"Blitzkrieg in the West 1940." Topic

Team

If you like early war gaming you are going to be pleased with these. Check out the 192 scenarios available at Wargames Vault.

link

What rules were the scenarios written for?

They were written for Command Decision Test of Battle, but, if you take a look at the examples, you will see that they are easily converted to any rule set that uses one stand = one platoon. Quite frankly, given that the ingredients for a scenario are a map, a situation, and forces, they could easily used by any rule set.

Great stuff. Any chance of scenario books for either Norway or Greece in the future?

Maha

Thank you. These four took me over 10 years, including a great deal of translation from primary sources. I'm particularly proud of the research around the Dutch and Belgian volumes; very difficult to track down. I need a break! Maybe one day Norway, Finland and Greece. Maybe.

Will also depend on the reaction to the current four.

Oh no…..you've finished the Belgian one…….I've already got the first three in the series and just splashed out a few hundred quid for a French army….which I now have to paint!!

So is my walet going to take another hit?…..might have to wait till after my wedding!

As for those interested I think they are great. Actual maps as well as gaming ones. Real battles and troop info. I managed to convert the army list to what I needed easily enough.

I've only played some of the BEF ones so far (as I needed a French army) and they are well written and accurate. I ended up combing a few scenarios into a bigger game, but I'm lucky enough to have a big table to play on.

Well worth it as a christmas treat inmho.

badwargamer

But what a wonderful wedding present for your wife…

Thank you very much for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. At a pinch you can use French troops to represent Belgians – most people don't know the differences in uniforms anyway.

Contact me on mgk milsims @ gmail . com and I will send you a wedding present for the positive review!

Cheers

Michael

Check out the 192 scenarios available at Wargames Vault.

Bravo for this remarkable accomplishment.

These … took me over 10 years, including a great deal of translation from primary sources. I'm particularly proud of the research around the Dutch and Belgian volumes; very difficult to track down.

This can fairly be typified as a fan letter (posting?). I really appreciate good research. Really. Very much so.

So thank you for your effort, and for making all that delicious stuff available to the gaming public.

I've only ever managed two wargaming scenarios from foreign language sources, and make no great claims to the level of research I was able to put into them. I did not do any research on individual unit AARs or opposing side perspectives (at least not in putting together wargaming scenarios).

So I offer my salute to your accomplishment.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Thanks Mark 1 I really appreciate your feedback.

Every wargamer has his own opinion of what makes a good game of course, but I scratch my head sometimes when I see gamers spend hours (days and weeks probably) painting up magnificent armies correct down to the badges and insignia, yet seem happy to play 'generic' games 'somewhere in France'. I have always wanted to play actual battles over actual terrain, at least as much as scale compression allows. Thus the detail I try and put into my scenarios.

Your feedback, and the positive feedback I have had from others, makes it worthwhile.

By the way, I've added a few more bundles that some may wish to check out and perhaps slip under a PDF Christmas Tree for themselves.link

Merry Christmas to all from a bloody hot Sydney.

Michael

Merry Christmas to you too Michael!

I'll be looking forward to checking out one or more of your scenario additions here.

(also, just a shout-out to Mark 1 too, for all his mindful, and informative replies on this forum here over the years)

Michael, I've downloaded a few of your free guides, and found their useful break-down indexes to the scenario books.

(enjoyed stumbling over your sense of humor too….."Games with King Tigers or JSII") ;) :)))

FlyXwire
Bravo to you – the first to notice my King Tiger and JSII joke.

I'm glad that you found the information useful. I'd rather people know what they are diving into. I'm putting together the following packs in the next few days:

Fallshirmjaeger
SS
Stonne
Gembloux
Arras
Calais
Gembloux
Vinkt

I'll also put together a compendium of small games for those just getting into France 1940 or for whom space is a premium.

Need to eat too much at Christmas first…

Cheers

Michael

Thanks Michael. Wargaming is a very strange hobby…a relatively small hobby with loads of people doing the same thing differently! I'm in the same camp as you as our group always fights real historical battles. That's why I appreciate your work as real scenario informarrion is hard to come by and I know the research that goes into it!

A couple of battle bundles that might be of interest. See them at: link

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Another one you might enjoy. See it at: link

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Two other battle packs that might be of interest. You can find these, and plenty others, at: link

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Another battle bundle, this one featuring games requiring smaller forces and smaller boards to play on. Perfect if you are just getting into this time period or if time and space are limited. Check out what 'small' means at:
link
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Team

I have bundled up all my 192 scenarios up and usually sell them at $100 USD or 25% off the cost if you bought the volumes individually. It's still a lot of money but 192 scenarios is a lot of scenarios!
Tomorrow from 10am US Central time they will be the Wargame Vault Deal of the Day which means a further 40% discount. Down to about $60 USD About 30 cents a scenario! A great way to get ready for the 80th Year commemoration in May 2020.
See the bundle and lots more at link

Your feedback, and the positive feedback I have had from others, makes it worthwhile.

Well now hopefully you have additional positive feedback, in the form of some of my $$.

Just bought a few of the booklets. Figured I was not likely to go in for the full set of 192, although I may well, in time, buy enough of the bits and pieces that it would have been a better deal. But it was easier to decide if I just started with a few out of the whole set. So I did.

No feedback on how much I love them yet, because I haven't even opened the PDFs once. But I will, and I do expect to have a very positive reaction, based on what's been described so far.

So Blitzkrieg* for all of your research.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

*Tanks in advance

Mark

Thanks again mate, and I do appreciate your support.

I ask the princely sum of 1 Australian dollar per scenario (which is now a miserable 66 US cents thanks to our tanking economy) for two main reasons. First, I think the scenarios do have some value, and they certainly took a fair bit of research, blood and sweat. But second, and I did this for all of us, it was to amaze my wife that there may actually be some way of making a bit of money out of 'playing soldiers'. Now, of course she immediately computed the amount I have spent on my collection with the actual return, and it's not helpful, but the principle still stands…

I have had pretty positive feedback on the scenarios and the individual booklets seem popular. I'm thinking of some way of putting a Redemption Code or something in the smaller booklets so that, if you buy them and then want to buy the complete volumes, there is some sort of discount. Work in progress.

Cheers

Michael
For others reading this who don't know what scenarios I am talking about, have a look at link

Well..covid-19 has put the wedding on hold…but my lovely lady has bought the Belgian scenarios for me as a lockdown birthday present!

I was just wondering if you have a spreadsheet/table of what troops are used for all the scenarios. I spent ages going through all the french ones to plan my french army. For the Belgians I am just going to use French troops, however, ,I'll probably splash out on a few Belgian vehicles, so could do with knowing how many I'll need for the scenarios!

Sorry to hear about your wedding being delayed but I would hold tight to your fiancé if she is buying you wargame scenarios. A very special lady indeed!

I don't have a specific breakdown of Scenarios but I think Scenario 164 has the most amount of Belgian armoured vehicles in any scenario, although some such as 168 require two of the mighty ACG-1

Ah cool. That will save me running through them all. Many thanks!

These are impressive publications; I will need to investigate in more detail.
I have been working on generic scenarios for several years and have created a number of Scenarios"link books from 1939 to 1944, and in the cold war period, 1950's to 1980's. The 1940's version covers this period. For setup and game play speed up purposes I have created them with the idea to quickly allow a player to assemble forces, set them up and play on a highly variable playing area. Coupled are cheat sheets for the equipment used in the scenario, which can really speed up play.
Currently they are designed for Korps Commander and Corps Commander, but I will be converting them to other sets of rules in the near future. The Korps Commander and Corps Commander version are in the Corps Commander IO:group, under Scenarios."link

If anyone ever finds something like this for Eastern front games please let me know. I like real battle scenarios and of a scale other than skirmish!