Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Între Acte {A}

Location: Halfaya Pass, Cyrenaica, Libya
Date: August 1942
Situation: Deutsches Afrika Korp's  21st Panzers Attacking Halfaya
Rules: Blitzkrieg Commander II {+50% movement/weapon ranges for 15mms}
Modifications: Added FOW dust cloud rules.
Suggestion: Click on images to make them larger
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While General Pettygree and Muljadhi are in limbo in 1899, please view a few photos of our BKCII activities of 23 March 2010. We commence with a dreaded....
Battery of 88mm AA guns configured for anti-tank operations. They guard the right rear of the attacking panzers which have exited the area in your direction.

Viewed from the rear now, we better see the 88s guarding the right rear of the DAK attack. The tanks have disappeared over the distant ridge. Some kicked up dust clouds are still visible. One panzer is in flames.

Crossing and descending the same ridge the panzers have been surprised by dug in 2 Pdr. AT guns and a squadron of Crusaders in the Pass itself. One AT gun was knocked out after it took out a DAK armoured car in the upper right.

RAF Hurricanes try to stop the panzers but it is up to....

A squadron of Crusaders trying to get closer. The 2 Pdrs. near you are out of range.

That's it lads! Come on and good hunting!

A Crusader on the left has been lost to 88 fire but the rest used cover and dust to escape more losses. The red dot toward the upper right is a point of light from a laser pointer. We use actual slopes and line of sight just as if we are outside. No conventions. LOS is real for us and fun. Usually our eyes are enough but occasionally we use a laser pointer.

This is the British rear directly behind the Pass and the Crusaders - on a back table. A squadron of Marmon Herringtons have retreated to the village. Looks like they will block the RHA 25 Pdrs. in front of them if they don't move out of the way soon. In the village are three Grant tanks, one of  which is out of action from the panzers on the ridge off screen to the upper left.
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CLOSING REMARKS
1. Game resumes 30 March 2010.
2. Try a table covering with almost anything underneath to simulate near real topography.
3. You can do this too.
4. Comments welcome below.
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7 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

*sigh* . . . when I saw the you had a new post, I looked forward to Chapter 31 . . . hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer for our NWF Colonial "fix".


-- Jeff

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

I can wait ... as long as I keep getting WWII desert action! :o)

I have a game with version 2 on Friday - how do you like the new version c/w the old??

Andy Lichey said...

What are you using for that ground cover? What are you putting underneath it to create the rolling ground?

Looks great!

Andy

Gallia said...

For Jeff,
Gen. Pettygree et al will reappear in April. Chuck and I have been talking about doing multiple week night short session games after work. Now that I think about it, we might even use the Halfaya Pass terrain for same.
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For Steve,
I never played the earlier edition of Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC). However, though there were modifications made over the past two years to BKC, I wanted to wait until the latest second edition (BKCII) was printed this past December before commencing my learning and playing curve. Friends in the UK were complimentary about the rules and took special time to explain concepts in some detail. I had a huge hurdle to overcome once I learned the system is command control based.

The whole BKCII ensemble is well-done. Rules compliment and work well with each other. Vehicles and soldiers can zoom around great distances if command control is maintained for a phase or two during a turn. I short circuit if units crawl -- by my definition of crawl. Combat is happily faster and less convoluted than other systems in spite of many many WWII weapons variations. Less fiddly I guess is the current term.

This might be our 7-8th game since January. We've had a couple of big multi-player games while the rest were smaller so-called test games on weeknights. Most problems were my own lack of comprehension about mechanisms and a few concepts. For the latter the Forum set up by the author has been of inestimable help to me.

The website also has a gizmo to build forces via purchase points. Buy the "Advanced Battlegroups" version for more flexibilities.
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For Andy
The table covering came from The Terrain Guy in Texas. Take a look at his website. We place virtually anything under the terrain mat. Books, boards, towels, magazines. Use anything. Blankets will work too. One time just for special photographic effects I used two model R/R bridges on the edge for a sever and very tall edge of table ridge.
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Respectfully,
Bill

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Cheers Bill - I'm a big Blitzkrieg Commander v1 fan - been playing v1 for a couple of years now, so v2 was a real "no brainer"...

Der Alte Fritz said...

The game looks good and sounds like a lot of fun. I bet that there was probably a young Lt Pettygree in the 8th Army at your battle

Gallia said...

Hi Jim,
A Lt. Pettygree is a very good idea!
Cheerio,
Bill