The Games
Operation: SEALION-1940
Designer: Brandon Gajda
Status: Web membership required -- $20.00 fee
BGG entry:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20976
'Since England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows no sign of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against England and, if necessary, carry it out. The aim of this operation will be to eliminate the English homeland as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and if necessary, to occupy it completely' -- Adolf Hitler, July 1940
It is the year 1940. France has surrendered. The British and the remains of the French Army have retreated across the English Channel. Germany now controls the whole of Western Europe. The United Kingdom stands alone, waiting for the Germans to strike. Hitler approves plans for an upcoming invasion of the United Kingdom. A plan called Operation: SEALION. The invasion of the United Kingdom is about to begin!
Whether or not an invasion of Britian would have been successful is open to debate. This scenario takes place in late September 1940 and relies on a few actions that the Germans would have to take before an invasion would prove feasible. First, that Hitler would not order the bombings of London as he did in early September which gave the badly beaten RAF the breathing room it needed to regain control of the skies over Britian. The Luffwaffe would need to continually pound RAF bases in order to continually reduce the number of ready RAF fighters. Second, that the German Navy would be able to protect the invasion force traveling from Calais, Le Harve, and Cherbourg to the English coast across the Channel. This would require the mining of the east and west flanks of the crossing as well as sending the U-Boats on search and destroy missions against the Royal Navy. Third, that even though the RAF would be seriously reduced with continued bombing of airfields and plane factories, the Luffwaffe would need to be able to maintain air superiority over the invasion beachheads in order to protect the slow-moving invasion force. Even with all of these factors favoring the Wehrmacht, it is still up for grabs whether the invasion would succeed.
This game was once free, but now to download this game, you must be a member of the RuneBlade's Custom Wargames website, which costs $20.00US.