Chain of command Desert Dust up

Deutsche Afrika korps (DAK) putting the Dak into Dakka dakka

Recently Two Dice and myself decide to return to our stalled Afrika project. I picked up some Perry’s 8th army infantry a awhile ago and had got round to assembling it but stalled at the painting (too many projects too little time). Using the game as motivation I got to round painting up a platoon to throw down against the germans.  The game was suppose to be a rules refresher but, we forgot the rule book and had to make do with a summary sheet and a lot of guess work.

somewhere is the desert
(our desert terrain is a bit lacking at the moment so paper layouts were used to mark the outlines of terrain and buildings 

Without the rule book we improvised a scenario regarding both platoons being sent to scout a local building to gain information on the area. To win the game either side had to get a leader into a building located at the centre of the battlefield and spend a turn searching the building and talking to natives, etc.  We also dispense with any support options since neither of us had anything painted and we just wanted to focus on the basics. As it turns out the basics is the Germans have a lot of machine guns, twice as many as the British, and they have better machine guns meaning the British were significantly outgunned.  But Chain of command is all about tactics and leadership could the better led British 8th army platoon overcome the impressive firepower of the Deutsche Afrika Korps (DAK)?

DAK fire team tries to outflank the British line

Both side rolled low for their motivations meaning neither side was particularly keen to fight and was more likely to break if tested. During the patrol the DAK got a marginal advantage when one of their patrol markers was almost able to outflank the British line to interdict any potential advance.  The initial deployment saw a DAK fireteam deploy to flank any British advance. The British response was to open fire with the light mortar and the infantry section trying encourage the fireteam to relocate.

British deploy to counter the move

 

The DAK countered with deploying the rest of the section and began to suppress the British with machine gun fire, lots of machine gun fire. Another DAK section deployed and tried race to the objective but the ground was too difficult and they ended up having run back to cover slightly disorganised for their efforts.

DAK section makes a break for the buildings

Another british section revealed itself by opening fire on the DAK trying to enter the buildings with little effect. But prompting the final Dak section to reveal itself as it deployed to screen the section trying to get into the building.  Covered on both flanks the middle DAK section split into two teams with the corporal leading his team into the building to start searching with the remaining team laid down suppressing fire.

The five german LMGs were beginning to tell with British troops dropping fast. The British third section along with the platoon sergeant deployed. The sergeant started to rally the british centre will the third section deployed alongside second section and tried to suppress the Germans and block any attempt by the search party to escape.  While second section shifted forward trying to get into the building to do away with the search party. The British light mortar switched to smoke rounds to break up the German LMG line of site and give the British a bit of mobility rather than hide behind a bush and wait for the German to run out of ammo.

Light mortar to smoke the DAK LMGs

The shift in tactics paid off for the British with the LMGs silenced due the smoke they were able to isolate and annihilate the german search team and force their covering fire team to rout hammering the german force morale getting them within one point of routing.

Things atarts to heat up as both sides deploy all their sections

But it was not to be. The smoke cleared and the remaining LMGs went to work. The battered British sections could take no more and two sections routed forcing the british to retreat

Next on the painting queue

When the dust had final settle the Germans held the battlefield and had suffered thirteen casualties.  For the British the bill was bloodier they failed to achieve their mission and twenty of their thirty-six platoon were casualties.

For a cold re-start, without the rulebook, the game went pretty well (apart from my platoon being shot to bits).  

That is all for now thanks for stopping by