North Africa in 28mm?

[Usagi]

Artizan designs has some outstanding D.A.K and Eighth Army troops in 28mm. Most rules sets for 28mm scale miniatures, however, seem to be written for scenarios and environments where there's plenty of cover available. Since there's a definite dearth of cover or concealment in Libya/Egypt what would be the best way to keep your forces alive long enough to make the game interesting at this scale? What rules would you use? Right now Rules of Engagement is my preferred set, but given the awesome power of the MG42 in this game Tommies advancing in the open would have a very rough time of it, to put it mildly. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Cheers,
Tom

[Col.Stone]

lots and lots of dunes & / or villages to be fought in

[midismirnoff]

I've read in an Italian veteran memory book that desert fighting was all but cover-less. In fact the Lybian ground was scattered with boulders and cracks and small depressions. I'd use a lot of small and high-rising rocks and some shaded areas to represent small depressions.
And by the way... I got carried away too with the Artizan north-africa stuff. It's Awsome.

[Arlequín]

In the desert as such, as midismirnoff says; elevations and depressions would give you cover, along with the occasional scrub bush. Most of the close quarters fighting was done near settlements, which had cultivated fields and a degree of vegetation (check Google maps for their satellite images). Desert warfare will certainly give you a whole new set of tactical problems to mull over, but the terrain need not be the flat featureless landscape you would assume.

I know one Axis attack on Tobruk came in on the heels of a sandstorm and that heat haze was also a problem. Advances and retreats were quite substantial too, as the armies would have to travel extensive distances to find a defensible position.

[tim in saskatoon]

As the others have said...



Lots of dunes and/or built up areas!

[Arrigo]

I confirm the previous post. Also remember that  you have thebattles in Tunisia with even more villages and even more broken ground.

[ErikB]

That table above looks great.  Well done!

I've been to Morocco and Algeria and noticed the terrain is almost exactly like that in Southern California (where I did my military service, so I'm used to looking for holes to hide in).

One more idea would be to add lots of holes, brush, and ditches.  The only way I can think of for ditches is to raise the table and cut holes, which is not nearly as easy as modeling mobile hills and dunes and buildings.  Scrub is easy, though, and I'm sure that if one can model shallow craters then making fissures can't be so hard.

One thing I remember about Algeria is lots of rolling hills, big rocks and boulders, and far more trees and bushes than I would have thought.  There were some serious foothills that reminded me of a yellow/green version of the gray/white mountains in the Alps, believe it or not.

[Major Weenie]

Nice photo of the table...

Say, what are the playing cards for?  Who moves next?  Some sort of ranking?  I assume that there are (individual ?) spec/profile sheets for each figure next to the playing cards.

Thanks,
Maj.Weenie

PS - The Bengalis keep threatening to run a W.W.II skirmish game, we're already painting figures, but no one has really come up with a rules set yet.

[Usagi]

Nice photo of the table...

Say, what are the playing cards for?  Who moves next?  Some sort of ranking?  I assume that there are (individual ?) spec/profile sheets for each figure next to the playing cards.

The cards wouldn't be for "the Face of Battle" rules would they?

Anyhoo, thanks for the advice gents.

[tim in saskatoon]

Nice photo of the table...

Cheers!

Say, what are the playing cards for?  Who moves next?  Some sort of ranking?  I assume that there are (individual ?) spec/profile sheets for each figure next to the playing cards.

We play Savage Worlds - the playing cards do indeed determine the order of play - though if your card comes up and you don't want to go you can go on "hold" and even try to interrupt an action later... The white cards next to them are for Characters ("wildcards") or units  ("extras").