El Agheila (?) April 1941

[pzpat]

WWII Campaign, finishing the obligatory opening rounds before hitting the Russians--two battles against the Poles,two in France and this close one in Africa against the British. I was defending a "fortified" line. The largest vehicles began to fade from sight at a distance of about 950 meters. My two companies, one of infantry and one armor, were reinforced by 6 88mm guns, enough mines for 10 hexes (next to worthless for such a large area) and three or four batteries of 75mm howitzers that were usually out of radio contact. Not knowing where the attack would come from, I assigned one platoon of each company to defend each area of victory hexes. My mobile reserve consisted of 3 armored cars, which I could not subject to the possibility of British tank fire if I wanted to take them to Russia. Two tanks of each of the first three platoons were still Pz.II's, so I had to pull them back as well, for the same reason. The halftracks were likewise kept well back.
The opening salvos of British artillery against my center and northern positions were pretty effective, and were soon followed by massed tanks and infantry. In the earlier versions of the game the Russian tanks would outdistance their foot soldiers, and the battle would devolve into two separate attacks, the infantry becoming involved only after their armor had been destroyed. In this attack the British were well coordinated, the different arms supporting each other well.
The British attack focused on the northern half of my line, with emphasis on my northern flank. Most of my 88's had been placed in rough ground in elevated terrain. Unfortunately, except for one area in the south, most of those positions were too far behind the front lines. When the British came into effective range, my tanks and 88's opened up "with telling effect." But still they came closer, inflicting their own damage. Once my infantry's entrenchments were located the British artillery zeroed in. Almost every turn thereafter much of my front line infantry was routed and had to be rallied by hand. In the north, two Pz.IIIe's were destroyed and the main gun of the other was knocked out. I was very lucky to be able to use him to run the surviving crews to safety. One Pz.IV ran out of AP ammo and withdrew. As the other Pz.IV's ran out of AP ammo I brought the southern panzer platoon into the fray. There was a patch of rough ground between the northern and central victory areas where I had placed the Pz.IV platoon. Because the combination of smoke and dust kept the 88 gunners from being able to see their targets, I snuck one gun into an abandoned entrenchment in the rough ground, right in the front line. He was able to knock out a few Matilda II's at close range. I advanced another into a forward position in the south, where two 88's poured flanking fire into the British attacking the center. Again in the north, without panzer or 88 gun support, two squads were reduced to half strength and pushed back, out of their entrenchments. One had been almost completely surrounded by 6 British tanks. But neither of them broke! One actually made it back to its trenches (only to be thrown out again).
The battle reached a point where the only British tanks left were Matilda II's, whose armor couldn't be dented except by the 88's. The panzers still fired at them hoping to spoil their aim. The infantry kept the British infantry at bay and killed off fleeing crews while I tried to figure out how to bring up the remaining 88's safely. Since the British hadsucceeded in sweeping away all impediments to reaching the northern victory hexes I expected a big push from the northern group of Matildas when ALL OF A SUDDEN British morale broke and the battle was over.
The British had lost 55 tanks and had about 10 left. I lost the two. One 88 gun had 13 kills. They suffered almost 600 dead to my 40. But for most of the battle it was touch and go, and not at all as close as the casualty figures, because I had no effective reserves all my combat strength was in the front lines.
Do you think this would have more pizzazz if Robot had written it?[;)]