Operation Market Garden has always been of great interest to me and fighting elements of the campaign over the years has given me a huge amount of enjoyment. I have used various sets of rules including Command Decision, WRG, Charles Grant’s Battle, Memoir 44 and a couple of hex and counter boardgames. The only figures I have used thus far have been 6mm Heroics and Ros and that a long time ago, way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Whilst sorting through Eric’s collection - I should qualify this by saying that I am sorting through a portion of it! - it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps fighting the campaign was something he planned to do or indeed, perhaps even did so using 20mm kit. He has the following troops ready to use - the 1st British Airborne, the Polish Parachute brigade, an American Airborne regiment, two SS Panzer Divisions, the British Guards Armoured Division and a British infantry Division. He has also collected and organised a German 1944 Fallschirmjager Division (currently unpainted). With the exception of the German paratroops all are painted and ready to use and merely require some minor reorganisation to be more or less table ready.
The entire collection is of course up for disposal but I am thinking that there could be no better way of showcasing it than to actually use it on the tabletop. It would have to be something that could be organised relatively quickly so a detailed hour-by-hour or day-by-day simulation would be out. I am thinking along the lines of something like a series of linked scenarios, Portable Wargame style. The terrain would present a degree of difficulty - mainly as I do not own anything specifically 20mm scale so a dive into my collection of ‘town in a bag’ buildings will be in order. I could probably knock up a bridge or two easily enough - “It is all a question of bridges” - and in many ways the amount of improvisation required to pull this off would be very ‘Eric’ so I would be in good company!
The Portable Market Garden Wargame eh? There could even be a book in that….
6 comments:
It would be rather an ambitious project, David, even if you played it as a 'map game'. I have participated in a Command Decision game of Market Garden (commanding the Germans around Nijmegen, and not very successfully as I recall). I'm trying to remember where we played this. Must have been bally near 30 years ago.
I have a copy of the Cornelius Ryan book. Good read: highly critical of Montgomery, and of the command of the 'Market' forces advancing to relieve the 'Garden' paras at Arnhem.
Cheers,
Ion
Megablitz?
Each stand = 1 battalion, so an airborne brigade is 3 stands, 9 for an entire division with supporting elements.
Alternatively, the Canadian Wargames Group (CWG) have a booklet on WW2 airborne operations with rules (1stand = 1 company) and scenarios.
Neil
A classic book and one that kickstarted many a gamers enduring interest in this campaign. I did have all three of his books (the 1945 is excellent too) but not sure what happened to them:(. I have played narrative campaigns inspired by Op Market-Garden, but never a full blown campaign, which would need a lot of planning and probably a board game set up to help. Maybe one day...?
Hello there Ion,
Snap! I also fought Market Garden as the Germans using Command Decision! We used Squad Leader counters for the units as no one in my circle had any figures for the campaign - I did eventually raise a battalion of British Airborne in 1:300th though, albeit after the campaign had fizzled out. As I recall the British held both ends of the Arnhem bridge having captured it using jeep borne paratroopers. Meanwhile 30 Corps really had trouble getting going but when it did was getting close to Nijmegen. It had taken quite a battering thought. All good fun!
To tackle this as kind fo mini project would certainly take some doing but my plan is something very abstract and Portable Wargame based - it s really just an opportunity to get Eric’s collection (or part of it) in action once again.
We shall see.
All the best,
DC
Hi Neil,
Both are worthy contenders - I believe I have copies of both squirrelled away somewhere. In my head I see this being quite an abstract undertaking so I will not be too precious about exact unit representation. As long as it captures the essence of the campaign then that will suffice.
We shall see.
All the best,
DC
Hi Steve J,
On paper it seemed like a good idea but for the various historic factors that did not seem to figure in the planning. I have always liked attacker/defender games and this features plenty of this and from both sides so either can be undertaking either!
It is a great book for sure and I enjoyed the film, howlers and all!
I do not have the time to undertake a detailed and serious version of the campaign so my plan is to do something that captures the all important flavour of the overall operation. Something like an extended Portable Wargame even.
We shall see.
All the best,
DC
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