DAR: Alam Halfa Ridge

[RERomine]

Turn 28

Middle objective secure. Still receiving light small arms fire.

Eliminated resistance around South objective by destroying last Crusader III and ATR team.

Turned all but one victory hex in Northern objective. Diverted two platoons to deal with the two Bofors found last turn since those units were closer. Neither was destroyed, but the crews abandoned them and were eliminated running away. One tank platoon is moving into position to overrun enemy infantry heading to relief of objective.

Casualties

Friendly: Five

Enemy: Two 40mm Bofors abandoned, estimated 15 casualties.

[RERomine]

Decisive Victory!!!!

Turn 29

The last victory hex was turned securing all. There was no remaining enemy resistance, other than one salvo from yet another Bofors. It was quickly dispatched. One platoon of PzKw IVgs closed to within 100m of enemy infantry heading toward Northern objective and ripped them up pretty good. All other fire was directed at fleeing enemy.

Casualties

Friendly: Zero

Enemy: One 40mm Bofors destroyed, estimated 20 casualties.

Total Casualties

German

Men: 29
Artillery: 0
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 0

British

Men: 527
Artillery: 25
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 35 (11x Valentine III, 22x Crusader III, 2x Crusader II-CS)

Note: There were no air assets so those aren't listed.

Score

Germany: 6026
GB: 56

Final Comments

I'm not sure whether I this battle was just easier than I expected it would be or I just planned it well. Without a doubt, I hated the idea of advancing against enemy positions with open fields of fire and high visibility. My preferred method of attack are to move as close as possible to the enemy positions via covered and concealed routes, as fast as possible, before engaging. In effect, more finesse than brute force. That just wasn't possible in this case.

I respected was the capabilities of the British 6pdr. In this case, they had 37 of them in various mounts. The funny thing is, and I didn't realize this until the battle was underway, instead of truck mounted 88s, Tigers were available The only chance a 6pdr has against its frontal armor is at point blank range with one of those "extra penetration" hits. An easy battle could have been easier.

My next battle is a delay without refit, not that I need it with only 29 casualties and no vehicles or guns damaged. One ATG crew took casualties, but that's about it.

If anyone is interested in things just before the last British turn, which involved screaming and running , I've attached the save. Enjoy!

[Brummbar]

Again, a very well written report.

You made it seem like I was watching over your shoulder!

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by Brummbar

Again, a very well written report.

You made it seem like I was watching over your shoulder!

Thanks! Unfortunately, the two battles I did went pretty much according to plan and didn't really seem that exciting. The British counter strike would have been better to do. Massive amounts of British armor; averaging 15 armor kills per turn; my right flank almost getting turned; almost everyone running out of AP ammo. That would have been a much more exciting, but I didn't expect that one to turn out like it did.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by RERomine

Thanks! Unfortunately, the two battles I did went pretty much according to plan and didn't really seem that exciting. The British counter strike would have been better to do. Massive amounts of British armor; averaging 15 armor kills per turn; my right flank almost getting turned; almost everyone running out of AP ammo. That would have been a much more exciting, but I didn't expect that one to turn out like it did.

Of course it was not very exiting.

You have a force that is cherry-picked with the rarest and best German kit, all wrapped up into a little hand-picked elite battalion. If you were fighting with a historically accurate force for the time then you may have had a challenge from the AI.

The Panzer 4g is a very rare beast at this time. It was only doled out in ones and twos per lucky tank company. That is why it is only available in the "Special Panzer" section of 2 in the OOB, and not as a company MBT buy. But you have fleet bought an entire company of these rare beasts. The gun on this thing will get through Valentines class 7 front armour at 1500m with plain AP. It is a mini-tiger for its time, its Achilles heel is the class 5 front turret armour.

You really should have a tank company based on the Panzer 3 with 50L60, possibly some 50L42 still kicking about. Maybe 2 panzer 4 specials for the entire coy. In 1943 the P4g will start to be reasonably common, but entire companies are probably not justifiable till Sicily/Italy.

The Stug F/8 with class 8 front armour and that gun is almost invulnerable beyond 1000m to 6 pounders, let alone the 2 pounders many UK tanks still use. It too is a fairly rare beastie, most stugs at this time will still be ones with L24 75s. Your 4 is probably all one could justify.

Ah! - The wargamers favourite 88mm on a truck!. There were only 18 or so ever built, and the Nazis never built any more (so it likely was not the war-winner that German wargamers think ?). The chance of this thing being used other than in a scenario based on known usage is probably only slightly less than having a Maus present, but it seems to be a regular fleet-buy item of the German wargamer core. You have a third of the entire production!. That unit really cannot be justified historically outside scenario usage. And in any case you have access to the Stug/F8 which has a gun that drills valentines to a useful range while being armoured (and class 8 armour is difficult for the UK to deal with as pointed out above). You already have these far more useful items in your core. You could possibly justify some early model marders with the 75 or the ex-Russian 76mm.

There were no SS in the Western Desert. Use normal mech infantry. All your infantry is mech - typical wargamer ahistorical core.

You mentioned Tigers - well those did not turn up till Tunisia 43 against the Allies. And Tigers are not really needed against them until you face 6 pounder and 17 pounder APDS on a regular basis post D-Day.

You mentioned ammo problems - get some ammo half-tracks and deploy them forwards, they are not just for the artillery.

Now you have limited yourself to a reasonably historical force, and not a cherry-picked wargamers special so the AI has some chance of getting kills on you. You are no longer in the "Challengers against T55s" kill-fest mode that is actually rather boring after 1 battle. Therefore you will have to think and act tactically.


Cheers
Andy

[RERomine]

Andy, I don't want to be too historical here. After all, the Germans lost.

The ammo problem became a major factor in the following battle. PzKw IVgs or not, the British pushed so hard, so fast, there really wasn't time to resupply. The preferences are set to "AI Tank Heavy". That really was a fun battle (and a surprise) since it didn't seem to be an automatic win from the start. I wasn't sure I was going to win, but the AI hung it up on turn 12.

[Brummbar]

Andy make's some good point's but, that doesn't take away anything from your excllent reporting!

Ahistorical can be alot of fun too!

Keep 'em comin RERomine!

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by Brummbar

Andy make's some good point's but, that doesn't take away anything from your excllent reporting!

Ahistorical can be alot of fun too!

Keep 'em comin RERomine!

It does get a little difficult keeping things too historical, unless I want to turn the game into a research project. I know what the Germans had, but not when, where or how many they had.

Technically speaking, all war games are designed with an ahistorical angle to them. The losing side of a battle has a chance to win, different equipment is present than in reality, numerical odds are different, etc. During WWII, it was figured it took five Sherman tanks to destroy one Tiger, but in the game you can't get three Shermans, must less five for the price of a Tiger.

I figure the AI tends to go ahistorical in generated campaigns most of the time, anyhow. Otherwise, it wouldn't be using 34 artillery batteries, including twelve 7.2in, to support an assault against my reinforced battalion. Dealing with 48 7.2in howitzers wasn't fun, but it wasn't unexpected. For the first time in a defend, I bought bunkers and hid all my infantry in them until they were actually needed in the fight.

Part of the ahistorical aspect is my fault. My preferences are for "AI Tank Heavy". Since I have mine set that way, I have to go ahistorical to deal with the numbers of tanks the AI throws at me. That's all fine. The objective is to have fun and not recreate history, right?

[gila]

Whether it was historical makes no difference.
You have a good concept on this game that makes it fun to read
I think i learned something from your strategy.
I enjoyed reading your play-by-play report.
Feel free to share more

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by RERomine

It does get a little difficult keeping things too historical, unless I want to turn the game into a research project. I know what the Germans had, but not when, where or how many they had.

Technically speaking, all war games are designed with an ahistorical angle to them. The losing side of a battle has a chance to win, different equipment is present than in reality, numerical odds are different, etc. During WWII, it was figured it took five Sherman tanks to destroy one Tiger, but in the game you can't get three Shermans, must less five for the price of a Tiger.

I figure the AI tends to go ahistorical in generated campaigns most of the time, anyhow. Otherwise, it wouldn't be using 34 artillery batteries, including twelve 7.2in, to support an assault against my reinforced battalion. Dealing with 48 7.2in howitzers wasn't fun, but it wasn't unexpected. For the first time in a defend, I bought bunkers and hid all my infantry in them until they were actually needed in the fight.

Part of the ahistorical aspect is my fault. My preferences are for "AI Tank Heavy". Since I have mine set that way, I have to go ahistorical to deal with the numbers of tanks the AI throws at me. That's all fine. The objective is to have fun and not recreate history, right?

48 7.2 inch are but 6 batteries. The British use 8 gun batteries for mediums and field arty. Some gamers seem to get confused with the 2 by 3 or 4 gun platoons/troops which make up a battery, especially those whose armies only use little 4 gun batteries. So if you PBEM a UK player and agree a max of 2 batteries - expect 16 tubes from your opponent to your 8 tubes, that is historical and not cheating on his part.

Artillery is unlimited in the assault, which is historical since the attacker has all the time he needs to bring up equipment, like at the Somme say.

What we don't have in SP is the British and Commonwealth multiple battery fires onto impromptu targets (this is available in the old Wargames Research Group WW2 tabletop rules with reinforcing batteries, and "fire blows"). So no ability to call for an "Uncle target" unless you have bought all the divisional artillery, which would be rather expensive. It would need some way to create a "Fire blow" unit containing all the divisions/Corps/Army guns but only 5 rounds gunfire (hence much cheaper than buying all the div's guns with all the ammo assigned to your front for the entire battle which is the SP way, as all arty is "under command") to drop into a 250 by 250 metre square all in one turn.

http://members.tripod.com/~nigelef/m...tery%20Targets

From 1943 onwards, this really is the preferred .uk anti-Tiger response though, rather than trying to duel them with Shermans.
"Uncle Target, Uncle Target, Uncle target. Tigers at grid ABC123"... And if anyone still was present after that, then "Hello One this is Two, repeat .. "

NB although the Americans could produce concentrations like the British, it was not a routine tasking for impromptu targets. The BCE system pulled all guns off their current tasking to shoot the concentration which was something the US were reluctant to do. Also BCE arty observes were implicitly authorised to order such fires, so no joining a request queue at the "Fire Direction Centre" to try to wheedle some idle batteries as in the USA system, the hammer was dropped on the FOOs say-so with every tube in range from the Regiment (bn)(Mike target), Division (Uncle), Corps (Victor), Army (William) or Army Group (Yoke).

But the AI pick lists do reflect the arty of the participants, so expect the BCE, USA and USSR AI pick lists to be strong in that arm.

Cheers
Andy