Sunday at Barrys - Early WWII Western Desert Game in 15mm

 Today there were only four players (plus Barry as GM and Chris as observer) for an early (?) war game pitting the Brits (2 NZEF) against the Italians in the N African desert - no Germans were harmed in the playing of this game! Paul and I took the defending Italians while Andrew and John were the Kiwis. We did not really expect to win, but hoped to give the NZ Div a bit of pain before their additional numbers overwhelmed us. In the end, we actually did better than we expected, although if we had played on another 2 or 3 turns, we would doubtless have been wiped out!

The rules used were basically Andrew's home brew ones but with some tweaking by Barry, which added some complexity and removed some of the original concepts eg order changed from Rally, Fire, Move, Melee to Rally, Move, Fire, Melee - and the "return fire" that I quite liked from Andrews original idea was gone, but they seemed to work ok.

The view of the table from the south (Italians on the left)

And from the North - Italians on the right

Above and below - the built-up areas that the Italians had to defend to prevent a British victory

Above and below, the defending Italian force. Up to 4 airstrikes could be called up during the game.

Above and below, the attacking New Zealand forces - they also had 4 air strikes as well as off table artillery support (the Italian artillery was on the battlefield)

I am not very au fait with early war armour (or the Italians at all!) I think these are Vickers Mk VI - they are light tanks with small guns, anyway!

I believe these may be Valentines - medium tanks with a crappy 2lb gun!

Some kind of cruiser tank - again light armour and 2lb gun

The NZ-ers also had 6 Matilda II tanks - heavy armour but the same shit gun!

Hills placed under the cloth could be ascended by all troop types, hills on top (as above) could only be navigated by dismounted infantry, not wheeled or tracked vehicles

The Kiwis started 12" on from the table edge 

First blood to Italia as one of the Valentines was brewed up - molto bene!

The Regia Aeronautica puts in an appearance but to no effect this time - molto male!

The Kiwis had to test for bogging in soft sand every time they moved at full speed (3 x D6) If they rolled a 1, they were stuck. To represent the fact the Italians had been in situ for some time, they could move freely - as they knew where the bad going was - thanks, Barry! The black markers above indicate a couple of NZ tanks have run into soft sand!

Half the recon force of light tanks had the same issue!

On the next turn, the Italians sprung their surprise - an aggressive, forward defence! The two light tanks not bogged in soft sand were dispatched by AT fire - the Italians now lead 3 - 0.

The Kiwis came on in the same old way - and the Italians managed to continue to inflict losses on them, above and below.

The air force returned and this time, managed to knock out another NZ vehicle - by this stage, Paul and I were about 7 - 0 ahead.

But despite our early successes, there were still LOTS more where they came from 

Paul used the artillery to lay smoke to screen his light tanks from Johns Matilda's.

Over on the extreme left of the NZ advance, there was no Italian opposition

Once the smoke cleared, combined Kiwi fire took a heavy toll on Paul's armour

Andrew's artillery and a tank mounted howitzer had driven out most of the Italian garrison of my BUA by the time his infantry closed in - taking this position would give the Kiwis 3 VP

A couple of aerial views of the two BUA's we were defending

The Kiwi infantry made it into my BUA but the command element supported by a mortar, plus the one remaining infantry company, managed to push 2 of 3 NZ infantry companies back out again!

The last air attack by the Italians put some damage on the NZ infantry preparing to attack Paul's BUA

The central position from the NZ viewpoint

Despite the fact the Kiwis had made a good advance with their infantry, the Italians continued to whittle away their armour, gaining a VP for each vehicle destroyed. at this stage, it was 14 - 10 to the Italians......

Paul's command had been badly mauled by John - who had at least twice the fire power, so he should have been in the dominant position - my command was still reasonably intact but poor rolling meant I was firing 8 or 10 times but only knocking out one vehicle per turn.

In the final Kiwi turn, Andrews infantry managed to take my BUA at the second attempt, and then the RAF knocked out two of my vehicles

And the final score below - a narrow Kiwi victory - unlike the AB's against Argentina the night before LOL!

Now, in no particular order (that I am aware of!) are a whole bunch of eye candy close ups of the game from our gallant Kiwi opponent John

Thanks for dropping by and hope you found the AAR of interest - despite playing on the losing side, I felt Paul, and I, held our own and was not too upset to lose by 1 point, given the imbalance of forces involved. Shame we had no managed to hold onto my BUA, that would have won us the game, but it was close enough to feel like a moral victory!