Memoir '44 In The Desert

We had a WW2 evening at the Wollongong Wargamers on Thursday. There was a small game of Bolt Action, and a larger game of Clash of Steel, which covered a tank action on the right flank of the battle of Bir Hakeim  (May 27th 1942). However I opted to play Memoir '44 with Geoff. And to get into the theme of the evening we played a scenario covering the flanking action at Bir Hakeim. So two games covering elements of the same extended action.

The Memoir '44 scenario sees the Axis with 21st Panzer and the Italian Ariete Division attacking the end of the Allied line. Facing them are the 1st Free French Brigade, solidly entrenched behind mines and wire, and the 3rd Indian Motorised Brigade, who are less well- defended. 

Geoff took the defenders in the first game. Whilst the Allied defensive line is fairly strong, it has a weakness on its left flank, and that's where I attacked. I was able to keep up a constant pressure there owing to some excellent cards, and when my forces started to suffer I was able to bring across Italian elements to assist. You can just see them moving across in the centre of this photo.

Anyway, ignoring the Free French in their entrenchments entirely the whole German attack hit the Indian Motorised Brigade. And they were crushed.

I won 5-2.

It's a tough fight for the Allies. They have good defences, but that also makes them somewhat static. The Free French are stuck behind wire and minefield, so not well positioned to move across as reserves. So  unless the Axis opt to lead with the Italians (and I can see that with a particular run of cards you might have to) the Indians in their entrenchments are doing all of the fighting for the Allies. And they have a vulnerable flank. 

Because scenarios in this game are often unbalanced we swapped sides to get an aggregate score. Geoff adopted the same plan as me, throwing the Germans at the Indians. 

The Free French and the Italians sat the whole battle out.

The end result was much the same, but this time the Allies put up more of a fight, and the Germans only managed a 5-4 victory - they came within a turn of possibly losing altogether. So I got a 9-7 victory overall. In both games the Commonwealth 'Stiff Upper Lip' rules played a big role; a couple of German attacks nearly came  unstuck because of the Allied counterattacks this allows. But they weren't quite enough. 

Meanwhile on the other table the panzers overcame the Grants to give the Germans another win. The next scenario in the Memoir '44 book is the same action, and I played it out a couple of times the day after. The Germans won both times.