The Long Retreat
After the decisive battle of El Alamein, the retreating Axis forces were pursued by the winning British. Montgomery’s cautious and methodical approach meant that most of the retreating enemies made it back to their bases in Lybia, but they left behind most of their heavy equipment. Some units, particularly Italian ones, had to retreat for days on foot across barren desert terrain. These columns, though consisting of a large number of troops, were very low on ammunition, fuel, water, food and of course morale. They were very vulnerable to air attacks and at continuous risk of being caught and surrounded by fast enemy advance guards and heavy recon patrols.
Setup
The Axis must deploy his force on the road itself, more than 24" from the West table edge and more than 12" from the East table edge. No units can be held in reserve.
No Allied units are set up on the table at the start of the game. The Allied player declares which units he is leaving in reserve, then any units not left in reserve form the player's first wave.
Terrain
This scenario is played along the length of a six by four feet gaming surface.
A 6”-wide road stretches from the ‘east’ short table edge to the ‘west’ short table edge, roughly bisecting the table into two equal halves.
The rest of the table should be covered by a low density of broken terrain, representing the desert and rough going surrounding the road. Read “Italian” as “Axis” in the map below.
Opposing Forces
This scenario is played between an Allied attacking force and an Axis defending force. The attacking force should consist of half the points of the defending force (for example 500pts of attackers and 1000pts of defenders).
ALLIED REINFORCED PLATOON
1 Lieutenant – First or Second
2 Veteran Infantry sections (early/mid-war)
plus:
Headquarters
0–1 Captain or Major
0–1 Medic team
0–1 Forward Observer (either Artillery or Air)
Infantry
0–3 Infantry sections: Regular Infantry sections (mid-/late-war), Veteran Infantry sections (early/mid-war)
0–1 Machine gun team
0–1 Anti-tank team: Boys anti-tank rifle team
0–1 Sniper team
Armored Cars
0–3 Armored Car or Recce vehicles (LRDG Armed trucks, SAS Jeep, etc)
Transports And Tows
0–1 Transport vehicle per infantry unit in the Reinforced Platoon from: Wheeled vehicles (Trucks and Jeeps), no tracked or half-tracked vehicles.
Special Rules
Must Be Mobile: There must be enough transport vehicles for every soldier to ride
AXIS REINFORCED PLATOON
Use your regular platoon selector, but you may only take HQ and INFANTRY. No ARTILLERY or VEHICLES!
First Turn
Let the battle begin! During turn 1 the Allied player must bring his first wave onto the table. These units can enter the table from any point on the long table edges or the Eastern short table edge, and must be given either a run or advance order. Note that no Order test is required to move units onto the table as part of the first wave.
Objective
The Axis player must try to move as many of his units off the West table edge. The Allied player must try to stop him, and inflict maximum damage. Note that in this scenario, Axis units are allowed to deliberately move off the table from the West table edge.
Game Duration
Keep a count of how many turns have elapsed. At the end of turn 7, roll a die. On a result of 1, 2 or 3 the game ends, on a roll of 4, 5 or 6 play one further turn. At the end of the further turn, roll again, and keep rolling every turn until the game ends!
Victory!
At the end of the game, calculate which side has won by adding up victory points as follows. If one side scores at least two more victory points than the other then that side has won a clear victory. Otherwise the result is deemed too close to call and honors are shared – a draw!The Axis player scores one victory point for every enemy unit destroyed. He also scores two victory points for each of his own unit that has moved off the West table edge before the end of the game.
The Allied player scores two victory points for every enemy unit destroyed. If the unit is destroyed by number of pin markers exceeding the unit’s Morale value, the unit surrenders and in that case the Allied player scores and additional two victory points for that unit (a total of four!)..
SPECIAL RULES
RAF and Royal Navy supportInstead of the usual free artillery observer, the British force gets a free air observer. Any artillery observers purchased normally represent Navy liaison officer calling in naval bombardments from ships off the coast to the North.
Low morale
After set-up, but before the start of turn 1, place one pin marker on every Axis unit.
In addition, the Axis column is then struck by a preliminary bombardment (and remember the British ‘bombardment’ rule!), which represents the battered conditions of the retreating units.
In this scenario, Italian units cannot use their Defensive Strategy special rule.
Axis units can never be ordered to Rally.
Out of ammo
Every time an Axis unit opens fire, before rolling to hit, roll a dice for each model firing, on a 4+ that model can proceed to fire, on a 3 or less, that model cannot fire this turn as he scrambles around his pack looking for ammo.
