Op Compass Game 10 - Bringing Home the Pasta

 

It's been a while, May 2020 to be precise, since I last posted on our Op Compass Campaign, the enforced Covid break and a concentration of Italian Wars has seen a long delay between our early war desert adventures, but its time to get back to the sands of North Africa.

We use 28mm figures and a set of our own rules based very loosely on Disposable Hero's.

The history of the Campaign and additional rules specific to Scenarios can be found on the link below,

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2018/04/opcompass-1940-resource-page.html

Historical Background 

It's the 14th December 1940 and the Italian strongpoints in Egypt have been taken and they are falling back towards Bardia. The last remnants of the Italian forces at Fort Capuzzo are heading towards the new lines and the local commander has sent out some of his armoured forces to escort the Capuzzo troops and supplies into the relative safety of his zone of control.

The British on the other hand have sent their lighter, faster Cruiser and MkVI tanks in a wide arc round the flank of the Italians in an attempt to cut the road and capture the last troops from Capuzzo before they reach safety.

Set Up and Terrain 

Our full 12 x 6 table was used and shown in the picture above, as viewed North is to the right. The retreating Italian forces from Capuzzo will be travelling towards the camera the escorting forces from Bardia away from the Camera. British forces appear to the left of the camera.

The terrain consists of a rough track which winds around an Oasis and some low hills. The whole table is scattered with light scrub which offers the lowest level of cover interspersed with small areas of rocky outcrops.

Special Rules 

Breakdown rule in play, all vehicles moving off the track roll 2d6 before moving, double 1 and the vehicle will need to roll again on the Breakdown table.

Moonlight Night - the action happens at night, it is a full moon with high winds, which is pushing patches of sparse cloud across the sky causing variation in visibility.

Standard visibility is 36 inches. Each turn roll 2d20, one plus, one minus and apply that roll to the visibility distance each turn. So a roll of + 16 and -7 will give a visibility of 45 inches that turn.

British Briefing  - You have swung round the Italian lines, you need to capture and secure the road preventing as many Italian Units from escaping Fort Capuzzo as you can.

Your forces are as follows 

Hq - 1 x A9 Cruiser Tank

A Coy 3 x A9 Cruiser Tanks

B Coy 3 x A10 Cruiser Tanks

C Coy 3 x MkVI Light Tanks 

Italian Briefing  - Your last remaining support troops are retreating back towards the new front line and Bardia. You need to hold the road open for as long as you can and get as many of the supply and rear echelon units to safety.

From Fort Capuzzo 

Hq - 1 x Staff Car with Commander and driver with 1 Truck ccontaining luxury items and 2 motorcycles 

Convoy 1 - 3 x Trucks containing Chef and his kitchen staff

Convoy 2 - 3 x Trucks containing  various items of Food and Drink

From Bardia

Hq - 1 x M11/39 Tank

A Coy - 3 x M11/39 Tanks 

B Coy - 3 x M11/39 Tanks

C Coy - 3 x M11/39 Tanks 

D Coy - 3 x Tankettes

Umpire Briefing 

The game doesn't necessarily need to be run by an Umpire as the activation deck and reinforcement rules will give all the randomness required. But this section will explain how the game should progress.

If you don't use card Activation in your games already this game uses them. Each unit above (Coy or Convoy) needs a card, in addition to that a British Reinforcement Card is required as well as an Italian Reinforcement Card. For regular players this game has no Tea Break or Event Cards.

Start the game with just three cards in the game deck, Italian HQ, Italian Reinforcement and British Reinforcement.

The Italian HQ will move on table from Fort Capuzzo on the track at the "sky" end of the table. When a Reinforcement card first comes out of the deck, that player rolls a 1d4, give a number of counters equal to the number rolled to that player.

When a player has counters in their hand, when their Reinforcement card comes out they hand in a counter, if they have no counters they randomly select a card from their available reinforcementsand add it to the game deck, re roll the d4 and the process starts again.

Italian Reinforcements will arrive at their designated entry point (see Italian Briefing). When the Italian HQ from Fort Capuzzo exits the table or is destroyed that card turns into the HQ from Bardia and a M11/39 HQ Tank arrives from Bardia.

British Reinforcements will arrive on the left of the table (as viewed in the photo) at a random location. Our table is 12 ft long so we simply roll a d12 to determine where a unit enters the table.

The game ends when the last vehicle from Fort Capuzzo exits the table at the Bardia end of the table or is destroyed.

The Convoy is merely a game timer (the players shouldn't know this). The goal of the game is to control the road whilst the Convoy is in play.

How did we get on 

The game started with the Italian HQ setting off from Fort Capuzzo (see above) and a bit of good luck saw it get 4 turns on the table before the first British forces arrived and then it was the single A9 HQ Tank which arrived at the Bardia end of the table.

The A9 set up in a Hull Down position to wait for the Convoy to arrive, when your in an A9 hiding behind a hill is a good idea !

But just as the Convoy came into sight three M11/39s turned up on the Bardia Road giving the A9 a perfect flank shot. One shot, one kill. But the Chef managed to slip off table in the excitement.

The Chef leaving the table brought on the Italian HQ Tank on the table which joined in the slug fest between the A9 and the surviving 2 M11/39s. Or at least it tried to, the tank immediately broke down with an oil leak, caught fire and had to be abandoned. Oh how we laughed !

Eventually the A9 got damaged and its 2pdr was put out of action so it had to retreat from its Hull Down location, luckily for the British their next Reinforcement had arrived the 3 A10s, which in Dec 1940, in the desert is a damn fine Tank.

All this gave me a great excuse to drive the damaged A9 down my lovely new Dry Wadi beds courtesy of The Last Valley.

The Tankettes had very wisely got out of the shooting zone very quickly and advanced to (my new Last Valley) Oasis to escort the Convoys across the Middle of the table.

The damaged A9 managed to get in the middle of the table and took out 3 trucks with its machine guns.

But the remaining M11/39s arrived on the table and despite a number of losses they managed to hold the road open and let the remaining Convoy vehicles exit the table.

And the winner is,

The British lost an A10 and had an A9 badly damaged, the MkVI tanks didn't make it on the table. The Italians lost 4 M11/39s (one to break down) and 3 Trucks. With the Italians holding the road I gave them the win and a big four points in our Campaign.

So after 10 games the score is British 20 Italians 20, only 13 more games to go !

Hopefully it won't be nearly 2 years before we do the next one.

Troops on Parade - British Desert Force 1941

My name is Ken, I am a Gamer, it's been 4 days since I last bought any figures.

Troops on Parade is an excuse for me to get one of the collections at Yarkshire Gamer on the table, these have been the feature army on TOP before but I finished off the painting on all the remaining vehicles in the to do pile so this is it..... Although I could have a Dorchester ACV 🤔

Below is a video of the Army, in which I ramble on about various things whilst looking at the figures and models.

If you can't be bothered with the Video here's some photos 

An over view of the entire army, 50 Tanks, 9 Armoured Cars, 18 Transports and 180 figures.

The 6 Mk VI Light Tanks, 3 from Blitzkrieg Miniatures and sporting original colour Caunter, 3 more from Warlord sporting later "faded" Caunter.

The early tanks, 4 x A9 Cruiser Tanks and 5 A10 Cruiser Tanks, one a CS version, all vehicles Warlord sadly no sand skirts, the Warlord models don't have them.

Seven A13 tanks, these are from Blitzkrieg, 2 different turret versions.

6 Matildas, all Warlord Games models, the names have a Wind in Willows theme.

9 Crusader Tanks, 6 from Blitzkrieg in plain colour nearest the camera, 3 in Caunter FRO M Warlord at the end. Although I believe the first batch of Crusaders that arrived in the Desert had Caunter applied I have never found a picture of one.

12 Stuart / Honey Tanks, all Blitzkrieg.

A couple of Perrys wonderful 2pdr Portee models and 3 Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars from Company B.

Some of the Infantry Figures, all Perry Miniatures plastics. 

Three Bren Gun carriers in the service of the York and Lancaster Regt.

Eight trucks, 4 CMP and 4 Bedfords all from Anyscale Models.

More Infantry each company has 3 command figures and 3 Platoons of 10 figures each plus a 3 inch mortar and an Anti Tank Rifle in support.

Another 3 Bren Gun Carriers, this time South African.

3 Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars aka "Monkeys" with 3 Morris CS9 Armoured Cars in the background.

A lone Valentine Tank.

And finally a couple of lovely Rolls Royce Armoured Cars.

There we go, hope you have enjoyed this little journey through the 28mm British Desert Collection, there is a similar post on the Italian Army if you look back on the blog. Next post will be a review of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusades Force.

Op Compass Game 9 - Grand Theft Auto

Before we all got locked down the crew at Yarkshire Gamer finished the ninth game in our ongoing Op Compass Campaign.

If you want more information on the previous games, special rules etc there is a resource page link below,

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/opcompass-1940-resource-page.html

The games are based on an excellent book by Robert Avery which is available from The Toofatlardies, there is a direct link to purchase the book on the Resource Page.We use 28mm figures with this scenario taking place on an 12 x 6 table using a home brew set of rules, based on Iron Ivans Disposable Hero's. However for this game I thought that the scenario was too close to the previous game so I have improvised taking a cue from the book, The Crucible of War, Wavell's Command by Barrie Pitt.

Steam rises from a broken down Rolls Royce Armoured Car

Historical Background 

It's mid December 1940 and Sgt Charles Galpin is out on patrol on the Torbruk - Bardia road making a general nuisance of himself cutting telephone wires. As the car rounded a corner it struck an exposed rock and stuttered to a halt, steam rising from the broken pipes, in a small collection of buildings by a watering hole.

Stand and Deliver

Observing an Italian Ambulance rattling down the road towards them, Galpin had a clever idea, now theft of an Medical vehicle would be frowned upon in peace time, but this my friends isn't peacetime.

The game begins as Galpin and his crew drive the Ambulance back to the stricken Armoured Car with the Italian occupants "locked" in the rear of the Ambo.

In the distance an Italian section looks on through binoculars wondering exactly what it was they just witnessed.

Set Up and Terrain 

I forgot to take a photo without figures on the table at the start so here is a shot towards the end of the game showing the terrain. You will need a single road running down the length of a 12 x 6 table, the road should wind round a couple of low hills. Looking at the picture above the British troops arrive on the road nearest the camera, the Italians at the other end.

The theft of Ambulance happens between the two small hills about 2/3rds down the table, the Italian observers are on the hill in the extreme far left.

There are no special rules in force other than those given in the briefings.

Get that tow fixed Corporal !

British Briefing 

Get that Armoured Car recovered and deal with any Italian Troops you encounter.

Italian Briefing 

The British have just nicked one of our Ambos, get the thing back and teach the cheeky gits a lesson.

Here comes the Italians

Umpire Briefing 

This game needs an umpire, certainly for the first phase, briefings for the players are deliberately vague, the scenario has a narrative start leading into a more general scrap as the game progresses.

The British player starts by attaching a tow between the ambulance and the Armoured Car whilst "persuading" the drivers to get in the rear of the vehicle. Roll 2d6 each turn needing more than 12 (in cumulative total) to get things moving. The machine gun on the Armoured Car is operational, it moves at half speed with a random plus and minus d6 modifier.

The rest of the Troop return to find out what happened to Sgt Galpin

At the same time the Italians roll 2d6 needing the same score, once they pass 12 they will run back to their vehicles and the game is afoot. The Italians have 3 Tankettes, one with a 20mm Anti Tank Rifle the other two with the standard 2 x MG layout.

When the Italian Tankettes reach the place of the initial ambush, the remaining 2 Rolls Royce Armoured Cars arrive on the road at the British entry point.

A bit of off roading

On the actual day of the incident, the Italian Driver of the Ambulance wasn't to impressed with being hijacked and this coincided with Sgt Galpin not being very good at locking the door between the front and rear of the Ambulance.

The Italian, in true Hollywood style opened the intervening door and started wrestling the British driver of his vehicle, this lasted for some minutes before Sgt Galpin regained control and fired a couple of shots into the rear of the Ambulance from his service revolver, this persuaded the former owner of the vehicle to be more accommodating.

After a bit of zig zagging, the vehicle gets back under control

To represent this when the Ambulance reaches the central village both sides roll 2d6 each time the truck moves. The highest is the winner, draws are Italian wins. If the British win, they drive as normal, 3 wins and they have subdued the Italian Driver.

If the Italians win, roll an additional d6, 1 or 2 the vehicles go straight ahead, 3 or 4 45 degrees right and move forward, 5 and 6 45 degrees left then forward. Our vehicles went off on a merry dance, narrowly missing a large rock formation (which would have been interesting) in the process.

After the Ambulance is back under control the game reverts to a more normal style meeting action.

And they are safe !

When the Rolls Royce Armoured Cars arrive, the Italians roll a d6, the result is the number of turns until they obtain reinforcements, once they arrive the British roll a d6 and that's the number of turns until they obtain reinforcements. It then alternates until all the troops arrive or a result is gained.

New troops arrive at the entry points described in a random order.

Mk VI Light Tanks 

British troops are,
1 - HQ Section of 1 x A10 Cruiser Tank
2 - 3 x Mk VI Light Tanks
3 - 3 x A9 Cruiser Tanks
4 - 3 x A13 Cruiser Tanks
5 - 1 x 25pdr Field Gun with dedicated observer in Number A.C.

More "tanks"

Italian Troops are,
1 - 3 x Tankettes (1 with 20mm Anti Tank Rifle)
2 - 3 x M11/39 Tanks
3 - 3 x M11/39 Tanks
4 - 2 x 47mm Anti Tank Guns with Truck tows
5 - 2 x 75mm Field Guns with Truck tows

Italian Troops secure the village

How did we get on 

Well the pictures to date have shown the initial stages of our game, having secured the Ambulance a group of Italian Tankettes set off in hot pursuit only to be met by the two returning Rolls Royces. Whilst they sniped at each other from a distance the Ambulance driver fought back and very nearly stuffed it into a large rock.

First the Italians got another 3 Tankettes (oh how they were happy 😂) whilst the Brits got some Mark VI Light Tanks for their first reinforcements. The Italians had some proper tanks (thats what i love about early war gaming, you get excited when a M11/39 turns up !) arrive next and rushed them forward to the village and that's where we are with the photo above. Back to our pictures to cover the rest of the game.

The British now supported by an A10 command tank took positions in the hills and a firefight started with the Italians in the village.

The Italians (partially hidden by my finger 😂) tried a flank manoeuvre to turn the Brits position on the hill.

Whilst in the village some Tankettes took advantage of what for them was hard cover.

Next arrival on table was three A9 Cruiser Tanks tipping the balance in favour of the British.

Whilst the Italians received some Anti Tank Guns who began to dig in on the hills behind the village.

It wasn't long before the Anti Tank Guns made short work of the Rolls Royce Armoured Cars who had tried to get round the flank of some Tankettes.

Things started to explode in rapid sequence now, the A10 Command Tank was taken out by a M11/39  after the two had been exchanging ineffective shots for a few turns.

The Mark VI Light Tanks decided to bug out, it was all fun and games when they were fighting Tankettes but it was getting a bit hot.

It was almost hand to hand combat with the tanks at some points.

The three M11/39s were all knocked out by the A9s, one of whom was taken out by the 20mm armed Tankette.

But the remaining Italian tanks held the village, it was a strong position the extra cover making the vehicles extremely difficult to take out.

The dug in Anti Tank Guns secured the Italian rear and flanks.

Losses on both sides were high, the British had lost an A10, an A9, a Mk VI and two Armoured Cars.

The Italians had lost 3 M11/39s in the flank attack and two Tankettes.

So we decided that it was a draw, the British had been successful in getting the damaged Armoured Car away but the Italians held a strong position in the village, losses were about even.

So for our ongoing Campaign it was 2 points a piece meaning that we stand at British 20 points, Italians 16.