Ok so it has
been a long time since I last posted anything but I have not been idle. My brother is still working on his Polish
Army which has been enlarged to include Calvary. The Germans have been completed but don’t have
an opponent as of yet. With the recent
sale of a large collection of 20mm minis that were just laying around looking
for a new home, I had money to spend. I
have always been interested in gaming the 1940 campaign in the West in 28mm and with the varied early war British tanks available from Warlord
Games, I could not resist.
Before I dropped any money, I wanted to find a scenario book to provide a framework for building my BEF Army. I picked up a copy of Skirmish Campaigns book covering the Dunkirk. For those that are not familiar, I must say, that each of the skirmish campaigns books I have had an opportunity to look at or own are great, and this one is no exception.
Part of the
France 1940 series, this book comes with 12 scenarios organized into 5
campaigns. The objective of each of the
campaigns is to buy time, the more the better, buying more time for the Allied
Armies to evacuate the continent. The
victory conditions for most of the scenarios are constructed in this way. The allied armies add time for achieving
victory in the scenario and lose it by failing.
The first campaign pits the Germans against the Belgians. The second
campaign covers the encounter battles between the 3rd Royal Tank
Regiment and the 1st Panzer Division in and around Calais. The scenarios of the 3 RTR campaign feature relatively large
numbers of tanks on both sides, so since I’m building 28mm BEF, these will have
to wait. The fourth campaign covers the
French and also features large numbers of Tanks, so difficult as well in 28mm.
The
scenarios in the Ypres Canal Campaign, which is the 3rd Campaign, as well as the Western Line (5th and final) are more attainable
in 28mm so I will focus on these for now.
The
scenarios in these 2 campaigns have some unusual minis that also made them
appealing. The scenarios “Get your men
out” and Fighting Withdrawal” both require stretcher-bearer teams as one of the
British victory conditions is that they evacuate all the wounded BEF troops
from a church while defending the perimeter against the German assault. The other unusual requirement is for British
and French motorcycle dispatch riders in the variable attachments in the Western Line campaign. I settled on Black Tree Design British
stretcher teams, which with the recent sale I was able to pick up for less than
$10. The motorcycles I found were made
by 1st Corps in their WW1 range of 28mm.
