Game of WW2, Egypt, Valley of the Kings, 1943, a what if game.
Using One Hour Wargames, with some minor additions, in 10mm.
Organized, using terrain and models and nominally umpired by David Maltman.
AAR by David Maltman.
Players
German : Andy Smyth.
Allied : Jeremy Nixon, David Buick and David Maltman.
The Brief :
Hitler, in a rare fit of sanity, decided not to invade Russia. As a result Germany has the resources to give Rommel what he needs to defeat the 8th Army. A tribe of Arabs, who have been heavily put upon by the British for many years, show the Germans a secret route into the Valley of the Kings. While the main Axis army fights its way up the coast a flanking army is sent through the Valley to capture the 3 towns on the way to Memphis, the Nile and eventually the Suez canal. Fortunately someone in General Alexanders staff had the foresight to see this possible route and persuaded the General to put a small force in place, just in case. The armour is being kept back in case it was required in Cairo and no threat came through the valley.
The battlefield.
The map is indicative of the sort of terrain in the different areas. In the West it's pyramids, large statues and large rocky outcrops. The centre has sand dunes. The eastern side has the 3 towns with their date palm farms, connected by the road.
British order of battle.
In each town :
• 3 units of infantry.
• 1 Light anti-tank gun.
• 1 Heavy anti-tank gun.
• 1 Light tank.
• 2 Medium tanks.
• 1 Mortar.
• 1 Self propelled artillery. gun.
• A senior and a junior leader.
• A FO.
• 2 emplacements.
Aircraft
• 2 Aircraft sorties.
British objectives.
• Hold on to all 3 towns.
• Have at least 50% of each of the groups units remaining at the end.
German order of battle. 3 battle groups each consisting of.:
• 3 units of mechanised infantry.
• 2 Light tanks.
• 4 Medium tanks.
• 2 Light tank destroyers.
• 2 Self propelled artillery guns.
• A senior and a junior leader.
• A FO.
Aircraft
• 4 Aircraft sorties.
German objectives.
• Capture the town of Dashur.
• Capture the town of Giza.
• Capture the town of Saqqara.
• Have 50% of each groups units remaining at the end of the game.
Deployment.
• British deploy one battle group in each of the 3 towns. The tanks get diced for when they
arrive on the battlefield.
• Germans enter anywhere on the western edge of the table.
The Germans have a significant advantage in armour and, as we shall see, the self propelled artillery performed exceptionally.
How the game played out.
The battlefield with the armies deployed in their starting positions. I took the defence of Dashur and the RAF, Jeremy had the defence of Saqqara and Giza. Andy has decided to send each battle group against a different town.
First move was just a general German advance. British stayed hunkerd down in the towns, waiting. Aircraft were diced for but neither arrived.
The German advance continued. Aircraft both arrived and survived the anti aircraft fire, so are free to roam the table and attack targets that the ground forces can see. The Germans were too far out to spot anything this turn. The British spotter saw a light tank and the typhoon attacked it and survived the flak from the German 88mm.
The German advance continues and the spotters finally get close enough to see a British light anti-tank gun at Dashur. They call in strikes from the Stuka and 2 Hummels and the gun is destroyed.
The next few moves were all pretty similar. The relentless German advance with their artillery hitting whatever their spotters could see, causing mayhem amongst the British lines, particularly at Dashur.
The first British tanks arrive and start moving around the towns, as the rules do not allow them to finish their movement within a town. The forward German elements are encroaching on the towns and will be in place next move to attack.
They have already reached Dashur where the light tanks and ant-tank guns gang up on the infantry in the emplacement and take it down to half strength.
On the action at Giza the German artillery takes out a Heavy anti-tank gun.
British tanks finally arriving at the front in Saqqara and Giza. But the German tanks will soon be on them.
At this point the main British commander Brigadier Nixon became unwell and had to be medevacked out of the battle. His 2IC Lieutenant Colonel Buick taking over.
The British get a second Typhoon sortie and go for the German Hummels. But inflict little damage before having to withdraw.
The tanks finally get into battling each other, with the British coming of worst.
At that point time was up.
Adding up the victory points, the British were still in control of the 3 towns and had one battle group at over 50%, so 4 points in total.
Oberst Smyth had no assets in the towns, but all 3 battlegroups were over 50%, so 3 points only.
Technically a British win. But if it had gone another turn and Andy had read the victory conditions again I suspect that the Germans could have easily got into one, or possibly all, of the towns nullifying the British victory points.
An enjoyable game, even with such a simple set of rules. Now, the game took all day, not the one hour of the rules title. But the rules were originally written for 2 people each with a maximum of 6 units, no heavy artillery and, with the ground scale we were using, the battle field would only have been about 50cm a side so the longer time was not unreasonable.
I would recommend the book of rules as you get several sets going from ancient to WW2, following a similar format for each period, and a load of scenarios. Also its cheap ( £11 on amazon ) compared with most other rule sets, you know who I mean lardy boys and bazzer hilton. It's also a good set of introduction rules.
If anyone would like a copy of my modified WW2 rules let me know and I shall give you a pdf of them.
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Photos curtesy of the Editor.
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