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So, I finally finished my Tobruk battle; I decided to do the sea assault. My tanks and men landed with few losses, I pushed inland to meet my fallschirms and, after some tense battles in downtown Tobruk I finally prevailed on turn 14 (and broke the British morale on turn 12 - although they still had 5 or 6 Matilda IIs roaming aroung the city); all this with little artillery support except 2 nice Stuka attacks on a 25pdr battery and 1 turn of naval support which destroyed another 2 batteries).

By the end of the scenario I lost about 50% of my tanks and armored cars but still had plenty of infantry (4 tanks were lost to the same 2pdr gun near the right edge of the map ).

The result? 8400 points to me, 3700 to the AI - and (here is my point) only a Draw!!. What does a poor Oberst have to do to get a Decisive victory!!?

Not that I'm complaining, it was a hell of a lot of fun. Oh well, on to Operation Brevity. I am glad to see the campaign continues [ast Tobruk, how far does it go in time? Do we see Operations Battleaxe and Crusader?

[ August 05, 2001: Message edited by: mao ]

Mao, you did well, but your losses were heavy! With the lack of supplies coming across the Mare Nostra every tank loss is keenly felt and hurts any future offensives.

But do not feel badly. This is a very tough battle you chose as it would have been (maybe that is one reason it was never really done - ).

But you've nothing to hang your head about!

Minor victory...3-1 or more
Major (decisive) victory 6-1 or more...

Very hard to come by. Glad you enjoyed the battle.

Those Australians just don't give up, Mate!

Wild Bill

Originally posted by Wild Bill:


"Those Australians just don't give up, Mate!"
Damn straight Bill
Wild Bill[/QB]

Right on mate we just keep ripping their bloody arms orf.

I am Australian myself, so I really prefer not to kill those guys ... but they are only digital Aussies, right?

Aha! Now we have the problem, Mate! You gotta be and put on the AK uniform and go for it. You will be forgiven

Wild Bill

Now that I have my copy of this Africa I'll be sending my scores battle by battle so you have a reference. ok ?

(no, I didn't playtest it, didn't design, -I'll go as blind as you with all prefs as is/ C&C ON if not impossible and within 6.1 or newer release if there is one.)

Create a short cut to this page. Battle one coming soon.

mosh

I must admit that I was only eager to get it done, it did cost me alot at the end while I chased British ATs and AAs, But what else could I do when there were nothing more left ? I did play base scenario, -no options. I had all VOs secured in turn 13, but as I didn't want to accidentally end the game by stepping to them I just secured areas. Infantry platoons did take care of the city and it was cleaned totally in turn 15. I had these lovely and Very effective killer group Pz-IIf -platoon as a Spearhead. They did lead attack from the center..

but yes;

North: Those Italians (?) and FO-tracker advanced right thru the minefield and lost only one Rad to mines, it was immoed and showed to be lucky accident as it did drop one of the Tomahawks and killed one AT -gun later. These gruop did advance slowly as they had no real meaning but to keep Brits quessing what is happening. FO and two of those tanks did survive the battle and amazingly only one crew from them was lost. This group did advance to the northern British defence line and stopped there to draw fire and possible air-activity. (They did pin-up everything that shooted them, so they had purpose in their place)

Center:
I started slowly by smoking road at the edge of the town, there were barbed wires were. It was obvios that Brits had made some AT-positions to there. I did sacrifice one Rad -platoon to get a minefields detected at the center of the map after I lost first recon222 in there. Crews from exploded/ immoed vehicles cleared minefield off the road in turn 5. After that I did drive 3 Pz-III platoons, both infantry platoons (other is engineers) and Flakpanzers thru the hole and stopped their race at the barbed wires. There I did waite engineers to clean obstacles, it took time to turn 9.

South:

This is where I broke thru the defences. I collected all Recon 222cars, Stugs, Sigs and 6 flakpanzers to the trail leading around southern defence-line. (I lost only one Stug for mines in south, it was immoed and later when engineers had time their platoon leader visited Stug and cleared mines away from the hex. Game did end before stug was able to move, but nice try.) As I collected main power to the center of the map, (that was covered with smoke and barrages) I did race thru the southern flank. 222-cars at the head, Pz-IVd -platoon next, then Stug and later Sigs did drive to the hill and over it. As soon as Recons spotted something, they called to FO and Me-110s arrived if hostiles were in rough terrain. To be sure I had one 150-battery mauling the hill from the beginning. I lost two Pz-IVs in here to sappers. (One Sig did get busy day at the hill, I had it refilled later, but it didn't reach the end of the battle as it broke to barraged land at the center.) So I drove this southern fist right thru the hill and advanced to the back at the enemy. When I found and destroyd ammodump at the turn 10 I changed course of this group to north of the city. Sigs did come slower and I dropped them to move thru the city to meet my center force. This turning was sign to the forces at the center. They advanced from the smoke with such a power that they were able to take out all the resistance they met. AAs were again exploding my vehicles. Engineers were advancing right after riflemens. Both were riding with Halfies untill they received fire and jumped off. This was sign to drive Pz-IIs at the place. They were tremendous spotters and saw almost all the fortified positions and FO called close support; two mortar-halfies. These guys shooted from few hexes distance directfire 'till AT and/AA silenced and didn't give Op-fire anymore. Then I drove Pz-III platoon in and they finished these fortified positions in one turn. It was turn 13 when Brits got broken and started to flee easier when I parked at the middle of the city and waited for infantry to find British riflemens. Some enemy tanks showed up but as they didn't come in one turn I had no problems to take them woth Pz-IIIs and Pz-IIs.

Oh yeah, forgot: Stugs were immune to all fire. At the end I used them to search hidden ATs and AAs as I lost Pz-IIIs to immobilizing from several AA40s.

Losses:I did loose Pzs, almost all those Italian tanks(?), only one Rad was able to move (but not to fire), Pz-II platoon lost one piece, stugs one immoed, Sigs lost two at the center of the city, on infantry squad was wiped out and many squads suffered losses, but not totally vanished, and Pz-IIIs loosed half of its strength to failed assaults that resulted to Immobilization and 3-5 Pz-IIIs were lost to AAs and ATs. I had four halftracks and two recon222s left at the end.

I don't know how much survived from other side, but it surrendered/game ended in turn 16 (of 20), Germans 9700 -Brits 5200, - about, but it was counted as a draw. No problem, this was first battle and afterall lots of my crews were able to get out alive, so..I'm happy. Looking forward to get some action.

One thing: I did use one of the Halfies as a ambulance to drive crews away from the enemyfire...

mosh

(and C&C was On.)

Darn: Ít was very first battle....

mosh