Great Battles of World War Two: Volume II – Drop Zone

From the introduction:

Drop Zone - Introduction

As was indicated by our labeling our first publication, "Great Battles of World War II - Volume 1", we always intended to publish more additions and make a series of the rules. The question quickly arose; which topic, era, theater etc. should our second volume cover? We wanted something limited in scope, but that would offer a good number of ping-pong table sized battles. We also prefer to do subjects that have not been yet covered in miniatures. Island War came immediately to mind. The battles of the Pacific islands would certainly provide the proper size actions and only a game of Great Battles scope could cover the forces and time scales needed. Finally, we could include a Canadian action (Hong Kong) - always a bonus in our view. There was also German operations in Poland, France and the Mediterranean. Finally, of course there was the whole Eastern Front to choose from. We felt, however, that we should experiment more with the system before we wrote the definitive scenario book for WWII miniatures gamers - the Steppes of Russia.

I think it was Marcel Van der Sleen who first floated the idea that Great Battles was the perfect vehicle to present airborne actions. He had done a fair bit of work on Operation Market Garden and insisted that Great Battle's scope and time scale could be worked into three or four linked scenarios leading to a grand-campaign that would reflect the whole operation. In addition, Marcel claimed that very few adjustments would be needed. The movement, combat and morale would be left unchanged. We had already worked with the basic organizations in Canadians in Europe. He was correct. Great Battles remained unchanged, throughout the project. The only differences were the additions of landing rules and the use of activation cards instead of a set number of activation points.

Once into the research, I found that not only did the airborne operations offer interesting scenarios, but there was "a little bit for everyone". There are air-drops of course but also tank-to-tank confrontations, elite units, militia units, street fighting, battalion operations, division operation and even corps operations. In addition, the Operations Mercury (Crete) and Operation Market Garden (Holland) could be linked into a grand campaign using defined battlefields (ping-pong tables) but allowing for area-to-area movement between tables - a rarity in miniatures gaming.

Ultimately, we feel that Drop Zone offers a different type of miniatures scenarios. Those that have played Canadians in Europe will immediately notice the difference, in texture, between the set-piece co-ordinated attack-defend actions and the tenuous, nail-biting to-and-fro of an airborne operation. For those who have not played the other scenarios in this series, be prepared for a new gaming experience. Your games will not simulate a 40 minute fight for the local farmhouse or crossroads. Instead, you will have to plan a multi-day operation - to land parachute brigades or even divisions behind enemy lines and then relieve them. Great Battles puts you in the general's chair where deployment and activation of forces, weather, supply, recovery and reinforcements artillery and air support are more important than the penetrating power of a shell or the armor thickness of a turret.

We are quite proud of Drop Zone and very pleased that Great Battles has made the transition to this new topic with such ease. We look forward to exploring other eras and theaters with Great Battles of World War II.