This article is written with the intention of showing you (the German player) how to land units of the 7th Flieger Division and the 22nd Luftlande Division in the SCS game Fallschirmjaeger. Rules will be cited and explained as needed.

Top: These are the historical landing hexes for the stadium jumper platoon and seaplane platoons. As you can see there are lots of Dutch forces very close by.
Bottom: An example.

Landing the 7th Flieger Division

These are Fallschirmjaegers (Paratroopers). On the first turn you want to send in lots of these guys to clear the airfields for the 22nd Luftlande Division. Landing the Fallschirmjaegers is really rather simple. The game rule 2.5 "Paradrops" covers this. To summarize the rule there are three steps:

1. Place the Fallschirmjaeger counters in the intended landing hex with the parachute side up, with a maximum of four steps per hex.

2. Resolve Dutch Anti-Aircraft fires on the units and scatter units if necessary.

3. Turn the Fallschirmjaeger counters over to their normal side.

Now let's look at these steps in detail.

Step 1: Place the Fallschirmjaeger counters in the intended landing hex

You can either use the historical landings as outlined in the rules (each scenario has a Historical Air Drops section for the Fallschirmjaegers), or you can come up with your own landing plan. Many have commented that the historical landings are less then desirable. I would suggest if you are playing for the first time, use the historical landings and see how it goes. As is true in all military operations, you don't really have enough troops (or Ju-52s in this case) to do what you would like to do. In this operation, the Fallschirmjaegers are supposed to secure the airfields and some key bridges across the map.

The historical landings have them scattered across the map to try to meet this objective. Most folks find that the troops are spread out a bit too much. Most can achieve their assigned objective quickly, however most of the troops will be unable to hold their objective for very long. As such you will find that your troops will die well, but you may end up with not much to show for it. It is best to concentrate your landings on a few airfields and bridges.

The Ypenburg Airfield is the best defended by the Dutch and the best for you to secure. Its supply range will keep a very large part of the map in supply. Valkenburg looks inviting, and it seems relatively undefended, but I have found it very hard to hold. The troops in the immediate area are fairly strong and there are several reinforcements that enter along the D area that will make it rough. Ockenburg can be a good airfield, as it is close to Den Haag so it's useful for getting troops into the city quickly. Waalhaven has heavy flak, and some good troops close by. Taking it is about as hard as taking Ypenburg.

So what to do? It seems to be best to pick either Ypenburg or Waalhaven for the main effort, and then have one other as a supporting airfield. The problem with Waalhaven is that there are no other airfields near by for support. But if you want to take Rotterdam early, your best chance at getting into the city is in the first few turns. So if you can take Waalhaven on the first turn, then land some Luftlande units on the next turn, you just might be able to get a foothold in Rotterdam early.

If you use your own landing plan, the intended landing hex must be any Open, Orchard, or Dune hex (per game rule 2.5a). Where they end up after scatter could be different. If they land in something other then these, losses are going to happen.

Step 2: Resolve Dutch Anti-Aircraft fires

The next step is that any AA (Anti Aircraft) guns in range can shoot at the troopers as they descend to the ground. The AA rules are game rules 1.8. The Dutch player can combine up to four points of AA fire on one hex. Then for each Falischirmiaeger counter, the Dutch player needs to roll the number of AA points or less on one die. Notice that it's per counter, not one roll for all the counters in the hex. If the roll is higher then the number of AA points, there is no effect. If the number rolled is equal to or less then the AA points then the counter will Scatter (1.8d). Also there is a potential loss, for each counter that scatters, you roll one die and consults the chart at the end of 1.8c. Here is chart for reference:

Roll Result
1-2 No Effect
3-4 Destroy one Ju-52 Point
5-6 Destroy one Ju-52 Point and kill one unit step*

* Paradrop Air Supply Head is flipped to its reduced side or destroyed if already reduced.

You now roll for the scatter; each counter scatters independently. You will roll one die for direction. Printed on the map is a direction diagram. Then roll two dice for distance. Once you have direction and distance, move the counter to that new hex. From here you can correct the counter's landing hex up to three hexes (in any direction), or you can abort. If the counter aborts the landing you can try to bring it back on another turn. Use the three hexes of correction to get them to an Open, Orchard, or Dune hex and avoid a loss. Once your Fallschirmjaeger is at the final hex; they are not subject to more AA fire, this is the hex they will land in.

Step 3: Turn the Fallschirmjaeger counters over

Once the counter is in it's final hex, flip it over to the normal side and that counter has landed. If there was no AA fire then each Fallschirmjaeger counter just lands wherever you had originally placed it. Many of your Fallschirmjaegers will land this way. Although it might look like there are a lot of AA counters on the map, the Dutch will soon find that there is not enough AA for the horde of troops and planes coming down on Dutch soil.

Upon landing, Fallschirmjaegers can move ONE hex in the movement phase and that one hex can be an over run if they happen to land next to a Dutch unit. And yes, they get the x2 firepower and +2 on the attack roll. (German player hint: I highly suggest you do this. Even at low odds, that +2 can really be handy and you only get this when doing an over run, so use it early and often.)

Special Fallschirmjaegers

There are up to three Fallschirmjaeger platoons that land a little out of the norm; you can have two village jumpers (not village people) and one stadium jumper. These are covered in rules 2.5e Village Hexes, and 2.5f Stadium Jumpers. Also there are three platoons that land by seaplanes, see game rule 2.4 "Seaplane Landing".

The historical landings for the Village Jumpers in my view are a waste. One neat thing to do is land them near the Queen and grab her the first turn. Land a platoon in 54.14, then advance into 54.13 to capture the Queen. Now all you have to do is get her to an airfield. This is where the Valkenburg airfield can be handy. If you can tie up the guys in 56.07 for a turn or two and you can keep Valkenburg you can get her out at Valkenburg. I've also been able to get her out at the Ypenburg airfield.

The stadium jumper platoon is interesting, but unless you're landing in force at Waalhaven, these guys will be picked off rather easily. They must land in the Feijenoord Stadium (28.19), and they get to move three hexes, this is to allow them to get the bridges in 31.19. The rules state that the three hexes must be "city", this should say "city or village", you'll see that one of the hexes on the way to 31.19 from 28.19 is a village hex (29.19) not a city hex.

The seaplane platoons are historically to land at the bridges in Rotterdam (31.19) and link up with the stadium jumpers. However I've found that they don't last long. There are plenty of Dutch troops real close and a pack of Artillery that can fire them up. I usually don't use the stadium jumpers at all and use the seaplanes somewhere else. The seaplane platoons can land in any partial sea or major river hex, just not whole sea/major river hexes.

Once I landed them at sea (hey they are sea planes right?) and used them to secure the Fishing Harbor (59.17). This was great, until I couldn't trace supply to them.

Fallschirmjaeger Example

Now for an example of landing some Fallschirmjaeger platoons. The example just focuses on the landing of a few platoons to show the mechanics of the process in action.

In this example we will only look at the landing of three hexes of Fallschirmjaegers, 4.25, 5.27, and 8.24. In this example there are three platoons per landing hex. The Dutch player decided to engage two of the hexes with AA fire, 4.25 and 5.27. This means that the guys in 8.24 will land in 8.24 so they are done.

For hex 4.25 the AA fire is a total of two, this means that there is a one third chance they will scatter. For the AA rolls the Dutch player rolls a 3, 4 and a 2. So one unit scatters. Since all these units are identical it doesn't matter which one, but if you have a mixed stack of landing units you will want to keep track of which one. Technically in this case the bottom unit scatters. at least the way I do it, which is top down. First roll the loss roll, got a 2. So no additional losses due to the flak.

For the scatter roll the German player rolls a 4 for direction and a 2 and 4 for a total of 6 for distance. This is a pretty bad scatter. The unit would now land in 4.21, which is part of the Die Biesboch. This section of the map is cut off from the rest of the map, so landing here will not help the war effort. You can correct them up to three hexes. The best bet is to move them to the right across the water and land them in an open hex like 7.20. You could move them to 2.21, but that is a woods hex and they will take a loss. Or you could just abort them and try them again next turn. Personally I'd go with a hex somewhere around 7.20.

For hex 5.27 the AA fire is a total of two also. For the AA the Dutch rolls a 6, 1 and 3. Again one unit scatters. It's the middle unit this time. Again first do the loss roll, it is a three, lose one Ju-52 point. For the scatter roll the German rolls a 2 for direction and 4 and 5 for a total of 9 for distance. This puts them on 14.31, which is a road in the open.

Not a bad spot, but it looks lonely out there. This puts them kind of close to a stack of Dutch artillery in hex 13.28. So to take advantage of this opportunity I would move them to 13.29. This way they can do an overrun and maybe even a regular attack on the artillery in 13.28. Will they survive? Pretty good chance they wouldn't but if they can take down some of that artillery before they stop being a combat effective unit, then they will have fulfilled their mission.

Overall, two units scattered and lost one Ju-52 point. Here is where the units are at the end of the Air Activities phase as far as these units are concerned:

Landing the 22nd Luftlande Division