Operation Crusader
Creator: Surto9 || First Published: 02/13/2021 || Players: 4 || Size: 50x28
Categories: Historical/Geographical
Rating: 8.33 in 3 ratings
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Comments:
Surto9 (02/15/2021 07:20am | Edited: 07/19/2021 06:06pm):
NOTE: A slightly updated version is available here: https://awbw.amarriner.com/prevmaps.php?maps_id=94383
But there's no guarantee that it is more balanced!!

The battle for North Africa was a struggle for control of the Suez Canal and access to oil from the Middle East and raw
materials from Asia. Oil in particular had become a critical strategic commodity due to the increased mechanization of
modern armies. Britain, which was the first major nation to field a completely mechanized army, was particularly dependent
on the Middle Eastern oil. The Suez Canal also provided Britain with a valuable link to her overseas dominions—part of a
lifeline that ran through the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, the North African Campaign and the naval campaign for the
Mediterranean were extensions of each other in a very real sense.

On the tactical and operational levels, several factors conspired against the Axis despite the battlefield brilliance of Rommel
and the superb fighting of the Afrika Korps. Although North Africa was a logistician’s hell, logistics was the deciding factor. In
the end, the Allies triumphed with sheer mass. The Axis forces could not overcome Allied air and sea power–both of which
enhanced Allied logistics and degraded Axis logistics.

----------

SIEGE OF TOBRUK

Rommel first burst onto the North African scene in March 1941, when his First Offensive saw him push the British out of
Cyrenaica and back to the Egyptian frontier. His only failure in this period came at Tobruk, where his initial attacks were
repulsed. This marked the beginning of the eight month long siege of Tobruk.

Lifting the siege became something of an obsession for Churchill, and he applied pressure on General Wavell, the
commander-in-chief in the Middle East, to make use of his increasingly strong army to attack Rommel. Over the summer
Wavell tried twice (Operation Brevity, 15-16 May 1941 and Operation Battleaxe, 15-17 June 1941), but both attacks failed.


Allied Forces (BM+RF)
=====>
General Cunningham commands a truly Commonwealth force, with Australian, Indian, New Zealand, South African and
British troops. He had led the victorious Allied campaign in Italian East Africa, where he had coped well with difficult logistical
problems.

The Eighth Army was split into two corps – XIII and XXX Corps.
-> XIII Corps, under General W. H.E. Godwin-Austen, is main infantry force. It contains the New Zealand Division, the
4th Indian Division and the 1st Army Tank Brigade, equipped with around 130 Infantry Tanks.
-> XXX Corps, under General Lt General C.W.M. Norrie, is the armoured formation. It contains the famous 7th Armoured
Division, 4th Armoured Brigade, the 1st South African Division (two brigades) and the 22 Guards Brigade, with around 500
tanks (a mix of cruiser tanks and M3 Stuart light tanks).

In all the Eighth Army has around 300 cruiser tanks, 170 infantry tanks and 300 M3 Stuart light tanks, as well as 600 artillery
guns, 240 anti-aircraft guns and 900 mortars.
The British are operating quite a mix of tanks.
Air support is provided by up to 724 combat planes of the Commonwealth air forces in the Middle East and Malta.

Axis Forces (GE+JS)
=====>
General Rommel commandeers a mixed Italian and German force, made up of his own Panzergruppe Afrika and the Italian
XX Mobile Corps.

-> The most famous part of his army is the Afrika Korps, his original command. It contains two Panzer divisions – 15
Panzer and 21 Panzer (originally 5th Light Division when it came to Africa), 90th Light Division and the Italian Savona
Division, and it's commanded by General Cruewell.
-> The second part of Panzergruppe Afrika is the Italian XXI Corps, which contains four infantry divisions (Pavia, Brescia,
Trento and Bologna). One infantry division is manning the border fortifications, the other three were preparing for Rommel's
planned assault on Tobruk.
-> The second major armoured formation is the Italian XX Mobile Corps, under General Gambara. This contains the Ariete
Armoured division and Trieste motorised division.

Rommel has 438 tanks, split into 189 Italian medium tanks and 249 German tanks. The German tanks include 69 Panzer
IIs,
136 Panzer IIIs (half of which are new models with the short 50mm gun and half older models with the original 37mm gun)
and 31 Panzer IVs, at this point armed with a short 75mm howitzer.

Axis initial air support consists of about 120 German and 200 Italian serviceable planes, but these can be reinforced quickly
by transfer of additional units from Greece and Italy.
Surto9 (02/15/2021 07:20am | Edited: 02/15/2021 11:33am):
THE SITUATION

The failure of the 30 April-1 May attack was reported to Berlin by General Paulus, who had been sent to Africa to bring
Rommel under control. He also reported that the Africa Corps was in a difficult position, over-stretched and difficult to
support. This message was intercepted by the British and decoded, and helped convince Churchill that the siege of Tobruk
could be lifted by even quite a small attack.
Wavell came under heavy pressure to try something. His preference was for a larger scale attack, using tanks and
Hurricanes that were on their way through the Mediterranean, but in the meantime he authorised a smaller assault.

This led to Operation Brevity, 15-16 May 1941, a short-lived offensive aimed at capturing Halfaya Pass. The pass was
indeed taken, but an advance further on towards Sollum was soon abandoned. At the end of the operation the British held the
pass, but on 26-27 May the Germans counterattacked and retook the pass.

Battleaxe (15-17 June) was no more successful than Brevity. The main problem on the British side was poor armoured
tactics, which exposed their tanks to German anti-tank fire. Over the three days of the battle the British lost 27 Cruiser tanks,
45 of the new Crusaders and 64 Matilda IIs, a sizable proportion of the 'Tiger cubs' that had been sent through the
Mediterranean at such high risk. On 22 June Wavell was informed that he was to be replaced by Auchinleck.

(You are now here)
I
V

Operation Crusader (18 November-20 December 1941) is to lift the siege: Auchinleck's great task in North Africa.
The build-up to this battle helped the defenders, as it convinced Rommel to cancel a planned attack on Tobruk that had
been timetabled for after 20 November.

The main supply route into Tobruk is by sea. The Royal Navy uses a wide range of ships on this dangerous route. This
includes HMS Fiona and HMS Chakla, two Indian passenger ships that were taken over by the Navy, the destroyers HMAS
Stuart, Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager and Waterhen, the hospital ships Vita and Devonshire and a number of LCTs,
known as 'A-Lighters'.

The Germans focus a great deal of effort on cutting the naval supply lines into Tobruk, well aware that just about everything
needed by the garrison has to come by sea. The Allied ships have to run the gauntlet of air attacks, E-boats and U-boats.
(Many of these ships would be lost – Fiona and Chakla were sunk in April, the Vita was lost to heavy air raids in Tobruk
harbour, HMS Ladybird was lost on 12 May.)

Holding Tobruk is of great value to the Allies.
Rommel is forced to leave some of his troops to blockade the port, weakening his defences on the Egyptian frontier. He is
also denied its use as a port, meaning that supplies have to come from Benghazi, the next sizable port to the west. To make
things worse the metalled 'Via Balbia', the only good road along the coast, runs through Tobruk, so for some of the way his
road transport has to use nearby tracks.
Surto9 (02/15/2021 07:20am):
MAP EXPLANATION

The inland shoals to the very right of the map represent a railroad.
The central port is Tobruk. I have placed cities in locations corresponding to real towns, but not on all of them, or else the
area around Tobruk would be filled with even more cities (and city clumps) and the map would be less fun to play.
The port to the very left is Benghazi, used by the Axis. There exist no other ports between Benghazi and Tobruk, so the Axis
has little choice but to land their troops and supplies here.
Airports are placed arbitrarily, the base+hq islands represent whereever the heck are they getting their reinforcements from.
The western tower is the Aujila Oasis, the eastern tower is the Jarabub Oasis. There is a path connecting them both, going
around the "Great Sand Sea". Rommel was fooled into believing that the Allies were planning a massive flanking maneuver
through the Jarabub Oasis.
The empty missile silos represent the Qattara Depression, about 400 ft below sea level.
Anything west of (33,XX) is Cyrenaica (Libya), anything east of it is Egypt.
Fascelli (02/15/2021 12:52pm):
I am Italiano, so this is very interesting for me. One of my favorite war theaters to read about & reenact. I especially like the
Advance Wars countires you used, JS-Italy, GE-Germany, RF-Britain, & BM is ok too. That's always extra points for me. I cant
wait to try this Map. Good Job!
Surto6 (02/15/2021 03:50pm):
Thank you! It'll be indeed exciting to test this map
Dredge (02/16/2021 08:26am):
I'm afraid in play it may be very hard to actually end the game with the HQs in the corners like
that, but it is very well done otherwise as a recreation of a historical battle.
Surto6 (02/16/2021 10:19am | Edited: 02/17/2021 04:07pm):
You're suggesting to set a property win limit?
That might be a good idea, but does the setting only count per individual player or for an entire team?
Dredge (03/02/2021 09:52pm):
Entire team.
Surto6 (03/03/2021 11:19am | Edited: 04/07/2021 05:50am):
Property limit of 33-35 should be good then.

Currently playtesting with Fog, no CO Powers, 12k starting funds & 1k funds/turn (no property limit). Seems to be working
well, but will probably need to finetune some unit placements after the game (the sea battle and potentially axis supply line,
and whatever else will appear on the replay on the allies side).

-----------------------
PLAYTHROUGH
I am going to explain the gameflow and the major battles the games would evolve into.
If you prefer to play the game "blind" and figure out all the strategies yourself, I advice you skip this chapter.

The game begins with a roughly equally strong force of Axis defenders in Tobruk and Allied Attackers coming from Egypt and
the eastern sea. Although the Axis may appear stronger at first glance, the Allies have access to Artilleries, better vision, and
can easiely gain Air Superiority if they can kill the Axis Anti-Air. The Sea battle is mostly an extension of this Defensive battle
or 'Siege', as the Axis won't be able to make any aggressive moves into the eastern Sea, whilst the Allies have a lot to gain
from sinking the Axis fleet (free vision to Tobruk via Subs and the ability to use all the Sea tiles as flanking routes for Aircraft).
The logistics make the siege a whole magnitude worse for the Axis. The Allies can send swarm after swarm of troops from
the land base via railroad, and even their Airports have a shorter way to travel, whilst the Axis troops require roughly 2 more
turns to arrive and therefore require more planning and foresight. If the defense of Tobruk wasn't enough, the Axis will also
have to parry an early rush to the Western airport.
This perilous situation will continue until the Axis gain control over all of the cities inside and west of Tobruk, after that point the
tide creeps in favour of the Axis because of the sheer volume of funds they are aquiring, which will allow a strong push back
against an Allied-controlled Tobruk. The fall of Tobruk to the Allied forces is inevitable, but the longer the Axis can hold
Tobruk, the more funds they have for a push back (and the less funds the Allies have for holding Tobruk). Being lured out to
defend the Italian cities at the beginning of the game can end lethally for the Axis, as they can swiftly get overtaken by
numbers and combined arms in the open plains - every Axis unit in Tobruk is worth two Allied units. Therefore, it may be best
to take advantage of the mountaineous terrain near Tobruk to create chokepoints and stall for time. Note that the Italian mechs
can be placed on Mountains to provide vision - a precious resource for the Axis.

(to be continued, maybe)
Surto6 (04/11/2021 08:56am | Edited: 05/12/2021 05:09pm):
Proposed Changes To-Do:
-> Place a Cruiser in Axis Home-base and pre-own Tobruk to JS
-> Place a GE Mech next to the GE APC to speed up capture phase = more funds (eases the 'time limit')
-> Place a GE Recon somewhere to give the Axis Vision for aid in decision making.
-> Place GE Supply Boat in the water (currently it needs to move 2 turns before it can begin freighting units).
-> More roads to the western tower
-> Place a JS Port on the Northern edge



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