Operation Sealion: The Miniature Operational Campaign Game

Having had an interest in Operation Sealion for some time, I was interested to see a Campaign Game being published by S-2 Shop Productions. The campaign consists of two volumes, the first covering the initial landings and the up through Kent and Sussex to London and the second widening the theatre of operations to the west and into London itself. The campaign is designed to be used with a variety of different sets of wargames rules including Spearhead, Command Decision, Kampfgruppe Commander, WW2 Micro Armor: The Game, Clash of Armor and Tac. It reflects the invasion plan for September 1940.

The campaign is designed to be played with rules having a single stand representing a platoon; however, the orders of battle have been scaled down one level from reality so that a Corps becomes a Division, a Division a Brigade/Regiment and so on.

Volume 1 is a 64 page softback booklet broken down into a number of distinct sections introducing the campaign, special rules, orders of battle and maps of the locations. The campaign map consists of a double page theatre map showing the individual locations and the transport connections between them. Each location has an individual map which is intended to present the particular locale on the tabletop. Units may travel between locations and the time taken is indicated (although not on the theatre map in this volume). The individual landing areas are covered with the different invasion waves being shown as well as the historic deployment of the British forces (who are focussed on the anticipated East Coast landing).

Volume 2 is a 40 page softback booklet and comes with a separate theatre map which covers the locations from both volumes and also shows the travel distances between the locations on the map itself. It covers the introduction and rules from volume 1 (with some revisions and corrections) and then provides the orders of battle for the later invasion waves and British reserve forces along with the individual maps for the new locations.

It is clear that a lot of effort has gone into the product and it provides a straighforward way to put on the land element of a Sealion campaign with the minimum of effort. Some may not like the downscaling of the units but this is understandable. Others may feel that the individual location maps oversimplify things but it certainly does make setting up the wargames table an awful lot easier.

My major qualm was, however, the price with each volume costing $24.99. This has changed recently as it appears that S-2 Shop Productions are closing down and are currently offering both volumes together at $5.99 plus shipping. It is also available in the UK from Monarch Military Books but at the higher price of £28.