France ’40: 2nd Edition

About this board game

France ’40: 2nd Edition is a two-player board game with an approximate playing time of 360 minutes, covering the German campaign in France during May and June 1940. It includes two separate games—Sickle Cut and Dynamo—plus a combined scenario using both maps.

In Sickle Cut: Guderian’s Drive to the Channel, the game begins on May 13, the third day of Case Yellow. German panzer divisions have reached the Meuse after passing through the Ardennes, while French and British forces move through Belgium toward the Dyle Line and Gembloux Gap. Players face the challenge of crossing the Meuse, expanding bridgeheads, and advancing toward Abbeville as Allied reinforcements arrive.

Dynamo: Retreat to Victory begins on May 24, when the British withdrawal toward Dunkirk starts. The British must reach the coast, then hold the Dunkirk perimeter for eight days while evacuation takes place, with German panzer divisions threatening the route.

The second edition updates several core rules, including Extended Movement, Combat, Advance After Combat, Breakthrough Combat, and Determined Defense. It also adds units, revises some formations, improves the Dynamo map with additional minor cities, roads, and a fortified hex, and includes a new combined scenario designed by Mark Merritt.

• Two full-size paper maps and two countersheets
• Rules emphasizing armor, air support, and morale
• Special rules for Allied Heavy Tanks, DeGaulle, Rommel, Hitler’s Halt Order, and French Command Paralysis
• One-day turns, four-mile hexes, and formations from divisions to battalions

Designed and illustrated by Mark Simonitch, France ’40: 2nd Edition offers a revised presentation of two pivotal campaigns in a compact series of linked scenarios.