This article arises from some discussion on our e-mail list about the Sidi Barrani scenario from DAK. Some asked for suggested moves, others complained of having a hard time taking on the Italian Army (or at least felt it was too difficult to replicate the British victory). Someone, I'm not sure who, suggested I do a write-up regarding the scenario for the magazine. Dave and I sat down to play the game, record our thoughts and try to follow what we were thinking and how we reacted as the game unfolded. As a secondary purpose, we wanted to see just how difficult it was to replicate the historical victory.

The Stage

Dave and I arranged a weekend to work on the article. Unfortunately (fortunately?) our Christmas sale had so depleted the warehouse of finished games, we had to schedule an "emergency" collate for the same weekend. With the collate slated for Sunday (a long day involving collates of 150 or so copies each of 11 titles that we had ran out of), our gaming time was limited to Saturday. Further reducing the amount of time available was my Tae Kwon Do class Saturday morning. Suffice it to say, we were limited to about a four-hour time block Saturday afternoon.

Dave arrived Friday evening,which gave us time to get the game set up (30 minutes, tops, induding socializing) and to try to reacquaint ourselves with the rules. We both went into this game deep in cobwebs and rust.

Our original plan was to play the game twice, switching sides. The limited time slot demanded we rethink that plan, and we ended up with time for only one shot at it. Since we would not have a chance to run both sides, my initial selection of who played which side had more impact than was originally intended. I chose to play the British, which left Dave with the Italians and all sorts of illusions about how his British offensive would have been better. I would have enjoyed handing him his head, as would certainly have happened, as well.

As part of the article preparation, we both had computers nearby with which to record our thoughts at the moment (uninhibited by later "spin doctoring" ). I will use that raw text here to show what was going through our minds at the time. Also, we paused at the end of each phase to photograph the map.

The Scenario

We played Scenario 7.3 "The Battle of Sidi Barrani -- Training Scenario 42." This is a very small tactical puzzle centering on the opening battles of Operation Compass, the "5-day raid" to evict the Italian Army from Egypt. The scenario is only two turns long, which leads to some (expected) "end of the world" player behavior. It begins with the mobile British Western Desert Force deployed just opposite a major gap in the Italian camp line. This gap, while ungarrisoned, is more difflcult to take advantage of than it looks due to the terrain -- wadis and slopes connect the dots making for an area that can be moved through, but at a high cost. Historically, the British blasted the Nibeiwa Camp in order to open the road to the coast to support their drive further west.

The key to this scenario is efficiency. Both sides operate on a shoestring, and the British must run an offensive with very limited numbers of troops. There is little room for error or waste.

Initial Planning

British -- Looking at the victory conditions, I want to seize both Sidi Barrani and Sollum as rapidly as possible. If I do this in my first movement phase, his forces will be unable to trace supply in the very first Italian Supply Phase. This will help my effort quite a bit.

I'll also aim at taking out Buq Buq right away, but this will be a secondary effort. Most important for right now is to seize Sollum (or at least cut the road going out of it, required for Italian Supply) and to take out the Sidi Barrani hex (to smash its dump).

I will ignore the camps for now, as they are wastes of my effort. I want his army cut off, out of supply, and using internals for any attacks they might make. Then, during Turn 2, I'll aim at mopping up as many of these guys as I can, after they are out of supply and low on internal stocks.

Air

In the air, I will launch strikes against his fighter with my Gladiator and try to engage one of his bombers with my Hurricane. I don't expect much, one way or the other, as neither of us has an air force capable of doing much at all.

For my logistical issues, the Sollum force will have to acquire that port. I will launch that operation first. If it fails, I'll expend some effort clearing the road vie. C36.24 so that the Sollum force can trace. The close-in logistics (Sidi Barrani) should not be an issue because of its location.

Basically, with these two general objectives in mind, I will decide on the specifics of the action as events unfold.

Italian -- I start out in a very exposed position, with a large British hammer poised on my desert flank, and a very porous line. The good news is that the British player needs to kill three of my divisions, and take Sollum, Buq Buq, and Sidi Barrani, all in two turns, so he can't afford to waste either time or resources. I intend to hunker down in the critical towns with as much force as I can muster and pursue a fairly non-aggressive posture, since I feel that the overall action-rating deficit is going to make any attacks a chancy affair.

However, I do possess one force with some teeth in it: the Maletti stack. If he fails to neutralize them I hope to use them to mess with his local rear forces, and draw his power away from the critical coastal objectives that I cannot hope to defend straight-up against his strength. His assets are strong but very limited, and he cannot afford diversions. I can only pray for luck here, though, since this group is in the front line, beyond most supply reach, and vulnerable to both being hammered with British cannon and placed out of supply by flanking Limey forces.

More Sidi Barrani

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