A Gazala Again

This week we were back in the Western Desert as Chis K continues to work on his hex based version of NQM. We were doing Gazala, a battle we last fought in Shedquarters back oh...10 years or more ago. Alas for some reason the reports of the game have lost their pictures and I have no back ups. Which is a shame, as it was a massive game.

So, this year’s model was more restrained, fitting on Chris’ conservatory table, probably no bigger than 6’ x 4’. Phil & I had the British, and Tim and Steve the Germans.

At first glance it looked like we were heavily outnumbered. I had the leading armoured brigade of our division and looked to hit Tim quickly to slow him down. Then I realised this might not be wise, as I was outnumbered quite a bit, and didn’t have any artillery to soften him up first.

I consequently dropped back to line up with Phil, before I did a quick count of Tim’s tanks, and found out we had about the same number. Most of Tim’s vehicles were armoured cars and so on, which are lighter than my armour (nasty surprise for me – they weren’t in this game) and I reckoned I could hit him quickly, and keeping it tight with my medic and log support whilst Tim’s laboured at the back of his column I could probably cause him a lot of problems.

As it turned out Chris had some surprises up his sleeve. A lot of the German non-tank units were armoured cars or transports and counted as medium targets when attacked, and delivering a decisive blow turned out to be difficult.

Meanwhile Phil had one of his plans, and using a reserve armoured unit and a command stand (!) contrived to construct a spearhead that pierced into Steve’s formation and left him a bit confused. I have to confess if I’d been Steve I’d have been asking what on earth as going on, as I don’t really see that as the role of Divisional commanders.

We were lucky in that we had air superiority and were able to use it to inflict some hits in the early phase of the turn, but the Germans had artillery superiority which turned out to be more effective.

Chris has been fiddling around with the system again which is to be expected as he shapes the rules to the scenario being played. Phil & I made a good fist of it, and tried our best to encircle a pick off German units, but they kept slipping out of the net as we were unable to deliver enough hits to knock out a unit completely. Once damaged units were out of the line they were able to reorganise and come back fighting fit which was all a little bit frustrating.

In the end we blunted the advance and were causing real problems for the Germans over on our right. However in the last turn I had a real mare over on our left which collapsed under the weight of the German assault and some pretty average dice rolling.

Phil & I had a post-game discussion in the car driving home and concluded that we were both struggling with how to deliver a killing blow. Given we’ve been playing the system in its various guises for over 30 years was a little galling. A post-game email exchange with Chris put my mind at ease as he explained what he was trying to achieve for that game and for the future.

And the hexes are really working, much to my surprise.