The April Grumble Jones scenario has been decades in the making...no joke! The inspiration for this scenario goes back to 1978. At that time, I had walked down the hobby shop in downtown (Old Orchard Area) Webster Groves, MO. This hobby shop was called Rivendell and was my second home
during the late '70's and early '80's. In fact, my first copy of Squad Leader was purchased within its confines. 
But in early part of 1978, I was still playing most of my wargames on a table top battlefield with Airfix Atlantic, and ESCI plastic miniatures. Epic battles fought whenever homework was done. And one of the magazines of that era was the venerable Wargamer's Digest. I absolutely loved this magazine and dreamed of the day when I could field armies on the scale presented in its pages. And this scenario was taken directly from the pages of the August 1978 edition.
A Wargame report "Delaying Action at Dunkirk" contained in this issue would spark my imagination for years to come. In a report written by Mark Reardon, the author recounts a table top miniatures battle called Table Operations of the Ninth Panzer Division.
The essence of the scenario was the attempt of a Allied force to delay the advance of the German 9th Panzer Division in the days leading up to Dunkirk. The game itself was played by members of the Chesapeake Wargamers and utilized rules based on Avalon Hill's Tobruk game.
And one of the chief elements of this game was that the British forces were tasked with delaying the German attack...not stopping it and this is a central characteristic that I would blend into this month's scenario.
The map above would be my guide for putting together ASL maps to bring this table top game to life. I would select boards 9a, 19, y, and 12a to give a fair representation of the table top battlefield. I would create phase lines as well with victory location hexes (road intersections) at each of the phase lines. See picture below for location of the Phase Lines. The Scenario denotes the Hexes that must be controlled by the Germans to control the Phase Line.
As the German player gains control of Phase Lines, he will force the surrender of all British units north of that Phase Line. Example - Phase Line 1 must be controlled before Phase Line 2 can be controlled...but once Phase Line 2 is controlled all British B setup Units that are north of Phase Line 2 when it is German-controlled are automatically captured and removed from play. Those British B and C setup units which are north of Phase Line 3 when German-controlled are automatically captured and removed from play. And lastly, those British B, C, and D setup units which are north of Phase Line 4 when it is German-controlled are automatically captured and removed from play.
French units are immune to the Phase Line control rules and may continue to attempt to exit no matter what control the Germans have achieved. The French units are also worth double Victory Points for the Allied Player.
The key to this scenario is DELAY - the Allied Player is trying to execute a dance. The AA and AT Guns are worth nothing to either side in terms of VP, but are critical to the DELAY mission. The British and French MMC's and SMC's are the valued assets and their escape or capture. is critical to both players. The Allied player must effectively delay the Germans so that his units can escape across the phase lines before they fall to the Germans.
The German player has tremendous mobility and can quickly take control of Phase Lines and force the capture of slower moving British units. However, the Allies have effective and high rate of fire AA and AT guns...so too little caution could produce heavy losses to the Germans. Phase Lines must also be controlled sequentially. For instance taking control of Phase Line 2 before Phase Line 1 has no effect on British u nits. Phase Lines must fall in order to invoke the automatic capture.
This is perhaps a bit too ambitious for a scenario, but I have wanted to put this one on paper for a very long time. I recognize that it is probably unbalanced and certainly imperfect. I offer my apologies upfront if this scenario proves to be unwieldy and difficult to play and/or enjoy. So thanks for allowing me to indulge my creative itch related to this scenario idea. It does feel good to finally have it completed.
French units are immune to the Phase Line control rules and may continue to attempt to exit no matter what control the Germans have achieved. The French units are also worth double Victory Points for the Allied Player.
The key to this scenario is DELAY - the Allied Player is trying to execute a dance. The AA and AT Guns are worth nothing to either side in terms of VP, but are critical to the DELAY mission. The British and French MMC's and SMC's are the valued assets and their escape or capture. is critical to both players. The Allied player must effectively delay the Germans so that his units can escape across the phase lines before they fall to the Germans.
The German player has tremendous mobility and can quickly take control of Phase Lines and force the capture of slower moving British units. However, the Allies have effective and high rate of fire AA and AT guns...so too little caution could produce heavy losses to the Germans. Phase Lines must also be controlled sequentially. For instance taking control of Phase Line 2 before Phase Line 1 has no effect on British u nits. Phase Lines must fall in order to invoke the automatic capture.
This is perhaps a bit too ambitious for a scenario, but I have wanted to put this one on paper for a very long time. I recognize that it is probably unbalanced and certainly imperfect. I offer my apologies upfront if this scenario proves to be unwieldy and difficult to play and/or enjoy. So thanks for allowing me to indulge my creative itch related to this scenario idea. It does feel good to finally have it completed.
As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.
Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size.
And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive
(just search on Grumble Jones).
Muchas gracias
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