"SkirmishCampaigns 1940 books" Topic

Hi

I'm interested in the 1940 books for the French campaign. Are the scenarios mostly infantry based or are there some for armour? I'm planning to game this period in 6mm so I'd like to fight some reasonable sized battles (1-2 companies + per side) at 1 to 1 scale. Wouls any of these books would be suitable for this?

Thanks
Kieran

The Skirmish campaigns books typically have 1-3 squads, a support weapon and 1-4 tanks per side. Mostly a tank or two is the norm.

You could manipulate the OOB (i.e.triple the forces) for a company sized battle. But IMO they probably are not what you want if doing 6mm, armor heavy, scenarios.

Bob is right for the most part, but the France '40 – Battles for the Meuse book is a very early release and has a number of much bigger scenarios that feature at least 3-5 squads of infantry and as many as 14 tanks, and a number of guns besides. Tanks and vehicles featured are H39s, H35s, Char B1-bis, lots of trucks, and Panhard Scout Cars.

Thanks for the info Nazrat and the suggestons Bob. I should be able to upscale them as i understand they were downscaled from bigger battles originally.

Anyone know what the other France 1940 books contain in terms of forces? Do any of the scenario books have the BEF?

Cheers
kieran

If you are going to upscale what are originally bath-tubbed versions of the original battles, then it is going to introduce lots of distortions, particularly the terrain models. The scenarios as is work OK for section/platoon sized battles, although I still find something like the entire 9th SS panzer division being reduced to two Panthers a bit odd.

For company (ish) level games, why not have a look at the TFL 1940 scenario books which are aimed at reinforced company type battles or alternatively the 1940 scenarios from TAC Publications (which are aimed at brigade sized battles but are actually easy to scale back down)? TAC also do an interesting micro campaign system based around a core force of a reinforced battalion for each side.

The Meuse book does not have any BEF, but the Ghost Division one has two scenarios in which they participate. Overall, the GD book has much smaller games in it-- generally from 1-3 squads and 3-4 tanks.

Hi Martin

Thanks for the ideas. I will have a look at those as well. When I had a look at the sample scenarios you could see them were for small tables and would need to be bigger terrain pieces or more terrain.

Cheers
kieran

<<<TFL 1940 scenario books>>>

Which scenario books are these please????

Kieran,may want to take a look at the TooFatLardies scenario supplements for "I Aint Been Shot Mum" WW2 rules as they are closer to what you are looking for.
Plus check out Google for any free Advanced Squad Leader scenarios.
Another good find is Bob McKenzie's Coomand Decision Test of Battle scenarios page (easy to reduce the OOB's to company-level.)

link

If I think of any others will post them here for you.

Mark

Too Fat Lardies:
link

The first item is the rules. The next four items are supplements that cover unit organizations for various theaters and periods of the war.

From there on are scenario supplements.

On page two, at the top, is The Defense of Calais scenario book. I have the first edition. Not sure what got updated in the second edition (typo correction, or did they add new content or update the old maps, don't know). I have the first edition, and that is 90 pages and 14 scenarios.

There is a very handy Figures Needed Checklist at the back, which shows what is needed for each scenario. A quick scan and it looks like French forces are used in only 4 scenarios (and really, only one in a major way, one in a modest way, and two with token troops), and British forces are used extensively in all 14. One of the 14 has some major British armour (13 AFVs). The Germans have some armour in 12 of the 14 scenarios.

So if you are looking for early war BEF, this is the scenario book to get.

If you are looking to use early war British stuff, TFL also have another scenario book, Sealion. It is currently undergoing "2nd edition" upgrade so is not available at present. But I would highly recommend that one as well.

Steve