Scenario ideas

Scenario ideas from real Canadian battles

Five actions that make good tabletop games. For each one we give the history, the table and the problem each side faces. There are no rules, points or unit profiles here: use your game's scenario rules and army lists, and adjust forces until it plays well for your group.

1. Ortona: mouse-holing, December 1943

History: The Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, with Three Rivers Regiment tanks, fought German paratroopers through Ortona from 20 to 28 December 1943. They broke through the walls between houses instead of using the streets.

Table: A dense town, almost wall to wall, with one or two rubble-blocked main streets. The problem: The attacker needs a way to move between buildings without stepping into the street. Agree before you start how a team "mouse-holes" through a shared wall, and what it costs in time.

2. Operation Totalize: Kangaroos at night, August 1944

History: Infantry rode forward in newly converted Priest "Kangaroos" behind armoured columns in the dark. It was the vehicles' first action, and it reduced infantry losses.

Table: Open wheat fields, a village objective and a few hedges. Limited visibility. The problem: The Canadian player must deliver infantry intact to the objective. The defender can't see far but knows the ground.

3. Dieppe: the seawall, 19 August 1942

History: Calgary Regiment Churchills and 2nd Division infantry landed on a shingle beach under the headlands, with a seawall and a fortified town behind it.

Table: A narrow strip of beach, a seawall across the table, and buildings and high ground on the defender's side. The problem: It's historically one-sided. Play it as "how many can get off the beach", or swap sides and compare scores.

4. St-Lambert-sur-Dives: the hold, 18-20 August 1944

History: Major David Currie's small battle group from the South Alberta Regiment held St-Lambert while German forces tried to escape the Falaise pocket. Currie won the Victoria Cross.

Table: A village astride the escape route. The problem: The defender is outnumbered but sits on the only road. Wave after wave of the attacker arrives from one table edge.

5. The Scheldt polders, October 1944

History: First Canadian Army cleared flooded ground on both banks of the Scheldt so Antwerp's port could be opened.

Table: Mostly water or deep mud, with raised dyke roads in a grid and a farm or two. The problem: Vehicles are stuck on the dykes, so every dyke junction becomes a killing ground.