Game played face-to-face with Wayne Baumber over 3 sessions. As Wayne and I continue our 'random' selection of scenarios for 2011, we were very pleased to randomly select a desert battle. There seems to be something about the desert war that appeals to British gamers. Maybe its the almost exclusivity of Empire and United Kingdom troops involved against the enemy. Maybe, albeit fable or true, the more 'knightly' way the war was conducted by both sides ?.

WARNING : But then, upon reading the scenario, it soon became apparent there are many errors in the printed material. Wrong locations for map set up of troops, not enough counters, wrongly named objectives. A REAL MESS. However, with some assiduous reading, some investigations deeper into the book and some plain common sense, we finally came up with the correct locations and answers for the anomalies. These are all now shown in the errata section and should be checked before setting out with this one !!

As the Australian advance began in the growing darkness around 7.15pm, Italian and German troops were attempting at that point to finish off the remaining pockets of Allied resistance around the fortified S8 and S9 areas. Meanwhile, a tiny force composed of a company of German infantry had positioned themselves along the main trails that the Aussies would have to advance along from the east. The Australians also had a few more troops in the north, and at the same time as the main body pushed westwards, these too began an advance in order to relieve S8 & S9. However, Italian troops had overrun what remained of S8 very quickly, but S9 continued to stave off a large attack by German troops. In fact, given the resources allowed for this particular German assault in S9, the German effort there proved very lackluste indeed despite being given engineer and MG support. On the outskirts of the battle, the smaller Australian force attacking from the north met with some success early on. Italian troops that had been positioned in front of them to stave off any relief effort surrendered themselves after suffering just a handful of casualties. This now meant that pressure would already be building on the Axis effort from the north side. However, the line was soon stabilised somewhat as other troops, albeit from precious resources, were released to hold that line.

From the east, the large number of Aussie foot-sloggers pressed on and there were far too many for the small company of Germans to contemplate fighting off. Instead, they fell back slowly and began the first semblance of a defensive line made up of a mixed bag of both German and Italian soldiers. As this was being carried out, the German attack on S9 continued, but even after around 3 hours of fighting had still failed to overpower the lone enemy infantry platoon in there. By this time (about 9.30pm) it was going to be far too late to contine efforts on S9 as the massed Allied counter-attack was gathering momentum and was now just 200-300 yards away from S9 in the north. Also, from the east, the Australians there were slowly grinding their way forward against a crumbling line of Axis troops. Casualties had been lop-sided too. The Aussies could probably count around 4 steps lost, whereas the Germans and Italians had suffered around 9 step losses including those surrendered Italians.

By 10pm, the German command instructed that the forts already captured should be the main focus of remaining Axis defence efforts. The disappointing three hour German assault on S9, which appeared just at a point that it might fall had to be called off in order to use those men to man other already held Axis locations. The Australians had pushed their attack far too close for German comfort and were now threatening to attack the former attackers! This had left the German commander furious at the officers in charge of the S9 attack. There could be no excuse for such a wretched failure to invest S9 other than a lack of gusto from those involved (in game terms, 10 turns of rolling consecutive 1's or 2's in assault... Grrrr !). Now, the Germo-Italian force was going to have to cling on to what they had.

With S9 remaining in Allied hands, S4 fell to them with little fight as once more, Italian troops threw their hands skywards in meek surrender rather than show any fight. However, the early captured S8 was being held by determined Afrika Korps resistance and S6 had been fully manned by similar troops in expectancy of Australian attacks. Some braver and more determined Italian troops, commanded by their Maggiore had also been positioned around its perimeter. The Australians tried for some 2 hours to now achieve what the enemy had failed to do. Invest all four strong-points. But unlike the Axis effort, the Diggers would find that these strong-points were now manned by adequate numbers that would be able to hold them off for some time. By 1am, the counter-attack by the Australian troops was finally called off. Both sides held two strong-points apiece with no chance in the time available for either side to gain an advantage. The Axis troops had suffered many casualties when those surrendering were included. About 15 steps eliminated and 6 steps surrendered. They no longer had the numbers to be aggressive. Australian losses had mounted towards the end of the battle once they began fighting against the defended strong-points to some 10 steps lost lost and most platoons either reduced or disrupted. There was no offensive capability for either side left.

So there it is, a whole lot of effort by both sides only to end in a draw. The Axis failed because of the 12 turn failure of the attempted capture of S9. A ridiculous series of rolled 1's and 2's in assault left them performing a miserable attempt to capture the target hex. They were obviously not very up for it on the day. Had they captured this early on, then maybe a fighting defence could have been put up, but the failed attempt meant that the Axis were never in possession of all 4 strongpoints so as to win the game. For the Allies, they fought out a pretty much well thought out attack, but perhaps suffered by not particularly pressuring the fragile Italians enough and forcing surrenders. This may have freed up some useful Allied platoons that could have been used aggressively elsewhere and assisted on efforts to capture the remaining strongpoints. I think we were agreed that the draw seemed about right, and that the battle was enjoyable to replay. A standard '3' from me considering we had to design and clean much of it up. DO READ THE ERRATA if you plan on playing