The board is
rectangular. Across the centre width-ways, is a canal or straight
section of river, dividing the table into two "square" halves. In the
centre of the board is a bridge crossing the water.
This a sort of Market Garden or Pegasus Bridge type scenario.
The defender has regular troops. He has two or three companies of
these, depending on the strength of his vehicles. He may deploy BOTH
sides of the water, and half his forces may be hidden. He has some
decent anti-tank guns, which may be deployed hidden. He also has a
number of other vehicles (SPGs, armoured cars, prime movers etc.)
which are on his home side of the river. Ideally, these vehicles
should not be turreted tanks. On his home side of the river, are the
defender’s mortars, on-table. FOs may all be hidden.
As with near enough any Crossfire game, there should be LOTS of
cover.
I had lots of buildings on both sides of the river, pillboxes
protecting the bridge, and a fair amount of wire and anti-tank
obstacles, as well as the usual scattering of woods, fields, walls,
hills, and rough ground. The wire and obstacles should be mainly on
the attacker’s home side of the table. The bridge and road are assumed
to be used by the defending side, so may not be blocked solid with
obstacles or mines.
The attacker has two companies of veteran troops (paras would be
especially suitable), with no vehicles and few support weapons (one
mortar per company max, one HEAT weapon per platoon max) which may
come on from one or two (no more) places (perhaps one-foot sections,
or defined by one or two terrain features) on the edge of the
defender’s home side of the water. The attacker may find that simply
getting all his forces on the board at this end of the table proves
difficult (remember: the defender may have placed units, perhaps
hidden, within sight of the edge of the board where the attackers are
trying to come on). At first it may seem impossible, but eventually a
breakthrough is made and the troops rush on, though early casualties
may be high.
The attacker also has a company of regulars and a few light
vehicles (scout cars, light tanks), and a significant number of
decently heavy tanks (I was using Churchills). These may come on to
the board from the end edge of the attacker’s home side. This edge
should have a road leading from it to the bridge, preferably not
straight, and perhaps with walls lining some of it. The heavy tanks
arrive on the road, but may leave it once on the board. If there are
many sections of wire and the like (you could add mines, but I did
without them), then the attacker should also have some engineers with
his regulars.
The attacker must get as many of his heavy tanks across the board
as he can. The more of his tanks he gets across, the greater his
victory. However, if he uses his tanks to smash through to the bridge,
then he risks losing some of them, and thus risks failure or a lesser
victory. If he keeps his tanks back too long, then the unsupported
paras at the far end of the table may start to take too much of a
beating, especially as the defender can reinforce that end of the
table from the other. The one company of regulars must locate all the
threats as far as the bridge as quickly as possible, but if all the
initiative is used up in this endeavour, then the paras may again take
a beating.
It is assumed that the commander of the paras has a flare pistol
with a couple of different flare colours as ammo. With this he can
signal "Far end of bridge secure - advance tanks now" and one other
pre-arranged message.
Since the defending forces are not expecting the attack, they have
not got front-line vehicles such as heavy tanks, but do have defensive
tank-killing equipment. Also, the bridge has not been prepared for
demolition.
Lloyd Nikolas