The Fox Hunt - Combat Mission Afrika Korps AAR

[FullAuto]

It's not all hundreds of men and dozens of tanks in the world of Combat Mission. Some of the small scale stuff is great, intimate little battles in which every casualty, even that of a common rifleman, matters.

 

In this case, it's Africa, 1942, and the SAS are hunting behind German lines for an irreplaceable German general, Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox (not the Dessert Fox, that was Goering). With the German HQ located, the SAS mount a raid to kill the mastermind.

 

This battle is small-scale, and short, just 10 turns. I have at my command a small group of SAS troops, and no reserves. If this goes wrong then I will at best escape, and at worst be wiped out.

 

I have at my command:

 

3 Bren light machine gun squads

2 Boys anti-tank rifle squads (that's the name of the rifle, they're not manned by boys)

1 2 inch mortar

3 small platoons, consisting of 1 HQ and 2 rifle sections each

1 Company HQ

 

The Brens don't provide a lot of firepower, but they do have a lot of ammo, more than enough for a 10-turn fight. The Boys will come in handy versus un- or lightly-armoured vehicles, but are useless against actual tanks. The mortar is a versatile weapon, but only carries 10 HE and 10 smoke rounds.

 

Line of sight is short, because it's night, and there's the possibility of randomly targeting friendly troops, so I will have to watch my fields of fire.

 

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df1overhead.jpg

I've split my forces into three loose groups. On the left, you have Alpha, which is 2 Brens, 1 Boys, the mortar, and the company HQ. Alpha will provide fire support and watch the left flank. I love mortars, because they can have their fire directed by a HQ if they are in command range. So if the company HQ sees an enemy unit the mortar cannot, the HQ can direct the mortar to fire on the target.

 

Bravo, consisting of my platoons, is in the centre. They will be storming the buildings, killing everyone, and so on.

 

On the right, is Charlie, consisting of a Bren and a Boys, providing fire support and watching the right flank.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df2directview.jpg

 

First turn goes not brilliantly. The Germans are actually awake, and standing guard and stuff. Damn their competent military tradition.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/dfturn1.jpg

An atrocious start, basically, with some of my rifle sections taking 50% or more casualties. In one turn. What was that I said earlier about each casualty being important? Shitting shit it.

 

Belatedly, my mortar starts dropping smoke rounds for cover while my platoons try to recover from being turned into colanders.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df3mortarsmoke.jpg

I may have shat in my own nest with this inept start. My rifle sections are the only units I have really capable of assaulting and taking buildings, and with them severely weakened, I might not be able to progress much further.

 

Two of my rifle sections flee, and three (one of them reduced to its last man) manage to make it as far as the first building, thanks to the clouds of smoke from the mortar shells.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df4badlydone.jpg

My Brens are giving all the supporting fire they can, but there's no substitute for chucking a grenade in the window and storming the building, all guns blazing.

 

The Brens give covering fire, the mortar fires off its HE rounds, and still my rifle sections are mown down.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df6massacre.jpg

To be honest, nothing could remedy this colossal balls-up. Note the corpses of Tommies everywhere.

 

My remaining engineer rifle section chucks a demo charge into an enemy-held building.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df7demotime.jpg

I really should have used them more. The explosion not only decimated the unit in the building, but inflicted casualties on two other enemy units close by.

 

The Germans counter-assault the building I've managed to occupy, and one of the other buildings catches fire.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df8assaultfire.jpg

Bren fire stops my unit from being overwhelmed, pinning several enemy units, but their ammo is running low.

 

Success!

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df9captured.jpg

Having driven off the Germans, I've actually captured the main flag! Rommel is cowering in his office somewhere!

 

Failure! Flag lost.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df10assist.jpg

One of my rifle sections manages to recover from its faux-Somme experience enough to come to the rescue of my lonely unit in the building, surrounded and close to being wiped out. Fire from the Brens has now died down to desultory levels.

 

The last throes of the initial plan.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df11pause.jpg

Alpha and Charlie provide covering fire and guard the flanks, Bravo (the little that is left of it) attempts to storm the buildings. Or hold onto the single building it has managed to capture.

 

To add insult to fatal injury, a tank.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df12tank.jpg

Exchanging a few shots with my Boys AT rifle in Alpha, it gets worried enough to reverse out of sight.

 

And that's it. Rommel slips away into the night.

https://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/FullAuto_2006/CM/Desert%20Fox/df12results.jpg

Bloody Hell.

 

Well, what did I do wrong? Apart from everything.

 

I should have attacked on a narrower front, with better cover, more concentrated covering fire, used the smoke rounds from my mortar straight away, used my two engineer sections to start each building assault with demo charges, and about a dozen other things.

 

There you have it, ladies and gents, how not to assault an enemy HQ in 10 rubbish steps.

 

Thanks to Wild Bill Wilder, scenario designer. It was of course inspired by real efforts to kill Rommel, and Steven Pressfield's novel, Killing Rommel, spurred me on to get off my arse and play the scenario.

[DragonHawk]

Are you going to run this again and try to beat the scenario?

 

And this is maybe just my unfamiliarity with the system, but how is it that you took the flag at that center building? I don't see any of your guys over there.

[FullAuto]

I'll take my beating and go away a wiser man, and perhaps play it again some time in future.

 

I held the flag for a good 30-40 seconds because I had the most units capable of fighting close to it. You don't need to be right by the flag itself, just close to it (say about 100 metres or less) as it represents control of a point or area rather than one specific building.

[Space Voyager]

First turn goes not brilliantly. The Germans are actually awake, and standing guard and stuff.

:(

 

And OUCH. Great AAR, by the way. This map is small scale enough for me to grasp the whole action.

 

Can you merge leftovers of same type platoons into one?

[Thorondor]

With a total count of 64 allied casualties, only 21 men were actually killed in action.

 

The remainder were rudely interrupted while throwing a little mid-battle tea party.

 

::

 

Shocking lack of manners from the german high command, I say...

[FullAuto]

:(

 

And OUCH. Great AAR, by the way. This map is small scale enough for me to grasp the whole action.

 

Can you merge leftovers of same type platoons into one?

 

Rifle sections and other units like MGs, mortars, etc, if their platoon HQ is out of command range or dead, will fall under the command of another HQ if it's close enough. They won't formally be part of that platoon/company/battalion/etc, but for all intents and purposes, will be under command, and receive whatever bonuses from that HQ.

 

With a total count of 64 allied casualties, only 21 men were actually killed in action.

 

The remainder were rudely interrupted while throwing a little mid-battle tea party.

 

::

 

Shocking lack of manners from the german high command, I say...

 

If you look at the total number of men I had (about 90) the casualty rate is abolutely horrendous. More than 50% taken out, and of those, 30% killed. Makes WWI look good.