The Four Day Battle For Berlin: Campaign Rules

    This is a fictitious WW2 campaign for Berlin set in April 1945.  It is a simple map-based system, with the aim of bring as many players together as possible to play games in a specific historic context, and to give an overall theme and connection between games rather than one off outings.  Players can play up to two games each campaign turn (4 weeks), or none at all if time is against them – although each should aim for at least one game a turn.  Players can choose at the beginning to be part of the Russian side, German side, or the Allies (British, Yanks, French etc) side.  Player defection from one side to another during the campaign is acceptable with prior approval from the campaign organiser; you may even be allowed to take your troops!  Be warned that it may prove costly in territory losses to the side they are joining.  It is even possible to declare yourself independent and carve out your own block of Berlin!

 The Campaign Map & Territories

• The map the campaign is fought over is split into territories, each with specific terrain in (e.g. forest, town, farm land).  Each territory is worth a set number of victory points (noted on the map), and each side adds together their territories to get their overall points total.  The side with the most victory points at the end of the campaign is the winner. Note: some territories may be secretly worth more to one side than the others.
• There will be three ‘factions’ to begin with; the Russians (and their Eastern allies), the Allied Armies (British, American etc), and the Germans.
• Players chose which faction they will join at the start of the campaign, and which army they will be part of (e.g. Romanian, Heer, SS, Luftwaffe, Russian Guards etc).  Finally they will pick a company to use throughout the campaign (e.g. Tankovy Company, or Tank  Destroyer Company) out of ANY late war book.  Any results (victories or defeats) in games will affect the factions territory holding.
• Factions gain and loose territories by players fighting battles:

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Winning Territories:

1. The players involved firstly roll off to decide who will pick the location of the battle, with players who won their last campaign battle getting a +1 to their 1D6 roll as they look to keep up their momentum. Re-roll draws.
2. The winner of the roll off places a pin in one of the losers territories which must be adjacent to any friendly territory.
3. The loser then places a pin in one of the winners territories, which must be adjacent to the territory which the winner had chosen.
4. The winner of the battle keeps/wins both territories.  In the case of a draw the status quo is maintained and nobody loses or gains any territory.
5. Remember to update the map (remove any losing pins) and update the organiser.

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• For multiplayer games the same rules should be followed, but each side should stake as many territories as there are players on the largest side if possible (e.g. a games with 4 players vs 3 players would see 4 territories a side marked as available for the winner).  These territories must be adjacent to at least one other.
• Cut off territories – if a territory is cut-off (not adjacent to any other friendly territories) then it is under siege.  If it has not been relieved by being joined up by another friendly (not cut off) territory within 2 weeks then it is automatically captured by the enemy.

Playing a campaign game:

• Players organise their own opponents and size of games – any scale or scenario goes.
• Games should be between players who are participating in the campaign.
• Having rolled off to find where the battle will take place (see Winning Territories box above) the players should attempt to set up the scenery on the battlefield to look like the territory that the winning player chose (e.g. cityscape, or forest, or hilly).
• A scenario is randomly rolled for (no just putting armies down and shooting, its boring!), and the side defending or attacking is decided in the usual way.

The Campaign Turn:

• The battle for Berlin lasted four days, in our campaign each day is represented by a campaign turn, so there is of course 4 campaign turns in total.
• In real terms each campaign turn lasts 4 weeks.
• In a campaign turn players can play up to two games against other players in the campaign, with the exception being that they can only play each opponent once per turn.

Campaign Timetable:

Campaign Turn 1 - 4th December - 8th January

Campaign Turn 2 – 15th January - 5th February

Campaign Turn 3 – 12th February - 5th March

Campaign Turn 4 – 12th March - 2nd April

  

Picking Your Company & Casualties:

It’s impossible to fight a war without taking losses, and with enemies at all sides they come thick and fast in the battle for Berlin. 

• Flames of War companies, in the same way as previous campaigns, lose platoons which are wiped out in games, including core combat platoons, are no longer available for subsequent games.  Unlike previous campaigns players CANNOT buy back platoons, HQ is not going to send more men! 
• This can leave some companies decimated, but help is at hand – players can choose to disband their damaged company at the end of any campaign turn and choose an entirely new company, effectively dragging groups of men and whole platoons together into a semblance of order by sheer force of will!
• A new company must be from the same army as the disbanded company, e.g. Heer, Russian Guards, British.
• There is a price to pay however – if a player disbands his company then the enemy will take advantage of the vacuum.  A randomly chosen enemy faction with at least one territory on their borders gets to choose a territory to take over and this immediately becomes their territory.

The Faction Commanding Officer:

• Each side will have an overall General in command; dictating (or at least trying to dictate) strategy, and handing out re-enforcements.
• It is the Generals job to give direction to his commanders which territory he wants capturing, and to plan out a grand strategy to win the war.  The commanders can then choose whether or not to follow.
• More directly the General can give out two re-enforcing platoons per campaign turn to different players.  The two nominated players may include an additional platoon worth up to 10% of their armies points cost for each game they play in that campaign turn, and this may be any platoon available to their faction even if it is not normally included in the company list they are using – e.g. A Panzer Kompanie playing a 2,000pt game can pick a grenadier 8cm mortar platoon worth up too 200pts.  (Note: This is NOT an extra 10% for the army, it is an extra platoon worth UP TO 10% of the armies points cost).  Should this extra platoon be wiped out in a battle then it is lost for the rest of the campaign turn.

  

Winning the Campaign:

At the conclusion of the final campaign turn the faction with the most Victory Points is the victor.  Because each faction can have a wildly different number of players (for example if the SS decide they hate the wimpy Werhmacht and declare themselves independent) the totals are worked out by dividing the total victory points of all territories a faction controls by the number of players in that faction.  For example a faction with 20 territorial VP’s and 5 players would have a total of 4 victory points, and so be defeated by a faction with 20 territorial victory points and 4 players (who would have 5 victory points).  Clearly they didn’t make their numbers count!

Territories are worth the following Victory Points each:

Open ground (including rivers/bodies of water) – 1pt

Forest/woods – 2pts

Urban Areas – 4pts

Airports – 6pts

Reichstag and its four surrounding territories on the secondary map – 8pts each

As mentioned before some territories will be worth more to some factions than others.  Keeping this secret from the enemy would be wise.

 Designers Notes:

Any WW2 system can be used to play games in the campaign, as long as there is a result at the end.  For example although I expect Flames of War to be the main rules set Bolt Action, Rapid Fire, or any other relevant set could be used by participants with approval from the (high flexible) organiser.

It’s a bad year to be a German

Lets face it, 1945 isn’t a good year to join the German army, or indeed to speak with a German accent.  And April 1945 is pretty much as bad as it gets.  The Germans may start with the most territory, but they face an uphill battle with the Luftwaffe out of commission, and fuel supplies patchy as best.  All German players should use the following rules:

Luftwaffe – By April 1945 Goering has successfully managed to decimate the remainder of the German air force with ill-judged big wing actions against the Russians, with the last few aircraft even having to resort to suicide missions against Russian bridges over the Oder River.  No German player may take air support, there simply is nothing left.

Fuel – German has lost most of her fuel supplies, vehicles are having to be abandoned by the roadside and blown up simply because they are unable to move to retreat in the face of overwhelming allied pressure.  The German player must roll 1D6 for each German platoon that contains vehicles at the start of their turn (including any in reserve).  On the roll of a 1 no vehicle in that platoon can move as it has temporarily run out of fuel.  This lasts until the beginning of the starting step of the next German turn.  Out of fuel vehicles count as being bogged down with the exception that they may shoot their weapons (so yes to shooting and defensive fire, no to assaulting, moving, stormtroopering etc).

Airports – The air ports surrounding Berlin are key to any forces looking to keep their air force in operation.  If their side controls any air port(s) at the beginning of a campaign turn then the Commanding Officer may delegate out a FREE Limited Air Support at one player to use for that campaign turn.  If the air port(s) are lost then this is immediately cancelled.  Note: this is available for the Germans too.    

The Four Day Battle For Berlin: Background

Ignore the traditional history, the one where the Allies (Britain and America chief amongst them) pulled up short of driving for the capital of Germany for fear of unnecessary casualties, for fear of insulting the fragile Russian pride, and ignoring Winston’s advice to meet the Communists as far East as possible.  This is irrelevant.  Instead step into a reality where Ike caved in to his more aggressive generals; Monty and Patton amongst them, who demanded an assault upon Berlin.  They got their wish, Ike gave the green light, and with paratroopers dropping at key points ahead of them the armoured divisions sped onwards.

The Allies intelligence, and Stalin’s fears, proved correct as the Wehrmacht forces parted before them like the waters of the Red Sea, and even as the first Russians were in sight of the centre of Berlin the first Shermans were rolling out of the woods and into the suburbs.  This slight enraged the Russians.  Berlin was theirs, they had fought from the banks of the Volga for this moment and the Allies who had suffered so little in comparison were threatening to take this away.  Discipline, always a difficult subject in the Red Army, began to fall apart completely, with the officers as frantic as their men at having come so far to see their prize apparently being pulled away at the last.  Fire first, ask questions later, became the order of the day, and the high command, from the very top down, did little to discourage this practice. 

The Allied spearheads, spreading out around Berlin, had driven part the way across Germany to reach the greatest prize.  Pushed onwards by commanders with images of medals and newspaper heroism blinding them they were equally as keyed up.  Even the British matched the trigger happy Americans in their aggression, while some already feared the Russians were planning to sweep through the city and onwards towards France and the English Channel.  Many, many miles behind the advance Eisenhower could not see until too late the clash that would come, much less control it.

As the German forces became squeezed between East and West the first ‘friendly fire’ incidents began occurring as Russkie met Yank and Tommy, and within the space of hours the war in this small part of the world became a three way scrap.  The Russians and the Allies fought each other for the honour of claiming the Reichstag and the 3^rd Reich’s funeral pyre.  The Germans fought for their lives, for the lives of civilians, to try and escape, to try and hold out just a few days longer in the hope that the anarchy in Berlin would spread and they could switch to the Allied side and defeat the Red Bear.

Afterwards it would become known as ‘The Four Day Battle For Berlin’; four days of utter chaos as ally fought ally and the Germans fought for survival before the respective Russian and Allied high commands restored order.

And so begins a new Flames Of War map-based campaign.