The Shadow of the Axis - Alternative WW2 campaign - Boltaction - Combined arms - Sea Lion (Game one) - Operation Sealion

 On June 25, 1940, France surrenders to Germany, but the French establishment, bitter over Britain’s perceived hesitation to strike during the Low Countries campaign, views the defeat as a opportunistic move to sideline France in the colonial race and thwart its rise as a great power. Resentment festers, redirected toward Britain and her Commonwealth allies after the Royal Navy’s attempt to seize, then sink the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. Outraged by slights both real and inflated, Vichy France declares war on its former partner. Meanwhile, Kriegsmarine officers unite the French and Italian navies, assembling a formidable fleet off Palma’s coast. Minesweepers clear the way as they sail to challenge Gibraltar’s shore defenses. By July, this armada enters the Bay of Biscay, dropping anchor just as the Battle of Britain and our campaign, Begins.

The campaign is going to be fought using the combined arms campaign rules except using the custom map above and instead of having set lists we just roll at the end of the turn to see if the unit is destroyed, we'll be playing games using Victory at Sea, Blood red skies and Boltaction.

In the details I'll refer to the difference units by their branch name in a shortened format:

Lft: Luftwaffe
KM: Kriegsmarine
Heer: German Army
RAF: Royal Airforce
RN: Royal Navy
BA: British army

Britain opted for 2 Tanks, 2 Infantry and 2 Planes.

Germany went with 2 Ships, 3 Planes and 1 Infantry

 Britain began the campaign with Homeland which allowed them to begin the game in control of the Cultural centre (London) and the Radar station, then they had the Forward positions opening gambit which allowed them move one of their infantry units to the Fortifications. 

 Germany began the game with the Industrial Might card to account for the massive resources available to axis at this stage of the war Pre-Barbarossa, and Drew the Annihilation card which grants a bonus VP to the first player who destroys all land, sea or air units on the board.

Turn 1 the Reposition card was drawn so no fighting this turn, the British army struck out and moved to consolidate their objectives, KM snuck up the coast and secured the Radar station and threatened the Fortifications with a fleet.

Turn 2 drew clear weather and the Lft then moved to begin bombing the marching armored forces and infantry. Germany had the initiative and tried to bomb the infantry first but was shot down with an early lucky 6!

 The RAF then attacked the 2 remaining Lft squadrons and we had our first game of the campaign 

The British played the Malfunction Card which meant I had to choose one of my planes at the start of the game and remove it. Germany played Finest Hour which bumped one of my planes up to an Ace, so Germany lost 81pts worth initially but gained 50 points of xp on a plane.

The Ace had a rough started starting disadvantaged, but the dive away card and his high skill meant he was very hard to shoot down. There was a lot of early sparring, the British favored outmaneuver instead of climbing to negate my Great climb card and the German player kept up the pressure by bouncing around clouds.

The crunch happened turn 5 when the Me109e's got 3 tailing shots blasting 2 planes from the sky ending the game 7 to 2.

Having driven off the RAF the Lft was then able to bomb and destroy a tank column.

The state of the Map end of turn 2, reminiscent of the real battle of Britain the Lft losses are mounting.

Turn 3 saw more air battles at the RAF tried to cross the channel and bomb the Heer massing along the coast, the Heer managed to sneak away however eluding the RAF recon planes and instead the Lft moved in to intercept, however was caught short as the RAF used their final order to reposition their planes for a big airshow.

The Luftwaffe was outnumbered 2 to 1 and I made the mistake of taking cheaper lower quality pilots, meaning the RAF always managed to outmaneuver me.

Unluckily my single Pilot skill 3 plane was shot down turn 2 or 3 and from there the cascade began.

Considering it was 500 points vs 160 at this point lasting 4 more turns was quite a feat.

The game ended around turn 5 or 6 when the Luftwaffe did manage to line up some good shots but the following turn the faster more skilled pilots quickly disadvantaged my planes and I called 'GG'.

Rolling to destroy the British then rolled a natural '6' to my amusement!

Turn 4 we drew storm, which negated airpower this turn and ended with a Boltaction game to play, I played Outmaneuver earlier in the turn and stole the fortifications again, specifically so I could play the coastal raid card in my hand but it was to no avail, I just didn't have the orders left to make it happen. For the Boltaction game I played Air support which gave me a free Forward Air observer, additionally my adjacent naval unit gives me a free forward artillery observer, the British infantry cannot participate in the battle as they have a blitz token and the British player chose to Reinforce, so the German infantry attacked!

I'll end the post there, next time I'll post the Boltaction battle and we should see the first escalation and VP's scored.

Closing thoughts

 Something that really tickles me playing campaigns and wargames is how history repeats itself, despite being outnumbered and less experienced the RAF had such a strong showing, in our game the British player had only played BRS 2 times before and Germany outnumbered them on the operational level, in this campaign however they're winning the air war, if it wasn't for the storms this turn would have been terrible for Germany unless their luck changed and they could start rolling some 6's for Flak as well.