North Africa 40 - Allies

[jmlima]

Turn 20 (D+3 of O'Connors raid)

This is the situation at the end of the turn. A large pack of units was wiped from Bir Talab, another group defending the coastal road has also evaporated. The 2NZ is ready to strike towards the coastal road and Mersa Matruth, the Italians seemed to have prefered to defend forward, I expect to find a bulk of units still sitting in the hilled coastal areas. The 6 AUS and the Polish Brigade are still milling around Alexandria , ready for any eventuality.

[jmlima]

Turn 22 (D+5 of O'Connors raid)

And the offensive continues, after an untimely reorganization of the entire British Army , in the middle of an offensive...

The coast is now within reach, the Italian forces decided to stay and fight, and are being reduced in masses in a series of isolated pockets. The 6th AUS is now moving forward and will strike between the 4th IN and the 70th INF towards the coast, hopefully ending the Italian resistance.

[jmlima]

Tun 27

O'Connors raid turned onto an offensive. The Allies are back at Sidi Barani, very near of reaching Halfaya. There is a substantial difference though. The Italian army is destroyed, and the Allies have more than double the forces. The decision to sit in place and defend the territory costed dearly to the Italians. The Allied strategy of trading real estate for time was indeed the correct one. Though I think that an over eager Axis player could have reached Alexandria.

My only question at this point is, how far to go?... Bardia? Tobruk? Take the ole of Cyrenaica?

[desert]

Philadelphos would be envious.

[el cid]

I am playing this scenario as a multiplayer experience (each going for a 20 rounds or so) and we are upto turn 95.

In this stage that you are at we (the allies) pressed forward and took all of Cyrenaica. Then when Rommel gt to africa we stood at Tobruk. there was a long battle there that lasted till turn 80, where the allies were completely destroyed.

Fortunately plenty of reinforcements arrived, and we were able to form a defensive line at El Alamein, where we ahve been battling for some 5 turns now. The outcome is still unknow, but Fulcrum now takes control of the allies, and I bet he will press forward, because he is an "eager" general.

[jmlima]

Turn 29

Well, rather surprisingly, my opponent started again to bring more troops forward. I must confess I was not expecting to see the rough equivalent to 3 divisions staring to man a line on a line starting just south of Bardia... I decided to make an operational pause, gather some momentum , bring some fresh troops forward, and the decide if I press forward or not. I gained a foothold just neighbouring Bardia, which should allow me to make a small offensive directed towards it, to see if he 'bits the bullet', if he does, then I'll press through any hole that he opens south of it towards Tobruk.

[Veers]

Any news on this AAR?

[jmlima]

Stopped for a bit, I had no PC for nearly 4 months, and now has been steadily going again.

We are over turn 115, with the front stabilized (a la WW1), in a continuous line running east of El Alamein. The continuous arrival of re-constituted units allows us to keep a continuous line with loads of units in the back, hence, breaking the line is an absolute nightmare. As a curiosity one of my units (the 1st Marines) have been rebuilt 4(!) times, and are now on the way to the fifth. (Not sure why designers keep leaving all units as rebuildable, in most cases just leads to this kind of non-sense.)

I'll post some screens later today or tomorrow.

[jmlima]

Turn 125

Well, the image pretty much shows were we stand now. The red area is the area of my present attack. Iºm no longer intending to reach Tripoli in 10 turns [:D] , and I'm doing a Monty style WW1 offensive. The blue arrow indicates the second step, once I reach the escarpments I intend to roll his south flank.

Then, either he has retired to the line shown in green dots, or else I will strike north towards El Alamein (orange).

As I said earlier , the game has been marred by the constant reconstitution, that plays a very relevant part since none of us can really expect to make any major breakthrough that sends the other side running. The best we can is to punch a hole, and then patiently move forward.The pattern then is for the other side to send all his reconstituted units counter-attacking. By this time the attack is completely out of steam, and the attacker returns to the original line.

[jmlima]

Turn 153

And after a lonnngggg slog through the desert, the Allies finally reach El Alamein. It was a stubborn battle by the Axis that fought for every inch of ground, never retreating. It reached a point where it seemed that the offensive would stop just short, but, as my reconstituted units kept flying in, it allowed me to rebuild the army and make a final push. I bet all the real Allied commanders wished they had such a handy pool of replaced units. [:D]

[jmlima]

Turn 153

The next phase starts. As can be seen below, the end situation after the 'El Alamein' offensive had the bulk of the DAK positioned along a narrow strip of coastal road. This offensive is the obvious one. It will attempt to push a hole and isolate the DAK units, forcing them to retreat. My hope is that my opponent will get a small scare and start flying through the road. I will probably need to let some units escape, since I lack the forces to reduce the entire pocket.

Image 1 below shows the plan, and below it shows the situation at the final of the first offensive turn.

[jmlima]

End of Turn 153