Hello, boys and girls.
Thursday two weeks ago I had the honour of playing a test game of Rommel by Sam Mustafa. That thing I wrote a droning introduction to in this thread a few weeks ago.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/b2/2f/GoWoSXM5_o.jpg)
The scenario we played was based on Operation Brevity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Brevity), available as free download on Honour Games Website here: https://sammustafa.com/downloads/ (https://sammustafa.com/downloads/)
Very quickly summarized Operation Brevity (May 15th, 1941) was the first of a series of British counter-attacks against Italian/German forces in Libya. Rommel's Arfrika Korps had thrown Commonwealth forces back behind the Egyptian borders shortly before. Only the important supply harbor Tobruk still was in the hands of British and Australian forces, but was besieged. Now German supply lines were stretched painfully thin and large chunks of Rommel's force was back at Tobruk.
Here's a map of the area the operation (and our game) took place in:
(http://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2017_10/59f7debaeb0dd_brevitymap.jpg.6921182e589591699887a7f48277b783.jpg)
The objective of Operation Brevity was to recapture terrain which would serve as a jump-off point for future operations to relief Tobruk ("Operation Battleaxe" a few weeks later). For this the following strategic points were important: Hafid Ridge, Fort Capuzzo and the city of Sollum.
(http://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2017_10/59f7e43ef17b9_earlygameturn1schrift.jpg.208a5ed8b8febcde449f141a2db8bb37.jpg)
The German force
The forces involved on the German side were KG von Herff (KG = Kampfgruppe / Combat Group) sitting at the ready in the North including German and Italian motorized forces and tanks, and some more Italian forces in Sollum to defend the town. Later on the Germans would receive reinforcements in the shape of KG von Esebeck (infanry, some artillery and medium tanks).
The British force
was set up in three groups. One was drawn from 7th Armoured Division (including a bunch of Cruiser tanks, Australian light tanks and some infantry), the second group from the 22nd Guards Brigade (Scots and Coldstream Guards, Matilda II infantry tanks, etc.) and the third group, named Coast Group, featuring 2nd battalion The Rifle Brigade (successors to the famous 95th Rifles of Sharpe fame of course) and artillery support. On top there was unattached 25pdr gun support from the Corps for general support.
Setup
KG Herff sets up along the northern long edge of the table, while the Italian group (formally part of KG von Herff) are sitting in Sollum. KG von Esebeck would appear at the end of German player's turn #4 along his long table edge.
British forces start long the opposed long table edge and get to go first.
The game runs for 16 player turns (each player goes 8 times), after that it's nightfall and the battle ends. If the British player holds two of the objectives he wins, otherwise it's a win for the Axis player.
I played the British and Commonwealth forces, honourable Mr.Virago slipped in his usual role of playing the Axis commander. He owns a lot of 15mm Afrika Korps figures of course and I supplied Italians who in this game got their first outing. I had a few Cruiser tanks too few, which I substituted with looted Italian medium tanks, while Virago was a few Panzer III and Panzer II short, which were substituted with early Panzer IV and recon vehicles. In Rommel miniatures are completely optional, but we had the terrain and figures, so why not use them. To be honest, they proved to make the whole affair look more atmospheric, but also added a bit of chaos and made the game less clear looking. Not to mention the troubles of trying to put a single-based 15mm figure on a laminated piece of paper on a slope.
All infantry units were motorized with the exception of the Italian infantry sitting in Sollum. The Bersaglieri units attached to KG von Herff of course were motorized as well.
I got to move first, so I swiftly sent 7th Division off to Hafid Ridge. 22nd Brigade was split into two forces: Infantry, supported by heavy Matilda II tanks took Fort Capuzzo. The idea was for them and 7th Armoured Division to take the objectives and be a nuisance to keep those nasty German Panzers in check. In the mean time the rest of 22nd Brigade and Coast Group would knock these Italians out of Sollum. "Shouldn't take long", "it's just Italians after all" and "we threw them out of Cyrenaika before without much trouble". Falling for your own propaganda is a slippery slope. :p
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1a/07/BLy0hvDA_o.jpg)
Elements of 22nd Guards Battalion take Fort Capuzzo (depicted by a recon vehicle and a camel).
(https://images2.imgbox.com/b3/db/Db3yOHh2_o.jpg)
On the right flank the bloody house-to-house combat for Sollum commenced. Motor Rifles of 22nd Brigade and Coast Group took turns in their attacks, but the Italians proved to be stalwart defenders.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/34/ee/aooBFW8S_o.jpg)
...despite the best efforts of the Royal Artillery (and at one point the RAF as well).
(https://images2.imgbox.com/64/a4/dPiNPs6s_o.jpg)
At one point I ALMOST had them running, but then out of nowhere a company of Bersaglieri showed up and replaced an exhausted company. Yup, Italians rotating frontline troops. I was as amazed as you are, folks. No fair!
At the centre we had a proper tank battle in the mean time.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/58/b5/vgVQtSlV_o.jpg)
Hafid Ridge on my left was guarded by a well dug in company of Motor Rifles and not in real danger and the Germans mostly took off to relief Sollum. This presented me with the opportunity to start an attack on the German supply source. If I'd be able to capture that it would make things MUCH more invonvenient for my opponent.
In the Rommel rules the scenario always dictates one or more squares which are each side's supply source (which is either an airfield, a supply harbor, a railway hub, etc.) to which you have to be able to draw uninterrrupted lines to your units, otherwise activating them gets much harder, they are less effective in combat, and so on.
So I redirected 7th Armoured's tanks and 22nd Battalion's Matilda tanks to attack the German tank units protecting the supply source. But dang, German tanks are annoying. The game models the edge German tankers had on their British counter-parts at that point very well. 3-man turret crews, better morale and doctrine... it went OK, but after a while it became clear that the attack wouldn't be successful (not to mention bloody 88s hammering at my Matildas).
And then KG Esebeck turned up. Not as much as I had thought, but still. The defenders of Sollum still refused to give up and they got flank support by German Panzergrenadiers and tanks now who in turn threatened my supply lines.Time to dig in.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a7/f8/oHwkD7kW_o.jpg)
So Axis reinforcements popped up and they just had cleared their Ops board up to mount a counter-attack. However, time wasn't too plentiful. On the Sollum flank I was rather safe now, the Motor Rifles at Hafid Ridge were dug in and while not a big force they still would be bothersome to drive out, so the German tanks went straight (well, in a bendy side-ways maneuvre really9 for the currently undefended Fort Capuzzo objective. I only held one of the three objectives any more.
At that point we decided to call it a night due to time. The game was still rather open at this point, but it didn't look bad for the Axis forces. On the other hand taking Sollum or conquer Fort Capuzzo again wasn't out of the question. Hard to tell. Either way, the Rommel rules work like a charm.
(http://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2017_10/rommel.jpg.391ac8ba29d34434daa680b23c845e77.jpg)
The handling of the 15mm figues on the laminated cards wasn't too easy. Playing without miniatures altogether certainly is an option and probably looks much clearer. You can also make it visually appealing by using proper maps and adding the grids or drawing your own large maps.
The only thing I wasn't too sure about in the beginning was the Ops sheets each player uses to allocate their Ops dice. It seemed a lot like the Saga battleboards to me which are a cool mechanic, but I feel in Saga they a.) take up too much of the game, b.) you have to know all of them by heart, c.) they're bloody different for every single faction and last but not least just replaced too much of what should happen on the table actually. Anyway, my worries turned out not to be warranted. The Ops things work great and are a factor to the game rather than the be all end all.
So yeah, with just the investment of the rulebook itself you don't even necessarily need minis to play, but just a few chips of paper. Of course this is a thing we discussed after the game and which remained a plan for almost 24 hours, as the day after it turned out that a guy wanted to get rid of his 6mm US and German troops (for Normandy. Meh.) and we bought them off him and see what we cando with Rommel and these 6mm minis. ;)
Anyway, Rommel is highly recommended, has the right period feel and the right feel concerning the challenges of this level of command. If you are in any way interested in the period and big, proper battles this should be checked out. Anddon't wait too long if you want a hardcopy as I know that Sam Mustafa's rules sell out very fast in physical form.