Historical OPFOR

[AceDuceTrey]

I just finished the Dutch scenario in the 1940 campaign. I was shocked to face at least 5 times more armor units (mostly French) than I had available to me; not to mention about 10 times more infantry .... I know you want to make the scenarios challenging, but there should be some simulance of historical accuracy in the opposing forces[&:]

[henri51]

I agree. When I played the Warsaw scenario in the GTGC I was surprised to find that the Poles had more airplanes than the Germans. I don't expect a game like this to be too historically accurate, but...

In the French campaign the French had better tanks (that they used badly) and the French air force stayed mostly on the ground while the French generals drank champagne and discussed how to make sure their mistresses didn't cheat while they were away. This could be simulated by giving the French fewer but better tanks and no air force, and forcing their ground forces to attack in random directions [:D].

I remember in the early seventies SPI had a board game in their magazine where one had to throw a die to decide whether or not their units would obey their order and if not a die throw would give a random direction in which they would move. This made for a fun game where one had to take into account that at least SOME orders would not be followed and sometimes units would attack in the opposite direction [X(].

Henri

[Tomokatu]

I remember in the early seventies SPI had a board game in their magazine

That was Kampfpanzer.

[planner 3]

I complained on the Slitherine forum about the drastic increase in strenght from Sgt to Lt, I definitely agree with your discusssion in this forum,

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: Tomokatu

I remember in the early seventies SPI had a board game in their magazine

That was Kampfpanzer.

Wow, Tomo that is correct, you sure have a good memory (better than mine [:'(])! I had saved all those old SPI games in thin Kodak photographic paper boxes as well as the magazines, but I threw them all away when I moved a few years ago. Some posters said that I could have sold them for a lot of money on ebay, but I had no idea they were worth anything.[&:]

Henri

[Tomokatu]

Mehehehe!
Still gottem. Got all the pieces and the maps. Some of the rules sets have been written on for clarifications and house rules.
They were my introduction to wargaming. I subscribed to the S&T mag for a few years until I bought my first computer (Apple ][+).

[Tokushi]

Tank strenghts for France, Britain and Germany in 1939.
To quote from Len Deighton's 'Blitzkrieg', Pimlico, Published Jonathan Cape 1979. pp 172. the relative tank strenghts in 1939 were as follows:
France 2342; Britian 231: (total 2573) and Germany 2121. German tanks armed with m/g only were not included. The indivdual strenghts at the beginning of May 1940 would change these totals slightly but not by much.

Given that both the Char B1 bis and Matilda Mk II were superior to the German Mk IIIs and IVs it was fortunate that the allied tactical thinking was for the tank to be parcelled out to individual companies and battalions on an Ad Hoc basis whilst the Germans used then En Masse. Though if memory serves me right De Gaulle had in fact started to drive the 2nd light division forward just before the front collapsed.

It makes for a very interesting 'What if' scenario to have the allies using their armour as complete regimental and divisional units against the Germans in a 1940s campaign.

[EPBlade]

France 2342; Britian 231: (total 2573) and Germany 2121. German tanks armed with m/g only were not included. The indivdual strenghts at the beginning of May 1940 would change these totals slightly but not by much.

are you counting Pz II 20mm gun like a tank???

[AceDuceTrey]

I have read these same statistics that both sides had somewhat parity. But my research indicates that both UK and France had only ONE Armored Division equivalent to Germany's (1 med tank Reg, 1 lt tank reg and I motorized inf reg)available at the start (May'40). The French also had Three Light "Cavalry" Divs (1 ltTank reg,1 armored car bn,and 1 mot inf reg). Frances tank div was kept in reserve and 2 more were being organized.