The game was basically a combination of the first attack on Capuzzo combined with the attack at Hafid Ridge. I gave the orders of battle and general objective to two volunteers who would not be at the convention and asked them to give initial dispositions and orders for each side. The players on the day would take it from there. The British commander, went with a relatively conventional attack, similar to history with the exception of switching the Crusader regiment with a Matilda regiment, thereby ensuring that both attacks would have 'heavy' tank support. He also wisely allocated the recon asserts to the Hafid attack. On the Axis side, Hafid was held strongly with a full Kradshützen battalion and supporting AA and AT assets. Capuzzo had one rifle company, one Italian company with two more in motion, and similar AA and AT assets. The armor reserve (a full strength Panzer Regiment) was held off table with explicit orders to commit it en masse or not at all. Since I only had a 12 ft wide table, there was a artificial break on the table that required 3 turns to traverse. Similarly, off board forces could only enter after a three turn delay. In all cases approaching forces would be announced by a dust cloud one turn before arrival.
The initial battlefields:
Capuzzo is to the top, Hafid at the bottom.
The British assault has begun
Probing the first ridge
The initial results were grim for the British as an entire company of The Coldstreamers were lost along with a Matilda knocked out by an 88. But they pressed on resolutely taking the first line of sangars. Capuzzo fell three turns later, primarily due to excellent shooting by the Guards and a clear determination to come to grips with the defenders in the fort.
Meanwhile, the attack on Hafid was making slower progress as the Axis defenses were more difficult to develop.
Eventually the 88 announced itself, and the 8th Panzer Regiment arrived.
This stopped the British offensive at Hafid dead in its tracks. However, by this time, Capuzzo had fallen and a 2 lbr Portee battery had come over to Hafid. The 6th RTR also began to redeploy to the Hafid area. Afraid of being caught between two armored forces the 8th Panzer withdrew to the North. At this point there were 2 hours of daylight left and we called the game in favor of the British with a score of 4-2. The key decision was the fleeting of the German tanks in the face of two 2lbr portees. Interestingly, the last CD game I ran at Little Wars also featured a complete panzer regiment vey timidly handled.
A pair of Italian recon stands observing the action.
finds bridges to match the river sets.
