Game of the Week, April 8 to 14

Hi everyone,

It’s time for Game of the Week!

This week’s title is a leap back into World War 2, as we head to Western Europe.

The Game of the Week is Panzer Campaigns, Sealion ‘40.

Sealion ‘40 was the first ‘hypothetical’ battle released in the Panzer Campaigns series. It was followed by Japan ’45 and Japan ’46 that modelled, Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet respectively. These operations were the major phases of Operation Downfall. A fourth hypothetical campaign was included with Moscow ’42 where Fall Kreml was included as an alternative to the actual Fall Blau offensive.

Sealion ‘40 simulates a German invasion of southern England (Unternehmen Seelöwe). The forces included and the flow of the scenarios are based off the actual German planning documents as well as the British and Commonwealth forces that were recovering after the evacuation of Dunkirk. The Germans were well advanced in their preparations and were amassing barges and landing craft to cross the English Channel. Several plans were considered with the initial operation to be launched in July 1940 envisaging landings from Kent to Dorset, Isle of Wight, and parts of Devon. The dates were subsequently adjusted to September 1940 and a confined group of four landing sites in East Sussex and western Kent, were selected, a tightening of the operations scope.

The launching of Sealion assumed that the Royal Air Force had been heavily suppressed and the Royal Navy had been thwarted in interdicting the German cross channel traffic, due to the extensive use of minefields. Both of these tasks required air dominance from the Luftwaffe, destroying aerial resistance, while making it too risky for naval forces to enter the channel. The Battle of Britain was to carry a very significant, strategic importance, beyond the aerial dimension.

The main operations, all with multiple scenarios, are listed below:

• The July Landings: July 13 – August 2, 1940
• The September Landings: September 24 - October 31, 1940

The master map (61,200 hexes) stretches from Bristol in the west to Margate in the east. The critical landing beaches and the Greater London area are included.

Sealion ‘40 includes the aforementioned playable campaigns, as well as a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. In total, 49 scenarios are included with a good mix of small (division), medium (corps) and large (army) engagements. You can read about all the included scenarios and the Designers thoughts here.

The Order of Battle covers both the German and Commonwealth sides. The represented Commonwealth forces include the British, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders. The included Axis forces are the Germans and the various arms of service, Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and SS.

There has been a range of books covering the hypothetical invasion of Britain in 1940. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the operation. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

This book by Ronald Wheatley, is difficult to find, but was the first book to publicly publish the complete German plans for the operation. For any serious student of this engagement, this is a must read.

This is the second edition of a 1987 book, that has been considerably expanded and updated with additional material. Written by a German author that has extensively researched the German military archives in Freiburg. A great reference title, and more easily obtainable than the first book.

These two titles cover an actual wargame played out between both serving and retired British and German officers in 1974. The first title covered and dramatized many of the events from the game, while the second covers in detail the outcomes of the wargame and the decisions that influenced them.

Leo McKinstry’s book focuses on the British plans and reorganization to face the expected German invasion.

Now for video content:

Here is further background on Paddy Griffith’s 1974 wargame:

The build of Sealion ‘40 we are making available today is the new 4.04 version, the same standard as the newly released Spring Awakening ‘45. A range of new features are included, and you can read the Changelog here. All new purchases will be this latest version.

If you already own Panzer Campaigns, Sealion ‘40, please note that you will have a new installer available in your store account. There will not be an update available for existing Sealion ’40 installations.

Beginning with the recent Squad Battles updates, then Panzer Battles then Musket & Pike updates, Civil War Battles and now on to Panzer Campaigns - we have been requiring a complete clean install of your games to get the new version. There's a variety of reasons for this - core changes to file formats (moving to PNG files in some cases), new infrastructure for future A/I enhancements, Windows 11 compatibility changes and the enormous size many of the updates have grown to be. Regarding that last point, many of the updates were retaining backwards compatibility with ancient installers, in some cases back to the HPS days! This required inclusion of a huge number of files, and in some cases an additional Batch file to reorganize everything into the new file structures. It was getting problematic on several points, not the least of which was some security software packages were blocking the batch files from running.

So, these fresh installs will resolve all of those problems in one fell swoop. You uninstall your existing copy of the game using the built in Windows "App Management" feature in the Control Panel. You then do a clean install of the game, and everything is in its proper place. 

We will be doing this for every game series we publish, in time - if all goes well during the course of 2024. Once the new "base line" is established we will begin to offer incremental updates again on the site. These will only include files changed since that new baseline for that series. With that said, you can ALWAYS do a clean install at any time, and the installer linked in your Store Account is the most recent version.

So, again, how do you get these new versions? 

You must go and login to your Store Account to download the new full installer. 

Notes regarding Store Accounts.

1. If you go to login using one of the above links and it tells you "no account found" - don't worry! - just send us an email at the Help Desk and we will locate your records. It's just a matter of completing the account setup process.
2. When you login you will see all your orders listed there. Under each order number is the word (Downloads). If you click that it will take you to a page where you can do a new download of the game and it will also display your serial number. Again, each of the installers is fully up-to date with the latest patches already included.

 

Following are some in-game screen shots of what to expect. Each image can be clicked for a full-sized view.

If you don’t already own this title, what are you waiting for? You can buy it directly from the dedicated product page.

We hope you enjoy this week’s, Game of the Week. It is a fascinating subject on an battle that was a very real possibility in the summer of 1940.  Like all WDS titles, there is a lot of game play included at a very attractive price.