Airborne drops and beach landings

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dakkadakka
Posts: 152
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2019 4:44 pm

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by dakkadakka »

kyhamm wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 5:22 pm
dakkadakka wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 5:15 pm I’m really interested in running the air assault on the Orne River and Caen Canal bridges by Major Howard’s Ox and Bucks. I know the coup de main operation itself was less than battalion strength (six gliders, each with a platoon, if memory serves); but, perhaps I could have a couple companies of either the 6th Airbourne or Lovat’s commandos to come in as reserves.

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Jim
could add a couple reinforcement platoons to get the glider assault up to strength.
That’s an idea. But, with two extra platoons, plus adding confident and tenacious, that puts the Brits at 21 points. And, I’m not sure how to do the combat patrols with the glider assault. The Ox and Bucks certainly had no patrols out, as they landed pretty much right near the bridge, and went straight to work.

Although this is an amazing ruleset and I’m thoroughly enjoying playing it, I’m not sure if it’s cut out to handle airbourne landings.

Regards,

Jim
kyhamm
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:06 pm

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by kyhamm »

an idea for a scenario
Forst
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2020 11:13 am

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Forst »

Is there any mileage in using the patrols as potential landing sites? The attackers nominating a preferred location in lieu of a Coy command site until the cmd lands. The defenders could use theirs as potential flak or anti landing defences to cramp the attackers options.

The result would be a challenge to find a suitable spot to land vs possibility of ambush?

You could add the option to deploy within 8 " with suitable forfeit. Ie roll x hits due to proximity of less than ideal landing site?

Just a thought!
Zaapark
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2017 12:22 am

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Zaapark »

That's actually the method used in the Crete campaign for the Command Decision rules. Many a Fallscrimjaeger has met an untimely demise due to ceiling vents and windows :)
Saighdear
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:44 am

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Saighdear »

Sincilbanks wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:24 pm
dakkadakka wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:53 am Dave:

I know you are currently working on an east front scenario book. Are there any future plans to include rules for doing airborne drops and/or amphibious landings?

Regards,

Jim
For airborne drops cut out a paper counter for each section being dropped and label them.
Stand on a chair and hold your hand high above your head and over the centre of the board
Drop each section individually from the thumb and forefinger. Where the section lands is it's drop point, replace it with the relevant troop base
Sections not landing on the table are lost, sections landing in the opponents deployment zone are lost.

If you are dropping at night point an ordinary fan at the table on minimum settings in the prevailing wind direction and repeat the above procedure...

:shock:
What about substituting one of those plastic ‘paratroopers’ w/ the flimsy parachute we use to get as kids (dating myself?)? Seems for suitable for an accurate simulation 🤓
Bertalucci
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:44 pm

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Bertalucci »

Sicily - chuck half your units in the bin as a minimum.
Corvusboreus
Posts: 109
Joined: Fri May 08, 2020 8:05 am
Location: Boambee Valley, Terra straya

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Corvusboreus »

I intend to include opposed amphibious landings in my Pacific games (Japanese SNLF vs Commonwealth).
I already have some 1/72 dinghies scratched up from epoxy putty on cardbase, complete with removeable rows of blobsoldiers.
They were originally made for CoC, & carry a squad apiece.
I reckon I'll run it as 3 model dinghies per company, with 2 boats carrying a platoon apice, and the 3rd disgorging the company commander & his 3 CPs (enabling deployment of the 3rd platoon + any additional supports).
That way the entire battalion can deploy from 9 model boats.
Starting them just over a foot offshore should make it difficult-but-feasible.
Mortars and artillery become offshore naval gunnery without any rule change.
Heavier support (eg tanks) would require heavier specialised landing craft, so scratch-cobbling a couple of Daihatsu landing boats is the next item on my to-do list
Corvusboreus
Posts: 109
Joined: Fri May 08, 2020 8:05 am
Location: Boambee Valley, Terra straya

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Corvusboreus »

Like early war Germans, Japanese paratroopers jumped with their main weapons parceller in separate drop-canisters, and only pistols, grenades and bayonets on their persons (generally 13 men and 7 canisters per plane) .
They practiced low altitude jumps, sometimes at under 100 metres

To simulate SNLF paratrooper airdrops, I am going to make recycled use of a currently plentiful resourwe: disposable facemasks.

Simply wire tie a bead miway into the mask elastic and voila, you have a rectangular chute with 4 cords.

These give a slightly stalled and unpredictable drop-fight.
I will use 2 different coloured beads per platoon (1 for the men, the other for their weapons) and do each platoon as a seperate drop.

Drops will be done as a moving pass 2-3 feet over the table with the 2 chutes pinch-held together at their centre and dropped at time of choice.

Where the 'troop-bead' lands can be used to deploy either a platoon or combat patrol. If the troop-bead land seperate ti the 'canister-bead', then anything deploying from it operate at 1/2 firepower & 6 " range until they reach their weapon canisters.
Company commanders can initially deploy attatched to the players choice of platoon.

Logistics is 6 mask-chutes per company (3 drops), thus 18 chutes (9 drops) per standard battalion.

SNLF paratroopers jumps at Langoan on Celebes involved over 300 men at once, so doing games involving battalion scale jumps is fully justifiable.
Corvusboreus
Posts: 109
Joined: Fri May 08, 2020 8:05 am
Location: Boambee Valley, Terra straya

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by Corvusboreus »

Just did a coupla practiced drops.with my new mask-chutes
I found that holding one chute (the troops) between forefinger and thumb and the other chute (their weapons) between ringfinger and pinky gives better random variation in drop patterns.
fred
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Airborne drops and beach landings

Post by fred »

While I get the parachute look of the disposable masks - do have a think about the bio-hazard of reusing these. If they are your masks for a solo game, its probably fine. But if this involves other people, or other people’s masks, I wouldn’t take this approach.
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