Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1992 12:01:30 MST From: Hjalmar Gerber Subject: Hell's Highway (VG) HELL'S HIGHWAY (Victory Games, 1983) - HH - deals with Operation Market Garden. For those not familiar with the operation; picture yourself (as the Allies) inside the Iron Maiden. The Allied objective was to "stab" at a perceived opening to Germany's industrial heartland. The U.S. 101st Airborne Division would be dropped 30 km behind the front line to secure the canal bridges north of Eindhoven. The 82nd Airborne Division would reach 70km into Holland to take the bridges over the Maas and the Waal rivers. The ultimate objective (A Bridge Too Far), was the large highway bridge across the Nederrijn in Arnhem (90km deep). This task was given to the British 1st Airborne Division, reinforced by the Polish 1st Airborne Brigade. The ground operation (Garden) was to see the British XXX Corps (Horrocks) break out of Belguim, drive up the main highway, and link up with all of the Airborne carpets - no longer than 48 hours after the jump-off. This audacious plan caught the Germans quite unprepared, but they were masters of improvisation, and with some luck (or poor Allied intelligence interpretation) they had some powerful forces (2nd SS Panzerkorps, 15th Army and 1st Parachute Army) "resting" in the wings of this stage. The rest is history. HH is designed as a 2-player game, but it's on a more manageable scale than HttR (SPI); yet it can easily and effectively be broken down into a multi-player gem - for up to seven players (four Allies; three German). The map scale is 1250m/hex. Each turn represents 6 hours (daylight) or 12 hours (night). The entire campaign scenario is 26 turns long. A typical unit represents a battalion, but many smaller forces dot the map. Each unit's size and morale is quantified by (from 1 to 4) steps - that may be lost through combat, lack of supply or bad airborne landings. Most units are a part of a FORMATION (usually a Division), and as such they can draw on assets (anti-tank, combat engineers, bridge engineers and flak) that ("invisibly") reside in their formation HQ. Artillery communication and support take place by formation. Artillery is capable of ranged fire (no "blocking terrain" rules involved). All units are either in "TRAVEL" or "COMBAT" mode. This become crucial in the case of the heavily motorized XXX Corps that cannot easily move off the raised highway, and that usually resembles an elongated parking lot with it's lead (infantry) elements trying to uncork some nasty, tough little German roadblock. Units may not freely pass through other units. The German units do not have to be on the map. Around the map are several "Reserve" boxes. German units may commute between the map and these boxes, or between reserve boxes - so some unit that gave you trouble may slink to the safety of a box, and return to haunt you further down the road. The turn sequence - Weather Phase Resupply Phase ALLIED Phase GERMAN Phase Air Command mirror of Movement Allied Phase Combat (Fire) Communication I don't have the time or space to describe each phase, but the Combat Phase is most interesting and hair-raising. This is a ratio accountant's nightmare; i.e. it's a pure fire-combat procedure: 1. The phasing player DECLARES which units are attacking and which unit's are their targets. HQ asset and artillery support is declared at this stage. 2. The defending player likewise DECLARES defensive fire. 3. The DEFENDING player resolves defensive fire against each targeted attacking unit separately. 4. The "surviving", undisrupted attacking units do likewise against the defending units. 5. IF the defending target hex is vacated, undisrupted, motorized, attacking units in Travel Mode, and adjacent to the vacated hex, receive an exploitation move. The Fire Combat Resolution Table is quite complex (one of my few gripes). Its nature and many modifiers are determined by the target terrain, target type, target mode, type of firing unit, air support, artillery support, etc. All the efforts of the Allies can go for naught if they do not capture the vital bridges. For this they need the airborne attacks to grab an hold the bridges. The airborne units have to survive to hold the bridges. For this they need the support of heavy units (XXX Corps). For the heavy units to get to a point where they can support the airborne units, they need the bridges. The Germans get at least one chance to blow each bridge - except major road bridges across rivers, like the one in Arnhem. Bridges take time to repair... once the heavy briging engineers get there. What happens if an airborne landing (especially for the British 1st...) goes sour? Well, I've introduced a house rule. The Allies start with five "re-roll" chits that may be used for airborne landings and bridge demolition (German) only. Each time the Allies re-roll for an airborne landing, they pass one chit (to the maximum of five) to the Germans who may use it for a bridge demolition re-roll. It's not novel, but it's effective. For the grognards much of this is old hat - it's just that Victory Games turned it into a very handsome, comfortable hat. Hjalmar