A dry run.... War in the desert.....

Club night and Operation Crusader with the British forces pushing towards Tobruk, elements of the 7th Armoured Division meet the Ariete Division holding the Axis flank at Bir El Gubi

With the Cotswold day only a week away, we play tested a couple of tweaks to Bolt Action, blending elements of Chain of Command to add some fog of war to the game.

The Italian Ariete Division were dug in somewhere on the on the right side of the table, minefields and barbwire block the allied advance, the leader of the Italians was a technical man with a good reputation and had secured support from a friend in the artillery who had provided him with several salvo's on key positions.

The Allied orders are simple scout the defenders and exploit any gaps reaching the far side of the table.

The British bolstered by a full squadron of light tanks rushed them on to the table.

The Italians had planned well selecting 4 places on the table to bring their artillery into play and selected Turn 3 & 4 to bring the artillery barrage down. 105mm Shells crashed down amongst the advancing infantry and armour. Whilst casualties were light the shock points disrupted the attack. 

The Allies pushed on forcing the Axis forces to unmask, Infantry in fox holes and support weapons tucked into the wadi.

The Light tanks found a gap in the line and entered the right hand wadi, forcing the Italians to head back to the main line.

However a combination of Infantry AT rounds and the arrival of an M11/40 took out one of the recon vehicles.

The clock ticked on, a second Vickers had cleared the wadi and had rounded the wire defences but it was countered by the Italian Armour, stripped of its armour and still suffering from the Artillery the Infantry were going nowhere fast.

with both teams force morale dangerously close to breaking we called it day. The game flowed really well and the pre-planning and hidden positioning gave a more serious feel to Bolt Action, adding in some  random events to disrupt the running of each turn.

With so much kit on the table we will need to tweak the order dice to keep things moving.

Right back to the brushes.