Rommel - Breakout Scenario

Andy and I played another game in our series of Mid War Western Desert scenarios using Rommel, this time we chose 'Breakout' with me as the Germans attempting to break out and Andy as the British trying to stop me.

I chose a strong Pz KG with some attached Tigers and two weaker Pz KG one with PzIII's and one with PzIV's. Andy chose to start with an Infantry Brigade with attached Valentines and an Armoured Brigade of mixed Grant's and Sherman's with another Armoured Brigade of Crusaders as reinforcements.

The German plan was to rush forward with the strong Pz KG and the other Pz KG with PzIV's while holding back the weakest Pz KG to try to keep open a line of communication between the breakout force and the German supply centre. The British deployed the mixed Sherman and Grant Brigade on my right and the Infantry Brigade on my left.

The Germans made good progress initially, almost getting to the objective and establishing a strong position to capture it.

In response the British formed a cordon behind the breakout force isolating it from their supply line and advancing on the flanks of the breakout.

Combat then broke out on both flanks with the Germans attempting to defend the Panzer Grenadiers heading to the objective and the British trying to stave in the German flanks. On the left flank the combats went badly for the Germans who started taking losses, on the right the British struggled to make an impact.

While this combat continued the reserve Pz KG attempted to open a line of communication to the breakout force but failed to achieve a viable supply line.

The Germans then managed to take the objective and formed a defensive line to defend it while syphoning off some units to achieve the requirement to get at least 7 units off the battlefield by night time.

The German's now needed to hold out against the British attacks which were given new impetus by the arrival of the Crusader Armoured Brigade to boost their numbers.

Several more German units have either been eliminated or left the battlefield leaving just the Panzer Grenadiers holding the objective and an area of soft sand nearby. The few remaining German tanks are quickly mopped up by the British but, as darkness finally falls, the British can't dislodge the Grenadiers and the battle ends.

This was another great game in our series of Rommel scenarios with the Africa Korps and 8th Army, Rommel really makes you think like an army commander to achieve your objective or stop the enemy achieving theirs. This was the second time we played this scenario, in the first I sent all the German's forward immediately and abandoned my line of supply which gave me more troops to defend the objective but really drained my options by being isolated all the time. The Germans did win the first one but it was very close compared to this one. My plan to hold back one Pz KG to try to keep the troops on the objective supplied failed to do what I had hoped but may have drawn off more of Andy's force to throw them back so perhaps it did work just not the way I anticipated! From Andy's point of view I think that, as ever, it is hard attacking the elite Afrika Korps with lower strength units and generally worse armour. Andy did destroy a large number of the German tanks for not that many losses of his own and perhaps would have been better off not placing a hill on the objective which made it very hard to dislodge my infantry once they took it.

We've now played all the scenarios with Mid-War armies. The rules have really shown that the British, Germans and Italians all have their different strengths and weaknesses. The British have a good Op's board and are strong when defending especially when they can add some Sherman's to improve the quality of their armour. The Germans are probably more balanced between attack and defence especially when their tanks are generally better but are expensive and fewer in numbers as a result. As for the Italians they can really help bulk up a German army especially when defending when the static poor Italian infantry can hold a lot of ground for little points cost. It would be interesting to see how they do on their own which we have not tried yet.

Next we intend to move back in time to the Early war in the desert, it looks even more challenging for the British with their unreliable tanks against the Germans and perhaps the Italians without their Teutonic overlords!