Battle of France Campaign Book

As the spring of 1940 approached, Hitler and his generals planned a lightning assault of France and the lowlands, intending to exploit speed and mobility to quickly smash through the Netherlands and Belgium and into France.

This would avoid becoming bogged down in a static war centred around France’s extensive network of modern border defences, thus repeating the grim outcome of the First World War.
But the military might of France was impressive – over 2.2 million soldiers made up the active and reserve divisions of the French army, with more troops stationed on the border with Italy and garrisoned across the French colonial empire. A concerted effort to expand and modernize the French fleet had also resulted in one of the largest and most potent navies in the world. The Battle of France was at hand.
Germany’s plan hinged around rapid action and seizing key objectives before France’s massive military might could be mobilized. The campaign lasted only six weeks and in a few masterfully executed operations, saw Germany eliminate one of the world’s key political players. But, despite popular myths which have materialized in the interim, this six week campaign was far from easy and, despite being abandoned and betrayed by a weak government and the ineffective upper echelons of their own military, the front line French soldiers suffered massive casualties as they stoically dug their heels in and, in many areas, fought to the last man.
The Battle of France Campaign book is the perfect resource for Bolt Action players wanting to explore the early war period in more detail, with plenty of additional units for the British, French, Belgian and German armies and a wealth of background detail on the battles and formations involved.

Like all our campaign books, we’ve included a series of detailed scenarios to help you recreate the key battles of the period. There are guidelines on how to build armies for each scenario and clear diagrams for setting out your table. We’ve pulled out all the stops to make these scenarios stand out, with a raft of special rules to keep your games interesting! From the so-called ‘Phoney War’ to the evacuations at Dunkirk and The Battle of Saumar.

Here’s a full list of the scenarios in the book:
- Scenario 1: Reconnaissance Patrol Clash
- Scenario 2: The First Day
- Scenario 3: Crossing the Meuse
- Scenario 4: The Battle of Hannut
- Scenario 5: The Arras Counter-Attack
- Scenario 6: The Defense of the Escaut
- Scenario 7: The Battle of Boulogne
- Scenario 8: The Last Defenders of Calais
- Scenario 9: Dunkirk
- Scenario 10: The Maginot Line
- Scenario 11: The Battle of the Alps
- Scenario 12: The Battle of Saumur

Air Battles
The Battle of France contains special rules, many of which are pertinent to the included scenarios.  Whilst Bolt Action is first and foremost an infantry game, a huge number of battles during the Second World War were hugely affected by the air war above: be it support from spotter planes, opportunistic strafing runs from fighters, or pre-planned attacks from dedicated ground attack aircraft. The existing rules already cater for single aircraft called in by an air observer to attack a specified target. The following rules are aimed at a completely different kind of scenario – here, we cater for large air battles above the battlefield where one side is attempting to use a force of bombers to attack the ground units on the table, hopefully with a fighter escort, whilst the defending player is attempting to intercept them with fighters. Whilst these rules were designed for the Dunkirk scenario, they may be used in your own scenarios, should players agree.

Number of pages: 144