I play The Escape scenario #19 from AK tonight, great play! The more I play Afrika Korps the more it is becoming my favorite in the series! I first went and bought a piece of plexi-glass 22” X 34” like stated on the box as the map size. But the map is actually more like 23” X 35” I found out but it still worked very well! It held all the edges down and is only 1/8” thick so it looked very nice as well. I guess I got tried of the folds in the paper maps! OK back to the game! The Germans won as the British only got 5 steps off the exit hexes. The Germans don’t need to worry about losing steps, just keeping the British from getting 6 or more steps across the other side of the map. The German started out well with high initiative rolls and were able to get some units into blocking positions. I made the mistake with the British of trying to run around the blocking units with full APC/Bren Carriers. I don’t know if I should admit this but I lost the first one, loaded with a Major & a 25lb gun, lost them all in one shot because they were passengers! The trucks I had to unload and try to fight it out while making progress to the East. The Germans shot up the trucks with their armor to make sure the British Infantry would have to go out on foot. The British A13 did take out a PzII but it was also destroyed in the process by the PZIIIG. The small assortment of German Infantry, AT Gun, Armored Car, Half-Tracks & Armor were able to destroy, disrupt or demoralize the British so much, that only 5 steps were able to exit the victory hexes! APC’s, trucks & Leaders don’t count as victory steps so only 4 steps of infantry and one 40mm gun made it. The whole battle really got strung out along the road. I think I should have kept the British together and fought it out as a group but I was worried about the 16 turn time frame and being able to get enough steps off the board. This one is worth trying again someday but so many more to play!

This scenario was played as a team event by my gaming group. I act as moderator and facilitator for each game, and I do not participate directly as a player. My listing of “winning” is based on the PG HQ site cannot support a neutral role in AARs.

In this scenario a small German force, heading for the highway running alongside a wadi near Derna, runs into a British reinforcing column of approx double the size. While the Brits outnumber the Germans, the Brit force is made up of infantry, artillery, a mix of APCs and trucks, and one platoon of tanks versus a German force with twice the tank strength supported by armored cars, one platoon of infantry and one battery of light anti-tank guns transported via APCs. Victory conditions were based solely on the number of British steps to exit the end of the map, 6 or 7 for a draw, 8 or more for a Brit victory, 5 or less for German victory.

The Germans caught the upper hand on initiative rolls, and managed to get forces into a blocking position before the Brits could gain much distance. While this put the Germans in an excellent blocking position, the position was weakly manned and the Brits only need punch a hole in the German line. The Brits responded with a brilliant rush of loaded transports right into the teeth of the German line while the Germans, having already activated, could not use opportunity fire to blast them to bits. Then the Brits gambled. They offloaded half their force to engage the Germans, while leaving the balance loaded, to include the most devastating anti-armor weapon on the entire board. If the Brits won initiative they might be able to push a hole in the German line and exit sufficient force for victory.

But they did not win the initiative. And the Germans began blasting loaded trucks, to include the ones with the most devastating anti-armor weapon on the entire board. But the fire was less effective than one would expect, giving the Brits a chance to redeem themselves. Alas, they continued to leave the loaded trucks lined up in front of German armor and attempted to attack a position with even odds. The British tanks kept themselves mostly in reserve, failing to take any aggressive action. While several German units were tied down in the resulting assaults, the British attackers were too weak to force a hole, and the Germans pounded the loaded transports into burning hulks, flaming troopers still sitting in the backs. British assaults again failed to open a substantial hole, and their tanks continued to hold back. The Germans began reinforcing the assaults against weak British resistance. While the Brits did manage to open a hole, the casualties were heavy, while German losses were light. With the hole opened, the British tanks hightailed it off the board (2 steps), leaving the infantry and artillery to die. Another loaded truck made a break for it (carrying two steps), and was almost at the point of escape, when the heretofore unused German armored cars popped over a dune and turned the road into the Highway of Death. At this point the British did not have enough remaining steps to force a draw (only three left), and surrendered.

A nice, though somewhat tense scenario played out in just 3 hour's time with Wayne Baumber via skype. The German goal was to prevent 8 British steps from exiting the east edge of the map with a small but efficient stike force. The British also have a capable force but are initially delayed by a cratered road and only allowed to enter 3 units a turn. Germany got the initiative on the first turn but I waited until the British took two activations before moving the armored car platoon and with it I moved straight down the road on the wadi to shock and confuse the advancing units instead of running ahead with the rest of the mobile force. This part of my plan worked and delayed the British transports but also put the armored car in harm's way. The second part of my plan was to block both the trail and the road further east with the remaining units and also dig them in before advancing units could get there but instead I unloaded APCs, an INF and the 37mm close behind the armoured car hoping to get one good close range, direct fire shot at foot units before they could get any further. The armored car was easily eliminated in an assault and the stack of APCs, INF and AT gun did not generate the results I anticipated.

I did manage to slow the advance for a while and caused a few failed morale checks. Also, the daring action with the armored car caused the 25-pdr to unload right away and stay out of range of the panzers, for a while at least. However, I soon lost the 37mm before it could be fired and found myself defending in another British assault. I clearly broke under pressure and deviated from from digging units in. I did get some relief when I managed to eventually eliminate a Bren carrier (which didn't count for exiting steps) and was very happy to have also eliminated a step of the A-13 tanks from a good distance. However I continued to find myself as the defender in this battle. After 3 step losses my initiative modifier went down and soon starting losing a lot more initiative rolls though I did manage to get off with a good start. Soon my panzers fell prey to assaults on the road but did get lucky enough to escape the assault hex a few times and did inflict one INF step loss in the fray. My panzers held out a lot longer than I expected, especially against the 25-pdr and 40mm AA guns which had now relocated to a very close and dangerous distance. Eventually all of my attack force was eliminated except for the one platoon of INF and two LTs. This last unit did what it could to prevent the inevitable and fought on until the end. I did get on lucky shot against a truck loaded with an HMG unit, demoralizing it and forcing it to unload but by that time enough British units were safe enough to exit off the map uncontested and to claim a victory.

It was a close run and had I been able to keep the panzers intact for another turn or two longer the battle may have ended in a draw or even possibly a German victory. I'm very sure that had I stuck with my original plans the outcome would have been a little better for Germany. The required amount of British steps were exited on turn 14 with just two turns left to go. Instead of just stopping there we let the Brens and INF have a two-turn shootout while the remaining, demoralized British units recovered. I give this scenario a '4' that it was a very good shared play (solo I had given it a '3' months ago) and the turn length is just right for what is expected of the opposing forces. The balance of play may slightly favor the British but not really by much. My mistake with the Germans was rushing into the attack impatiently and taking heavy risks too early on. My intention was too cause confusion and attempt to delay the enemy more than to try to annihilate them. That worked for a while but not long enough in the end. However, though I lost with the Germans I did do much better with them than the first solo play and with an actual opponent made the play at least twice as enjoyable.

This scenario was played over Skype in one session against Brett. I took the Brits who have to get 8 Steps off the board against a hasty blocking force of AK. The first part of the scenario is a race as the Germans have to move sharply to put the blocking force in place. Brett used his A/Car to slow the Brits and moved his other units behind. However the British INF swarm over the luckless A/Car which gets wiped out. The British commander tactics were simple to pin the German AFVs in assault and hope that between the 25pdr and 40mm can take out the Panzers and SPW's while stuck in assault. This worked a charm, possibly because Brett has not seen this tactic before, and by GT6 all the German units were held in assault. In may ways this was all she wrote, however good tenacious defense by the AK meant that there would be some more work to be done by the British artillery who combining well with BREN and INF finally destroyed the dreaded PZIII and PZII. The road to the south was open and by GT14 out of 16 the British had exited sufficient steps for the win. This was a good little scenario which rewards some forward planning. I feel it favours the 8th Army a little but would be happy to try to lead the Afrika Korps and try and reverse this result.

The British plan was to make a run for it. The German strategy was to set up the 37mm on the track to cover the nearby road, and place the PzIIIg in the road to delay the preclude use of the road and hopefully reduce their numbers. The other armored units would try to take out the loaded trucks as they exited the wadi.

Only two hours after the two forces made contact, the British had successfully run the gauntlet and got nine steps off the board, thereby earning a clear victory. Although the PzIIIg took out a fully loaded Bren, attacks by the PzIIIg and 37mm against other armored targets were ineffective. The armored cars and halftracks tried to slow the trucks, but poor dice rolls resulted in poor results. The British overwhelmed the Germans in numbers, and simply drove around them.

Perhaps I should have focused the initial German movement on covering the road where it exited the wadi where the British would be bottled up and forced to fight. The strategy in this battle allowed the British to spread out, get some momentum, and hurry through the German positions.

Rich and I finally got together yesterday for a FTF PG session. If my recollection is correct, the last time was over two years ago. A bit unusual since I've only known him about 3-1/2 years. We've been able to keep clashing on the battlefield via Vassal, but I was still very pleased to sit across the table from him again.

My Germans quickly positioned themselves between Rich's Brits and the exit hex as the Brits took some time to traverse the cratered road leading up the wadi. I moved the German AT gun battery and infantry platoon all the way back to the juncture of the road and trail nearest the British exit hex. It wasn't clear to me how to effectively utilize the infantry, although that changed shortly as I'll highlight. In the meantime I positioned the tanks and armored cars within range of the Brits that reached the top of the wadi and the road he could use to flank me.

Rich opted to stick to the edge of the wadi. It offers concealment terrain, but since the road alternates between wadi and desert the British advance was slow. My armor typically waited until much of the British had activated, then dropped back a couple of hexes to safer distances to minimize the kill numbers of the British tank platoon and whichever of the two AT guns he had ready to fire. Even after falling back outside the range of the transverse road Rich kept his slow pace of moving up the edge of the wadi.

I realized then the infantry platoon and halftracks could delay that advance. I moved them up to defensive positions near the edge of the wadi. As things continued Rich alternately advanced a major portion of his force, then I dropped back another couple of hexes. Few shots were fired, and there were so far no casualties. In fact, not even a single unit was getting disrupted!

After this slow crawl my defenders had finally dropped back to the position of the German AT gun battery on around turn 12. It looked to me like Rich was quickly running out of time. I expected a change to bolder action by around then. He did finally take out one platoon of German halftracks shortly after this, but on turn 14 with a strong German defensive line all adjacent and including the AT gun batteries Rich conceded. We agreed it was unlikely he could get enough tanks, APCs, and trucks to run that gauntlet in two turns to exit the board.

It was fun to play a scenario from Afrika Korps. I do not have either desert module. Having just finished a history book about North Africa the modules are now definitely on my wish list. I'm encouraged that the maps are not as ugly as I've thought. After talking to Rich I understand better why Avalanche Press bucked the convention in its other modules and offered such big maps. The tactical action in North Africa was often wide-ranging.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	bugmaster@aol.com
Play Date	2022-06-18
Language	English
Scenario	AfKo019

This was a 3-session introductory play-through with the insightful, and clever, bugmaster, as the British Commander seeking to push through a blocking scratch force of the German 5th Light Division, with the intention of clearing the road to Tobruk in early-April 1941. We used the optional smoke, excess initiative and extended assault rules. We chose not to not use the Fog of War rule. The Brits objective was to exit 8 steps off the far eastern edge of the map in a set of 7 exit hexes, centered on Hex 2034.

Action was focused on the British movement-to-contact in the 3-level wadi that extends the length of the map’s north margin. A series of combined-arms blocking positions were established and abandoned in this play-through by the Germans as they slowly gave ground along the southern margins of the wadi. Accurate AT fire by the Tommies resulted in the destruction of 2 steps of Pz-II tanks and another from the Jerries’ armored car unit in the 2nd session (game turns 5-8), as well as the capture of a pair of stray British trucks units, and the destruction of 1 step of the A13 cruiser tank platoon, as well as a single platoon of Bren Carriers.

The exciting 3rd session (game turns 9-14) featured the final end of the British A13 cruiser tank and multiple, close range opportunity fires, resulting in many morale rolls. The Allied Commander experienced amazingly good luck in his morale recovery and combat rolls. Excessively aggressive German extended assaults resulted in the elimination of both halftrack platoons by accurate AT fire, as well as an additional step of Pz-III tanks, and the remaining half-strength armored car, which was close-assaulted by a company of well-led, Bren carriers. Despite the high level of British success in this session, the German side ended up winning a disappointing – and mostly undeserved – pyrrhic victory, thanks to both the flawed victory conditions, and a number of overly-aggressive Axis combined arms counter attacks at several points throughout the game.

We determine that the British side would not be able to exit sufficient steps off the east edge at start of the 14th turn and called the game at that point, rather than playing on to the full 16 turns. I give this fun-to-play scenario a 2. My suggestions for improving this relatively balanced scenario include changing the victory conditions as follows: 1) Still require that the British side exit 8 steps of combat units to win, but also 2) Require that the German side not lose more than 10 steps