The First Moves

British -- The Sollum operation dropped the ball badly -- twice. This lost me two good units and left Gotthung out to dry. Not good. The air operation did what it was supposed to do (grounded his fighter and then took a step out of one bomber).

Once the Sollum operation failed, I turned my attention to Buq Buq in an attempt to secure the supply there. The overrun on this hex did poorly as well, leaving the hex in Italian hands with one lousy step between me and the desperately needed supplies. Lastly, I set up Shelby to knock out the camp along the coastal road, a massive barrage to DC; the Nibeiwa camp, and a minor effort to clear the camp at Sofafi. I was not at all happy with the results...while I got surprise in all but one overrun, the greatect shift was 2. Not good.

The results of the combat phase will determine how this will go, but if I do not get some luck there, I fear I have shot my bolt with little to show for it.

Italian -- Well, the Weenie [Dean's Note: such unprofessionalism would not be tolerated in the British army, please note that I never referred to Dave as the "little snot" his is in any of my sections.] will edit this to make himself look like a Limey Napoleon, but I will try to present the facts of the matter anyway.

The British player tried multiple overruns at both Sollum and Buq Buq, but was stymied by the problems endemic to an overrun-based offensive not enough good die rolls. He got surprise 3 out of 4 times, but never got a big column shift to negate the low odds problem. Sollum was never really threatened, but Buq Buq almost fell -- lost 3 out of 4 steps, and has only a 1-step Inf Div (ART) left to hold on. Buq Buq is almost certainly doomed. However, my reaction may give me some chances. If Maletti goes active, I can send some good AR units to Sidi Barrani and maybe Sollum, and perhaps mess with his supply trace, which is very tenuous right now due to terrain. At the moment, things are good, and I am confident of managing to hang on to at least one of the critical three towns.

Italian Reaction Phase

Italian -- I moved up the Babini Armor Ragg so as to reinforce Sollum (and hopefully to set up a counterattack against the Gott stack if possible -- I have a good AR3 tank Bn to give the attack weight). Better yet, I got Maletti to move. I sent the artillery back a hex to the salt marsh hedgehog hex behind it, and then decided to overrun the adjacent Brit stack with the tanks and Camels. With Maletti and the Camel AR, I had a +1 mod. for the overrun, and got a good roll~ shifts up. Better yet, I rolled well, so that the Brits lost 2 steps and retreated with no loss to me. This is good, because now Maletti with 2 units is astride one of the roads he needs to supply his situation, and represents a significant diversion away from my vulnerable hexes and into his rear.

British -- As expected, Babini was released and ran toward Sollum; he'll probably be able to clear Clott's remaining battalion during his turn (the other died due to attrition). Maletti ran forward to try to mess with my alreadymessed up supply lines. This won't affect anything as I will ignore them.

British Combat Phase

British -- Sloppy supply work meant no barrages... DOH!

Combats got me into Buq Buq (at the cost of Jock Campbell, who was wounded). All other attacks went very poorly. The loss of Jock removed my Exploit chances as he was the main effort (Gott is still stranded with his one battalion, O'Connor is helping the corps HQ's defense).

Italian -- He used up too much ammo to fire his cannon, so I got lucky there.

[Dean's Note -- Actually, the intended supply was there the problem was that some dummy (me) didn't count the distance and it was too far away to be used.]

The attack on Buq Buq went in well, and I lost the last step, destroying the division. His taking of Buq Buq netted him 2SP + IT captured, but cost him Campbell, which negated his exploit possibilities. He made two other attacks. Selby Force vs. the I Lib Infantry Division cost both sides a step, but I still hold the hog hex. He also sent one Indian brigade against my 21 Corps stack -- a division, a Lt Tank Bn, and the HQ, but that was a forlorn hope, and netted him nothing but a retreat.

[Dean's Note -- This was desperate effort to reopen a supply line: it failed. ]

As the phase ends, I still block his best supply routes, leaving him with a strong need to police up his own areas rather than concentrate on taking Sollum and Sidi Barrani. Choices, choices.

British End of Player-turn Comments

1) My effort at Sollum was too much and too early; in another game, I'd want to do that stuff on turn 2 (or at least the first Exploit Phase).

2) Numerous attacks went south. I probably went in expecting too much value for luck, but the return was far worse than expected. Average results would have been far better than what I got.

3)I was dreadfully sloppy in a number of instances. My big barrage on Nibeiwa didn't happen due to a screw up in supply placement, and the entire logistical operation west of Sidi Barrani just failed. Not very good play.

4) On Sollum again, I really needed to concentrate on the near-in objectives first. Going after this one too early used valuable units I needed elsewhere (the losses didn't help, either! ).

Italian Turn 1

British Expectations -- I see Dave going after Gott's hex (and getting it). The other Italians will have to deal with my units on the their supply line.

[Dean's Note -- Take careful note that both of us are now expecting the other player to drop everything and deal with the threat to his supply lines. This is sort of a Mexican stand-off, but the important feature is that neither of us is overly concerned with his own supply lines. We both expect the "other guy" to blink first.]

Italian -- I made one effort to get a fighter aloft, promptly shot down by the Limey devils. Next, I concentrated for two attacks, shifting a 2-point artillery brigade to Sollum, supported by the armor and infantry there to try and capture the hex in front of Sollum and create a buffer.

Supply precludes any other attacks, and sustenance cost me all the supply in the Barrani dump -- thankfully I could ship in the 1T needed to get the last two REs.

British Reaction

British -- During Reaction, I managed to get Gott to withdraw a few hexes in order to draw a few hexes in order to keep him out of the hammer fall aimed at him. Because of this, his attacks were canceled and so on.

Italian -- Strafer Gott managed to get active, and retreated out of my attack. Insert various rude comments about his sexual habits and ancestry, including his well known love of animals.

Remainder of Italian Turn

Italian -- No Italian combat.

Rolled for Babini Ragg for Exploitation -- no exploit. Shot Babini.

More Sidi Barrani

Sidi Barrani (Game): Introduction
Sidi Barrani (Game): First Moves
Sidi Barrani (Game): Turn Two
Sidi Barrani (Game): Maps (extremely slow: 580K)