7.2

1st February 1941
Clear skies again and under the hard spring sun Shelbys forces strike out …..for parts unknown as a withdrawal. Aussies move to normal from training. 2nd Armoured begins training.

Trento Division appears in Sicily. SP are pushed to Trip.

5th Feb. The greek Campaign begins…… for crying out loud.

8th of Feb Clear, no Random, finally no Malta effect so Italy moves supplies to Tobruk. Pushing 2SP with all trucks focused on moving from Ben. To Tob.
NZ is finally released and moves to El Brug.

12th of Feb.
Rommel arrives and creates a traffic jam in Sicily and Tripoli. Supply moves will be limited for the rest of the month as the Axis have failed to anticipate the size of the arrival.

15th
the Axis take init, ship what reinforcements they can to Tobruk and begin the long haul run from Trip for the rest.

At Fort Maddalena the 7th Armoured surprise the garrison taking out the forces there and allowing units in reserve to stream thru and cut a swathe towards Tobruk. The 291st arty @ El Cuase attacked by the 2NZ and 2nd RTR clearing further road ways.

19th Feb.
Clear weather leaves Rommel in no mood for fun. He surveys the flanking attempt by the Allies in his scouting plane. He directs an aggressive counter attack!

His newly arrived air units and the Italians pound key targets firstly in Bir el Gubi. The Italians build a shoe string line to slow the thinly spread Allies. Then Maletti leads an attack on the English HQ @ Fort Maddalena. Destroying it and the supplies. They mange to capture nearly all the trucks there (4). The elite Ariete division and 8th armour Battalion along with support from the swarms of Light Tanks canvas the area attempting to block the supply lines of the Allies.

In the Allied turn they sit stunned. WTH just happened. They don’t have replacements to rebuild an HQ. They have lost 2SP and 2t worth of trucks! This is bad, as more forces start to peel off for Greece.
To add insult to injury Jack Campbell is injured leading a desperate breakout. The 6th Aus divisional units stay behind to screen while others seek a way to stay in supply. Realizing the situation they the allies may elect to use the 4.1 Breakout rule….

3 steps of infantry have been lost, the HQ, trucks and 1 arty units. This HQ leaves soon enough, but the early loss causes concern for supply.

On the 22nd of Feb, Rommel leaves for Europe on a Random Event.

Italy still presses the advantage home and surround the rest of the Brit army. In a rare bout of good rolling the Allies breakout 11/16 units. The majority are 5-6 turns out on the track. The Allies lose 2x Arty, 1x Tank Bn, 1x NZ and 1 Armored Car II. The allies pull back towards Sidi Barrani…… The Axis smiles.

26th
Malta random event, Italian Init. The Italians spend a turn consolidating positions and bringing supply and best units forward. The allies shuffle backwards in disarray. 3Aufk, takes a step loss to the Wellingtons!

1st of March 1941.
Allies move first. The allies rather than retreat back to MM, fortify SB. In hindsight a mistake. Supply restrictions with few trucks and no HQ throw cause havoc.

March shipping sees 4SP for the Axis shipped via Med, and more forces landing. They close the ring around SB. Allies do not put any Arty in Reserve in SB. [ The axis player relents and allows a do over….] Allied Arty gets is reaction phase and knocks a step and inflicts 2 DG’s… no more Mr. Nice Guy.

During the combat phase the Axis feel punchy. They attack the Eastern flank of SB, that is not yet HH’d with 13.5^4 v 1.5^3. With just an 8% chance of losses they inflict a DL1. The 6th Aus, or the punching bag of Afrika takes a step loss., as does the 20th X. Due to the multi hex nature of the attack no Exp is possible.

5th of March ’41.
Allies realize previously placed HH are in ineligible locations, and remove them. 7th AUS arrives. With 5RE in SB, the Allies use 3t on Trace. Then realize that the Poles should not be there either. The Italians let SB stand for now, waiting for it to starve. The rest of the army moves to Hukuma and 2SP.1RHR is attacked by over 12 factors and dies. Exploit movement places the enemy close to MM.

8th of March
Rain Storm – 2x movement rates costs.
2NZ reinforcements forma new line at El Alamein. Trucking is diverted to pull the supply dump BACK to there. MM will stand or fall alone.
MM destroys 25% of its dump. 6Aus attacks out of SB at 8th Brs. With limited results.
12th of March.
As we survery the carnage the Allies have virtually no units on the board. Images below show the upcoming reinforcements, and the final units leave for Greece.
Rommel and forces are now East and west of MM. the port is closed. Other forces power down the road to the weakly held dump, the Allies had been building.

In summation it’s a disaster for the Allies in just 53 turns. WOW! I think a couple of things compounded here to aggravate the magnitude of the damage. Firstly, we over supplied the Axis.  Somehow, I double counted somewhere…or it may be that frugality and a lot of simulcast turns meant more supply (since you stop shuffling guys around and dont spend T’s. We erred with the Greek Campaign and how that works, which accelerated some of the weakening of the line.

Still all good lessons learned and we had a LOT of fun playing.  There is a certain element of cat and mouse here, that could make it difficult for solo play I think. We will see how that pans out going forward.  This is one title in the OCS where I feel like you are not ‘missing’ something by playing one of the different start times or different scenarios. Often in GBII, I would be disappointed, as I knew just 3 hexes in a certain direction, I could have called down an air strike, made an end run or cut off someone. Here you do not have that sensation.

We elect to reset from the Compass Campaign start date of Dec 8th 1940! See you next week with 8 December turn notes.

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