State of Play: Drop Zone: Southern France (The War Room Ten Wargame Challenge #3)

 

 

 

A rather scattered initial drop. 

My brother-in-law couldn’t make it for a game last night.* I’d set up a new arrival, Drop Zone: Southern France (Worthington Publishing, 2025 – you can find an unboxing here) for our first playthrough. Since it was already laid out and ready to go (and looking so inviting), I thought, why not? I’d got it to the table a couple of days ago, but just to punch out the counters and push a few around, seeing how the different elements worked. I’ve been looking forward to a proper game, so I took the opportunity to get a game in.

I decided to double-hand it. The game comes with solitaire rules – two pages of seven -point font on a PAC – which I’ve read through and look workable, but for a first time out I’d rather play both sides as fairly as I can to get a feel for the whole game, all the moving parts.

Set-up for play; German garrisons and mobile units, along with British
and American para-drops. Ready to go.

 
 Set-up

The initial set-up places the Axis forces in predetermined locations on the board. Most of these are garrisons defending Objective locations – towns, hills, and road junctions, and some mobile units. The garrisons – nineteen in all – can only defend and don’t have any movement value (they’re there to stay put and fight to the last man). The other German units at start are mostly infantry with one mechanised reconnaissance company. These are placed, one unit at a time, with a simple dice-roll mechanism; the intended drop-points are marked on the map, each numbered to correspond with a paratrooper battalion. But nobody ever lands where they’re supposed to. To place each unit, you roll two six-sided dice. The white dice dictates the direction (the six hexes around the drop-point, while the red result indicates how far in that direction the unit ends up (result halved, rounded up). This can make for some significant scattering of a battalion. It will also go to making each game a different challenge from the last.

The on-board drop guide. the white die indicates the drift direction, while the red die
dictates the distance form the landing target (d3, or half the result, rounding up).

After the preparation stages are complete, turn one starts with a preordained order of play; from the second turn on, faction order is decided by chit draw. I laid out the activation chits on the board in their proper order, and we were good to go.

Pre-drop set-up card.

It’s worth noting that set up takes a little while; I knew it would, and I did some preparation ahead. Like other Worthington games, Drop Zone comes with a counter tray with troughs for the counters and open bays for the dice. When I punched and stowed the markers, I grouped them into sets; all of the garrison counters in one channel, the initial para-drop counters in another, then the two side’s reinforcements, grouped by their arrival brackets. While not perfect, this probably saved at least a half hour of set-up time, maybe forty minutes, that wasn’t spent sorting and grouping the counter from a cold start.

Turn 1

Both sides begin the game with whatever is already on the board. Turn 1 starts with the German factions’ activations. There are only five mobile units in play at this time, so this didn’t take long. First to be activated were the KGr Schwerin (dark grey). Pfannkuche’s “Alarm” contingent, based in Draguignan, dashed south and brought battle to DeBray’s Free French company outside of Trans en Provence. When the paratroop units are initially placed, they are set face down, with just a parachute symbol showing. You never know what you’re going to get. They are revealed when contact is made, or on being ordered by the owning player.

Trouble in Trans en Provence.

If DeBray’s FFI company had been an American company, the American side would have been able to reconstitute the unit at one step in the next turn by spending a Reinforcement Point. As it was, these troops were lost (or at least disordered, and some probably joined their local compatriots in securing the Trans en Provence when the garrison was defeated.

In Les Arcs, about seven kilometres to the south of Trans en Provence, the 204-S “Alarm” contingent under Jahnke’s command headed to the neighbouring town of Roche Rousse, only to engage with McKinley’s F Company, (6 Serial), and not survive the altercation. The two “Alarm” companies were what the name suggests; these were scratch contingents pulled together from the non-combatant troops located at divisional HQs anyone from clerical staff to cooks who could carry a rifle were dragooned into defensive, sometimes offensive, service.

Jahnke's folly.

The second faction to activate was the 128 Reserve Division forces. The 242 Recce and 2 Company, 8 Pioneer Battalion were reluctant to leave the crucial hubs of Le Muy and RJ 7/43 respectively. Retaining Le Muy and the 128 Headquarters at Draguignan was the best hope the Germans had of prolonging the battle and slowing the Allied advance, and crucial for keeping channels open for reinforcements. The closest enemy units (thus far unidentified), were in heavily wooded areas, which would reduce the German units’ effectiveness. Better to wait for the Tommys to attack their defensive positions for the defensive bonuses.

Attack they did. The American units of the 509^th PRCT (Parachute Battalion Combat Team) were next to activate. In their turn the PRCT made relatively short work of a handful of garrisons, efficiently taking Les Arcs, Trans en Provence, and Roche Rousse in their first turn.

A brave and foolish effort by combined British and Free French forces,
probably trying to out-do each other.

The British 2 Independent Parachute Brigade Group (2 IPBG) acquitted themselves honourably, managing to seize St Michel and Le Motte, and positioning themselves well for assaults on Le Mitan, Clastron and Road Junction 562/264. Their big failure was an ill-advised assault on the reinforced RJ 7/43, which cost two understrength units against the garrison force and Lober’s Pathfinders (they were able to reconstruct one back to one-step with a reinforcement point in the next turn, but it really was a stupid move, and something of a high water mark for the Germans).

Reinforcements and assets. I find the rounded bottom ramekins reduce wear and tear
on any chits or markers that require a random drawer.

Turn 2

The way reinforcements work in Drop Zone is pretty neat. Both sides receive reinforcements each turn after the first. The Allies get three British and three American companies in their reserve mix; at the start of turn 2, the sets are each placed in their own draw cups (I used concave ramekins, one is drawn from each, then placed at their respective entry-points (marker by a letter in the top left hand corner, which will correspond to a road entry hex on the map edge) at the start of turn 2, another each at the start of turn 3 and the remaining units on turn 4. There’s a similar mechanic for the German reinforcements. The chit draw thing is also done for the two sides’ assets. These are one-off bonuses that can help a side in a given combat situation, such as off-board artillery or an air-strike in support of the attacking or defending force. Neither side gets all of these, and most can only be used by one or the other faction in a side.

Activation order for Turn 2. I used the red poker chips to mark the units that had been
taken out of the game but were eligible for reconstitution using Reinforcement Points.

From the second turn on, four circular Faction chits are placed in an opaque container (there is a lot of chit drawing from here on in), and drawn one at a time, a new draw after each current faction has completed their activity. As it was just me, I ignored this and drew them all, placing them in order on the track, probably saving me a few minutes overall. The order was to be PBCT, 128 Res-Div, 2 IPBG, and KGr Schwerin.

From the second turn on, each faction gets a couple of Reinforcement Points, as dictated by the chart on the Turn Track. These can be used to resurrect fallen single-step units or bolstering single-step units to their second step (I imagined that for the paratroopers, at least, this represented latecomers regrouping with their units – this was an issue on the first D-Day, with some soldiers not rejoining their home units for a week or more after their drop). Having taken Trans en Provence, the Ninth Battalion reorganised and split up, with Fraisier’s A company setting a road-block to the north of the town against German reinforcements, DuBray doing the same thing on the road heading west, and La Chaussee’s C Company pulling off an unlikely coup, taking the town of Valbourges to the east single-handedly. In the south-east, and against the odds, Seigel and Tofany’s companies managed to take Hill 212 with minimal losses. This was to be indicative of my rolls for the Germans almost across the board. The Allies suffered losses, but the Germans could not seem to hang on to a single challenged objective, or to retake a captured one.

It is probably a bit gamey, but it makes sense to bolster the units that are most likely to see combat on that turn or the next, especially in crucial placements. With more German replacements on their way Americans were reinforced around Les Arcs and Le Muy, while the British, who had met stiff resistance in the Eastern sector, reinforced around Le Mitan and the crucial forest Road Junctions 47/43 and 7/43.  

Despite the danger the British reinforcements - in the shape of Blackwood’s D Company, 5 Scots set to come in from the east, later that turn – the loss of Le Nuy as a check to Allied advances was the greater danger. 128 Command shifted the Pioneers south of Le Muy to shore up the town’s defence and apply pressure to the FFI ad hoc garrison on Hill 212, while the 242 Recce Battalion had a lossless exchange with Seigel’s paratroopers.

Reinforcements come onto the board at full strength regardless of faction. So, on their activation the 2 IPBG raised Fitzroy-Smith’s A Company, 10 Serial, back to a single step and withdrew north to reinforce the attack on RJ 47/43. Neither target would be crucial to the final result, but the northern junction may be crucial in delaying German reinforcements in later turns. Blackwood in turn entered from the east along N7 highway and in an exchange of factors, took RJ 7/43.

The 128 Res-DIv attempts to retake Hill 212.

In their turn, the 128 Reserve took the fight to the Fourth Battalion, which had managed to take Hill 212 just hours earlier with what forces they had at their disposal. With the threat to RJ Lober’s Pioneers and the 282 Armored Reconisance battalion drove hard on a reinforced A company under Siegel, and came off the worse for wear, the 282 losing a step.

By the end of the second turn, the Allies had steamrolled the German defenders, taking nearly all of their D-Day objectives, as well as a disproportionate number of D-Day+1 targets. I checked the German dice to make sure they all had the right number of scoring faces. This was unusual for me; normally I roll badly regardless of which side I’m playing. But the Allies hadn’t won yet. There were still a couple of hold-outs, including the tough nut of Le Muy to contend with

Turn 3

There are two Victory Checks in Drop Zone; these take place at the end of turn 3 and the lasty turn. If the game plays through to turn 6, scoring comes down to a point-tally. At the end of turn three, the Allied player checks the taken objectives. If he has secured all of the D-Day objectives (numbered in a red box) plus at least two D-Day+1 (numbered yellow box) objectives. If the Allies don’t gain a sudden death victory by meeting these conditions, the game plays out to the full six rounds (to the evening of D-Day+1), and a winner is declared by comparing the point-value total of objectives captured, minus the value of the objectives still held by the Germans.

McKinley's boys overpower Matte's 11 Company.

The turn order for this round was KGr Schwerin, 2 IPBG,  PBCT, and128 Res-Div. The KGr simply didn’t have much on the board to work with. Their one full strength unit available was Schaub’s “Assault” company of the 189 Division – actually an ad hoc “Alarm” company, but maybe given the name to boost morale – against the battle-tested F Company under McKinley, checking the road to Les Arcs. This didn’t go so well for the Germans, F Company remaining unmoved.

The exchange between McKinley's ant Matte's companies. Open terrain, and no
applicable assets for either, so straight strength rolls. McKinley rolls two Infantry
symbols - clear hits. Matte rolls two FFI symbols, which, had McKinley instead
been an FFI paratrooper unit or a garrison, would have been enough to take
them out twice over, but have no effect against the hardened infantry.

KGr’s last gasp was a Hail Mary in the form of Tornow’s 2 Company, 1/239, which attacked Le Motte from the woods for a slight advantage. If successful, the attack on Le Muy would bave some of the sting taken out, having deprived the Allies of a sudden death victory, but ultimately Tornow’s brave men could not dislodge the FFI garrison in the town.

By the end of the second round, the allies held all the first-day objectives (marked with a red box) except for Le Muy. I really didn’t anticipate a sudden death victory for the Allies over the first two turns, especially given the spread of the initial para-drop for some of the battalions; the sticking point was always likely to be Le Muy, with its reinforced garrison and hosted recce unit. It was only at the beginning of turn three that I realised it could be possible. But the seizure of Le Mitan (barely) and Le Serres in the previous turn allowed British units to swarm down the 25 motorway and encircle Le Muy. When they were successful, there was no point finishing the round. There was no way for the German forces to retake any of the red objectives and turn the tide. Operation Dragoon was a brilliant success, with relatively low casualties.

 

The final board state. All D-Day (Red) objectives captured/controlled, as well as a couple
of D-Day+1 (Yellow) objectives, qualifying for an Allied sudden death victory.
Note the Le Muy garrison marker next to the road half-way between Trans
en Provence and Les Arcs; that was left there by accident.
What can I say? It was getting late.

Verisimilitude

Drop Zone captures a small but crucial episode in the Allied invasion of Europe. The scale of the game is intimate, and it manages to convey a sense of urgency on the side of the Allies and desperation for the Axis. Due to the low reinforcement numbers, most fights in the game are between reduced companies, so it’s not outside the realm of realism when an altercation results in neither combatant remaining in a functional state at the end (rather than both sides being wiped out to a man). This happened at least twice in this game.

Little details in the game enrich the experience of play. In the cases where it was possible to ascertain, the units – mostly companies – are named on the top of the counter for the captain who lead it. This kind of detail elevates the game from a diversion to a rich experience.

Mistakes were made

Looking back on it, the Even running just to the three turns, it was starting to get late. I did a lot of rules back-and-forth in, to make sure I was doing everything correctly, but neglected some fundamental things. While I was aware of the Asset draw in the second and third turn, I didn’t take full advantage of them for either side. Use of an asset token in the defence of Le Muy may have proven to be a deciding factor, or conversely, may have given Tornow’s company the edge it needed to retake La Motte, denying the Allies a clean victory and forcing the game into the second day.

I was getting tired by the third turn – I didn’t start the actual play until after 9:00pm, and on reflection, this would be why I slipped up and neglected to draw the Germans’ second round of assets. I don’t think the remaining asset chits would have turned the tide, but it might have given the Axis side more options to prolong the game, bringing more German reinforcements to bear, possibly armour. I with my limited experience with the game and analysis of the situation, it's in the German player’s interest to ensure the game runs to all six turns. As the German player, I spread myself too thinly, rather than trying to defend of retake a couple of key locations (just one would deny an allied sudden death victory; two or three might make the difference in the final point calculation).

The other mistake I made was putting the two Allied faction reinforcement pools into a single container drawing unevenly – two American reinforcements in turn two, and one each in turn 3, rather than one nationality each in each turn (the last two would have come out in the fourth turn). This almost certainly contributed to the Allies’ success in securing a secondary objective at Junction 562/254. A small thing in the greater scheme, but I’ll be more careful next time around.

 One last thing to note. Some eagle-eyed readers may have notices this before I managed to, but in my haste setting up I managed to transpose most of serials (battalions) 4 and 9 during the drop sequence and only now noticed my error. There’s only one thing for it; I’ll need to play another game of Drop Zone, and soon.

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Like 1944: Battle of the Bulge (Worthington Publishing, 2020), Drop Zone promises to be a game to puzzle over. And like the earlier game, it encourages the judicious use of tactics and concentration of firepower. But, just as it plays out for the Germans in BotB, if the Allied forces spend all their time in manoeuvre, setting up the perfect 3-1 ratio offence, they’ll run out of opportunities to seize all the objectives they need to carry the game. Sometimes they will just have work with unfavourable odds and pray for a miracle.

As I’ve said elsewhere in the blog, Drop Zone: Southern France has been one of my most anticipated games for a couple of years now. I can say unreservedly that it does not disappoint.

* I began writing this the next day, but in truth it’s taken me nearly a week to write up, partly due to the detail I’ve put into describing the play. I wanted to convey the richness of the narrative that this game produces, along with a sense of the frenetic action of play. I hope folks enjoy this, and maybe think about grabbing a copy.