The Defence of Calais
The Defence of Calais
In May 1940, with British troops being evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, the ancient port of Calais stood on the critical western flank of the Anglo-French lines.
In a desperate bid to shore up the flank Churchill committed the British 30th Infantry Brigade to defend Calais to the last. What ensued was an heroic struggle that is writ large in the annals of British military History.
Here Robert Avery presents fourteen historical scenarios for I Ain't Been Shot Mum that bring to light those events in that "last ditch" over sixty years ago.
This file is now fully IABSMv3 compatible.
See some sample pages here.
A quick review:
This is a new campaign book by the Too Fat Lardies to accompany their WW2 rules I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM). Available as a PDF document via email or on CD-ROM, it is 90-pages long and contains 14 scenarios centred around the BEF's ill-fated defence of Calais, France, 1940. Although designed for the IABSM rules, they are suitable for any set of company-level rules. Written by Robert Avery (author of the Vis Bellica rules), there is a nice introduction by Richard Clarke - author of the IABSM rules.
The publication has plenty of colour pictures of figures, models and games in action to inspire you and fill you with dread at the Brits' task at hand - essentially a campaign that you are destined to lose, but the way in which you put up a fight will determine how well you do against those damned Nazi aggressors! To quote from the introduction, "The fourteen scenarios featured in this booklet are all based on actual historical events that took place between the 23rd and 26th May 1940, as the 30th Infantry Brigade and 3rd Royal Tank Regiment attempted to defend Calais against two Panzer divisions."
The scenarios are laid out sequentially and each comprise of an historical background, notes for umpires running the scenario when using the IABSM rules, a map, victory conditions, and briefings, forces and dispositions for both sides. A lot of work has gone into the scenarios and although I haven't tried any of them out, think they are a great idea for company-level games. They also get people away from the somewhat unrealistic one-off games that most of us play - yep, I'm more than guilty of that!
Priced at £7 for the PDF, this is a bargain.
Rated 'Very Good' by Pete