"Arnhem - the town is prettily situated on the right of the Lower Rhine, on the southern slopes of the Veluive range of hills. The town was re-fortified by General Coehoorn after its capture by the French in 1672 but the ramparts have now been converted into promenades. Arnhem, one of the most attractive towns in Holland is a favourite residence of Dutch "Nabobs" from the East Indies." -- Baedeker I expect a good many members have either played some sort of Arnhem game or thought about it. Don Featherstone wrote a book on Para games and complained about painting boxes of Airfix paras for it. However, Arnhem need not be a big game. I've tried to put together a scenario slightly different from this. A small skirmish action in Arnhem itself involving the glider element of the Airborne forces with the paras and, either being a short "one day" game (in wargame time) or being about a week, in campaign style. The numbers of figures involved would be few, a couple of British sections and an HQ say, against slightly larger forces of Nazis, and perhaps they could have a tank. The possession of such a powerful vehicle could bring a rapid result in some games, so maybe it is better to do without. Morale is very important. The airborne forces were very highly trained and motivated and desperate. It may be well to give each of them +1 on the dice with NCOs, officers, and glider pilots +2. One of them who escaped the real action wrote: "Then I remembered the Nazis; the continuous whining and shouting which, even if I hadn't understood it, gave the impression of savagery. Their lack of self discipline, their desire to get out of everything and not be the one 'to carry the baby': 'Why send me - let him do it!' or 'Do it yourself'. From my attic I actually saw a German officer take off his hat and stamp on it in desperation and rage when his men were quibbling about who should go forward against our own positions. The bravery of some of their officers and NCOs was entirely different from that of our own troops; they were either political fanatics or soldiers brought up in the Prussian military tradition, but not ordinary citizens as we were." So Nazi NCOs and officers +1 on the dice, but Der Herren Volle must dice every time they have orders to go forward with say 50% chance of hanging back. Before anyone objects that the Nazis were Panzer Grenadiers; yes they were - called up six weeks previously, all of 40 years of age or more and not wanting to particularly fight anyone or for anything. They had masses of heavy weapons and good kit and, if they had been of the earlier Panzer breed, they would have steam-rollered the paras in short order. However, they were sick and tired of war and only "went through the motions" afraid of the fanatics in charge of them and the Gestapo and provost politzei. OK. These are skirmish rules, first create your troops, bearing in mind the MORALE differences e.g. Div HQ. Brigadier Stephen Harding DSO MC. Ice cool, good shot with a revolver, trained radioman, (once R Sigs), courageous and good administrator. .45 webley pistol. 2IC. Lieutenant Colonel C.M. Townsend MC. Could have been a sniper. First Aider, loyal, likes a good cup of tea, smokes too much. .38 pistol and .303 rifle. Regimental Sergeant Major Paul Groat. Great at driving and helping troops on. Favourite term, "No problem there sir!" Sten, 2 grenades (grens). Radio man. Corporal Ian Fleming. Wizard of the air waves; also good morse man. Sten. Two runners. Private John Stokes and Private Roger Jenks. Both proud of their ability to get there and back again. Both sten armed and 2 grens each. Dumps of ammo and food at HQ. Also, a medium machine gun and 2" mortar and their crews were attached to the HQ. Section 1. Leader: Sergeant D. Thomas. Veteran. Sten and 2 grens. 2IC: Lance Corporal J. Vernon. Experienced. Sten and 2 grens. Riflemen (all highly trained). Each .303, 2 grens and 1 Bren magazine each. 1. Josh Holland 2. "Chalky" White 3. Viv Lander (pilot) 4. "Donkey" Bray - PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) man with 4 projectiles. 5. Clary Firmstone 6. "Tich" Newmark - Bren and 8 mags. Section 2. Leader: Corporal Brian Artist. Experienced. Sten and 2 grens. 2IC: Lance Corporal Ivor Louden. Experienced. Sten and 2 gren. Riflemen (all highly trained). Each .303, 2 grens (some smoke) and 1 Bren magazine each. 1. Roger Corkill 2. Clive Richard 3. Malcolm McDonald 4. Fintan O'Rourke (pilot) 5. Frank Baker - PIAT man with 4 projectiles. 6. Bryn Jones - Bren and 8 mags. The Nazis can be the faceless enemy or you can make it more "real" and create characters as above. Limitations Division HQ is a FIRM BASE and one or other of the sections guards it. You can use the Arnhem sketch map or create one of your own. The lucky "spare" section patrols into Arnhem and surrounding area until the enemy closes down the areas of free movement. At this point houses are fortified and held as long as possible. The game intention of the Brits (Poles or Yanks can play too!) is to hold Arnhem bridge until the 2nd Army comes up to use it. You may reverse history! Movement Normal: 9 inches (225 mm) Run: 12 inches (300 mm) (every other move) Crawl: 3 inches (75 mm) Wounded men cut moves by half. 2 wounds 'counts out' that character. Firing .303 (Bren also): 36 inches (900 mm) Sten (pistol also): 6 inches (150 mm) PIAT: 24 inches (600 mm) 2" Mortar: 36 inches (900 mm) Grenades: 3 inches (75 mm) No Audie Murphy Brens and PIAT fire from static positions but take no time to move as artillery does to relay. (i.e. Bren fires then moves if required or vice versa). Figures within 9 inches can hear orders but if firing is going on, hand signals only. Watch out for line of sight (I use an upside down periscope to cut out God-like or helicopter vision). Firefight or Melee Character firing throws a die and adds points to the score as follows: Veteran: +3 Experienced: +2 Trained: +1 The faceless enemy get no extra points but there are more of them, say three sections of 10 men per section. Bren gunners throw 2 dice and hit one man per two "pips" scored. Sten guns were notoriously inaccurate and so at 6 inches hit one man per dice. At 3 inches hit two per dice (depending on score obviously) to simulate "hose pipe" effect of fire. If dropped, the whole magazine could go in one burst. Grenade thrown into a group of men, dice for all of them. Remember that a grenade is not selective and can blow up the thrower if he doesn't bung it far enough. (Ignore many war films in this respect). Map Setting Up Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #105 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com