Lawrence (the Triumphant Fox) and I (the rat deserting the sinking ship of the desert) finished our ongoing game of Afrika 2 on Saturday. I'll add the appropriate whining after each photo...
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| End of Turn 19 Axis |
Rommel Consolidates his forces after the earlier battles. As things are he can claim a victory by holding what he has.
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| End of Turn 19 Allies |
O'Connor rolls for reinforcements and gets a 5... No replacements this turn. The Allies hold position at Mursa Matruh to await next turn's reinforcements.
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| End of Turn 20 Axis |
The Axis further consolidate and re-arrange for the expected Allied attack.
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| End of Turn 20 Allies |
A single allied replacement goes to rebuilding the LRDG. Allies hold position again - moving out would allow the Axis to chop them up and return back to their supply.
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| End of Turn 21 Axis |
More waiting for the Allies and dealing with the pesky LRDG supply bump (off to the mountains stage right)
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| End of Turn 21 Allies |
The Allies move O'Connor and exploit capable units with him up so that they can exploit attack the forces in Halfya Pass next turn.
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| End of Turn 22 Axis |
The Axis sit and wait. (these game turns went by quickly - the only thing that took time was dealing with the LRDG and moving supply for the Germans - allied supply was easy since there was a ton of it in Mersa Matruh)
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| End of Turn 22 Allies |
Once again there are no replacements (another roll of 4 or 5) but O'Connor attacks! And is bloodily repulsed! The Exploit attack ended up on the 2-1 chart and I rolled a 2 so the Allies took 2 losses to no Axis losses. A follow up attack in the combat phase ended up in a 1 to 1 loss. O'Connor routs back behind the Mersa Matruh line in the exploit phase. Without massively good replacement rolls or better then average combat at this point I figure the Allies have no chance.
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| End of Turn 23 Axis |
The Axis re-arrange and prepare for the next attack they know will come.
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| End of Turn 23 Allies |
Another batch of reinforcements (but no replacements yet again though I think the LRDG was rebuilt again this turn - so the replacements roll was a 6) but O'Connor is running out of time and attacks again, and is repulsed again (average attack roll being a 5 or 6 with a single 7 for an exchange). The Allies REALLY needed to cause a retreat - the LRDG was positioned to cause step losses from retreating through ZOC at the time of the combats. All the Allies can do now is hope the expected Axis counter attack fizzles.
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| End of Turn 24 Axis (and End of Game) |
No such luck. The Axis get nice odds in the attacks (the Allies using up their air power in their turn to try and force some kind of result). The German 3-3-12 moved to where it would force any retreats to be through a ZOC. Then an exploit attack was made on the stack with the 8-4-8 on top. I can't remember if that went well, I think it was an exchange. During regular combat though the stack was attacked and this time destroyed save that 4-2-8 by being forced to retreat through the enemy zoc. The advance after combat allowed the units now in 49-19 to attack the stack in 48.18 and the Axis rolled a 12... Combined with an exchange result on O'Connor's stack sealed the fate of the Desert Rats.
My replacement roll for turn 24 was a 9 (3 steps!) but it would not be enough to take back Bardia for a draw much less get me near Tobruk for a victory so I conceeded the game.
Post game whining / analysis.
1: (the whine). With an average roll of 7 the allies would get 2 replacement points each turn for a total of 48 replacements on average. Granted that is not how averages work but it is a good benchmark. I remember rolling a single 9 and about 5 sixes for a total of 8 replacements BUT I rolled the 4-5 result twice early in the game which is 8 replacements removed and then I rolled the 2-3 result 3 times for 6 more removed. So instead of an average 48 replacement steps during the game I had a total of -6 replacements throughout the game. Churchill had a lot of fires to put out elsewhere I suppose.
2: Supply is a pain the butt for the Germans but all it really does is force them to not go past Bardia - since supply is used just by existing there is no way to stockpile it by curtailing operations either.
3: Compared to the original things in the macro sense play much better, the Germans can no longer race from Bardia to an un-guarded Alexandria and win the game as long as the Allies stopped up the highway. On the micro sense something seems lost. As the Allies there was nothing I could do (save running away) to keep the Germans from getting in the rear and cutting off route paths - even having units in the hexes to be retreated through does not stop losses due to ZOCs. While the Germans can't go too far past a port or be out of supply. Between this and the Axis winning by holding Bardia the game ends up a battle between Bardia and Mersa Matruh - which is not very historical, there should be some imperative for the Axis to take Alexandria (not to win, but perhaps needing to get close once a year or lose). That would be a different game though.
4: Exploit capable units. The Axis get a lot of them and they are faster then the Allied ones. The ability to attack three times a turn versus once for many Allied units is a major force multiplier. Couple that with the high movement factors allowing route paths to be cut and it is a triple threat. If the exploit and combat phases go badly the high speed unit zips back to where it started and is still in supply (never having entered a ZOC). If they go well it can most likely be in supply right where it is. The Allies can not stop this be forming a line - each hex of it could be exploit attack individually and there would be no column shifts for spread out units.
5: The Italians, they get no respect - they are slower than even the Allied units and eat up lots of supply. They are very handy in defense though.
