Monday 13 March 2023

“This is a story you will tell your grandchildren….!”


“And mightily bored they’ll be!” Lt. Gen. Horrocks, commander of 30 Corps, as played by Edward Fox in the 1977 film ‘A Bridge Too Far’, opens his briefing with the quote used in the title of this post.

Since THAT film came out I have been fascinated by the whole concept and story of Operation Market Garden - Monty’s ambitious and ultimately doomed plan to sneak across the River Rhine and into the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr, thereby, it was hoped, shortening the war. It didn’t and the rest, as they say, is history. 

I have refought the campaign a number of times with largely historical results except for when I played a rather spiffy version at my one and only visit to COW - the Conference of Wargamers - designed by John Armatys in which I was able to relieve the British Airborne on the very last game turn  - “in the nick of time will do nicely”. It was my second attempt though to be fair!

Memoir 44 released a scenario pack covering the campaign which I fought a number of years ago but what I am looking at doing now is fighting the Richard Borg designed “Overlord” style version - I am unsure if this is the same as the scenario pack version - which occupies two standard game boards.

The man cave table has been cleared for action and so I hope to get the set up tackled later today with a view to fighting the action over the course of the coming week.

I am looking forward to this as it will be the first time I have a fought a WW2 action - or indeed ANY kind of action - for a while and it will be good to roll some dice and move some stuff around again.

Of course how successful the allies will be remains to be seen - will it be ‘A Bridge Too Far’ or will the British Airborne be relieved in time? 

10 comments:

Martin Rapier said...

Have fun with the scenario David. The "Overlord" Arnhem scenario is on my list to play, who knows, I may even break it out myself! I'd really like to play it with some players, it would look grand in 15mm on my Hexon.

Ray Rousell said...

Looking forward to the action Dave!!

David Crook said...

Hi Martin,

Years ago I took part in an Operation Market Garden campaign using the map from the boardgame Hell’s Highway and Command Decision for the battles. It was enormous fun! I will run it solo to begin with but as a multiplayer extravaganza it should be a hoot. I might suggest it for the club one night.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Ray,

So am i old chap, so am I!

All the best,

DC

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

I’m looking forward to seeing how the campaign pans out.

All the best,

Bob

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

I plan to run the scenario exactly as designed and will be using the Overlord rules. In my experience this campaign always produces a tightly fought contest right up until the end. It should be fun and I am looking forward to running it.

The AAR will appear on the blog once completed.

All the best,

DC

joppy said...

I don't suppose many folk will remember that Horrocks had a TV series back in the late 50s/early 60s giving talks on his experiences. My father used to take me round to grans (she had the tv ) to watch it. Horrocks also wrote a very readable memoir which is worth searching out.

David Crook said...

Hi Joppy,

I knew about the latter but not the TV series. Later I know but I always enjoyed the TV series ‘The World at War’ as there were many historical names that appeared in it.

All the best and thanks for the heads up!

DC

Martin Rapier said...

Well, your post piqued my interest so I had to set it up and play I myself. An interesting take on the the campaign within the constraints of the M44 system. I was a it dubious about the OOB and terrain, but it did work. The British snatched victory at the last minute as the German attempt to crush the 101st at Veghel (just) failed. 12 victory badges to 11. Definitely one to play f2f with some other humans.

David Crook said...

Hi Martin,

You beat me to it! I am planning on Friday afternoon for my bash at the campaign. I really enjoyed it when I played it previously and yes, playing it with some humans would be great fun.

I will think about that as I reckon a multi-player Zoom game may be an option.

All the best,

DC