A great face to face game. The British Desert Army had to push hard to try and win in 18 turns. They managed to wedge between the Germans and Italians quickly. The Germans in turn tried to attack the British left flank, but the British had back their AT guns. The German armored cars and Pzr IIs were caught in a crossfire between the forward British tanks and AT guns and destroyed. The Italians had no answer for the combined infantry/Matilda attack on their main position. Assaults and surrenders doomed the Italians. British win.

Back to the Desert! Just a quick AAR on this one, The Italians with some help of a small German Battalion on mixed units must defend hex 1810 area. The British attack with their first combat group right away and more British & Australian reinforcements arriving on turn 9 of an 18 turn game. Either side can also win by enemy steps eliminated but the British can also win by area control. The surrender rule is in effect.

The Italians are all dug-in around hex 1810 and those Matilda start to look like they will just surrender the Italian to victory when the Germans reinforce the Italian positions to make a much better fight of it and cancel out the surrender rule. The MK Vlb is too weak of a light tank to get close and is quickly lost to a lowly PZ II & a 47mm AT gun. After that it’s a slugfest, assaults start to happen and even the strong Matilda’s are easily lost in this type of combat. The British get the reinforcements on turn 9 but in the end, this helped the Allied player attacked more areas, both sides had already achieved their step loss victory conditions. The Axis needed to knock out 7 enemy steps and had taken out 12 Allied steps, where the Allies needed to take out 20 or more Axis steps or control the 1810 hexes and three hexes surrounding it, they took out 25 enemy steps but did not control the 1810 areas. Both sides win, resulting in a draw.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Australia, Britain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Australia, Britain
Participants	bugmaster@aol.com
Play Date	2022-07-30
Language	English
Scenario	AfKo030

This was a 3-session play-through with the resolute and intrepid, bugmaster, as the Axis Commander, with a forward-deployed, battalion-plus, combined Italo-German force. At the beginning, the Italian element was setup dug-in adjoining the north-south wadi on the east margin of Map 2 in the vicinity of the crucial Hex 1810.

In the initial session (game turns 1-2) my determined opponent relied on a defense in-depth for the Italian force that was immediately confronted by the lead elements of the Scots Guards coming into view as the sun rose on 15 May 1941. Opportunity fires began exacting a toll on the advancing British columns who became engaged in adjacent, front-line hexes. The British armor and a mechanized company veered left and away from the Italian AT gun line. German motorcycle infantry began reinforcing their Italian allies’ front line during the first turn. A company of German armored cars and a platoon of Pz-II tanks arrived on the Italian right flank in order to setup crossfire AT shots at the same time. In the second turn, the squadron of Matilda II tanks commenced long-range AT fire at the armored cars resulting in both units being reduced to half-strength. Axis AT crossfires were initially in vain and the Italian gun line came under suppressive fire from the pair of British mortar platoons. Step loses for both sides were even at 2 apiece by the end of the 2nd turn.

The 2nd session (game turns 3-4) included the loss of the remaining German armored cars to AT fire from the advancing I-tanks of C Squadron of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, as well as a moderately successful British left flank deployment. In addition a forced surrender of 2 platoons of Italian infantry by an adjacent Matilda II unit happened in turn 3. This was coupled by some excellent shooting by the dug-in Italian infantry and mortars. Much of this session consisted of both sides conducting morale recovery attempts – with the Italians having considerable success. The sole remaining German armor – a half-strength Pz-II platoon – was able to escape to the rear, to provide protection for the centralized Italian motor pool in the north. Step losses for both sides now stood at: 9 for the Axis, and 4 for the advancing British side by the end of the game turn 4.

The 3rd session (game turns 5-7) began with a series of left flank combined arms close assaults by the British that was focused on the well-positioned and dug-in Italian HMG units in Hex 1610. This position collapsed on the following turn, but not before the Italians had managed to silence the Tommie’s mortars for what turned out to be the rest of the game, and inflicted significant casualties on their attackers. Heavy Italian opportunity fires proved deadly as the Brits moved into assault positions on both sides of the Axis defensive line. A successful close assault on the opposite edge of the Italian line (Hex 2011) unhinged the Axis left flank and supporting, close-range DF from the central British force proved decisive in silencing the remaining Italian AT guns. In the north, the remaining step of Axis armor was eliminated on turn 6 along with 3 platoons of trucks. At the beginning of turn 7, the Axis Commander conceded the game, as it was apparent that further fighting would inevitably result in an overwhelming British victory in this seriously unbalanced scenario. Final steps lost were; 25 for the Axis and 9 for the British side.

Suggestions for a better scenario play-through:

1) As written, the scenario is too long and should probably be reduced from 18 to 13-14 game turns.

2) The British force mix is historically accurate, but far too strong for game balance. The victory conditions should require that the British not only clear the area with 3 hexes of Hex 1810, but also clear all 23 hexes on the north-south road at the edge of the wadi – while not losing more than 10 steps in the process.