Turn 4 · 10 May, PM
SCS #8, “Air Assault on Fortress Holland.” Start at Part 1 [LINK TO PART 1] , and [LINK TO PART 2]Where we are: I dropped for the bridges instead of chasing the game’s richest prize on top of the historical massacre at the Hague airfields. It went well for a morning. Then the Dutch afternoon counterattacks dragged my loss ratio down to parity, left the Germans splintered and surrounded in Rotterdam, and put the southern bridges back under Dutch control. VP reads Germans 15, Dutch 3 — which flatters me considerably.
AI generated summary of the last 2 parts.
The German command knows it’s in trouble. This turn is about accepting that and sorting out a way to halt the force degradation.
Turn 4: Spending Everything
Given the dire situation that the German command feels it is in, air assets focus on DG and destruction runs, firstly targeting AA units whose fire in ineffectual again. Securing the area around Waalhaven for reinforcement air landing entry.
6 units lose a step or are destroyed and DG’d during this turn. 65th Regiment lands, the rest of 47th fly in and all the remnants of 22ndLL. Ju-52 lost climbs to 10.
Dutch forces of large stacks are disrupted. This should be a solid turn for the Germans. Perhaps they can turn it here.
They attempt to re take the bridge.
The 16th head to Dordrecht, while FJ elements seek out small elements and overrun them, securing the southern flank of Waalhaven [orange markers].
65th move to Ijesselmode, and their units attack onto the critical Rotterdam Bridges. They take it!
22nd LL attack into Delft losing a step but chipping away at the threat. Reinforcements at Ypenburg all land very well and build a strong line in city hexes to boost defenses (x4 to defender).
In the Dutch turn, they reinforce Leiden. The Dutch navy calls it quits [bad die rolls]. Dutch attack across from Gravendeel at horrible odds and manage to puch the Germans out. Severing comms lines, and generally FUBAR-ing shit up. Too many Dutch units running around causing minor problems that grow if not dealt with.
This turn end s up with a 3:1 loss ratio in favor of the Germans. I suspect the Dutch could of gone for more low odds attacks, but Arty failed to deliver DG’s where needed to keep odds at the minimum 2:1.
What Turn 4 Cost
Read that turn again and notice what it’s made of. Everything went in. The air assets stopped being a scalpel and became a hammer! I disrupted and destroyed like a boss and no finesse- hammer time, just clearing space around Waalhaven so the reinforcements have somewhere to arrive. The 65th Regiment lands. The rest of the 47th is in the air. All the remnants of 22nd Air Landing that’s not a reserve going in, that’s the bottom of the box [see what I did there😊 ] .
And it worked, in the sense that the loss ratio went back to 3:1 in my favour. Ypenburg landed clean and built a real line in the city hexes. The southern flank of Waalhaven is secured. On the ledger it’s a solid turn.
The Ju-52 count is now 10. That’s the number I’d watch if I were the Dutch. Those transports feed the Dutch VP total directly, and every one of them is also the thing that brings the next wave. It’s a resource that scores against me twice, once when it dies, and again when it isn’t there to fly.
The Dutch, meanwhile, lost their navy to bad dice and still pushed the Germans out of Gravendeel at horrible odds and severed the comms lines. That’s the pattern of this whole game: they can afford to be wrong. I can’t.
The History Check: The Same Afternoon, The Other Side
The real 10 May ended with the German airborne effort split into two completely different stories — and my table has now produced both of them at once.
At the Hague, the afternoon was a disaster: airfields retaken, runways blocked by their own bogged transports, the landings written off as “largely failed” by evening, and a final sector bill of 200-plus transports and around 2,500 casualties. In the south the coup held — Moerdijk taken intact, Waalhaven open, the airhead alive on Ijsselmonde but grinding down under piecemeal Dutch counterattacks.
My version has inverted the geography and kept the substance. My Ypenburg is the success story with the reinforcements landing well, a strong line in the city hexes, exactly what history denied the real 22nd Air Landing Division. My south is the one bleeding like a stuck pig, with bridges lost, comms cut at Gravendeel, the thing I actually jumped for, nowe slipping away while I hold the prize I was trying not to want.
That’s the game’s central joke landing on me from the wrong direction. Part 1 was about resisting the temptation to repeat the Hague massacre. Four turns in, I’m holding the Hague and losing the bridges.
The historical Germans got rescued by a clock: 9th Panzer came over the Gennep bridge and reached Moerdijk late on 12 May, and the moment they did, a brittle airhead became a supplied corridor and the bridge coup couldn’t be undone.
So the question for turn 5 isn’t whether I can win a fight. It’s whether there’s anything left to relieve. Get those Panzers rolling!
Continues in Part 4.
Quick Narrative, but from the Dutch perpsective
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