One Day Operational Games

Three years ago over the Christmas holiday of 2015/16, I was musing through old copies of Miniature Wargames.  One of the very earliest articles was written by regular contributor George Gush, probably more famous for his guide to Renaissance warfare.  He gave an overview to a one day battle fought at his local club in which many members contributed troops and terrain in a one day multi-player campaign game.  Below is his plan of that game.

So, I thought, maybe I should give this idea a go.  Our group had put on some big 2 or 3 day battles in the past, but they felt tired by the 2nd day, or worse, one side felt they had no chance of winning and heads were down before the end of the first day!

I asked if anyone was up for an experiment in which we pitted a reinforced British armoured division against a weakened Panzer Grenadier Division somewhere in the Low Countries in September 1944.  Ratios would be 2:1 in favour of the attacking British but the Germans would have the benefit of better movement between the tables as shown in George's map.

Basically, the British deploy their forces at the top of the map on either red A or B tables. These tables are screened from the German players so as to hide the main axis of attack.  The British can only move from one table to another following the large outlined arrows.  This simulates unit demarcation and command chains for a large push to secure as many of the tables as possible.

Tables in the first row have 1 objective point, tables in the second 2 points and 3 on the third row.  To win the British must secure more points than the Germans hold.

The Germans may have fewer units but can exploit their greater flexibility by moving along the dotted arrows, enabling them to launch local counter attacks.

In addition, both sides have an air table from which they can order attacks against on and off table targets.  These are activated on the hour regardless of turn number and the whoever occupied  3A with its airfield can launch additional attacks on the half hour.

Unoccupied tables allow double movement for units and artillery can fire indirectly from one table to another.

That was the bare bones of the plan and everyone was willing to give it a try as we had the troops and basic scenery.  Russ rather valiantly agreed to make the base tables and we went for an ambitious 2 week target date for the game.

Setting up the game.

                             
Well, we had a blast!  The game played relatively smoothly, averaging 25 turns of game play.  We had the game set up by 10.00am and finished by 4.00pm and we had fought on nearly every table.  The British just about won.

Germans take up position on table 3B

                                         
We haven't looked back.  The operational concept has given us a focus with all the periods we play.  We still game one-off battles but the operational games allow us to build up those specialist units and weapons; carpet bombing, rail guns, armoured trains, bridge building - which can feature as part of the game.

On 7th July we are planning to put on a demo/participation version of the operational game at Joy of Six in Sheffield - it'll be great to see what other players make of this concept.