor work practices.

I helped run John Currys Sealion game, he did a ton of research about all this sort of thing, including the capacities of the main ports etc.

IIRC the original German plan goes into all this in some detail.

You could always just fudge it, the German landing schedule was based on what they thought they could keep supplied assuming Folkestone and Dover were taken intact. So, taking that as the 'best case' plus a bit of margin, any sort of damage/interdiction is going to reduce their supply capacity and either mean they land less stuff or the stuff they have is going to be short of supplies or both.

If you haven't already read it I would recommend Kenneth Macksey's book "Invasion"….Martin's comments abaove are all in line with the way I've been thinking while reading the book too.
Huge factor remember to bear in mind – the weather.
If it's poor – no Luftwaffe aircover for ships in transit, to provide ground support or supplies to the troops who have already landed, to harass RN attempts to interdict convoys, lay mines, clear mines etc…
To some extent it works both ways of course, but it's more important to the aggressor trying to call the shots.
In many ways the air and naval side are just as fascinating as the progress of the troops on the ground, so I wouldn't necessarily agree that you'll want to keep it short and simple….

Dooger, I'm keeping the air / naval side short and simple because I'm running a land-focussed game. The problem is, though, that the invasion of Britain depends on the outcome of the Naval campaign above all else, so the land campaign can't simply ignore the other elements. But I don't just want to script the outcome either – I want each side to feel they have had a fair chance to win.

Ermintrude--basically it is a race against time--The geman player has three days to achieve victory before the RN rampages up and down the channel and makes life very nasty short and brutish for the KM and thier transports. EGI would divide days into 2 day/night phases and roll a D6--During the day 1-3 means supply is OK during the night 1-2 means supply is OK…It will put pressure on the Germans to take risks and try hard to win..