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Name: First Battle of El Alamein
Date: 5:00am 1st July, 1942
Location: Guarding the Western Side of El Alamein

History: On 30 June, Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika approached the Alamein position. The Axis forces
were exhausted and understrength. Rommel had driven them forward ruthlessly, being confident that,
provided he struck quickly before Eighth Army had time to settle, his momentum would take him through
the Alamein position and he could then advance to the Nile with little further opposition. Supplies
remained a problem because the Axis staff had originally expected a pause of six weeks after the capture
of Tobruk. German air units were also exhausted and providing little help against the RAF's all-out
attack on the Axis supply lines which, with the arrival of United States Army Air Forces USAAF) heavy
bombers, could reach as far as Benghazi. While captured supplies proved useful, water and ammunition
were constantly in short supply while a shortage of transport impeded the distribution of the supplies
that the Axis forces did have.

Axis plan of attack:

Rommel's plan was for the 90th Light Division and the 15th and 21st Panzer divisions of the Afrika Korps
to penetrate the Eighth Army lines between the Alamein box and Deir el Abyad (which he believed was defended).
The 90th Light Division was then to veer north to cut the coastal road and trap the defenders of the Alamein
box (which Rommel thought was occupied by the remains of the 50th Infantry Division) and the Afrika Korps
would veer right to attack the rear of XIII Corps. An Italian division was to attack the Alamein box from
the west and another was to follow the 90th Light Division. The Italian XX Corps was to follow the Afrika
Korps and deal with the Qattara box while the 133rd Armoured Division Littorio and German reconnaissance
units would protect the right flank. Rommel had planned to attack on 30 June but supply and transport
difficulties had resulted in a day's delay, vital to the defending forces reorganising on the Alamein line.
On 30 June, the 90th Light Division was still 15 miles (24 km) short of its start line, 21st Panzer Division
was immobilised through lack of fuel and the promised air support had yet to move into its advanced airfields.


Units Human Players (AI player units may vary)
German: Squads, LMG, MMG, OBA, AFV
British: Squads, LMG, Piat, AT Guns, AFV

Special Scenario Rules:

1) This is an early dawn assault by the Germans so the maximum sight range is 12 hexes.

2) Each British squad represents about 20 commandos.

Maps: Four Full Maps

Terrain: Open desert with some hills and a few buildings

Scenario Length: 12 Full Game Turns

Victory Objective: The side with the most Victory Points at the end is the winner. Both sides gets VPs for
controlling Victory Objectives.


Scenario Designer: IDJESTER

IDJESTER,
Great scenario!
It took me till last turn to get and hold a Major German Victory on normal setting!
Very fun to play.
I will try the British side next.

Great scenario JDJESTER.

I played the British on "very hard".

My 6 pounders knocked out the last of the panzers by turn 10. But they don't have any HE, with Axis infantry still pushing forward!!
German OBA is highly effective; when it finds it's mark(knocked out a stuart!). The game doesn't seem move focus to the artillery strike - ( I hope this will be fixed? Or do I have a problem?)
Germans press on without armour, and interestingly no air support. I kept feeling, that in reality, they would've had a couple of stukas to hand to knock out a few guns - please comment)
Mid-game I decide the line is holding, and plug the holes with my reserves spread about the map, rather than pull back; squads, weapons and some stuart tanks(handy, now most of the Axis armour is burning across the battlefield).
My front line rapidly turns into a thin red line, as the Axis MMG's and mortars hit their mark; eventually I break a few of these. The attack withers as I pick off any unbroken troops with what remains of mine. I even have a two pounder, bravely battling on after fixing the gun a few times, and recovering it's morale.
Strangely the AI advances 3 NCO's at my lines unaccompanied by troops! There's even a stack of 3 broken squads 2 hexes behind them neglect of any assistance.

The game is a decisive, British, victory.
I will try playing the Axis next, to see if the AI fairs any better in defence.


Questions:
-Does smoke from burning vehicles have any effect on visibility in ASL? (Sure it does it AH Tobruk).
-The AT guns behind the front remained useless. As far as I could see I couldn't move them. Surely in reality their support vehicles would be kept concealed nearby in reality, ready to tow them into another position. Too impractical in short scenario, but in a campaign......?
-I move a half squad carrying a PIAT into a hex with an abandoned MMG. THe HS recovers the MMG and the PIAT is marked as "transferred". Does that mean it's stowed at hand. If the MMG were destroyed would it then reach for the PIAT? I find the lack of self determination in porting weapons a little disconcerting. What if a tank now advanced on the squad which has now stowed it's PIAT in favour of an MMG! Is this likely to adjusted in TOTH?
Is air support a likely addition?

Cheers,

Pete.

(New to TOTH, but not wargaming)

Answers:
- in ASL, smoke is an extra hindrance; in TOTH (so far), fires and associated smoke are not implemented, so you only get a +1 hindrance for the wreck.
- you can attempt to move ordnance by having their crew move in double time mode (this is not an official feature)

Played on both sides at Very Hard (what else?) level.

Playing with the Germans, I suffered heavy AFV losses (8 AFVs) because German artillery refused to take part in the battle (during the whole game, the 120mm module never fired, the 100mm module fired once, 4 hexes away from its intended target). So I had to use the Panzers to take out AT guns and MGs; when the MMGs and the Lt Mtrs started firing (and killing AT gun crews), the British line started to break. The layered AT gun deployment was a real pain in the ***, but finally I managed to take all the VP hexes (Major Victory).

Loss ratios (German/British):
Squads 7:19.5
Leaders 1:11
Crews 0:7
AFVs: 8:4

I then started another game, taking the British. The AT Guns proved deadly for the Panzers: they killed 6 of them in the first turn, and at the end of turn 2, only 2 Pz III remained. When these attempted advancing in the plain between the two ridges, they were quickly killed. The British lost 2 Stuarts to German artillery. The German infantry pressed on, but once the MMGs and the Lt Mtrs were neutralised the game turned into a WW1 scenario, with infantry advancing in the open against entrenched MGs. Starting on turn 6, the British counterattacked the fleeing Germans: unfortunately, on turn 8 the game crashed, so I cannot provide kill ratio statistics, but I was mopping up sparse pockets of broken half-squads and officers, so I suppose that, if the game didn't crash, the German would have been wiped out to the last man.

The scenario is quite challenging when played with the Germans; playing with the British it is "The great desert turkey shoot" (German infantry never fired its FP, which could have made a big difference).

P.S. An auto-save feature would be extremely useful, both to trace bugs and to avoid having to replay a whole game.

Thanks for the reply.

Pete.

nice scenario Idjester
Had fun with it
Played German and it wasn`t easy ( at least for me ).
Same as UP844 , The panzers got a bit of a flogging. Not sure when the last one fell but there was a fair few turns
I had to rely on infantry trying to take VP`s . The British AT`s can certainly do some damage
Very enjoyable scenario from the German viewpoint , haven`t tried the British.
Your desert Terrain was also very pleasing to the eye , There may be others but that is the first one I have played.
Well done [&o]

At the third attempt (and saving the game at every turn [:D]) I managed to play with the English up to the last turn.

The AT guns performed far worse than in the first attempt and, as a consequence, I suffered heavy casualties among my infantry squads. The German attacked in the centre: the Panzer stopped 10-12 hexes from the trench line and fired on my units until all of them were eliminated or routed. Their target selection can only be defined as bizarre: they mostly fired on infantry squads, leaving MGs and AT Guns almost undisturbed [&:]. MGs took care of the German infantry, starting from MMGs and LT Mtrs (the sole dangerous German weapons, since squads not even once fired on the British), while AT guns slowly reduced the number of Panzers on the map (starting with the Pz IVs). Two pairs of Stuarts (one on the north side and one on the south side of the map) ambushed the last few Panzers with flank shots when they finished butchering the Thin Red Line and surged forward (on turn 10).

The Germans never arrived to the trench line: even though this game was much more difficult than the first one (which saw all the German Panzers killed at the end of turn #2), the British victory was never in doubt.

Loss ratios (German/British):
Squads 11:12.5
Leaders 2:9
Crews 0:4
AFVs: 13:0

ORIGINAL: BeijingPete
Strangely the AI advances 3 NCO's at my lines unaccompanied by troops! There's even a stack of 3 broken squads 2 hexes behind them neglect of any assistance.

Here are no less than five German leaders that are soon going to meet the Valkyries. There are 1 MMG and 1 HMG with * leaders off-map on the left and 2 Stuarts (in CE status, so they can use the AAMG: there are no units capable of firing at them [:D])

Great scenario.

Played as Axis on hard.

Result: Axis minor defeat

Brutal! Those 6 pounders were lethal. I managed to break through the line to the North, and South with a reserve of 4 Panzers, two in each battle group.
And I secured two VP locations (The last being a dash and grab with a Panzer!), but just couldn't push to the third location.

The AI played well, moving the stuarts up when locations were threatened, perhaps a little to slow, but still effective; hampered my advance.

But ultimately what remained of those 6 pounders nailed it for the Tommies. I know historically, in 1942, they could penetrate any Axis panzer at good ranges, but boy they were ultra lethal in TOTH.

One again, thanks for the time and effort put into this IDJester,

Pete.