02Airborne (the new beginning scenario for
Normandy UK & Canada 1944) is in the _Back to Erik folder. Caution: I did not affix a number to the folder name this time, so don't mix it up this revision with the original 02Airborne which is still in the _Ready for Bru folder.
Changes
• Turned off the background battle sounds. This scenario starts at midnight on June 6. I just read in a web site's D-Day timeline (
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/timeline) that the "First shots of naval artillery on the German coastal positions" occurred at 05:10 AM. The actual landings began about an hour and a half later, after daybreak. Thus any battle sounds in this scenario will come from the action right in front of us.
• Rotated German units in natural directions so that they are all not facing east.
• Similarly, rotated all Allied units, particularly the air transports, so that they generally face eastward.
• Gave Allies an Off-map Air Supply Source, and air exits, so that the air transports don't show fuel warnings from the beginning.
• Relabeled (and repeatedly) "Canal de Caen" and "Fleuve L'Orne."
• Relabeled (and repeatedly) "Rivière La Divette" and "Fleuve Dives."
• Identified and labeled (redundantly) "La Grand Canal."
• Removed superfluous loops in the L'Orne and the Dives.
• Channeled Canal de Caen and L'Orne closer together in the north, as IRL.
• Discontinued Rivière La Divette just north of Robehomme — it really is nothing further south (there are tons of tiny streams and canals in this area but we cannot show them all — see comment below).
• Removed some other rivers on the map; those not of the four named above and which crossed roads within the envisioned "perimeter." Reasons: 1) They were distracting, and 2) They were creating bridges, some with paved roads, that should and would have been important targets if they existed.
• Converted Bricqueville to Robehomme which is shown on the map above.
• Removed Pont de Bricqueville (there's no longer a bridge in that hex) and moved it east to Pont de Robehomme. Moved the primary VP along with it.
• Paved the road from Bavent through Hameau St Clair so that the Pont de Bricqueville/Robehomme would be more important.
• Paved the road from Troarn to Bures and ran it further east to St-Richer in order to make the second bridge objective near Bures more important. Now there is a "Pont de Bures (rail)" and "Pont de Bures (road)".
• Beefed up Varaville and moved its flag left one hex to the intersection. Reason: This would have been a key point to take and hold to block any traffic moving down from Cabourg.
• Similarly beefed up Troarn.
• Cleared swamps from various primary roads and railroads (illogical to have major arteries running through swamps).
• Cleared up a few spots where roads and railroads ran together in one hex instead of crossing each other.
• Added swamps between "Canal de Caen" and "Fleuve L'Orne" to emphasize why the bridges near Bènouville were so important, like an east-west funnel.
• Added farmland where swamps and rivers may have been previously.
• Increased the turns to 24 because I like round numbers (24 hours in a day) and because the size of the map doesn't seem to be commensurate with only 20 turns. We may need more; if so, please adjust the next item.
• According to Wikipedia, Operation Tonga took an entire day, not just one night. "By 00:00 7 June, the entire 6th Airborne Division had been fully deployed on the eastern flank of the invasion beaches ..." So on Turn 6, sandstorm (night clouds) lift (day breaks) and on Turn 18 it resumes (night descends).
• Removed all German blowing bridge triggers except those over the Caen Canal and L'Orne River. For those two, I made special triggers.
• Compacted German forces along the beach, assigned a few loose AT guns to nearby regiments, and restricted all of these forces to Local Defense, Distance 1. Reason: Facing impending seaborne invasion, no German units would be abandoning beach defenses to go hunting paratroopers. There are enough inland units for that purpose. Only if the player foolishly wanders too close to the coastline will these beach defenses engage.
• So in lieu of activity from enemy troops guarding the beaches, I garrisoned all points of interest in addition to automating available inland units.
• Added supply for the Germans and spread it around because, once the Allies take the LZ Supply of 200, local German supply will be severely reduced.
Notes
• All objectives to be accomplished on their own; no delaying one to allow accomplishing the others. As the general says in his interim report, "timing and coordination are everything in this operation. No aspect of it can be delayed so another can be accomplished. It will all be done by the deadline or the mission will be deemed a failure."
• Turn 2b, two British units spawn but income changes +8. Intentional? (Considering that the player may have to rebuild a bridge or two over the Caen Canal and L'Orne River, perhaps this is advisable.)
• With seven bridges to destroy or possibly rebuild, I was concerned about a sufficient number of Allied engineers but I see there are plenty available.
• I cannot see vehicles being landed in this operation, so I agree with no transports for Allied artillery. It does severely limit their usefulness, however.
• I am a bit concerned about gameplay balance in this one, against the player this time. It's not the garrisons that I added, which can be picked off one by one and are compensated for by restricting the beach defenses from moving inland. Rather, it's the two strong armored columns that you have coming up from the south and that I choreographed to attack. Will the paratroopers be able to fend them off?
• I fawned over Brucourt, touched as I was that they would name their village after me.
(originally the reinforcements were units).
