Italian Turn Two

British -- I won initiative and made him go first because that way he will be unable to undo what (little?) I can do during my turn. Also, giving him another turn of eating off his dump at Sidi Barrani will make sure that at least some units get out of supply.

Dave tried to overrun part of the Indian Division in an attempt to break supply into Sidi Barrani. It failed. This was the extent of his turn.

Italian -- The Brit gave me initiative. I cannot get supply into the Barrani area without trucks, so I sent two tanks to overrun the 11 Indian Brigade, but they died in a -1 overrun attack that resulted in AL2. I see no hope of re-opening the supply line, or trucking stuff in, so I guess I will stand pat and try and hang onto Sollum.

I managed to truck in 2T to Sidi, which prevented the inner ring from starving, but it cost me my best AR unit (the Camels), and the entire outer ring starved. Sidi should fall this turn. Ergo, he has killed the required divisions, but I still hold both Sidi and Sollum. I hope that his losses will be enough to prevent him taking both cities.

Note: sending the 2T of trucks into Sidi with supplies is a desperation move -- something I'd never do in a campaign game, but it was the only chance I had of making Sidi tough enough to hang onto through his turn is to send them in.

British Turn Two

British -- I sent in all I could to make a hard attack on Sidi Barrani. Then I took the mobile elements left of 7 Arm (now in combat mode), overran the buffer hex Dave set up outside Sollum -- and then slammed the actual Sollum hex with the rest of the division. I think Sollum is mine. The determination will now be based on the attack on Sidi Barrani.

The attrition effect on the Italians turned everything around: prior to the mass surrenders due to attrition, I was really concerned that I had no hope of winning.

The attack on Sollum captured the place, at the cost of wounding Gott.

The attack on Sidi Barrani went poorly, inflicting a little damage but costing the Allies the Matilda Tank Bn. Because of the way it went, O'Connor was able to displace to another hex to (hopefully) try again in exploit. To make these die rolls will determine the game.

O'Connor got his move and even got surprise (three columns), but the combat roll was just shy of taking out the last units in the hex. It came right down to the bitter end -- the last die roll could have gone either way -- and tension was very high. Unfortunately for Allied arms, it didn't go my way.

Great little game!

Italian --

Brit Move: Brits close in on Sidi, and I doubt it can stand the barrage and attack. Strafer Gott, however, in a very lucky overrun (no skill, naturally) gets a +6 surprise on the MG Bn holding the buffer hex in front of Sollum, opening the door to the next overrun. The second overrun worked well also, +5 shifts left only an artillery unit and one step of a 1AR infantry division there, ripe to fall. He is very close to winning this one, it will come down to razor-thin margins on the combat die rolls.

Brit combat: Sollum attack took Sollum easily, but cost Strafer Gott wounded. No impact on scenario, but it might have hurt the campaign. Next, the attack on Sidi. He missed the surprise by 1 (rolled a 9 when he needed a 10, and the 5 shifts were wasted) so that the attack went in at 2:1 instead of 10:1, and produced an AL1/ D01. Naturally, I took the loss. However, he killed the single unit under O'Connor, meaning that O'Connor was alone in the hex and could displace! Vile Englander!

O'Connor displaces to next largest stack, and everything hinges on his surprise roll.

Exploit Phase: O'Connor gets exploit -- again, vile Englander! The last attack is now critical.

I have: 2 Med Tank Bn 3-3-6, 3 Jan Blackshirt Inf Div 9-1-3 (2 steps) LibOp HQ and Maletti -- total 4 steps, all DG. Strength was 17 halved due to DG to 8.5 AR3 (2+1 for Maletti).

He attacks with a 10, AR5. The surprise Die roll comes in at 2 shifts up! Crisis in Barrani! Panic in Rome! Many responsible parties shot! The result is only a DL101 -- we win! Two steps hang onto the hex. Medals for everyone, apologies to the families of the executed.

Wrapping Up

In writing the article just now, I noticed that I never used the two free 12 point Naval Barrages the scenario gave me. This is especially unfortunate as I both could have used these to great effect and had actually reminded myself about them before play began!

After some time to think about it, I can make some comments about both of our game plans. I believe I was too hard on the Sollum-early gambit in my remarks above (because at the time, Gott's attacks laid an egg). I think going for, and holding, Sollum early will help the Allies greatly. Not only does this cut the Italian supply line (you can see the effects that has above), but I think digging out a built-up defense of Sollum on the second turn would be tough to do, far tougher than taking it early on.

What is needed is a better logistical plan and a Sollum operation that isn't so expensive to run. Better planning can take care of the former, slightly better luck the latter. I got away with what I did in spite of awful die rolls -- a little better and things would have gone much better. Even mildly better conditions at Sollum would have given me several good units to use elsewhere -- such as destroying the Nibeiwa Camp.

I chose to ignore Nibeiwa and in hindsight I see this as a mistake. That camp lies astride the road coming down off the slopes toward Sidi Barrani. Taking that camp out would have allowed me to re-route my trace lines along the roads there so that my Sollum group would not be left to its own devices. At the very least, such a trace set up would have allowed the units around Buq Buq to trace normally, saving the supplies on the 7th Armored Division's organic truck for the units at Sollum.

Buq Buq was more important than I gave it credit for in my initial assessment. It is nicely centrally located between Sidi Barrani and Sollum. Stahoning my 7th Arm units there is what allowed me to overrun my way into Sollum in our game. These units could have just was well gone to Sidi Barrani. As always, the plan with the most options is best.

I worked my way toward this option without properly identifying it in the first place. That is a characteristic of my "shoot from the hip" play style (which gets me into trouble about as often as it brings great results). I let the game paint me a picture as play progresses and adapt my actions to the changing image. This is very flexible, but frequently gets me into trouble if my initial assessment is wrong (as it almost did here). The good part is that, regardless of the outcome, it makes for an enjoyable game for me and (I think) my opponents. That is a matter of style.

From my angle (as the Allied player), I think the Italians could have been handled more aggressively. Many of those units were going to die anyway, so why not make as many attacks as possible on internals? This is a "gamey" play style I don't usually endorse, but like everything above, it must be held in the context of the short scenario it is intended for.

The scenario was designed with such abuse as an expectation (game players are, after all, gainers), so such play is not inappropriate here. Yes, this means a number of Italian units would die trying vain attacks, but any damage inflicted by these attacks (at all) would be more than what they could do by sitting and starving.

As it was, Dave's ring of defense around Sidi Barrani succumbed to attrition, leaving only the central hex to be taken. If the ring had somehow remained intact, I doubt my forces could have mustered the attacks needed to chop their way in. Dave's defense squeaked by anyway; having to take down other hexes to get at Sidi Barrani would probably have been beyond my meager resources.

I'm sure both of us feel we could do better in a rematch, and this one run-through showed us all sorts of things that could be done differently (and possibly better) in additional tries. Certainly, we both came away feeling we had played a gem of a little tactical puzzle that kept us on the edge of our seats until the last die roll.

More Sidi Barrani

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