Work in Progress: Operation Borasco

Greyh Seer · Work in Progress: Operation Borasco

I have been working on a historical what if scenario and I thought I'd throw out some of my "work in progress" stuff to get your oppinions and wet your appitites!

Basically, the background is a complicated "what if" surrounding the response to the British attack of the French Fleet:

Story:

The world reacts strongly to the British attack of the French Fleet at Mer-el-kebir. Britian rejoices, France is horrified and Germany gains a propaganda coup. There are even Vichy French admirals that call for a retalitory strike. Hitler's admirals use the incident to approach him with a daring 3 part plan:

1. Convince the Vichy French govermnment to attack Gibraltar
2. Use the confusion and the obvious British Fleet re-deployments to break out every Kriegsmarine ship that is seaworthy.
3. Take that fleet and Break into the Mediteranean!

With a sizable surface fleet in the Med. the Kriegsmarine can goad the Regina Marina into action and force a victory in North Africa, securing passage to the east and access to rich sources of oil!!!

A reckless idea and no one would believe it possilbe or even sound...therfore, Hitler loves the plan. It is called Operation Borasco and after some bribes, assasinations and political pressure, France's Fleet sets sail for Gibraltar...

Sorry about the long intro, but it was neccessary to tie the battles togeather. I am working on a campaign that has 4 battles/scenarios.

1.French attack at Gibraltar
2.German Breakout into the Atlantic
3.German Breakinto the Med.
4.German/Italian invasion of Gibraltar

That's all I will give you for now, but here's a picture to wet your appitites! Opinions? Thoughts?

jfkziegler

Sounds like a cool setup. I am looking forward to getting a chance to play it when completed.

Nisk

Very cool looking!! Sounds like a blast as well.

Cant wait to give it a whirl!!

Nick

Aquarius

Cool! An alternate history scenario that, with a little stretching, could have happened. I like it a lot!

Okie

I love this and when you are ready chose your side and I'll play you!! Okie

Greyh Seer · Fleet Choices.

Operation Borasco

Continuing on with my work in progress, here is some of the overall Campaign rules for force selection:

Definitions:
Capital Ship = Battleship/Cruiser/Carrier

Fleet Composition:

Any ship that is destroyed in a previous game cannot be used in any subsequent games.

Ships that are damaged in a scenario are given options as to their fate for each scenario (ie the ship may be forced to repair, scuttle or fight in the next battle damaged). These options are presented in each scenario.

Fleet composition – Non Capital Ships:

-Must follow Historical Limits
-Year Restriction: 1940

Fleet composition - Capital Ships: -

Choices are restricted to selections below:

Sept 1940

French Fleet Pool

Battleships
Strasbourg (Use Dunkerque)

Cruisers
La Galissonnière (Use Gloire)
Georges Leygues (Use Gloire)
Marseillaise (Use Gloire)
Montcalm (Use Gloire)
Jean de Vienne (Use Gloire)
Gloire

Italian Fleet Pool

Battleships
Littorio
Vittorio Veneto
Giulio Cesare

Cruisers
Bolzano
Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta
Eugenio di Savoia
Zara
Gorizia (Use Zara)
Pola (Use Zara)
Fuime (Use Zara)

German Fleet Pool

Battleships
Bismarck

Cruisers
Admiral Scheer
Koln
Admiral Hipper
Prince Eugen (Use Admiral Hipper)

United Kingdom Fleet Pool

Battleships
HMS King George V
HMS Warspite
HMS Queen Elizabeth (Use Warspite)
HMS Barham (Use Warspite)
HMS Malaya (Use Warspite)
HMS Valiant (Use Warspite)
HMS Hood
HMS Rodney
HMS Nelson (Use Rodney)

Carriers
HMS Illustrius
HMS Ark Royal

Cruisers
HMS Berwick (Use Kent)
HMS Cornwall (Use Kent)
HMAS Australia
HMS York (Use Exeter)
HMNZS Leander (Use Ajax)
HMNZS Achilles (Use Ajax)
HMS Ajax (Use Ajax)
HMS Neptune (Use Ajax)
HMS Orion (Use Ajax)
HMAS Perth (Use Sydney)
HMAS Hobart (Use Sydney)
HMAS Sydney

You will notice that not all choices are present. This is intentional. This list represents a specific historical list of available “Capital” surface units available at the time. (ie Scharnhorst and her sister are undergoing extensive repairs for damage from the Norway Invasion and the Richelieu is undergoing repairs from a British torpedo strike.)

Greyh Seer

Continuing with work in progress:

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Battle 1
(1st Battle of Gibraltar: September 1940)

FR vs UK

Forces:

130 Point French Fleet
May use up to 2 German Submarines

2 UK Fleets. Both built to 100pts. One designated as Reserve. Any Gibraltar based aircraft must be in starting fleet.

No Land Airbase for UK – Please note map for Gibraltar.
No Land Airbase for FR

Deployment:

UK Starting Fleet: See Map
French Fleet: See Map
UK Reserve Fleet: At the beginning of turn 3, Roll a d6:

1-3: Deploy in Reserves Deployment Zone 1
4-6: Deploy in Reserves Deployment Zone 2

Deployment Map (Click to make larger)

Victory Conditions:

Victory Points as normal with the following additions:

UK: +10 VP’s for each FR Capital Ship destroyed
FR: +25 VP’s if one of Gibraltar targets destroyed
FR: +50 VP’s if both Gibraltar targets destroyed

Win 1-25 VP’s = Minor Victory
Win 26+ VP’s = Major Victory

Special Rules/Units:

Gibraltar:

Gibraltar has both an Airfield and a Fleet Yard (See Map). They have the following stats:

Airfield:
Basing Capacity: 2
Armor: 3 Vital Armor: 9 Hull: 2
** Cannot be attacked from center row of map**

Fleet Yard:
Armor: 3 Vital Armor: 9 Hull: 3
**Can only be attacked from West side of map**

Aftermath:

No capital ships used in this battle may be used in battle number 2.

If FR won with a Major Victory, French ships may be used in Axis fleets in battles 3 and 4.

All UK capital ships that are damaged must be “assigned” to one of three pools:

Alexandria: cannot be used in battles 2 or 3, one point of damage automatically repaired, second repaired on a d6 roll of 4+

Gibraltar: cannot be used in battle 2, must be used in battle 3. Repair according to Fleet Yard Status:

Fleet yard undamaged: one point of hull damage repaired on a d6 roll of 4+
Fleet Yard Damaged: one point of hull damage repaired on a d6 roll of 6+
Fleet Yard Destroyed: no repairs

Scapa Flow: Cannot be used in any further games, gain 3pts extra to spend on your forces in battle 4.

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Work in Progress: Operation Borasco

Fleet Choices.