The Dark Sands full campaign start

 Lawerence and I started our up The Dark Sands full campaign today.  Even with the test game we played a couple weeks back there were still mistakes.  I don't think any that are critical (since the opening turns are very scripted but still a bit annoying).

The map at start.  The UK will get pretty much all of the chits which makes the unit count misleading.  The Italians are going to take a beating.  This is actually a good thing simulation wise, in a couple of other games it is nearly impossible to replicate what happened to the Italians in this time frame.

The end of turn 1.  Most of the Italians have been eliminated already.  The rest fall back to Tobruk which was a bad move on my part - I should have read the TEC more completely.  The forts did nothing for them.  The would have been far more useful blocking the roads.

The end of turn 2.  All of the Italians are gone and the UK has forces in the Axis setup area.  Due to scripting the Italians had no chance but I might have saved one or two.  Also due to scripting the UK has no chance of keeping the turn 3 Axis reinforcements from arriving - though with slightly different luck and worse play on my part the UK could have gotten a LOT of troops into the Axis setup area.

Thoughts so far.

1 - A good simulation that is easy to play.

2 - Highly scripted due to the chits and reinforcements and withdrawals are on a set schedule with no consideration of what is happening in this particular game but the scripted nature of the chits also normally helps ensure things go semi-historically (at least so far).

3 - No tracking supply points!  Hurray!  The action chits handle that aspect of things pretty well (at least so far - if the Germans don't get past Tobruk and still have supply limited by lower chit counts it would seem a bit strange but I don't think that will happen).

Two complete game turns completed in four hours.  Not bad considering rules reading involved and this are pretty full turns in regards to number of chits to be played.  Next game is set for next week.  The Afrika Korps and Rommel come in and swing things back to Axis initiative.