For those of you who can't attend the GameDay put on by Radcon, I thought I would show you the Play Test of the 2nd Day of the Battle of El Alamein that we ran at Spocon spocon2009.com this summer. The Rules system used was Battleground with a couple of table rules. This is the game I want to put on as part of the Best Game competition for Tactical Solutions link in a couple of weeks so your input would be welcome. The terrain is still under construction but coming together. In the real battle, the terrain picture was a braided landscape formed by flash floods and wind.
During the second day of the Battle of El Alamein (October 24th, 1942), elements of the 15th Panzer Division counter attacked task groups of the British 1st Armored Division as they rounded Kidney Ridge. Their relative positions are shown on the map link 1st Armored was fresher and armed with American Sherman and Stuart tanks. The Germans however were crafty opponents with almost two year experience fighting in the desert.
In this scenario, the British were coming hard after having broken through stiff resistance with 2 Motor Rifle Companies of the second battalion of the Rifle Brigade with motorized infantry, mortars, Bren carriers and a brace of 6 pounders. They were supported by Sherman's and scouting was carried out by a troop of the 12th Lancers armored with Dingo and Humbar armored cars and Stuart Tanks.
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The Germans started with a full company of Panzer Grenadiers from the 188th PzG Regiment of the 15th Panzer division. This consisted of three full strength armored infantry platoons on trucks, supported by mortars, a section of the battalion cannon company with 75mm infantry guns and a section of Pak 36 37mm anti-tank guns which had only recently replaced the PzB 79 anti-tank rifle. They were supported by a weak armored company consisting of PzK III's and PzK IV f1 and f2's with Pak 38 50mm antitank guns in support. They were lead by Detachment 3 of the Panzer Armee Afrika consisting of PzK 222's and 234-1's.
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The Germans grabbed the initiative by rushing their recon detachment plus the cannon section forward to take the central hill.
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The British had their mortars set up and were able to take out the 75mm infantry guns but their armored cars reached the Hill ahead of the British and were in position to take advancing troops under fire.
This stalled the British advance while they tried to take a flanking hill with the "Finger of God" picture and so the German player was able to use his tanks picture to shut down the British advance on the north side of the hill.
The British countered by redeploying one of their Motor Rife Companies with a couple of Sherman's to the south and led off with the 12th Lancers. However the Redeployment took so long that the German Panzer Grenadiers of the 11th Regiment along with 37mm and 50mm anti-tank guns were able to set up and be partially dug in to receive their attack.
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Again the British were able to use their mortars with telling effect on the exposed infantry but those who had managed to dig in became a tough nut to crack. The 12th Lancers were able to skirt around to the south but were stopped by a lone Pzk IV f1 that was acting as infantry support.
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The British infantry dismounted and was coming forward ponderously under heavy mortar fire when the game period ended. The Germans we able to successfully spoil the numerically and qualitatively superior British Attack so victory went to Panzer Armee Afrika!
I think that for Tactical Solutions, link I will have the terrain a bit better and will get the set up done faster as completing another turn would have been very good. For those of you who can make it, I will also be running Space 1889 picture so see you there!
