Frost's Perimeter - Flames of War

Building the Campaign
I wanted the campaign to give players the sense of the battle.
British players have an initial advantage when they begin the
game, with lots of platoons of paras at their disposal to hold
the fort down. Meanwhile, the German player has to collect his
force and keep the pressure on the British, hoping to reduce
them before the final assault is made at the end of the campaign.
Both players will have to manage their resources and prepare for
the next assault.
The battle was fought over five days, with four major battles. I
chose to begin the campaign just as the first major attack was
launched. I had considered starting it earlier, but when Frost
arrived at the bridge, he was largely unopposed.
I decided to start the campaign where the real action started,
during the assault of SS-Kampfgruppe Brinkmann. Immediately
following Brinkmann is the famous charge over the bridge by
Viktor Graebner, as seen in the movie, A Bridge Too Far.
After a brief pause in the fighting the campaign crashes into its
third battle with Frost’s battalion versus Kampfgruppe Knaust.
Then the last assaults are made in the final scenario, including
Kampfgruppe Hummel as well as renewed attacks from
Brinkmann and Knaust.
The Forces
The forces were relatively easy to assemble, thanks to the
records kept on the perimeter force. I tried to include each
and every British platoon on the table. However, I left most
of B Company out as they were busy skirmishing in the west.
Otherwise, the major units are all present.
The German forces are representative of the troops present in
the assaults that were launched. The quality of troops varies
greatly, as the Kampgruppen in Arnhem were constructed, from
a mixture of Waffen-SS,Heer and training units.
During the campaign, the British player has to make do with
the force they have been given. They have to be careful not to
incur too many losses during the scenarios. Once a platoon has
been knocked out, the British player cannot bring it back in
subsequent scenarios, so it becomes very important to withdraw
badly mauled platoons before they are destroyed.
The German player, on the other hand, has access to
reinforcements from outside the city, making sure their forces
keep operating at full strength.
The Map
The project was not without its challenges. One of the most
difficult aspects was to determine the scale of the campaign
map. A 1/100th scale map of Arnhem would have been ideal,
covering the entire area and giving players the most detailed
experience possible.
However, when I started mapping out the board, I realized
that a 4’/120cm x 4’/120cm table only covered the immediate
buildings surrounding the bridge, leaving out the embankment
beyond. A scale map of Arnhem was going to be gigantic and
impractical for your average gamer to setup.
So, we decided to scale the map down a bit to include Frost’s
HQ in the north western corner as well as the C Company’s
positions in the south eastern corner.
Special Rules
The campaign uses several special rules in order to capture the
flavour of the battle. The most important for the British are the
Sight in the Guns! and Adjust the Lines special rules.
The Sight in the Guns! special rule allows players to use the line
of sight from the command team of an anti-tank gun platoon
instead of the gun itself. This means that a 6 pdr can hit a target
that it can’t see, simulating the tactic used by the British to
inflict terrible losses on the initial German assaults.
Adjust the Lines allows the British player to re-deploy a platoon
anywhere within the perimeter. This will help them reinforce the
line against incoming assaults, as Frost did in Arnhem.
For the final scenario the German player may use the Arnhem
in Ruins special rule, which allows them to reduce up to five
buildings to rubble, making sure that the British cannot use them
to their advantage.
These special rules, and a few others, give each player in the
scenarios historical advantages to capitalise on in order to
recreate the epic fight for Arnhem Bridge.