"Attack on Ben Kharzi, a BA AAR." Topic

After months of burning the candle at both ends getting figures painted and buildings and terrain constructed we had our first game of Bolt Action a couple of Sundays ago. I have a mat from Tiny which I purchased for colonial gaming and thought "what else can I use it for to get maximum use from it", so I set about painting an Allied force consisting of 3 Sikh squads, a Rajput Rifles squad, and two squads of Essex Regt,a Vickers MMG, a couple of Honeys, an Indian Pattern carrier, Jeep, Austin Tilly, three Crusader I & IIs and a couple of MPs. For a later date I turned out a Grant and a Crusader III as well. There were also 2 squads of SAS as a 'surprise' package waiting off table in a couple of LCMs.
The Axis forces mainly Italian, consisted of a squad of Bersaglieri, a squad of Camino Nere, 3 squads of regular infantry, a Breda 20mm, a Breda MMG, an Elefantino AT gun, and 3 LV33 tankettes, one armed with MGs, one with an AT rifle and the last one a flamethrower. The DAK had three squads, with two of those squads starting off table, one a Kradschutz squad who were out searching for downed aircrew, and a second squad with Steyr command car, a kubelwagen and a Pak36 which was the remains of a Kampfgruppe trying to return to base.

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What a wonderful looking game.

We had two commanders per team, and drew two dice at a time to try and keep things moving along. There were two Luftwaffe airmen hidden in the wadi who would reveal themselves to Axis troops if they were within 6 inches, Allied troops who were within 3 inches. It was the British who stumbled upon them and two Essex squad members were detached to take them to the rear .
Meanwhile the Indian troops were given the task of clearing the derelict village on the Allied left flank.In the face of strong Italian resistance the Sikhs were gradually whittled down.The Vickers chose the stay on the baseline rather than lend support, and it was left to the 2 Honeys with the Indian carrier to try and blast a way into the village.Un fortunately for them the first Honey was hit side on by a Sdkfz222 which emerged from the desert along with the remnants of Kampfgruppe von Tufreifur, and the Honey burst into flames. All those tinnies full of petrol lashed to the back of the tank obviously weren't such a good idea after all.
The Italians came out aggressively with the AT rifle armed LV33 heading down the road straight for the Honeys. It managed to get a lucky shot in which damaged the track and reduced the second Honey to the role of pillbox. After taking several more shots the Honey eventually brewed up. The other two LV33s went around the derelict village, where the flamethrower wrought havoc on the Sikhs, wiping out 2 squads and damaging the Rajputs.
The Essex on the Allied right flank left the wadi and moved towards Ben Kharzi where they ran into fire from the Camino Nere. The Blackshirts rolled for shirkers and threw a 5! Fanatics!. This didn't help the Allied players morale one bit.The Blackshirts then proceeded to pin and destroy the Essex squad.
The 2 squads of SAS arrived in the docks whilst all this was going on, much to the discomfort of the Italian commander who thought he had everything under control. The Kradshutzen who had appeared near the wadi and were trying to reach the airmen to effect their release, were turned round and sent hurrying to the docks. A unit of Italians were also sent running to assist. the Italians got there first and succeeded in wiping out one LCM full of SAS just as they leapt onto the pier.The Kradshutzen arrived on the harbour wall just in time to stop the SAS from planting explosives in all the ammo and fuel dumps there, bar one.Those SAS didn't last long and were dispached in two turns. Unfortunately for the DAK a large fuel tank on the docks exploded killing 7 out of a 10 man squad so the SAS had revenge of sorts.
A Tilly arrived to collect the 2 airmen and it had AT grenades on board for the remaining Essex squad, but was unable to reach them for burning Honeys. HQ felt the Allies needed some help, so three Crusaders were dispatched to try and move things along. They finally managed to deal a death blow to the flamethrower tankette after it had wrought havoc in the Allied lines, adding the Indian carrier to its list of victims.However, it was too little too late as the Allies had lost so many units by this time that the Italians were over 3 units to the good and their morale went up by 2+. At this point the Allied commander threw the towel in and called his men off.
A very enjoyable game which was a good learning curve. We omitted to use some rules, officer's morale for example, and stuck to getting the hang of things and trying to get things right.Next time we turn the tables and it will be the Axis attacking the Aussies in Tobruk type scenario.

Very nice!

Are the swastikas permanent on the building, or removable?

Outstanding set-up!

That is wonderful

The swastika flags were put on with blu tack so they can be removed for colonial games. Sorry if they are against any rules, I hadn't thought of that bit when I posted to be honest.It was to represent the DAK HQ which was the ultimate target what with the radio transmitter etc.

The explosion markers in the bottom pic are for a barrage which we let the Allied player perform on one of the two minefields in front of the town. We let them merrily blast away with off table arty until they'd finally thrown 6 sixes at which point the field is deemed to be cleared. At this juncture it was revealed that out of the two minefields, they'd chosen to bombard the dummy one.

Really superb minis and table, and thanks for the battle report. I would just mention that it's "Rajput*ana* Rifles" -- I only know this because I am working on a unit of them.

Fantastic looking game! Thanks.

Thanks Jeff, we were being 'colloquial' in our pronounciation I think, or just plain lazy.
Thanks for the compliments guys.

Just curious, it's been quite awhile since I read SAS books, did they ever use landing craft like that?

Whether or not they did historically, the game looks great fun!

No miniMo I don't believe they did, but they were cheap enough and they will come in handy for Operation Torch scenarios once Perrys release their WW2 Americans. I just used my imagination, the game was loosely based upon the raid upon Tobruk where SIG, commandos and the SAS attacked through the frontal defences whilst the RN was supposed to land troops by boat and MTB from offshore, and thanks to really poor security beforehand and a tip off it all went spectacularly pear-shaped. Landing craft were convenient, I suppose I got that idea from the film Tobruk starring Rock Hudson and George Peppard.

Thanks for that. I haven't watched that film in awhile, and was must wondering what vid to pop in while trimming figures this afternoon.

Hmm, a 1/56 MTB would be a stunning set piece….

I'd have used Commandos but I'm a Perry fanboy and I don't like the Warlord figures with their strange gurning expressions and odd body shapes, so I used Perry SAS instead. I suppose since they arrived by LCM we should have called them SBS instead.I hunted everywhere for an MTB in 1/56th but no luck. The Italian landing craft came from Barrage Miniatures and although they have a range of landing craft and boats no MTB or E Boats unfortunately.

I've had the Barrage boats bookmoarked for some time.

The LCA and LCS(M) they have fit well in the African theatre.

A little google-fu on LCA boats discovers that they were used by 7 Commando in another semi-botched raid on Bardia:
link

This page shows losses of the LCS(M) in the fall of Tobruk, Torch, and Anzio. Possibly used and not sunk in other engagements:
link

Very interesting links Cat, thank you.

This would do in 1/48th scale if we aren't being too pernickety about it being an Elco. I mean how many films have we watched over the years that have had various other craft of later date and nationality posing as E Boats and MTBs?
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The price is a bit steep but if it was a case of really needing it would have to do. Shame to have to saw most of the bottom off though.

Twould be pretty!

WOW !!!!!! Now That's a war game !!!! !!!!!

So, we are currently having another go at BA, only this time the tables are reversed with the Australians holding the town and the Afrika Korps, assisted by one squad of Italians and a CV33 flamethrower, as the attackers. We used the Dawn Assault rule. After a prelim bombardment which removed several lengths of barbed wire the Italians sneaked up on the foremost squad of Aussies in their foxholes. The flamethrower did it's deadly work and wiped out the defenders before they had time to react. The Panzers rolled over the position but a lucky shot by a captured M11/43 behind a barricade managed to immobilise the CV33 before it could wreak more havoc. It faced a Panzer II and Panzer IV though to it's front and was in turn knocked out itself. Meanwhile a Stug Ausf D and a Panzer III took the more central route.

The Aussies resisted with squads hunkered down in ruined buildings waiting for the tanks to get within assault range, meanwhile they hit back with another captured tank, an M11/39 which was dug in and which did pretty good work with all weapons, along with a Vickers MMG, a 3 inch mortar, a 25pdr, and a Daimler A/C which made several attempts to get at the enemy.

Meanwhile more Afrika Korps reinforcements waited to come on. What we couldn't find, which must be the usual Warlord errata that occurs in their books, was when reinforcements actually did come on in the scenario in the book.It said the first wave had to be at least half the force, but that was it. Oh well 'shrug'.

Some of the troops in the background are just 'parked' there as I've run out of space to put them.

We should finish the game tomorrow evening, that'll be the third night. Currently the Germans have the upper hand. For some reason they didn't commit their engineer squad in the first wave, which surprised us. The Aussies can't expect any reinforcements so we've just got to see if they can get to grips with the Jerries in hand to hand fighting and make good use of their fanatics rule.