Quick background:
Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December 1941) was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army (comprising British, Commonwealth, Indian and Allied contingents), against the Axis forces (German and Italian) in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to by-pass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.
On 18 November 1941, the Eighth Army launched a surprise attack. From 18 to 22 November, the dispersal of British armoured units led to them suffering 530 tank losses, inflicting Axis losses of about 100 tanks. On 23 November the 5th South African Brigade was destroyed at Sidi Rezegh, while inflicting many German tank casualties. On 24 November Rommel ordered the “dash to the wire”, causing chaos in the British rear echelons but allowing the British armoured forces to recover. On 27 November the New Zealanders reached the Tobruk garrison, relieving the siege.
The battle continued into December, when supply shortages forced Rommel to narrow his front and shorten his lines of communication. On 7 December 1941 Rommel withdrew the Axis forces to the Gazala position and on 15 December ordered a withdrawal to El Agheila. The 2nd South African Division captured Bardia on 2 January 1942, Sollum on 12 January and the fortified Halfaya position on 17 January, taking about 13,800 prisoners.[2]
On 21 January 1942 Rommel launched a surprise counter-attack and drove the Eighth Army back to Gazala, where both sides regrouped. This was followed by the Battle of Gazala at the end of May 1942.
As I mentioned in a prior facebook post, and other locations online, our DAK2 campaign hit a bit of a snag, where some errors were made, and those had compounded into an untenable situation for us to continue our campaign. So my partner and I agreed to skip forward a month and take up the Crusader campaign start date as a logical resumption point. This is a quick summary of our play for the first turn.
Now, I wont spoil the whole story as all the prior posts regarding the full campaign in Rommel’s Race to the Wire are yet to be published. But I did want to provide you folks who might be new to OCS or new to desert warfare or curious about the hard to find DAK/DAK2 a snippet of why I find this module SO compelling.
In the system for this game there are many little innovations, the Bordello counter, random events, leaders, KG Leaders and of course the Rommel counter.
In this particular opening turn, the Commonwealth [lets call them Allies going forward] advanced upon Bir el Gubi, in a not particularly aggressive manner. With 7th and 1st Armoured and some supporting units. The Italians [Axis] had set up a bit of a forward perimeter around there, so there would be no quick encirclement and destruction.
In fact the Allies lost a step in a Ao1/Do1 attack [failed surprise with -4 shifts to the left…..thanks to a SNAFU’d surprise roll! ]. Of course I had forgotten to move a few other units as well but this turn I was keen to see what the Germans might do in reaction first, before I committed to a big thrust. What is fascinating, having played some Brazen Chariots [BCS from MMP ] this particular operation of the Brits was a real swirling knife fight with huge losses on both sides. So better to be a bit cautious at first. Plus my opponent is getting smarter and smarter each turn, we go deeper into the game system together.
But back to the cool thing about OCS- DAK2 !!
In the German turn they decide to blunt my approach to Bir el Gubi, by counter attacking with 15th Panzer and supporting units. They drop Ju88’s and all sorts of nasty on me, even killing a step with his air!! And just like that all of a sudden we are in real strife with a big 7:1 attack coming down from the north right between point 178 & Point 175. Yikes…
Well of course I have bugger all in reserve [under reserve markers for such a need], but I do have some air that I thankfully could not find earlier on to use/waste on something else. I drop that, BOOM on his primary attack force and roll away!
But I whiff it!! The Desert Air Force does not deliver!
So now what?
Desperation is the mother of invention or innovation. Or in this case rules lawyering up! I say “WAIT” let me check these cool Leaders out again. I think they can activate in a ‘reserve required phase'”. Indeed they can Kevin!
So now, Strafer Gott the Allied leader counter needs to roll a 3 or better, he can then move his units like they were in reserve! 1d6=6! I sigh in relief.They move one hex into the battle to reinforce at the last moment!
The recon elements of 7th Armoured, the brave 11th hussars and the 4th Brigade from 7th Armoured, charge into the fray!
That is enough to change the odds so significantly that the Germans and Italians decide they don’t have the stomach for that attack or much else for the rest of the turn.
Superb!
The beginning of the 22nd of Nov turn looks like so:
It is these fantastic added elements to the game play in DAK that make is so specifically unique from all the other modules. I’ve not seen much like this in anything else from The Gamers nor any of the new modules since MMP took over. A pity really as it adds a lot of thematic narrative, further ‘cahnce’ things that can occur and captures the mood entirely well. Many of the newer modules seem very focussed on finding ways to do away with the dreaded truck, tacking on further rules to mitigate decades old niggles and rail road some history.
This is why DAK2 will always be one of my favorite games warts and all. :).