"Can an Arnhem game be fun for both sides?" Topic

We played an Arnhem game at my club yesterday using Rapid Fire 2. The table stretched from just east of the bridge to the hospital in the west. After massacring the 9th SS Reconnaissance Battalion, the game was a steady grind for the Paras, especially after German armor arrived and began flattening houses. I expect there will be a lot of Arnhem games run this autumn for the 80th anniversary. Can anyone share details of an Arnhem game that continued to be fun for both side til the end of the game? I have played other last stand games and the victory conditions are usually: 1. Hold out until turn X, or 2. Inflict X number of casualties on the attackers. There was something particularly grim about the Arnhem game that I can't describe. I would definitely like to try it again, but with some objective for the Paras, aside from: survive.

Assume the 82nd captured the bridge at Nijmegen rather than concentrating on the Groesbeek Heights and have 30 Corps arrive

Hmm. You might get away with a big whole 1st Para game, I think. But once you've limited the game to the defense of one end of Arnhem Bridge, a steady grind pretty well defines it. Letting XXX Corps show up sooner gives them a better chance of winning, but it's still just a grind, trying to lose individual buildings as slowly as possible.

I'd say rather than try to make "lose slowly in a fixed position" fun, look at other parts of the operation. Normal airborne warfare--to the extent there is such a thing--is either commando operations on a very tight schedule, or an attempt to act offensively early on with good men but insufficient firepower against an enemy who's still getting organized and summoning reinforcements. That can make a pretty good game--and it describes the paras' efforts to get into Arnhem and seize the bridge, rather than their later attempt to hold one end of it.

"…lose slowly in a fixed position"
Man, I hate those games.

I've played loads of Arnhem games, including the entire campaign four times. Any scenario just needs achievable objectives for both sides.

Ive only done Frost at the bridge once, but we spiced it up with random events from the movie, including a badly painted Leopard in WW2 markings motoring across the bridge from the south, a gloomy German asking Frost to surrender etc. I allowed elements of the rest of the division to filter in from the west to keep the Germans on their toes.

For a whole bunch of interesting canned scenarios I'd strongly recommend the Command Decision "Market Garden" scenario book, which includes things like the assault crossing of the Maas.

As Robery notes, the advance from Arnhem from the landing grounds is good fun and quite mobile. The speed of the German reaction was just astonishing, as elements of 9th SS arrived to reinforce Kraffts 16th SS training battalion at roughly the same time as they were engaged by 1st Para Brigade! The action is on nvlivened by the arrival of hastily armed Luftwaffe signallers from Deelen Airfield.

or you move away from Arnhem and go to the more fluid action on Hells Highway.

Forrester offers an outlet……^

Arnhem was soon a siege – that's grinding-style combat, as it was throughout history.

(look for something that would grind-away on potential playing time)

(won't grind away….)

I see two problems:

• the scenario
  
• the rules

Others have already pointed out the flaw in the scenario and some ways to make more interesting scenarios. My preference would be twofold: zoom out the scenario to include the entire LZ and town area, so both sides have all the grand tactical options/problems of the real commanders (i.e. if the Allies can get all those Brits and Poles into Arnhem, maybe they can hold out until XXX Corps gets there); and play Arnhem in conjunction with scenarios at the other bridges, to make it possible for player actions to get XXX Corps to Arnhem earlier – or maybe make Arnhem two bridges too far.

Rapid Fire is popular because it's a fast-play low-detail game, but it's very bloody with heavy emphasis on firepower and casualties, and very light emphasis on morale and C3. It would be a lot of work to make a Rapid Fire game not feel like a grind. The grind of combat is what the game is simulating.

Any game must allow for what Gene Hackman's Gen Sosabowski called "the Ger-Mans".

Coup de main on the bridge with gliders, Freddie Gough's jeeps get through to the bridge, the first on the LZ/DZ get through with Frost.

No difference. The message here was the incredible resilience of the Germans, even this late in the war, and especially in defence (defense). Most of the troops who were employed at Arnhem were not there at the drop (whatever Attenborough suggests) they were rushed in rapidly.

Even taking the bridge and getting XXX Corps up there, along a terrible flank, on a small bridgehead, leading nowhere, without Antwerp and the approaches. Bit like Remagen. A great story, not a bad film (actually I love it) but that crossing was also of "limited" strategic importance.

The game should be focused on XXX Corps trying to get through to Arnhem in time. One player would try to hold out at Arnhem and other players play XXX Corps and the American Airborne taking the other bridges. For the Germans, you have players trying to slow up the relief column and players trying to overwhelm the Paras at Arnhem. I don't know how you can do the game without XXX Corps. It will be a big table but I have seen it done with BA of all things. Wargames Illustrated had an article on that game if you can find the back issue. It was a couple of years ago.

You might consider having the GM play one side and everyone else the other.

We had a very entertaining day playing Market Garden with the RFCM PBI rules across multiple tables over the course of the day. Highlight game for me was defending with a bunch of Dutch SS Police supported by a single Stug. Surprisingly effective in defence.

Another good source of scenarios is the Rapid Fire book Operation Market Garden. This updates and replaces their "older" Market Garden book. Available through US distributors
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