Players of this scenario should discover a relatively fast-paced, exciting game, especially after the first couple of turns work to remove some of the "counter-crush" involved in the Battle of France. The Axis player will discover a number of competing priorities: he must conquer France as soon as possible, but must begin invading Spain before France has folded. Speed is of the essence; the German player must finish his conquests as quickly as possible in order to get naval reinforcements arriving in a timely manner and to be able to "rest" enough troops for an invasion force.

This time pressure forces the German player to take risks, which will leave him open for Allied counter-th rusts. Even considering the beating the Allied player will take at the outset, he will still have enough assets to worry the German player.

At the same time, the Allied player must worry about a seaborne invasion that is possible even while fighting is still going on in France or Spain. Even without reinforcements from Spanish or French sources, the German navy in this scenario is far more formidable than in TFH. Should the Allied player take reinforcements from the Med which might otherwise be bottled up, but whose remaining would allow more French units to escape? How much should the British player commit to Spain? Or the French player, for that matter? There are a number of strategic and tactical puzzlers for players to ponder over, and there may be no single right answer. There is just enough of a random factor to add uncertainty to any strategy.

There are several areas where this scenario lacks in accuracy. One is in the victory conditions. Everything hinges on the successful invasion of Great Britain (that was, after all, the point of the scenario), and so the victory conditions reflect this reality. However, such simplistic victory conditions don't allow for every eventuality. In TFH and FdF, one was penalized for having one's units eliminated. In "The Great Western War," this is not necessary for Great Britain and for Germany: heavy losses have a direct impact on each side's ability to win. France, however, occupies a somewhat more nebulous position; the French player can afford to be pretty wasteful with his units.

Similarly, in FoF, the French player is rewarded for units that escape to North Africa. I could not easily transfer such a condition to "The Great Western War." As a result, victory determination is a little cruder than I would have liked it to be, but to make up a set of victory point items for each side would have been very arduous.

A more important problem with the scenario, however, regards the orders of battle. I am pretty satisfied with the naval orders of battle; there are, no doubt, a few inaccuracies, but everything is serviceable. The French navy in this scenario, astute readers will notice, is not the entire French navy. Some ships were scuttled in French ports upon German approach (before the Armistice), and there were many French ships scattered throughout the world. However, I think I have fairly accurately identified the fleet components which would have most affected this proposed campaign.

The British Army in this scenario, however, is more abstractly represented. Although much research has been done on the British Army in 1939-41, a great deal of that research is still fragmented. What is included with the game is a simplified version of the eventual Europa OB. The raw data were provided by David Hughes; any mistakes are ones I promptly committed on my own.

One last comment; readers may be wondering where the Italian fleet is during all this action. I thought about including elements of the Italian fleet, especially since some work has been done in this area for Supermarina. However, I decided against it for several reasons. The first was simply a desire to limit size and complexity. Moreover, many people might not have Supermarina, or might not want to use it in conjunction with this scenario. The other considerations were historical. I doubt that Mussolini would have been too eager to send his fleet into the Atlantic, where no clear-cut gains for Italy could be made, but where he would have a lot to lose. Additionally, the Italian fleet had its hands full with the energetic British fleet in the Mediterranean. Feel free to work out something on your own, however, if you disagree with my reasoning.

In the meantime, I hope you give "The Great Western War" a try--history beckons!

The Great Western War

A Europa Alternate History Scenario
Scenario and Rules Changes
British Order of Battle
British Charts (slow: 214K)
Last Words: Designer's Notes