Fallschirmjaeger, the SCS title released in 2001, takes the series in a new direction as an operational/tactical game. Whereas the TCS has platoon and section level infantry and weapons units with individual armored vehicles, Fallschirmjaeger has platoon and company level infantry and vehicle units. (The entire 7 Flieger Division is represented by platoons and there are a few Dutch motorized platoons.) Each hex in Fallschirmjaeger is about ten times larger than the typical TCS game hex and about one eighth the size of the typical OCS hex. And similarly each turn in Fallschirmjaeger is equal to 24 of the twenty-minute TCS turns!

Yet the game has an OCS feel to it as well because the air units are more differentiated than in previous SCS games. Instead of abstract air points that give left or right column shifts on the Combat Table, air units have barrage factors and conduct barrages like air units in OCS games. As in OCS the defender has a flak capability which, in keeping with the game's tactical feel, is represented by flak batteries. Flak attacks against air units are resolved before they can barrage their targets. Disorganization (DG) in Fallschirmjaeger results

whenever the modified die roll in a barrage attack is equal to or less than the barrage factor of the barraging unit. Whenever a DG result is obtained, the attacker rolls another die to see if the unit takes a step loss (on a five or a six). Effects of DG are loss of zone of control and the halving of the unit's combat factor. Disorganized units cannot move, attack, or fire barrages or flak, and they recover at the end of the owning player's turn. DG, then, is a blend of OCS DG and TCS paralysis. Barrage in Fallschirmjaeger is a lot less predictable than in other games; this makes for some agonizing decisions as to how many aircraft to allocate to a target hex-especially if you really need to kill units instead of merely making them DG. Another quasi-tactical feature is the standing barrage that Dutch artillery units may place in a hex. Any enemy unit entering a standing barrage is immediately barrage attacked similar to any unit in TCS foolhardy enough to blunder into a battery good marker!

The Fallschirmjaeger system lends itself to many battles that are too small for the usual divisional level operational treatment and too big for the TCS tactical treatment. This system would lend itself well to the battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, Operation Market Garden or Crete in World War 2 or the battles of Hue, Khe Sahn, or Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. But the one I would really enjoy seeing the most would be a game covering the streets of Stalingrad.

On Conquering Fortress Holland Fallschirmjaeger Scenario 5.3

Introduction
The Battlefield
A Proposed German Plan
The Plan in Action
Possibilities for Further Play