Sealion `40 - Scenario Design Center

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Sealion `40 - Scenario Design Center | Manualzz

Getting Started with Panzer Campaigns: Sealion ‘40

Welcome to Panzer Campaigns Sealion '40. In this, the eighteenth title in the Panzer

Campaigns series of operational combat in World War II, the series takes a look at the hypothetical Operation Sealion in 1940, the planned German invasion of the

British Isles. After the sudden, surprise fall of France in the late spring of 1940, the

Germans dominated the continent of Europe and was faced with just a single foe, the

British and their Commonwealth. To conquer their foe would require a daring sea and airborne invasion of the British Isles before the British could bring allies to join them in battle, and rearm their ground troops left with few heavy weapons after Dunkirk. This getting started scenario represents one of the planned invasion areas using both air and sea landings.

While veterans of the system may skip this introductory scenario, there are some new rules to be aware of. The proposed Sealion operation, if it had been carried out, was faced with unique obstacles compared to what the Allied invasion of France faced in

Normandy. Unlike the situation in Normandy, where the Allies dominated on the ground, in the air, and at sea, the Germans in a theoretical Sealion would be faced with the British Royal Navy with very limited opposition by the Kriegsmarine, and the

Luftwaffe had only a minor superiority in the air. Thus, there is a new rule that causes amphibious landings to suffer extra attrition, due to the ability of the British naval forces to intercept many of the German transports on their way across the Channel.

These losses, as reflected in the start of the Started scenario, vary but can be very significant.

SCENARIO SELECTION

Insert the Sealion '40 CD, if you haven‟t already, and after the introductory cinematic you will be taken to the File

Selection Dialog. Click the scenario

#%00_Started.scn and then OK. The

Started scenario begins after the first turn German reinforcements have been brought on the map, but before any further action occurs, so some units on both sides have expended movement points for the current turn already.

This takes you to the AI Selection Dialog where you choose the side you wish to play. For the purposes of this tutorial select Axis AI “Manual” for yourself and

“Automatic with FOW” (Fog of War) for the Allies. Click

OK to get the game underway, you are now the German commander. The Rules button can be used to choose optional rules, or reset the optional rule selections to the default state, but for now leave the rules set to the default set.

Your first Command Report will appear with information relevant to the first turn.

Note its contents and click OK to close it. Note that the units that already landed this turn are considered isolated in many cases, that there are air units available, and some units will be recovering from disruption already.

OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

Click the Info Menu item and then select Victory from this menu. This shows how many points the first side must earn for each level of victory. As you can see, to obtain a major victory in this battle you must earn 150

Victory Points by the scenario‟s end. Click OK to close the Victory Dialog.

Victory points are earned by a combination of points for losses, for each side, and objective points for the first side.

If you look at the map, you‟ll see some oval shapes with numbers inside them. These are your objectives. To win a major victory, you will need to hold objectives and inflict enemy casualty points equal to 150 points less your losses. As you incur losses, points are taken away from your total.

Click Info and then

Objectives on the Menu

Bar to see a list of the objectives in the scenario.

As you can see, there are

5 objectives worth a total of 175 points to side one, all currently controlled by the Allied side. Click OK to close the Objectives Dialog.

TURN 1

In this scenario the Germans move first. Click on the unit indicated by the red box. It is a German engineer unit known as a pioneer company.

To check any units‟ statistics, chain of command, and special unit abilities, right click the Hex Info

Area with the desired hex with the unit(s) selected. Right click in the Hex Info Area now to review the pioneer unit stats. You will see the chain of command for the unit on the left; on the right appear its various combat factors, speed, and abilities, which include mine clearing, which can also be used to remove obstacles. The pioneer is currently located in a minefield, set to “

Clearing Mines

”. As there are more units arriving in the next turn, it is a good idea to allow this Pioneer unit to continue removing mines to limit casualties in the follow on forces, so don„t do anything with this unit.

Now select the engineer unit located 3 hexes northwest along the diagonal from the pioneer unit. Double click to select this unit on the map, so that the Unit Box lights up. It is now “selected” and ready for orders. We want to move it toward the coast to assist in taking the beach objectives. The enemy units adjacent to the pioneer unit are located in Bunkers, which are tough points to take without strong units with high hard attack values, we will aim to take the 25 point objective to the south first, as the defender there is located in a Trench.

Let‟s move it one hex at a time. To do so, right click an adjacent hex, the one directly south, or below, the selected unit. If able to move, the unit will obey. Should a unit ever not follow the order, look to the Status Bar to see a message telling you why the movement can‟t be performed. Right click on the next hex to the southeast, below-right from the current hex. This move may draw fire from the enemy units.

Try right clicking on the next hex southeast, between the enemy units. This final movement will not be allowed

– the Status Bar will state “Cannot move units from enemy ZOC to enemy

ZOC”.

The unit shows movement points of 8 left (unless it disrupted from enemy fire), and it shows in yellow. This means the unit can still fire one time - white means the unit hasn‟t expended any movement points and can normally fire 3 times, green means it

still has at least 2/3 of its movement and can thus fire twice for most units, and red means it has expended more than 2/3 of its movement and can no longer fire.

Let‟s fire this unit at the enemy unit in the objective hex to its south. The unit should still be selected, if not, select your unit exactly as you did for movement. Now with the

Control (<ctrl>) Button pressed, place the mouse over the adjacent enemy unit to the south. A crosshairs will appear. Right click to Fire. The results of your fire will be shown on screen

– either there will be no effect, or you‟ll cause a loss, or possibly disrupt the enemy (the results will be yellow), or cause it to be broken (the results will be red).

Most direct fire occurs against adjacent hexes. The direct fire could again draw enemy return fire, which will also be shown on the screen, as shown here.

This unit can no longer move or fire, it has expended all of its movement points, showing 0 movement points left.

(Tip: Enemy unit information, with fog of war active, will be hidden from you and summarized as X = less than 10 men, XX= 10 to 99 men and XXX = 100 to 999 men.

With both direct and indirect fire, if more than one enemy unit exists in a hex, you are given the option to select a target should your weapons be appropriate).

Now select another unit

– the fallschirmjaeger unit highlighted in red in this image.

Clicking the Reachable Hexes Button on the Toolbar will highlight where a unit may still potentially move in a turn. Turn this on to show where the unit can reach.

Let‟s move it several hexes at once toward the objective to the southwest. To do so, with the left mouse button down, drag it to the destination 3 hexes southwest, as indicated by the arrow, then release the button. The system will determine the path it follows, so it‟s wise to drag smallish distances to keep control, as with fog of war

(FOW) selected, movement cannot be undone.

Now try moving the nearby unit indicated here onto the objective.

As you are playing with FOW, there could be, and is in this case, an enemy unit defending the objective. This unit will automatically stop when it tries to move into the hex occupied by the enemy unit. In this case, unless the enemy unit, an armored car unit, fires and disrupts your unit, you can try to fire. However, because the enemy unit is armored, and the fallschirmjaeger unit doesn‟t have a ranged hard attack, your unit is unable to

fire upon the defender. It must call in air support, or assault next turn, to be able to push the defender out of the objective hex.

You may be able to soften the enemy armored car unit with airpower. The Command Report at the beginning of your turn advised that you have Airpower available. Click on the objective hex occupied by the enemy AC unit, now click the Call Air Mission

Button on the Toolbar.

A dialog will appear showing any air units available. You will see 2 air units available, both

Me110d equipped units with 12 planes each. Click one of the air unit lines in the dialog and then OK.

An air mission will be conducted against the selected hex and its combat results will be displayed on screen, or an air unit interception message will appear. If the air unit gets through, all Anti-Aircraft fire against your air unit will occur first, with the result of each AA fire displayed, then you will be shown the result of the bombing. Results shown in yellow letters are disruptions of the target unit.

Let‟s give travel mode movement a try now. With the undisrupted fallschirmjaeger unit in the red box selected, and the reachable hexes ON, click the

Change Travel Mode button on the

Toolbar.

If the unit is on top of the stack you‟ll see a white line appear at the bottom of the unit and a “T” next to its movement points in its Unit

Box. It is now in Travel Mode (T mode), which gives some units a larger movement allowance, particularly when using roads. In this case, the unit can move along the arrow shown above using the secondary road, reaching the point just south of the objective. However, the re is a “trade off”. Units in travel mode are more vulnerable to enemy fire. There are times when you will need to take risks and move in enemy territory this way, but there are other times when you will need to use caution. This is something you will get the feel for with play experience. In this case, time is short, the invasion is on, and there is no time to waste. And we can only hope that the air attack called in previously made it through and disrupted the defenders of the objective.

(Tip: Some units, such as Artillery and Anti-tank Guns, cannot move unless they are in T mode, if you try and move such a unit the status bar will give you the reason, in this case it will likely say “Unit must be in Travel Mode to move”)

There are more units that have not yet moved. Move them to match the positions shown here. This should isolate the enemy defenders along the beach area, dropping their morale in the next turn and so making them more vulnerable to disruption.

Go ahead and fire any infantry units adjacent to the

Allied units that have enough movement left, to soften them up for the next turn. You will find that you have no units able to fire on the enemy units in the bunkers.

This is not without risks, as the defenders may return fire. This can weaken, or even disrupt the German units, but with the advantage of strength, the odds are against the defender here.

While you cannot predict what the enemy will do in their phase of the turn, your forces have the initiative and must continue to advance if you are going to win. To achieve a victory, the German forces must clear the beaches and move inland to link up with the paratroops that landed in the enemy rear. Fire is used to weaken and disrupt the defenders, while assaults are used to push them out of a hex.

The German forces are limited but follow on forces are on the way. To view the reinforcement list, click on Units in the top menu, then Scheduled.

This brings up the

Scheduled dialog, which shows that the Germans will get a number of reinforcements. The dialog shows the time they are scheduled, then the chance of arrival which shows as ?? due to FOW, the hex location

and the units. A double click on any line will move to the hex location and open a window showing all units that make up that group of reinforcements. These units will be critical to capturing the objectives within the 7 turn limit. Close this dialog by clicking okay when you are done.

When you‟ve finished moving and firing all your units, click the Next Turn

Button on the Toolbar and click OK if prompted. The enemy will move and fire its forces. Your units may fire automatically in reply using

Opportunity Fire. Some enemy movement may be spotted. You may use the F7 and F8 keys to speed up the AI play, F6 to set to normal speed, and F5 to slow it down if needed. Your next turn will be announced once the German

Command Report appears.

TURN 2

The Command Report contains information, such as the availability of air units,

HQs out of command, artillery unavailable, and a host of other details. Your command report will vary from this one, depending on the specifics of your game.

There should be reinforcements that arrive, along with mines or obstacles being cleared by the engineer units unless they were disrupted by enemy fire. Click OK to remove the dialog.

(Tip: You can recall the Last Command Report during your turn by selecting the item under the Info menu, as long as you have not exited the game since starting the turn.)

(Tip: Clicking the Divisional Markings Button on the Toolbar will add color to your forces based on the organizations to which they belong.)

At this point, you should have 2 objectives ready to be attacked, as shown here:

The western objective, with just the remaining armored cars, can be safely assaulted by any undisrupted infantry next to

it. If the assault doesn‟t work this turn, it should soon. Or you can call in an air strike if desired, but there are better targets. The 25 point objective next to the beach should have all available firepower thrown at it until the defender disrupts. Then you can assault it. We will discuss assaults below. But first, let‟s soften up targets.

Now let‟s fire artillery. You should have one artillery unit in the highlighted hex, ready to fire, unless it fired opportunity fire in the enemy‟s turn. Artillery can fire at any unit within its range, as long as an eligible spotter can see it. Select the artillery unit in this hex as discussed earlier.

To check any unit‟s range, right click its Unit Box, or select the “H” hot key, with the unit selected, to highlight all hexes in its range. In this case you will see your artillery unit‟s range is 10 hexes. To fire artillery do exactly as you did with direct fire, place your mouse over an enemy unit, then right click the enemy‟s hex.

In this case fire at the enemy unit in the 25 point objective 2 hexes to its north. You can fire twice at the hex or, if the defender is already disrupted, try other targets nearby to see what you can do.

(Tip: Units normally have enough MPs to fire two or three times per turn. This artillery unit can fire twice at the enemy in the target.)

Let‟s now order an assault on the British armored cars defending the western objective, as shown here. To enter an enemy occupied hex, you must assault it, using only undisrupted units. Select the infantry unit highlighted here and right click the enemy‟s hex. A dialog will appear announcing the initiating of an assault. The initiation of an assault can trigger defensive fire.

To resolve your assault, click the

Resolve Assault

Button on the

Toolbar.

Results will appear showing both sides‟ losses. If you‟ve won, and any remaining enemy retreat, you will capture its hex. If you win and the enemy does not, or is unable to, retreat, you will capture some of its forces, but not enter its hex.

(Remember, do not worry if your outcome does not match the one illustrated, as play will differ.)

In this case, the original attack failed - the attacker disrupted from its loss, and so the objective did not fall. However, you should have 2 more units that can launch follow on assaults, from the deployed unit one hex northeast of the original attacking unit, and there is the unit in travel mode just south of the objective. Continue to assault the armored cars until the hex falls. If the defender is undisrupted it might be good to assault with 2 or even all 3 of the German fallschirmjaeger units at the start as the extra forces will increase the likelihood of winning. But if the British are already disrupted you can assault with one unit at a time, saving the others for further assaults or to move on the westernmost objective in Manningtree.

To bring on the reinforcements that were announced in the command dialog at the start of the turn, return to Units

– Arrived in this case. This opens a dialog showing all reinforcing groups that arrived this turn.

Double click on each one to place the group on the map.

At this point, move the engineer in the hex shown up one hex to remove the mines in that hex. Also, use airpower and firepower to disrupt the defender of the 25 point objective and take it through assault, as you are gathering a lot of strength nearby. If need be, the enemy unit is isolated and you can assault it without disrupting it first.

That is normally a risky, costly tactic but time is of the essence and being isolated the defenders will be much easier to beat in an assault.

FINISH THE GAME

You now know how to move your units, fire, and assault with your forces. After taking the 25 point objectives already discussed, you should be ready to throw everything you have at the 50 point objective near Harwich. There is also an objective to the north that the fallschirmjaeger can push toward although they don‟t have any support the defensive force is fairly weak also. With the victory conditions in mind, keep maneuvering your forces in the manner you see fit. The end of the game will be announced at the conclusion of the enemy‟s final turn, at which time, final Victory

Points will be shown. Be sure to create a plan and follow it, either the one outlined at the end of turn 1, or one that you develop yourself.

(Tip: If you capture an objective hex you will earn its Victory Points, but objectives can be recaptured an endless number of times in a game. Only the side owning it at a scenario‟s end receives its points. To take an objective hex simply enter it. You do not need to remain there but be sure to protect it from enemy units moving up to retake it.)

To restart the scenario, click File,then Selection in the Menu Bar. A list of scenarios will appear and you may select any by double clicking on its entry.

FURTHER INFORMATION

This Guide is designed to make you feel comfortable with what‟s going on in Panzer

Campaigns, but it is no substitute for reading the Game Help files. You can access

Help from the Game Help Menu. The Game rules are really in two parts:

Part 1 in the User Manual, which is the series rulebook. You can see this while playing by pressing F2.

The Main Program Manual discusses the various elements of the interface in helpful detail such as each Menu or Dialog. There is even a list of HOT KEYS Show in the

Other Features section of this manual. You can view this program guide while playing by pressing F1

Pressing F4 invokes a feature called the Parameter Data Table. It provides a host of information including movement costs, terrain benefits, and stacking limits amongst other things.

Lastly, documentation for the game‟s editors may be found in help files accessed from the Help Menu when you open each editor.

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