WWII Western Desert Rules

Introduction

The purpose of this page is to record rules for combat in the Western Desert (Libya and Egypt) from 1940 to 1941 during World War 2 (WWII). The page is likely to be work-in-progress for many months.

The rules have been inspired by Peter's rules at Grid Based Wargaming. In turn, Peter's rules lean heavily on 'Tank on Tank' from Lock 'n Load Publishing.

The date of last amendment for each section shall be recorded to enable the reader to identify those areas that have changed since the reader last accessed this page. The page is structured as the Panzer Marsch! ruleset to deliver:

• Look-up aide memoir tables that contain the basic data; when the rules have been learned, then these tables shall be all that's necessary for most of a battle.
• Explanation of the rules that are summarised in the look-up tables.

Date of latest amendment

28Jan20

Aide memoir

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[Add:

- Action points

- Unit parameters

- Identification

- Combat resolution

- Air support]

Explanation

Determine battlefield and objectives

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Determine forces

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Headquarters

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[Benefits - HQ Move, Group - HQ Move, Single - Artillery]

[Representation]

Deployment

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Determine the role of each force and the time that the battle starts

Stacking

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Facing

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Sequence for each bound

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Action points

General

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Anti-tank gun

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Movement

General

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Dust

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Minefields

HQ bonus

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Combat

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Movement and combat in the same bound

Last Amendment:    28Jan21

Movement and combat in the same bound is permitted by only turreted vehicles.

Visibility and identification

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Combat range

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Artillery

British 25 Pdr shelters behind a ridge

Last Amendment:    28Jan21

Constraints on artillery fire

1. The target must be within range of the Artillery unit.
2. An artillery unit does not require LOS to a stationary target if at least one other firing unit has LOS.
3. Artillery support can be used against a moving target only when the artillery unit has LOS.
4. An HQ not firing but with LOS to a stationary target may call in artillery support.

Effectiveness of Artillery Fire

The table below identifies whether artillery fire is permitted against different types of target in relation to the type of unit supported by the artillery. Soft targets are all forms of infantry, guns, artillery, and open topped vehicles such as Universal Carrier, open-top halftrack and open-top Self Propelled Gun. Hard targets are armoured cars and armoured fighting vehicles (tanks).

Assumptions

Scales

Ground    - The points of each hex lie on a circle that has a diameter of circa 200m.

Time        - Each bound represents circa 30 minutes.

Combat

Occupation of adjacent hexes by enemy units means that effectively, contact has been made and combat between those units has commenced. Consumption of AP for an attack represents effort to resolve combat.

Use of infantry

Whereas artillery and tanks are effective at relatively long ranges, generally, a unit of infantry is a relatively short-range weapon that infiltrates an enemy position and uses cover, stealth and proximity to press home an attack. For this reason, a successful attack with infantry results in mandatory advance by an infantry unit into the vacated hex.

The relatively low speed of infantry into contact gives time for recovery of an enemy suppressed by artillery fire. Were infantry to start close enough to the target of a combined attack to take advantage of suppression, then they would run the risk of becoming casualties of ‘friendly fire’.

Effect of indirect fire on armour

In practice, artillery fire on armoured units is likely to encourage commanders of units and vehicle to go under armour; hence, a significant reduction in the effectiveness of a unit due to impaired situational awareness and communication. Furthermore, artillery fire may result in some physical damage to radio antenna and tracks.

Effectively, armoured units under artillery fire may experience some characteristics of suppression; hence, be more vulnerable to direct fire.

Whilst there are suggestions that concentrated indirect fire was effective against tank units, for example, at Tobruk, there is an assumption that too few artillery units shall be fielded in encounters fought with these rules to be effective against armour.

Air support

A Blenheim bomber about to attack
'Infantry, Armoured - half-track'
that are dug into a wadi and control the road

Last Amendment:    28Jan21

Quantity of Bounds with Air Support

Generally, support may be provided during only one bound per side per battle. The exception is when extra air support has been assigned as part of a campaign.

Pre-requisites

• Air support may be used at any time of day but:
• Not at night.
• Not at dawn.
• Not by the defender during the first hour of the battle - this represents surprise at the attack and inertia to get air support.
• The Target hex must be visible to a reconnaissance unit (AC, Infantry - MC, Infantry – Universal Carrier).

Stand for Aircraft

Representation of Aircraft

The aircraft model is mounted on a hexagonal stand. Each segment of the hex is numbered.

Consumption of Action Points

Two APs are consumed to obtain air support. If any of these APs are diced-for, then 2 Aps must be confirmed (one or two by die roll) before the effects of air support may be resolved. Any one confirmed AP that is not increased to 2 confirmed APs by a die roll is consumed by effort made nugatory by a failure in communication or the unavailability of timely air support so may not be re-assigned to a different action.

Resolution Process

Air support is resolved in the same way as normal combat but without a co-ordinated attack with ground forces. A target may be attacked by air and ground forces in the same bound; ie, 3 AP may be consumed to attack a single target in the same bound but 2 of these AP shall be consecutive and consumed by the air support.

Air support is effective against all types of unit and may result in ‘friendly fire’.
For each bound with air support, there are three passes of the aircraft:

1. First pass - the stand for the aircraft model is placed on the target hex with the ‘4’ triangle facing the commander’s base. Attack Quantity of 2 against the unit in the target hex.
2. Second Pass – 1D6 to determine the adjacent hex also attacked from the air; see the numbers on the stand of the model aircraft to determine which hex. The stand for the aircraft model is placed on the second hex with the ‘4’ triangle facing the original target hex. Attack Quantity of 1 if the hex contains a unit be it friend or foe.
3. Third pass – 1D6 to determine the adjacent hex also attacked from the air; see the numbers on the stand of the model aircraft. There is no third attack if the third and first hex are the same. The stand for the aircraft model is placed on the third hex. Attack Quantity of 1 if the hex contains a unit be it friend or foe.

Combat resolution

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Smoke screens

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