If you missed it, the original version of "Operation CRUSADER" was designed by Frank Watson and published in issue #31 of The Europa Magazine for use with Western Desert.

Special Rules. All Allied garrison requirements are taken care of by units not represented in the scenario. The scrapping and disbanding rules are open to abuse in a short battle scenario, so these actions are not allowed.

Orders of Battle. I set the rail capacity for the Cyrenaica rail net to reflect its capture by the Allies and subsequent recapture by the Axis.

The Allies only get 10 of their 16 rail capacity to represent rail movement by units not represented in this scenario.

Ports in the new WitD have larger capacities and greater damage, so I've increased Frank's initial damage to keep their capacities the same as in the original scenario.

The non-ARP replacements are simply calculated by multiplying Frank's numbers by the average attack strength of the units which can be replaced by these replacements. The Axis ARPs are based on Nov I ARPs with one subtracted from each nationality representing the apparently poor state of the Axis air forces.

At first, I removed the Australian brigade from Tobruch, since only a part of the unit was left there. However, the participants on the Europa Internet objected with arguments that quickly degenerated to a discussion of beer. OK, OK, the Aussies and their beloved lager are back. Their addition does make up for the loss of the hv AA X. The representation of the Aussies as a full strength brigade can be rationalized by Jim Broshot's information that part of I DG Recon II was at Tobruch (for the really hard core, a mixed Aus/UK X is an alternative possibility). Also note, the Allied player receives no Aus replacements and pays a special VP penalty if the Aus X is eliminated.

Both of the sources I received by e-mail identified the Czech battalion as being present, attached to the Polish X. Also, the 4th Hv AA X is not yet present in the Middle East at the time of CRUSADER according to the new Allied OB tome. This is partially balanced out by British intrinsic AA (see the errata regarding intrinsic AA and note that intrinsic AA increases on the Jan I 42 turn). The result of all this is a marginally weaker garrison, but Tobruch does now have a -1 modifier for being an improved fortress (though Frank had already included this as a special rule in his original scenario).

Three Italian units (1x 3-4-6 Art III, 2x 1-6 Tank II) are listed as "Place with any Italian division..." These units are in the new WitD but not in Western Desert or Frank's scenario. Since I caved in and added the Aussies to Tobruch (see above), I decided to play fair and let the Axis get these folks as initial units.

The Axis air units were one of my bigger headaches. The new WitD gives the Axis about 50% more air units at this point in the campaign than were found in Western Desert or Frank's scenario. I got some help from Jason Long, but his Axis air OB still didn't quite fit the air units available to the Axis according to the new WitD OB. Nonetheless I built on what Jason provided to produce the scenario OB. Not only is it larger than Frank's original scenario OB, but there are now no Luftwaffe bombers on Sicily.

The non-ARP replacements are simply calculated by multiplying Frank's numbers by the average attack strength of the units which can be replaced by these replacements. One has been subtracted from the Br arm points to go along with the two Br Arm replacement points that are necessary for the Jan I 42 conversion. The ARP total takes the nine points arriving on Nov I 41, adds one as assumed carryover from the previous aircycle, and subtracts two so the British get the Hurri I in Malta at the start of the scenario.

I followed Frank's lead and kept the 4th Arm X as supported even though that is impossible in the context of WitD. From his original designer's notes: "I've listed 4th Arm X as supported, a status it can't really acquire at this stage in real game of WitD. It was officially called a 'Brigade Group' for CRUSADER, implying that it was supported. The British official history explicitly states that the unit had 'supporting arms.' " A added a special rule to allow the British to rebuild an armored division with the supported 4th Arm X. As an optional rule for either this scenario or for WitD as a whole, you could let the Allies expend 1 Br inf replacement point to flip unsupported arm Xs to their supported side.

Commonwealth reconnaissance battalions didn't appear in the old Western Desert. Frank mentioned the 6th SA in his designer's notes for the original scenario. Jim Broshot listed the 6th SA as well as two more of these units, the 4th SA and Ist King's Dragoon Guards (I W) with XXX Corps in the order of battle information he contributed. Jim later clarified that the 6th SA and I DG were not understrength but had detachments operating with a number of forces. The HQ and two squadrons of 6th South African Armoured Car Regiment was assigned to Oasis Force and one squadron to XXX Corps, while the HQ and two squadrons of the Kings Dragoon Guards operated with 7 Arm XX and one squadron with the Tobruch garrison.

In his original scenario, Frank said he thought Oasis Force should probably have a transport counter, but none were yet available to the British in the old Western Desert. In the new WitD, one arrives on Nov I so I placed it with Oasis Force. The kicker is that it's due to be involved in a conversion on Jan I 42. This is the reason for the special VP penalty for its loss as well as it optional withdrawal on Jan I 42.

The Allied air order of battle contains all but one the Middle East air units available to the British at the start of the scenario. It is a bit stronger than the force original scenario, but then so are the Axis air forces, so maybe it all evens out. I had no idea if some of these air units should maybe be in Palestine, Cyprus, or elsewhere. David Hughes advised that a single Hurricane unit should be in the Near East or Palestine.

Malta has less AA than in old version even after including the new intrinsic AA. Malta's vulnerability to air attack is further increased by the two column shift to the left for attacks against its status number.

In his original scenario, Frank has the Malta Hurri start in the replacement box. However, the British quickly get a second Malta Hurri on the Dec 1 41 turn. No such reinforcement is available in the new OB book. In an act of mercy, I resurrected the Malta Hurri and subtracted its rebuild cost from the starting British ARP allotment. David Hughes agreed and also advised to add the Blen 4 to the Malta forces.

The Ankara. Ankara was a 4768 ton freighter built in 1937 especially for the purpose of carrying locomotives. She had two sister ships, Cairo and Levante. They were apparently equipped with their own cranes and needed little help from port equipment. These came in handy in delivering panzers to re-equip the Afrika Korps after the attrition of CRUSADER, off-loading the tanks at a damaged Bengasi harbor. Ankara, loaded with Tiger tanks, sunk 18 Jan 1943 when its convoy ran into a minefield laid by the British submarine HMS Rorqual.

Using the Ankara is a very optional rule.

Italian Navy Escort Operations. I think the Italian navy's escort operations deserves a mention in the Naval Options optional rules. I phrased my proposed rule as an addition to the full campaign rules, if players wish to use it as such. If there's space for a really one-off possibility like the scuttling of the Barham in an enemy port, then there should be some mention of possibiliffes for the Italian navy.

Optional Rules. The other optional rules (hidden supply, armor attrition, and infantry exploitation come from the original scenario in TEM #31. Frank mentioned there that the armor attrition and hidden supply options had particular application in the CRUSADER battles. They're optional, so obviously you don't have to use them, but a battle scenario format gives enough freedom to throw options like that. Here is the original discussion of those optional rules, from the"Designer's Notes" sections of TEM#31.

"Limited intelligence is always messy in a wargame and the optional hidden supply rules are no exception. Their intent is to give Rommel a target for his historical "Dash to the Wire," on the Axis Nov II exploitation phase. If Afrika Korps had found the Allied supplies, the British would have had to call off the offensive. They missed however, and the British went on to eke out a marginal victory. The superior Allied strategic intelligence, air reconnaissance, and ground recon, keep the Axis from receiving hidden supplies.

Not allowing the Allies to make any of their new supplies hidden is for simplicity. The 5 hex limitation for supply units is meant to keep the Allies from sending their supply trucks deep behind Axis lines unprotected. Like I said, limited intelligence is messy.

The armor attrition rule is basically concerned with the same historical event. At the beginning of Rommel's dash, Afrika Korps was in fairly good order. When they reached the frontier, they were in poor shape indeed, yet had not fought any significant ground action (they had been attacked from the air).

The hidden supply / armor attrition combination also comes into play at other times in the historical African campaign. The most notable are during O'Connor's offensive and Rommel's "Midsummer's Night Dream" raid of Sep I 41. Both the hidden supply / anmor attrition rules are very optional for the scenario, but they do tend to ease a difficult British situation. Use extreme caution if you attempt to use these two optional rules in a campaign game. Some strange things can happen, particularly with hidden supplies, without considerably more extensive rules.

More Operation Crusader

Operation Crusader: Auchinleck's Offensive Nov. 1941
Allied Order of Battle
Axis Order of Battle
Operation Crusader Desiger's Notes
Operation Crusader Battle Report