Airbridge to the Rijn 1944 - C3i Ops Center to the Rijn … ·  · 2009-02-11twenty years, to France 1940 (SPI/Avalon Hill), but is more commonly associated with Panzergruppe Guderian

One of the boldest, actually too bold, Allied operations of World War II was Operation Market-Garden. This called for the British 1st Airborne Division to occupy Arnhem, an important river crossing on the Neder Rijn (or Rhine, or Rhein), while the mechanized XXX Corps raced north through the Netherlands to its relief, along a single highway. Flank protection for the ad- vancing British was provided by the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, which would also secure critical bridges.

A victory at Arnhem would have opened the North German Plain for a concen- trated Allied offensive, long a cherished goal of Montgomery. But the Germans failed to cooperate. Unbeknownst to the Allies, they had a pair of SS panzer divisions resting near Arnhem. In addition, bridge demolitions and occupation of chokepoints along the highway frustrated both the Americans and the British XXX Corps' strike division, the elite Guards Armoured. Despite epic valor by the British para- troopers at Arnhem, their division was fatally mauled, and the offensive frustrated on the Rijn. Arnhem really was one bridge too far.

Airbridge to Victory (hereinafter Airbridge) covers this fascinating episode well. Its historical value is high, and so are the enjoyment level and replayability. The game is well-balanced and dramatic, with many victories being

close ones. Neither side can afford to be anything short of aggressive, and Airbridge is not an easy game for either to win.

General Principles

The keystone of GMT's Operational Series is a three-part portrayal of combat. This is not a cosmetic gimmick, but something that must greatly influence, even dictate, player strategies. Each form of combat has special strengths and weaknesses. Maneuver is a good, general purpose type of tactic, used for clearing hexes of enemy units and fatiguing them. Fatigue in turn can soften up the enemy for follow-up assaults, or deny the units their own counterattack ability, and in the case of mechanized forces, the ability to flee at top speed. However, it works least in urban hexes, and in that and wooded terrain it cannot be depended upon to inflict meaningful casualties on the defender.

The overriding purpose of assault is to kill enemy troops, and make any survivors flee the hex. It can largely

negate the effects of highly defensible terrain, particularly if the attackers advance from the cover of woods or a city. It is costly, often more so for the attacker than the defender, and it should not be resorted to unless the attacker is willing to pay in blood.

Each player has to pick the tactic for each of his attacks. Moreover, since all are allowed against the same hex, and one make the next easier, players have to orchestrate the correct combinations.

Further complicating matters is the need to declare all maneuver and assault combats ahead of time. Players cannot hold back units, ahistorically improving attack plans as they go along. Also, defenders can try to avoid combat if either maneuver or assault is declared, but not both. So a player will frequently have to declare an otherwise ill-advised attack to fix the enemy in place. The defender can similarly try to reinforce his unengaged, adjacent units. Again, the phasing player will sometimes have to make attacks with little probability of success, just to forestall this enemy reaction movement.

The combination of early combat declaration, multiple attack types, combat refusal and reaction movement give the early GMT games a characteris- tic sorely lacking in most wargames. They realistically simulate, and demand from the players, genuine diversionary and pinning attacks.

Another important variable that the GMT Operational System adds to combat is unit efficiency. This does not represent firepower, portrayed by standard attack and defense factors, as training, experience, morale and leader- ship. In Airbridge, efficiency varies widely, from 2 (nearly worthless) for German garrison battalions, up to 8 (very

high quality) for the best of the SS. Furthermore, when a unit is reduced through casualties, efficiency declines.

The rough sequence of play, modified for the Operational Series combat system, is basically movement; combat; mechanized movement. It is an updated version of a structure that dates back over twenty years, to France 1940 (SPI/Avalon Hill), but is more commonly associated with Panzergruppe Guderian (SPI: 1976/Avalon Hill) and its progeny.

An important departure from the usual first player-second player sequence is variable initiative. Normally, a player can plan with confidence, secure in the knowledge when he and his opponent will be able to move and attack. Not in Airbridge. In this game, the second player often becomes the first, getting the chance for a double move and all of its associated opportunities.

This underscores the central principle of Airbridge, and in fact its sister games as well: nothing is absolutely certain. The best-laid plans can be derailed by a change in the initiative, bad weather, or a key efficiency check that fails.

In many games, players can aim for ideal, dependable situations, such as high-odds attacks that are sure to work.. Airbridge undermines this certainty with a multiplicity of variables, all of which amount to chances that something can go wrong. There is ample opportunity for players to learn vividly the true meaning of Clausewitz's friction.

Instead of striving for short-term solutions of certain benefit, as many gamers try to, and then stringing them together for victory on the strategic level,

Airbridge players must allow for uncertainty, and then embrace it. They must consider their options not only in terms of the probability of success, but of failure as well, especially failure that might seem unlikely.

Equally, things can go right. One side's setback is the other's opportunity. Therefore, just as players have to allow for adversity, they must be ready to exploit opportunities as they present themselves. This interplay of crisis and

opportunity is a subtle but fundamental underpinning of Airbridge, and does much to define its character. One of the game's key dynamics is its wide variety of strategic climaxes and decisive crises. Games are decided because a bridge is demolished or fails to blow, a force holds a hex a turn longer than expected - or a strong one loses a combat it should have won.

Although one can predict that such a crisis will occur, it is virtually impossible to predict the time and the place. This is the ultimate manifestation of the game's foundation of uncertainty, and a major factor in its replay value.

Allied Strategy

For the Allied player, Airbridge actually consists of two separate but related games: the defense of Arnhem, and the drive to relieve the paratroopers there. At the bridgehead city, the British wage a desperate defensive struggle, while elsewhere XXX Corps stages an equally determined offensive toward the Rijn.

The immediate goal of the British 1st Airborne Division is to get into Arnhem and set up for its defense. It is imperative that the Red Devils get to and hold the north end of the highway bridge (hex 4415) in force. This is the most important hex on the map, and if

the Germans gain possession of it, the Allies will find it nearly impossible to win.

An argument can be made for securing the southern end of the bridge as well, assaulting the garrison battalion and SS , panzer reconnaissance unit there. If successful, this greatly enhances the para's ability to hold Arnhem, as fatigued units can be rotated into a safer hex for recovery. But this must be balanced against the probable cost to the

British, especially in the event of failure.

The Germans will be counterattacking with a balanced combined arms corps with infantry, armor, artillery and engineers, all very proficient. Because of the SS armor, the British player should get at least one anti-tank unit in each hex likely to be attacked.

The 1st Airborne Division has only one combat/motorized unit, a reconnais- sance battalion. On the first turn, it and all other Allied mechanized units ignore German zones of control, a rule that the British must exploit fully.

For the paratroopers, there are two immediate uses for their recon unit. The first is to get into Arnhem. The second is to advance further, down the road toward either Westervoert or Rheden, to delay the Germans' arrival at Arnhem. This will inevitably result in the unit's destruction, but can also give the Allies one extra turn in Arnhem. On such small delays the game often turns.

Zones of control are also negated by urban terrain throughout the game. This is extremely important for the paras, as their units can move freely as long as they stay in Arnhem. Fatigued and depleted units can be rotated out of the most contested hexes. The south end of the bridge, if possessed by the Allies, is an especially good place for fatigued battalions to recover.

Once the paratroopers start to take losses, the best units to take the first casualties are the anti-tank forces. Reducing an anti-tank unit diminishes its efficiency rating, but its defense strength, and ability to deprive the Germans of their combined arms modifier, remain intact.

Though the Americans are also para- troopers, their lack of mobility and their missions prevent them from directly aiding the 1st Airborne Division. The paras are essentially on their own.

The work of the Americans is to make the Guards Armoured Division's drive easier and quicker. German garrisons start the game at Grave, Nijmegen, and the south side of Arnhem. The first two are the responsibility of the Americans,

and should be eliminated as soon as possible.

Grave should be taken by assault on the first turn. Situated on an island in the Maas (called the Meuse upstream), it is extremely defensible, and if any other (and more efficient) Germans get into the city, the XXX Corps offensive can be fatally stalled.

The troops to do this belong to the single regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division drops freely between the Maas and Waal Rivers. Two battalions, the maximum stacking rules allow, must assault Grave. The other can move into Nijmegen and eliminate the garrison battalion there. Alternately, it can check the highway bridge across the Maas-Waal Canal, checking it for demolition.

The other American division, the 101st Airborne, begins the game further south. Its area of operations is roughly Eindoven to the Zuid^Willems Canal. Zon, on the Wilhelmina Canal, is an important objective because of its highway bridge, but starts off empty of Germans. This chokepoint should be occupied at once.

The highway crosses the Zuid-Willems Canal at Veghel, which does have a weak German unit, barely superior to the terrible Garrison battalions. If the bridge there does not fall to demolition, the Americans should attack Veghel from the south bank of the canal. Once again, assault is the tactic of choice.

The second vital aspect of the Ameri- cans' mission is to screen the Germans

from the highway. Enemy units that take positions in open terrain along the road are not going to be much of a problem. But those that make it into cities are a different matter.

One constant of Airbridge is the diffi- culty of digging strong forces, particu- larly Germans, out of cities. When they are backed by armor, this is beyond the paratroopers' capabilities. This calls for the Guards Armoured Division, and any such break in its progress is a break for the Germans.

Nijmegen is a frequent problem for the Allies. The 82nd Airborne Division starts off weak south of the city, and has a hard time keeping mobile German battalions from getting through. If bad weather strikes early in the game, this is easier, as the reinforcements needed by the Americans are delayed. When a trickle of Germans into Nijmegen turns into a flood, for whatever reason, the Allies are in trouble.

For XXX Corps in general and Guards Armoured in particular, the overriding objective is to get across the Rijn. It is very difficult for the Germans to expel British mechanized forces from urban terrain, and if the defenders include full- strength airborne battalions, and the SS are worn down by earlier fighting, then it becomes close to impossible. Thus, in such a case the Allies have probably won the game.

Flank and rear security cannot be completely disregarded. Nonetheless, safeguarding Guards Armoured's flanks is primarily the task of the Americans.

Still, this tends to be insufficient. Therefore at the first opportunity, the Allied player should enter the British 43rd Infantry Division, a mechanized formation of XXX Corps. Its mobility and firepower are appreciably better than the Americans', by then undoubt- edly depleted. This mobility would be very useful to quickly deal with Germans who penetrate the American airborne screen. In any event, taking the 43rd Infantry Division alleviates the need to periodically divert some of Guards Armoured's battalions to guard the flanks.

Some players might question the wisdom of using the second division of XXX Corps, as doing so lowers any Allied victory by one level, in a close game resulting in a German win. But the Allies start the game with insufficient troops to implement their audacious plan, and the extra units are absolutely essential for any type of Allied victory. The Allied player should worry less about getting a major victory, and more about any win at all.

XXX Corps' offensive must fully exploit all the benefits of mechanized warfare, in a sort of Britannic blitzkrieg. Copious artillery support, both at the corps and divisional level, should be freely tapped, just as long as it does not hold back the momentum of the advance.

Two other types of unit that figure prominently in the corps' role are armor and engineers. The powerful British armor and infantry attacking together are a potent combination, both in maneuver and assault combat. Engi- neers can be among the most important units in the Allied order of battle for two reasons. First, bridging engineers are crucial for undoing the results of German bridge demolition. Second, engineers of any variety partially offset the defensibility of enemy-held urban areas. Yet, they should be used for this judiciously and not indiscriminately, as they are the first ones to take losses. Engineer units are a versatile, but numerically limited and irreplaceable resource, essential to the Allied cause.

Airpower is a form of fire support even more flexible than the artillery available to the corps. Unfortunately it is available only to XXX Corps, and not to any of the paratroopers, at least not until the mechanized units approach. One of the secondary, but hardly unimportant, reasons for a headlong dash north is to make air support of airborne units

possible. A reasonably intact 1st Airborne Division, with airpower at its disposal, will be tough for the SS to decimate.

Overrun is a special capability of combat/motorized units, and a powerful but easily overlooked weapon for the British. Especially when used by powerful stacks in the Mech Movement Phase, and particularly against unsupplied or fatigued Germans, it is an excellent way of disposing of crippled enemy forces.

It additionally gives the player an extra means of maintaining the advance. In Airbridge, a motorized unit in an enemy zone of control, no matter how weak the enemy unit, cannot move in the Mech Movement Phase. This is determined at the instant of movement. So, the British player should stand ready to use overrun by units free to move to get rid of weak German units adjacent to other mecha- nized British forces, thereby freeing them up to move, and possibly overrun, thus maintaining the advance.

German Strategy

In a sense the Germans have a simpler task in Airbridge, in that ultimately they do not have to achieve victory, just deny it to the enemy. But in this game, simpler does not readily translate into easier.

First and foremost, the German player has to realize that sooner or later, XXX Corps will get to the Rijn. It is too strong to be stopped, and if the 43rd Infantry Division enters the map, this becomes even more apparent.

The task of the Germans against the mechanized corps is to delay, not stop. The first is possible, the second nearly impossible against a competent player. The goal is to slow it down long enough for the SS troops north of the Rijn to defeat the 1st Airborne Division and otherwise block the river's crossings. This will undoubtedly result in heavy, even staggering, losses to the German forces south of the Rijn, but in the end casualties are irrelevant. All that matters is keeping the British south of the river.

As recommended in the Designer's Notes, reinforcements south of the Rijn

should be accumulated off the map to threaten the Allies' flanks. It is far better to so collect units for a major counterat- tack than it is to fritter them away on smaller, doomed attacks. Even if the units are not committed, their mere existence as a force in being can be instrumental in making the Allied player watch his flanks closely, hopefully too closely, with a diversion of effort from the Guards Armoured Division. Wasting troops removes a good reason for him to worry.

Even though the bulk of the German reinforcements south of the Rijn should be collected off map, a significant minority should enter the map and make for the urban chokepoints on the highway. Those on water lines are especially crucial, with Nijmegen the most critical of all. It is possible for the Germans to win if they do not force a showdown there; but the longer the Allies have to fight for the city's crossing over the Waal, the greater the chances that they will lose.

The German player has to take a much more active, aggressive strategy north of the Rijn. He must go on the offensively quickly and determinedly against Arnhem.

This pits his powerful 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions against the elite British paratroopers, in terrain suited superbly to the defense. The Germans can expect a disturbing casualty toll at Arnhem, but as in the south, losses mean nothing if the mission is accomplished. This is the erosion and destruction of the 1st Airborne Division, and the defense of the Rijn crossings, particularly the Arnhem highway bridge. Of course, this also entails retaking the north end of the bridge.

German tactics at Arnhem parallel those of the Allies at the more southerly urban chokepoints. Assault is more important than maneuver combat, and bombard- ment rarely efficacious. The Germans have to fully use their artillery and airpower which, though dwarfed by the Allies,' is the only airpower available north of the Rijn for much of the game. Furthermore, the urban fighting capabili- ties of the engineers have be taken advantage of in critical combats, but not squandered. Also, the Germans should

the slight edge in efficiency can mean the difference in an assault.

In the end, the most important facet of German play is one of attitude rather than specific strategy. The player has to be willing and able to react to Allied play, and then exploit it. It is more than simply rushing reinforcements toward the highway indiscriminately to block XXX Corps. This will not work. Rather, it is picking and choosing the right choke points. It is also a matter of timing, selecting the time and place to counterattack the Allied flanks. South of the Rijn, the enemy will dictate the pace and progress of the game.

It is the task of the German player to take the chances allowed by the Allies, and make the most of them. This will buy time for the SS on the river's north bank to wear down the British paras.

Conclusions

One of the traits that makes Airbridge to Victory an outstanding game is that even though it is highly playable, winning is seldom easy for either player. The game is rife with new variables, and fresh perspectives on established ones. This can humble even the best players who insist on playing it like a less innovative wargame.

There is no specific master plan for either side to achieve victory. Players should not pursue this chimera, but instead concentrate on the general principles of strategy. Equally important is the correct mindset; aggressive where necessary, but not rash, and aware at all times of the hand of fate. Airbridge, in some players' eyes, might be decided by the die roll. Actually, outcome is more dependent on how players prepare for chance, and react to it. This is far more important than immersion into petty detail.

In short, Airbridge to Victory rewards players who consider strategy more like generals and less like war gamers. Even more than the multitude of variables, detail and options, this is a true measure of realism.

keep a reserve, so that fatigued units can be rotated out of the line for recovery.

One important advantage that the Germans have is an average efficiency even higher than that of the Red Devils'. The battle at Arnhem is typically a contest of strength against strength, but