"France 1940: a Megablitz battle report" Topic

Yesterday over 20 wargamers refought three days of the German invasion of France in 1940. The battle took place at the UK's Defence Academy, Shrivenham, and was organised by Tim Gow, who devised the Megablitz wargames system ( link ).

I have written a battle report about my part in the battle on my blog ( link ).

Read and enjoy!

Looks like a great event!

Yes, wonderful. What are those houses? They look like wooden bits from a boardgame.

Pigbear,

The buildings are mostly from a set sold as 'Town in a bag' or 'Village in a bag', and these sets can be bought on Amazon or eBay.

Sounds like a great event – and the models look really nice too.

Though I'm not so sure about the german vehicle at the front of this photo

Its like something you see in 70s war films!!

Is the terrain deliberately so abstract and sparse? It does seem very bare, especially with such nice looking vehicles on the table.

Is the terrain deliberately so abstract and sparse? It does seem very bare, especially with such nice looking vehicles on the table.

With a groundscale of 4cm = 1km it needs to be sparse! Remember each of those vehicles represents a battalion …

Ah, that is the mighty 14th Panzer Div, it is indeed assembled largely from dodgy conversion and scratch builds, some of which deliberately resemble hollywood creations.

At an operational level, northern france is indeed rather featureless, roads, rivers and the odd town.

Looks like a fun game, shame missed it.

Excellent link and report!

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

Fred12df,

The joy of Megabliz is the fact that almost anything goes when it comes to modelling the vehicles. We try to make the vehicles and artillery look reasonably like what they are supposed to represent, but lookalike substitutes are perfectly acceptable.

A good example is the good old Airfix 5.5" gun and Matador tractor. The latter is the basis of one of the German trucks featured in the photograph shown above, and I have seen the 5.5" gun converted into all sorts of other artillery pieces, the most popular being the Russian 152mm M1910-34 gun.

Fred12df,

I forgot to mention that almost all the trucks used by 5th Motorised Division were converted from diecast models of modern trucks (Matchbox Volvos, I think). They were given new, prominent radiator covers on the front of the cab, and the makers trademarks (it may have been Peugeot or Citroen, but I am not sure which) were drawn on after they were painted.

I rather like realistic 'model railway' style terrain – but I think for these Operational Level games, the sparse abstract landscape with small generic buildings works best as it prevents you being tricked by the size of the vehicles (the tables represent a wide corridor of northern France and each model represents a battalion sized unit …) …

Phil

Thanks for the explanations chaps. I knew that it was an operational level game – but was still surprised to see that the terrain was so simplistic – but it seems that this is a deliberate style for the game.

Slightly surprised that you need to scratch build or substitute so much kit if you are playing in 20mm, I thought it was one of the better (if not best) served scales for WWII.

Fred12df,

20mm-scale vehicles and artillery are widely available but:
1. Cost is one reason why Megablitz players tend to scratch-build or find lookalike models.
2. Lots of us like the scratch-building/modelling process, and Megablitz is a great excuse to do some.

Thanks for the tip on Town in a Bag aka Little Wooden Village!

I am sure it was great fun.
The look of the game leaves a lot
to be desired . The landscape imho
is rather uninspiring. I love that extra detail
such as Piers Bland adds to his games.
It not a looker , everyone to their own.

Martin Rapier said "the mighty 14th Panzer Div"

Pardon me, I belive in 1940 there were only 10 Panzer Divisions, numbered 1 to 10. Did you mean the 4th?

Nitpickergeneral,

The 14th Panzer Division was created from 4th Infantry Division in October 1940 and did NOT take part in the Invasion of France … but it was a wargame, and sometimes we can bend the rules just a little can't we?

Sidney Fiddler,

The terrain is basically a large cloth map of that part of north eastern France … and with a ground scale of 1:25000 (or 1cm = 2.5km) most terrain features are too small to represent on the terrain.

Yes I am sure it works well as a game.
For me a game no matter what scale , is
soulless without wonderful terrain.
They go hand in hand with the miniatures.
I understand it no big deal having great landscape for some
but for others it's a main ingredient.
I am just being honest.

When you realise the sheer size of this game (and the number of players – around 20) the you realise why the terrain is not that pretty:

megablitzandmore.blogspot.co.uk

Agreed: a matter of perspective via unit scale.

I very much admire the scale of the game; I'd love to see something like that in action.

Is there any hidden movement?

BigRedBat,

There was no hidden movement in this game, but there were recce rules that meant that players did not have a full picture as to what they were facing.

The separation of the tables also tends to make players unaware of what is happening, even on their flanks … as some found out on Saturday.

Gosh, six tables, impressive, I thought it was only going to be four.

At this scale, the most significant feature is the road net, which as can be glimpsed, is quite complex. No roads and your chaps aren't getting any supplies…

The first five(!) parts of my report are up on my blog megablitzandmore.blogspot.co.uk
The tables represented an area nearly 200km long, and 20+ divisions fought over it over three days of game time (and six hours of real time). The wide open spaces and relative absence of nasty terrain features were the precise reason the Germans came this way.
Some of the dodgy models are a reflection of the fact that some of this stuff dates from the 1960s – even in the early 1990s when I put most of this together the range of available models was far short of the situation we are blessed with today.
Operational level games aren't for everyone, but this one kept 22 Wargamers off the streets for a day – which can't be a bad thing!

Very impressive, enjoyed it!

This was my first game of MB and I enjoyed it hugely. I have to say the terrain fitted perfectly with the operational nature of the game. It as also didn't distract us from what we were supposed to be doing either: playing a game with toys.

The first of my own AARs can be found here: link