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ORIGINAL: Narses

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Turn 2
21st September 1940

The Squadron of RTR furthest west, with its 8 remaining cruiser tanks, heads east but is attacked en route and does not even reach Sofafi.

The big question is what to do at El Hamra; do I try the same thing (knowing they won't get far) or do I try and fight it out and make the Italians pay as heavier price as possible? The problem is that my understanding is that if these units are destroyed when out of supply then I don't get them back - and this could mean a large part of the 7th Armoured never make it (which surely means the end for the CW before the game even gets started???? - why does the 7th Armoured man the wire at the start?).


The 1st RTR squadron, trying to shake of its attackers is engaged during its retreat and its position looks grim. I request two air strikes by my Blenheim squadrons and the artillery east of Buq Buq are ordered to lay down as fierce a barrage as they can muster.

If the unit is allowed to reconstitute at it can be rebuilt latter from squads and equipment in the replacment pool. The supply statusat the time of combat does not change that.

What you do lose by being out of supply is any squads and equipment that were only damaged and not destroyed. Damaged squads usually quickyreturn to the on hand replacement pool. Damaged squads out of supply are treated as if destroyed and are lost.

warspite1

Ah, okay that is helpful thanks. I'm sure I've been told that already but not everything is sticking to my rather feeble brain....

Turn 3 - Axis Turn
25th September 1940

The Italians are causing real problems for the Allies here. At Buq Buq the two Guards Battalions retreat in the face of a massive onslaught from the 157th and 158th Regiments of the Cirene Division, a regiment of the CCNN Division and large amounts of air support. The CW fighters appear to be sipping tea in the Delta or watching cricket - but whatever they are doing they don't appear to be in the air....

The remains of the 3rd Royal Horse Artillery Regiment is destroyed north of Sofafi and the 2nd Hussars Squadron falling back on Bir Khamsa is almost finished.

Turn 3
25th September 1940

The instructions for this scenario are pretty poor tbh. There is mention of a ceasefire but the description is written like the player should know what the rule is already. I can't make head nor tail of it so will just ignore it and hope its not important.

In the south the 2nd Squadron, 1st RTR tries to assist its fellow squadron west of Bir Khamsa but instead comes across a number of Italian units at El Hamra (FOW is a bitch!). The squadron is unable to engage and so stuck out on the open road...

East of Buq Buq the two British Guard battalions try and dig-in, with the artillery pulling back. The artillery expend every round they can to try and impede Italian progress along the coastal road. Will it be enough?

Turn 4 - Axis Turn
28th September 1940

Never a good sign when the losses are massively higher than the enemy. The 2nd Squadron, 1st RTR is totally destroyed, but the forces east of Buq Buq survive - there was no attack on them this turn - I hope that it was the artillery fire that kept them surpressed.

Churchill would have sacked you by now.
At least we have the answer to the question, "Could Graziani (sic) have been more aggressive"?

Turn 4
28th September 1940

The rest of the 7th Armoured Division available are moved up to try and stop the Italians from marching on Sidi Barani unopposed and to stop any direct move for Mersah Matruh.

4th Armoured Brigade provide their two regiments and the 7th provides its remaining regiment. The Guards are ordered to try and hold east of Buq Buq and further company of the Rifle Brigade are brought in to assist.


A.. ahem... line, Buq Buq - Bir Emba - Piccadilly Circus, is formed.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

At least we have the answer to the question, "Could Graziani (sic) have been more aggressive"?

warspite1

In real life or the game? No way in real life I believe.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The instructions for this scenario are pretty poor tbh. There is mention of a ceasefire but the description is written like the player should know what the rule is already. I can't make head nor tail of it so will just ignore it and hope its not important.

Let me try to clarify:

The Axis player has an option to cancel the coming cease fire by disbanding a special, off-map, unit on turn 1. On that turn (only) you could have reconnoitered its hex to tell if that was optioned. It is withdrawn on turn 2, so you'll have to pull up a save if you haven't checked it yet. You really need to know if the cease fire is coming or not. It makes a big difference in your fight-or-flight decision.

Note that there is additional documentation for the scenario beyond the in-game briefing. It often has more info than the briefing.

Turn 4
28th September 1940

The artillery get a full 5 rounds in this time - let's hope it does the trick.....

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Zorch

At least we have the answer to the question, "Could Graziani (sic) have been more aggressive"?

warspite1

In real life or the game? No way in real life I believe.

Real life. Seems as if there should be a larger penalty for Italian offensive actions.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Zorch

At least we have the answer to the question, "Could Graziani (sic) have been more aggressive"?

warspite1

In real life or the game? No way in real life I believe.

Real life. Seems as if there should be a larger penalty for Italian offensive actions.

warspite1

I disagree on the real life question - but that is perhaps for another thread.

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

ORIGINAL: warspite1

The instructions for this scenario are pretty poor tbh. There is mention of a ceasefire but the description is written like the player should know what the rule is already. I can't make head nor tail of it so will just ignore it and hope its not important.

Let me try to clarify:

The Axis player has an option to cancel the coming cease fire by disbanding a special, off-map, unit on turn 1. On that turn (only) you could have reconnoitered its hex to tell if that was optioned. It is withdrawn on turn 2, so you'll have to pull up a save if you haven't checked it yet. You really need to know if the cease fire is coming or not. It makes a big difference in your fight-or-flight decision.

Note that there is additional documentation for the scenario beyond the in-game briefing. It often has more info than the briefing.

warspite1

Thanks - that helps a bit. Rather than carry on this thread I will take this off line to show what I mean.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Thanks - that helps a bit. Rather than carry on this thread I will take this off line to show what I mean.

No need to get worried, though. It appears that your opponent is about to forfeit the game by not capturing Sidi Barrani by the deadline (turn 5). So, you'll probably be doing a restart soon.

Turn 5 - Axis Turn
1 October 1940

The Italians have mustered sufficiently strong forces to brush past my infantry screen and push on with his tanks to Sidi Barani where he manages to eject the British unit. The defence around Buq Buq also seems to simply crumble at this point.

Turn 5
1st October 1940

With Sidi Barani taken I decide to go all out to get it back.

Firstly I try and see what I can remove from Buq Buq, but just about every unit is engaged in trying to retreat and so each come to a pretty quick halt. The two artillery regiments do manage to get away although cannot get through the Italian screen guarding the north/south track in Sidi Barani.

To try and open up this road I start with an attack on a lone engineer unit. The engineer is forced to retreat and the 8th Hussars continue west in pursuit. The tankers destroy the engineer and continue on to the coast road. It would, with hindsight, have been better not to have tried to move units from Buq Buq before this and they would then have been able to assist - but I clearly had no way of knowing that the Hussars would force the Italian infantry off the coast road, and so sever the link to Sidi Barani from both directions.

Turn 5
1st October 1940

The next part of the operation was to try and remove the Italians from Sidi Barani. This operation opened with an artillery assault that cost the Italians a measly 5% losses. The attack itself - always a long shot - proved to be nothing more than a costly failure.

With hindsight there are a lot of things I would have done differently - but this is why I like playing games for the first time - one simply doesn't know what is likely, what is possible and so have to make seat of the pants decisions that can't be undone without the experience of past games to work with. I don't think there is anything I could have done to recapture Sidi Barani but I possibly could have stopped Italy getting it in the first place - a stronger screen for example.

Anyway, my opponent has told me he has activated the cease-fire option so let's see what happens now.

Turn 6 - Axis Turn
5th October 1940

With the Italians having achieved their three aims - El Hamra (by turn 3), Sofafi (4) and Sidi Barani (5) and, having previously activated the cease-fire option, all Italian front-line* formations are not effectively frozen - as I understand it until Turn 25 when I launch my 5-day raid (Operation Compass).

* I'll have to see if there is a description of what constitutes front-line. In the meantime I can see from the playback that the Italians are bringing units forward.

Turn 6
5th October 1940

I seem to have access to most of my units so I guess I have between now and turn 25 to restore some kind of semblance of order and put the units where I want them in order to start the 5-day raid.

I will check on the rules and documentation to see what I can find re starting positions etc.

Edit: Right its "the 11 forward most Italian formations are placed in Garrison Deployment". Formations is not capitalised and so seemingly not a defined term so I am not sure what that relates to. Maybe the documentation will tell me.

Edit2: The documentation is written in the form of various changes to each version. I can't be doing with that and so search "cease" to see what I can find. Apparently I can start the raid early and "[The option] becomes available on turn 9. But note that exercising the option will cancel the Italian requirement to hold the three required hexes and any risk of an early ending of the game. It will also release the above far-rear Italian forces".

Mmmm I'll have to see what state my forces are in first. I think I will have to ask my opponent what "formation" means e.g. individual unit counter, battalion, brigade division aircraft??

I seem to have the New Zealand Division available - which seems strange. I am a little dubious of this so not sure how I will play it with them.


I will also need to double check what documentation there is to see if I can understand where the British units are allowed to move to during the cease-fire i.e. are they able to penetrate behind the Italian positions.

More clarity about the scenario rules would be nice. A lot more.
It's hard to simulate such non-game events.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

More clarity about the scenario rules would be nice. A lot more.
It's hard to simulate such non-game events.

warspite1

I'll give a precis - or at least my understanding - shortly.