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Its a fine morning for a battle.

October 1942, in the desert of N. Africa. The lads are just trying out the NEW Piats that they have been issued after the success of the American bazooka. It is issued only to the most robust of infantrymen as the spring is difficult to depress.

Monty wants to know if the Oasis on the map contains useable water and sends a couple of companies to investigate and hold.

Meanwhile,The Afrika Corps are running out of water and send a heavily reinforced company of engineers to to hold the Cappuzo Oasis.....If the don't Brits get there first. Wary of new ground attack planes from the states, they race to their objective.

C&C on , Purge04(Brits) move first and should be in range but lack the transport of the German(Lars) foe. It should be a classic case of Monty's conservative advance and Rommel's manuever and strike.

Points have been adjusted by 10%+ for Germans per H2H recommendations. Light tanks and armoured cars only. Please no arty until 1st visual contact. Have fun guys. I don't know who to bet on.

Originally posted by Buzzard45
... I don't know who to bet on.

I'm going with the Germans on this one. 1942 in N. Africa, with 10% bonus. It's gonna be tough for the Brits.

The battle has started...

I think you might be right there Capt. Pixel, I should have an advantage. But, with the setup from Buzz I'm not sure. It's a lot of infantry (don't read Purge) in my ranks and they are known to be expensive in H2H.

Back to the battle... We use a desert map from WB and the visibility is 50.
Some elevated ridges mostly along the map sides and an oasis with some buildings and trees just below the center of the map.
VH's ordinary end of game clusters in the vicinity of the oasis.

Turn one started with purge nailing two of my SPW from long distance. It was almost impossible to do the deployment out of his sight.
Both forces look to be heading for the oasis, so we can expect the most action in this area.
Turn ended with some shelling from both sides, mostly from mortars, in the oasis.

Turn two saw some more action when Purges´ scout units came in contact with my forward-deployed pioneers. I also had the opportunity to engage some long-range fire myself, from my 20mm FlaK vierling. I lost an 8-Rad and a pioneer group, but finished of a number of AT-teams, scouts and scout vehicles.
The armored units have not really been engaged yet.

This might bee long and hot I'll better use my sunglasses...
/Lars

The Brits have their own advantages and will not be an easy victory if Purge uses them them in the historical manner and in keeping with the tips and hints of the Training Threads.

I'll take the bet. COME ON BRITS!!!

The fight rages in the oasis. Heavy shelling and fierce fighting from both sides. The visibility has dropped severely due to smoke fire and dust. :rolleyes:

The battle so far, indicates that Purge will try to use his armor to outflank my force and make a pincer move from north and south.
At the same time his infantry has moved in to the oasis.

My 8-Rad has taken heavy losses to his Stuart I, but my Pz38(t) has retaliated some.
For the moment it looks as if I maybe stopped his southern force, while the northern platoon of Starts' has moved almost without harassment from the north.
My 20mm Flak Vierlings try to slow him down but they can't really hurt him with their small caliber guns.

In the center there has been hard fighting and a lot of bombardment from mortar fire. The German force has gained the most so far and is pushing the British back. But there are also indicators that say reinforcement is being brought forward from the Brits.

The RAF rules the sky and has done some damage to my units. Most of all they put a lot of suppression to my units and forcing them to retreat straight in to the arms of the enemy...
This is however a problem I knew about from the beginning and it works both ways...

Buzzard! The attached file is for you and I hope you still have the PWs' so you can take a peek.

Its great to see the Battle unfold. It appears that it is very even so far with no clear advantage to either side (looked at both). Interesting deployments. The dust trails give away the past movements. I used to hate them but they do add a new dimension to the game.

What a mess in the town, as I thought it would be. There are more light units gone than if I was playing either side but it IS what recce are for. You has less smoke than what I expected. It looks like you both have very solid plans and are making them work. Beware of making any assumptions in this game.

Sorry about the Reinforcement and retreat hexes. I thought that they would be correct on the map. AND I didn't know how to check or correct them.. I just play, I don't delve into the finer workings.

I'll send you a copy of my latest turn with CP. He has been in some trouble for a while and has called in his reinforcements. I don't think that I'll need to but he may be holding back for a final push. Devious one that CP. Younger and smarter than me, you know;) :rolleyes:

I’m not a god AAR-reporter. I simply don’t have the time to put in to it. :rolleyes:
However, here comes a brief report about what happened in our game from turn 6 and forward.

The Brits moved in on the southern VH area and had a good grip of it. But the high loss of armored units in this sector started to wear them down. A whole platoon of Stuart, except one, was killed there. Because of this I had the possibility to race forward some reserves to push him back in the south. The lone stroller Stuart still harassed me some and killed one more 8-Rad and was heading for my rear. It almost got all the way to my HQ until I finished it of with one of my “Vierlings”.
In the north the Brits tried a combined strike at my forces with both armor and airforce. It crippled me but didn’t leave me without means to retaliate. Two Stuart was killed with close assaults and the rest got it from the joint force of “FlaK Vierlings” and German panzer. Around turn 8, the British had lost all of its AFV’ and the German had 4 or 5 left, although two without their main guns.
The center consisted of close infantry fights, accompanied by constant mortar fire. The German Pioneers made the best progress with the help of their SPW and pushed the Brits almost completely out of the oasis.

The British commander ordered his reserves up front to make the battle shift. A company of infantry and a platoon of Deacon 6-pdr was pulled forward. But since they lacked the support from additional armor they couldn’t shift the tide in British favor. After two of the Deacons had been killed and the last German reserves had been brought forward, the British commander choose to wave the white flag and ask for a cease-fire in turn 11.

It was a very interesting game and I would strongly recommend it to anybody. However I think some changes would have made it even more interesting.
The retreat flags was positioned on the wrong side as stated before, but I think it would also been better if Germans attacked from left and British from the right. This would have made it possible for the British force to take use of the cover in the buildings instead of the other way around.
Since the visibility was so high (50 hexes) I also think the game would have benefited from deploy lines further apart. And as a last spice to the dish, more scattered VHs’ preferably in and around the oasis.
With those changes it will make a 5 star H2H scenario.

Many thanks to Buzzard, for making us this scenario.
Thanks
/Lars