After my last battle, the British counter attacked so I had to fight without a refit. That wasn't really a problem since I suffered only 29 casualties in the last fight and all my vehicles were undamaged. It turned out to be a bear of a fight none the less.
For support, I took six 50mm ATGs and the rest in MG-42s. I would have loved to upgrade my StuGs to Tigers during a refit, but it wasn't meant to be. Tigers weren't a realistic option out of my support points. I know to expect massive amounts of armor and needed more guns firing than bigger ones. Turns out, the number of guns wasn't the problem. It was the ammo payload instead. At the end of the battle, 12 tanks out of 17 were trying to stop British tanks and armored cars with HE. Twelve tanks, three SPAs, two recon tracks and two truck mounted AAAs were trying to stop an enemy flank move in the South firing just HE. Only one 75mm ATG had AP left.
My force was pretty much ineffective in this area. StuGs and five other tanks were repositioning to help the units down South. That move was going to take at least 5 turns to just get them into position to fire from the middle of the map. I was pulling the others off of the line and trying to get to ammo supply tracks. Basically, I was going to depend on my infantry and one ATG to stop the enemy 40+ tanks still alive. Then the unexpected happened. The enemy had enough. Battle over
On the brink of my force collapsing due to ammunition problems, the enemy gave up. It wasn't without cause, because my shortage of AP ammo wasn't because I wasted it. The battle ended with the British having 176 dead tanks and armored cars. In addition to that, they lost almost 40 half-tracks and over 600 men. My losses, 20 men and a couple of damaged tanks.
Decisive victory!
I have been trying to keep my force reasonably close to reality, but I'm not too hung up on that. I've destroyed more tanks in the North African phase of the campaign than the British ever had. That being the case, I'm going to swap my StuGs out for Tigers. The rest of my tanks will remain PzKw IVgs. I don't want to raise my core value too much. There are lots of nice things about the Tigers, but the thing I like the most right now is 33% more tank killing rounds than the mark IVgs and 80+% more than the StuGs. Losing one will hurt, but losing any tanks hurt.
AAR: Alam Halfa Ridge - British Counter Strike
Linear Mode
