Before writing the article "Updating the New Desert Options," which appeared in Europa #14, I played a solitaire game of Western Desert to test those options. The following "campaign report" covers that game and provides some hints on strategy. I used John Astell's options from issue #8, modified per issue #14. Furthermore, I used percentile dice for combat (e.g.: if the odds were 2.45:1, there was a 45% chance of rolling on the 3:1 column instead of the 2:1 column). This should become a published option, in my opinion, as it favors neither side -- at least not in Western Desert where both sides frequently attack and counter-attack. I also imposed a -- 1 victory point penalty for each turn the Allies failed to invade an Axis-sympathetic Syria (see "Taking Syria Seriously" in ETO #52).

Campaign Report

Dec 40: O'Connor's Allied force "Britzed" the Italians from Sidi Barani up to Tobruk as usual.

Jan 41: The Italians momentarily delayed the Allies at Tobruk before evacuating. The Axis air force in Sicily moved to Africa to support the ground forces rather than bomb the Malta status. This tactic, combined with a delaying action in the Tobruk area, can prevent the early fall of Benghazi, especially if 10th Army construction engineers in Tripoli are activated in time to fortify Benghazi. Furthermore, it justifies keeping the Italian Trento Division motorized (which the Axis elected to do in this game): As long as the port of Benghazi remains in Axis hands, supply steps can move by sea to the front, and the long coast road haul from Tripoli is unnecessary -- therefore the extra SMPs won't be needed.

Feb II: The Allies finally arrived outside Benghazi. They immediately launched a manly(and desperate) 2:1 attack just before the Italian engineers finished fortifying the city and just before the Allied troop withdrawals to Greece had to be made. An EX result took a horrible toll on both armies and eliminated three Ju87s that were based in Benghazi providing defensive support (the Ju87s had no other friendly airbase within range). An abashed O'Connor signaled to Wavell, "Fox killed in den."

Mar I: The Allies had one shot at capturing all of Cyrenaica(thereby earning 30 victory points) if they could grab El Agheila this turn. Next turn would be too late as Axis c/m reinforcements were hurrying down the coast road from Tripoli. Mussolini forbade retreat from El Agheila. The British armor clanked into the defending Italian infantry and artillery with odds between 1:2 and 1:1, full AECA -- not good, but the British felt desperate again. An HX result backfired on the outnumbered British, and Hitler congratulated Mussolini on the spirited defense. Visions of the Suez danced in their heads. Mussolini had an arch erected on the outskirts of town to commemorate his great victory.

Mar II - Apr I: The Allied army(what little was left) retreated to Benghazi, sacrificing units in rear-guard actions to save the rest. If the Allies thought their situation desperate before, it looked completely hopeless now. Personally, I had never seen a game where the Allies were so weak at this critical period (and that includes the first pre-production playtest that Bill Stone and I played, wherein Bill caught my zealous British armor flatfooted in Tripolitania -- see the first paragraph of ETO #3 for a partial report on that match). Could these few survivors hold Tobruk? Could they even hold El Alamein? First, they had to hold Benghazi. The Axis c/m forces made a calculated stab at Benghazi, hoping to bag the Allied remnants before they put to sea, but the Western Desert Force(down to eight REs) repulsed the attack and boarded their ships. The Axis air force bombed Malta for small effect.

Apr II: The 4th Indian Division returned from Ethiopia. The Allies, after some anxious thought, decided to hold Tobruk with this division if only to delay Rommel long enough for a fort line to be built at El Alamein. Force K at Malta raised Allied hopes by sinking a vital panzer regiment and Axis supplies (that's what happens when one diverts the Axis air force from bombing the Malta status to supporting the army on the ground). Meanwhile, the Vichy government succumbed to Axis pressures and agreed to permit Axis units to enter the Levant (none ever did enter, though).

May: The Axis surrounded Tobruk. The heroic defenders included the 4th Indian Division, a Free French brigade, the Polish brigade, the Czech battalion, a British antiaircraft brigade, and a British artillery brigade. Rommel swept on by this multi-colored stack and pushed his c/m units into Egypt, hoping to break the El Alamein line before it congealed. He wished at this time that he had more SMPs instead of wheels for Trento -- but that is part of the decision-making gamble with the motorization/SMP option.

Jun I: Because the three-hex wide El Alamein line was undermanned and incompletely fortified, the Allies staged a chancy breakout from Tobruk to cut Rommel's supplies. An armored brigade, shipped in specifically for this purpose, led an attack out of the perimeter which overwhelmed two Italian armor battalions and an artillery regiment, cut Rommel's supply road, and captured the supply step earmarked for his El Alamein attack. Though neither side realized it at the time, Axis fortunes in the desert had just passed their zenith. A disgruntled Rommel pulled back to Sidi Barani.

Jun II - Jul II: The Axis launched three attacks against Tobruk, spearheaded by the Italian 31st Assault Engineer Battalion and supported by all available air units. Odds were 1.5:1 for two of the attacks (33% chance of success each) and 1:1 for the other. No attack succeeded (the new -- 1 dm for fortresses helped produce historical results here by canceling the +1 dm for engineers). Axis supplies dwindled to a critical low as a result of these attacks and the choking effect of Malta. On Jul II, the growing Allied army overran the Levant to stop that nagging victory point penalty.

Aug: An Axis attempt to bomb out Tobruk's harbor failed against Allied fighters and antiaircraft fire. The Axis kept their last supply step in reserve rather than burning it to attack Tobruk again.

Sep: The Allies, now feeling secure and anxious to lift the siege of Tobruk, seized the initiative and advanced from the El Alamein line. The Axis scored an initial success when they cadred a British infantry division and a New Zealand infantry division.

Oct I: The Allies captured Halfaya Pass anyway. The Axis counterattacked but failed to take it back. Axis supplies were by now exhausted or had been sunk en route to Africa. The Axis abandoned Bardia but maintained their grip around Tobruk.

Oct II: British armor destroyed the Italian Trento Division, while Axis armor cadred both South African divisions, but even so the Axis retreat began, as their position had now become untenable.

Nov I: The Allies relieved Tobruk, and none too soon, for they were nearly out of supply steps to both feed Tobruk's defenders and keep the offensive going full strength. The Allies eliminated several Italian infantry divisions, and the Axis fell back towards Derna.

Nov II: Allied forces gobbled up more Axis infantry, while the Axis air force started a long campaign against Malta.

Dec: The Axis fell back slowly to Benghazi, losing more units on the way. Hitler and Mussolini both ordered Rommel to hold Fort Benghazi (a supply terminal again) at all costs.

Jan - Aug 42: For the first eight months of 1942, a stalemate occurred. The initial Allied attack on Benghazi came to naught, and Axis forces recuperated quickly to make the city unassailable. Allied Hurricanes failed to win air superiority over Benghazi due to the Me109s based there. The British fortified a siege line around Benghazi after Rommel sortied once and cadred an Indian division. British armor could not penetrate far into Tripolitania because Benghazi sat athwart the coast road(there is no bypass road for Benghazi as there is for Tobruk). The Axis air offensive against Malta was a complete success and dramatically increased the Malta status, belatedly relieving the Axis supply step worries. The bombers then provided defensive support for Benghazi.

Sep: Finally, after the Allied air force had grown in strength, it won control of Benghazi's airspace, butchering the Axis air force in the contest (there were more eliminated Axis air units than operative ones by this time). And finally, too, the Allies had an 11-division army that was strong enough to tackle Benghazi. Montgomery crushed the defenses on Sep II, capturing the place on Oct I, but while his back was turned(one must suspend disbelief when playing solitaire), German parachutists seized Cyprus unopposed.

Oct: The Allies advanced quickly into Tripolitania. The Axis prepared defenses around Tripoli, but the game was effectively over, whether Tripoli fell or not. Axis losses, particularly in scrapped units, were enormous, whereas their territorial gains were minimal because they had never once held all of Cyrenaica. Indeed, the Allies had won decisively a year before, in Oct 41, during the pivotal "Crusader" battles around Tobruk.

Amazing

What amazed me in this game was that Benghazi proved so tough for the Allies to crack -- and nearly impossible to go around. This Benghazi strategy has its seed in ETO #38 where Larry Bucher asked in "Forum" if it is cost-effective for the Axis player to open Benghazi as a supply terminal. I wrote in ETO #40 "Forum" that it rarely is. Boy, was I wrong! So much for Ben's big theories. John Astell's new option to treat Benghazi as a supply terminal at the start of the game prodded me to try a different Axis strategy (of course, even without this option the Axis player can make Benghazi a supply terminal on the first turn). It seems that the Italians, given full air support, have a fair chance of holding Benghazi as a supply terminal until the German panzers arrive to rescue them. Of course, in the above game they lost the place, but if they had delayed the Allied army for one more turn they could have saved it -- and, anyway, the Australians suffered severe infantry losses taking it.

Still, the real key to Axis victory is Tobruk: The fall of Tobruk means the fall of Cyrenaica, and the fall of Cyrenaica means 30 fat victory points every six months. The Axis need to capture enough territorial victory points to offset the victory points that the Allies will receive for eliminated Axis units (all those Italians!). The Axis in this game had a good chance of capturing Tobruk. If they had not lost those valuable Ju87s at Benghazi, perhaps they could have accomplished it, either by using the Ju87s in ground support of the attack or by bombing Malta so that more supply steps and reinforcements came through during that critical period.

I like Western Desert best of all Europa games. The strategic possibilities are geographically narrow, but the initiative constantly shifts from one side to the other, and there is a lot of decision-making in regards to timing of offensives and feinting (and tactics of course). The wide mix of unit types and nationalities for such small armies also appeals to me (note the defenders of Tobruk above). I congratulate John Astell on designing an excellent game on the desert war.