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Turn 1
11th December 1940

Let's see what happens. O'Connor has ordered 7 attacks. All are no more than one dot time expended and the units have not travelled far - 57 was the lowest but most are in the 60's.

I press the top right button on the Reports/Map/Units box and am asked if I want to resolve all attacks? I click yes and.....er hope....

Turn 1
11th December 1940

O'Connor is pleased with the initial results, although one battle was harder work than expected and the 4th/6th Rajputana Rifles suffered thanks to some grim defending initially by the Libyan defenders.

- The 4th CCNN have been pushed back west of Sidi Barani
- The Libyans at Mektilla have taken a battering
- The defenders of the Tummar camp have also been battered and are hopefully ripe for the clean up operation to come.

One piece of advice on this scenario at this point: You need to know where your Matildas are. At this time you only have one battalion of them. They, historically, were critical to victory in O'Connor's Raid.

Turn 1 - Phase II
11th December 1940

Lt-General Richard O'Connor and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore confer with one another about the initial skirmishes and to ensure they remain on the same page in terms of what the army expect from their colleagues.


No change required to the existing orders

Turn I - Phase II
11th December 1940

Along the coast Selby Force and attached Corps units seek to remove the remnants of the 1st Libyan Division. Three attacks are launched that I wasn't given the chance to plan - the attack just happened (presumably because the defenders were so weak).

The 70th Division's 16th Infantry Brigade are ordered to attack west of Sidi Barani to try and trap the 3rd CCNN and 1st Libyan in a pocket.

Further south at Tummar, a battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment attack the northern most Italian units in company with the Rajputana Rifles. To the east a battalion of the King's Own Rifle Regiment attempts to seal the pocket too. This pocket is then to be reduced by additional battalions of the 70th Division, the 4th Indian Division and - in answer to Curtis Lemay - the Matildas of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment. This might be overkill but....

In the southwest the 7th Armoured Division get into the action with an attack against the Italian LX Tank Battalion


A total of six attacks - circled in brown

Turn I - Phase II
11th December 1940

The summary table shows that not all battles went to plan. The 7th Armoured Brigade were too timid, and although they won their dual with the Italian tank battalion, they failed to dislodge them from their position.

I also seem to have made a bombardment attack? I don't know how that happened - I must have inadvertently unclicked something - but that is something I need to keep a check on in future.

Gents

Just to say a big thank-you today for all your help and comments! No way would I have been able to work out what was going on otherwise.

Turn 1 - Phase III
11th December 1940

I have checked some possible attacks - and each and every once shows 3 time 'dots'. So I will proceed on the basis that that is as good as it gets and try and move as many units forward ahead of any battles.

1. 4 battalions of the 70th Infantry are ordered to finish off the southern most remnants of the Pescatori Division at Tummar.

2. The 16th Infantry Brigade and supporting units will try and capture the road leading out of Sidi Barani.

3. Further attacks will take place south and east of Sidi Barani by 70th Division and Selby Force.

4. 70th Infantry also provide the units that will attack the Catanzaro HQ between Buq Buq and Sidi Barani.

5. The 7th Armoured Division will attack the Italian tanks once again

A Marine unit expends its movement in blocking the road west of Buq Buq - and is considerably exposed in so doing.

So, seven attacks in total.

Turn 1 - Phase III
11th December 1940

The attacks were largely successful, although there were some enemy remnants that remained on map. I was able to follow up attack with single attacking formations to totally destroy these pesky units. There is no impact on the time in doing so. These actions see the Tummar camps totally destroyed (although some defenders escaped north).

The 1st CCNN Division, west of Sidi Barani, has largely been driven off the road and now have their backs to the coast. Southwest of them, the Catanzaro Division remains largely untouched at this stage.

I have to say that 7th Armoured's progress is very slow. They've not covered themselves in glory.

There is 50% of the turn left.

Before moving to Phase IV, the next thing I will do is have a look at some of the individual units and see what state they are in in more detail.


Sorry, I did not scroll down fully. There is one battle at the bottom left off. This gave losses of 11%/55% in hex 152,91

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I have to say that 7th Armoured's progress is very slow. They've not covered themselves in glory.

I'm playing against the AI simultaneously with you and my 7th Armoured is also kind of slow. Tougher opposition maybe.

ORIGINAL: Olorin

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I have to say that 7th Armoured's progress is very slow. They've not covered themselves in glory.

I'm playing against the AI simultaneously with you and my 7th Armoured is also kind of slow. Tougher opposition maybe.

warspite1

Maybe. Are they going the same route?

Turn 1 - Phase IV
11th December 1940

I was going to look at the units next but I think it makes more sense to get the turn done and then review thereafter. The intention will be to look closely at a handful of units to see how they fair - and hopefully pick up some pointers.

So what next for this turn? Well I think this may be the last phase as the possible battles I've looked at so far are 5 dots. The plan, as per below, is for the 7th Armoured to try and break through the Cirene Division and stop Italian reinforcement with the rest of 10th Army. Units in the north will try and cut-off the two pockets from their Italian comrades at Sollum and beyond....

A question please

In the attacks below there are grey dots before the yellow start. What does this mean?

It means that so far you have already spent 5/10 of your turn.
So, current round is 6.

5 expended, 50% of your turn is done !

ORIGINAL: Olorin

It means that so far you have already spent 5/10 of your turn.
So, current round is 6.

warspite1

Ah. I knew that (as per previous posts) but I thought there may have been something different as I didn't recall seeing grey dots before the yellow previously. That's good news anyway as it means I haven't misunderstood what I thought I knew I knew (sorry we're into Runsfeld territory!) [;)].

Turn 1 - Phase IV
11th December 1940

I wish game designers would think of us poor AAR writers [:(]

There should be a button to confirm if one wishes to move to the next turn. Instead I came out of a report and the AI went straight into the Axis turn.

What that means is I don't have the pictures to provide a summary of Phase IV post battle - but I do have a summary of those 8 planned attacks shown above.

Turn 1 - Axis Turn
11th December 1940

Wow - what a lot of units the Italians have!

Turn 1 - Axis Turn
11th December 1940
Coastal Plain

Two divisions have arrived in the bottom left hand corner and are seeking to cut the 7th Armoured off - or maybe sweep up to the coast a la Guderian.

The immediate thing I notice is that the movement allowances have recovered in a non-uniform way one or two are back to 66 but others are less.

Turn 1 - Axis Turn
11th December 1940
Southern Front

My attempts at cutting off the Cirene Division comes to nought. The Italians are able to bring up the Marmarcia and 2nd CCNN Divisions in support.

One thing I failed to mention in the absence of a Phase IV report was that an Australian cavalry regiment took the airfield at Fort Maddalena.