The Gazala battles had been raging for days with Panzerarmee Afrika driving for the great prize of Tobruk. Several British strongpoints still lay in its path, one of which was the Knightsbridge box held by the 201st Guards Motor Brigade Group. On 13 June, the position was enveloped by the 15th Panzer Division from the east and the 21st Panzer Division from the west. After a day of heavy fighting, the final clash of armor occurred when units of the 2nd and 4th Armored Brigades, sent to reinforce a Guards position on Rigel Ridge, met 21st Panzer Division during the last stages of one of the desert’s violent sandstorms – a khamsin. . . .[Mark Nixon, Journal #1]: British and German forces struggle to even find one another amidst a sand storm, a Khamsin. "Wide-open" desert spaces have shrunk to a close quarters arena with a maximum range of but ten hexes.
Attacker: German (21. Panzer Division)
Defender: British (2nd Battalion, Scots Guards / A & C Squadrons, Queen's Bays)
8.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:6.0 D:10.0
AFVs: A:16
PzKpfw IVF1 PzKpfw IIIH x 6 PzKpfw IIF x 2 Marder III(t)H SPW 251/1 x 6
First time that I played this classic scenario in over thirty years and I took the defending British. The set up was mainly around the most northerly hillock with no units on the southmost at all while one squad set up on the summit of the central hillock. Basically, the plan was to force the Germans to come into the teeth of the British defence when attempting to take the most strongly defended hillock. Marc obviously didn't know where the British defences would be concentrated and set up his starting force to the south with the intention of sweeping towards the North with the wind in the defenders' faces. This plan quickly came unstuck at the first wind change DR which resulted in the wind turning 180 degrees so that it would now be blowing into the attackers' faces. The Germans now split their forces and came at the British across the board. The attack never really got properly co-ordinated and the British picked off enough half tracks and armour to cause a concession on turn 5. My dice were red hot in this game and made light of the heavy dust when taking out the German armour as it approached. Fun game though (for me at least!) and I would be happy to give it a go as the Germans.
2021-10-13
(D) David Garvin
vs
Alain Chabot
British win
2021-07-18
(D) Eric Topp
vs
Ron Oxford
British win
By turn 5, the Germans were likely to take two of the Hillock Summits with his infantry but Ron conceded after he lost his fourth Pz III. My two Grants were Shocked/Stunned respectively but I still had both Crusaders and the Stuart so it was likely that the DVP losses for the Germans would continue to mount.
2020-12-21
(A) Scott Fischbein
vs
Chris Graff
German win
First DTO game for both of us - good way to learn the dust/wind/hillock rules (and lots of opportunity to review OVR, of which there were many!). The Germans were able to take control of all of the hillocks by turn 5, but had sustained some AFV losses, so were a bit behind on DVP, but after eliminating a few squads and a couple of Stuarts were catching back up... after the Brits malfed 3/4 of the guns on their Grants, Chris conceded in turn 6, since he didn't have a way to deal with my remaining tanks. Good game vs. a fun opponent - looking forward to more DTO action.
2020-12-21
(D) Christopher Graff
vs
Scott Fischbein
German win
First DTO game for both of us - good way to learn the dust/wind/hillock rules (and lots of opportunity to review OVR, of which there were many!). The Germans were able to take control of all of the hillocks by turn 5, but had sustained some AFV losses, so were a bit behind on DVP, but after eliminating a few squads and a couple of Stuarts were catching back up... after the Brits malfed 3/4 of the guns on their Grants, Chris conceded in turn 6, since he didn't have a way to deal with my remaining tanks. Good game vs. a fun opponent - looking forward to more DTO action.
2020-01-04
(D) Kermit Mullins
vs
Dan Best
German win
Well, once again I proved my inability to defend in the desert. Dan's Schwerpunkt rolled over me and in one turn, he eliminated every one of my tanks. Great win by Dan.
2020-01-04
(A) Dan Best
vs
Kermit Mullins
German win
2019-10-12
(D) Michael Rodgers
vs
Derek Ritter
German win
I wonder how many players are missing the fact that there is Light Dust and Heavy Winds. Between the two, it is very difficult to hit anything over six hexes away.
2018-09-12
(A) Scott Sherer
vs
Jeff B
British win
Jeff whipped me pretty good in this one...something like 55-10 in DVP on Turn 7 when the Germans threw in the towel. Our first foray into DTO and I found it fairly difficult to get my head around the hillock rules.
2018-09-12
(D) Jeff B
vs
Scott Sherer
British win
9.5 hrs
First foray into desert and I'm not sure how much of a real feel for it I got due to the heavy dust. I setup with a mind to breaking the scenario and, since I really wanted to play it, I was hoping Scott wouldn't fall into the trap. Thankfully he didn't. I really hope they address this potential problem when they reissue it. The first couple turns were just German advance and British repositioning. I had thought I left enough of a gap between my forces and the enemy for the first half of Turn 3 to be more of the same, but Scott was able to get just within eyesight of my units and therefore spoil my ambush plans. So the next couple turns were basically a matter of who could knock out the most vehicles. I had initially concentrated on the loaded HTs, as they had the most points but, once the infantry unloaded, I switched sights to the tanks. The Germans lost 6 of those to 0 for the Brits, so the game was pretty well over after Turn 4.
2018-01-13
(D) Michael Focht
vs
Ed Barnes
British win
2017-12-15
(D) Kevin Duval
vs
Dwayne Duval
Draw
Used British balance. Declared it a draw because forgot to include all three German Armor Leaders.
2017-12-15
(A) Dwayne Duval
vs
Kevin Duval
Draw
2017-03-03
(A) A Fifteen
vs
Michael Sprague
British win
2015-10-14
(D) Seumas Hoskins
vs
British win
2015-10-06
(D) mark watson
vs
Chris Farrell
German win
ASLOK 2015
2015-07-12
(D) Shane Pask
vs
German win
Germans captured the summits by turn 6 but I had a higher VP total. Germans caught up but the last Grant looked like saving the scenario for the Poms.
2015-05-25
(D) Richard Carter
vs
Damon Norko
German win
My defense absolutely fell apart over the course of a 1/2 turn. Interesting scenario. I chose to hedgehog around one of the hillocks and put a lighter force on another one, but my AFV's lost the tank battle badly and I couldn't defend against swirling tanks and HT's in the swirling dust
2014-06-10
(D) James Lowry
vs
Patch Bunny
German win
2013-10-06
(A) Rich Weiley
vs
Derek Ritter
German win
ASLOK 2013.
2013-09-10
(D) Will Willow
vs
Fred Schwarz
German win
FTF
2011-10-05
(D) Andy Beaton
vs
Doug Sheppard
German win
ASLOK 2011 - FtF
One of the best scenarios I've ever played - the dust storm makes it truly unique
