North Africa Operation Compass Wargame
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- Опубліковано 17 кві 2023
- Today on Little Wars TV, we rewind the clock to January 1941 at the height of a major British offensive across Libya. This is the climax of Operation Compass, a wildly successful operation on the verge of wrecking Italian dreams in North Africa. We set up two tabletops to refight the twin battles at Derna airfield and Fort Mechili between the Italian army and the Commonwealth's Western Desert Force. Will the British momentum continue, or can the Italians finally stem the bleeding and hold firm?
We're wargaming these battles in 6mm scale with GHQ miniatures on custom hex terrain. - Розваги
Yes! The African campaign is not represented enough in wargaming.
We are doing east Africa as a tester before moving onto the big one North Africa ua-cam.com/video/iNskn-wAyqs/v-deo.html
Tbf it does have one of the longest wargames to play ever made dedicated: The Campaign for North Africa.
An estimated completion time of 1500 hours and recommended 10 players with a 3m map board. It goes into ridiculously complex detail like Italian troops using more water because they cook pasta and every unit losing 3% of their fuel a turn due to evaporation(except the British who lose 7% a turn to represent the poorer storage method of oil drums in comparison to the Jerry can used by the Italians and Germans)
Haha yes, I know of that one. But thats not a game, it's a life style.
@@deeznoots6241 Which is, if anything, perhaps a bit too much representation.
Desert warfare is almost always dramatic in both the tactical and operational level. I'm definitely interested to see more.
Ed put on a fine wargame and the video was fun to watch. I DEFINITELY would like to see more!
Yes! Give us the rest of the campaign! Like Greg said, it was really cool to see the Italians take center stage for once.
"Fosters" - drunk by literally no Australian - warm or cold - free or paid...EVER 😂
Another great show - thank you Ed and gang ❤
Yes, it will be great to see this theatre played out on your channel. A lot of British What-if histories start with the possibility of the fall of Egypt and the capture of the Suez Canal. Shows just how important the North African campaign was to the pre-Pearl Harbour war.
It also was really important in the post Pearl Harbor war as it saw the first deployment of Americans in the European theater
Please make this a series 👍 this was awesome
Honestly I absolutely love to see a Pyrrhic style campaign in North Africa. As I love desert warfare (in ww2) and I would love to see the interesting dynamics yall always include (Weather in a campaign for example)
“Il Duce!” Shouted with the energy I might invoke the Emperors favor playing imperial guard in 40K! Made me cackle, the hat really adds to it
Well we do love funny hats around here. That’s for sure…
Can't wait to see more of the North African campaign on your channel
Well done, Ed! Yes, more North Africa games, please.
The common Italian soldier gets a bad reputation. Rommel said when properly led they were as good as his German soldiers. Italian officers acted as an elite and had luxuries on campaign, never sharing the hardships of their men. Always root for Miles , today was not his day. Tony for El Duce lol. Great video guys
I say, General Miles Louch got quite the promotion to field marshal. Sadly, he is now known as 'Bloody Slouch'. A tip of the pith to Generalissmo Grigori for his stout defense of the airfield. Fantastic games all in all Little Wars team. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
My sons and I are planning to refight the 1st gun-armed tank battle in North Africa which occurred at Gabr al Ahmar. A very competent Italian Tank Officer, Col. Aresca led the 4th Tank Regiment with a combined arms force including M11/39's, Bersaglieri and Royal Artillery against elements of the 7th Armored Brigade with A9 Cruisers. The Italians won the 1st gun armed tank battle in North Africa on 5 August 1940. Aresca was trying out combine arms and it was working. (Before the appearance of the Matilda) I totally agree with your assessment of the Italian Army. Folgore, the Bersaglieri, Royal Artillery and Ariete fought well and competently.
TBF, the British did not know that the Italian 11/39s were coming at Gabr al Ahmar. These early battles are fascinating, some great scenarios in both the Too Fat Lardy books and Chadwick's "Benghazi Handicap", possibly the source for the two presented here.
Seeing the Aussies in a Wargame gives me hope of a NZ themed Wargame. Either way great episode and lovely to see Italy and its beautiful hats!!!!!!! Great work and keep it up.
You’ll probably get so see them in the 3rd El Alamein episode.
Did you spot the Kiwi Bren Carriers in some of the intro video? G'day from across the Tasman
Please do continue with the North Africa series! All the best.
It's always fun to see the Italians and Brits struggle with inter-war tank designs.
Yes, please keep this theatre going. You can't start a story and not finish it
Something you guys might try is using Sam Mustafa s Rommel for large operational desert battles.
We did a large Crusader game a year back that worked really well, inspired by your Normandy game. And this summer we are doing the Gazala battles.
Interested to know more…as very tempted by Sam’s rules set Rommel…but only tried a small game so far.
@@gavinpearson74 Similiar to what LWTV did with the Normandy game, we played with microarmor (1:285) with units mounted on 2” by 1.5@ bases. Our grid squares are 100mm.
We expanded the desert scale closer to 2km per square to allow for representing a large area from just west of Bardia to the eastern defenses of Tobruk. Artillery ranges were adjusted to the new scale but we preserved the stacking and each unit was representing a reinforced company on the table. We figured the unique desert environment made thinner formations and more extended frontages supportable at the increased ground scale.
This also allowed us to represent almost the entire Africa Korps and the 8th army involved in Crusader on a 10’ x 6’ table. Turn scale was also condensed to 12 turns per day with a night turn following.
The Rommel rules were ideal for simply representing the free for all that ensued-very much in line with WWII western desert warfare. With formations fighting to pin and encircle each other we very much had a naval battle on land as you might expect.
Great map, would love to see more modern battles
More modern you say? You’ll very much enjoy our NEXT wargame then!
@@LittleWarsTV oh you teases!
Great game from a CRIMINALLY underrepresented theatre of war. Bravery and daring were off the charts in the African theatre.
Nice to see you adopting Commomwealth military terminology "bolloxed". 🙂
Except it was the British Empire, not the Commonwealth.
@@grahamtravers4522 The Commonwealth has been called the Commonwealth since 1926 so he’s correct
LOL Love the intro comments about the British being scattered. The western desert is my favourite campaign in WWII and the British have a long, proud tradition of scattering their forces. OMG that terrain is gorgeous. I love Gregg's helmet. Yes please for the follow up battles. Also this is not a criticism, but I really like games with a bit more fog of war aspect. Confuse and bewilder those players, Mr. Referee!
Where's Dieter and his wonderful Austrian accent when you need him! 😂😂
My late father in law served in the 4th Indian Division in the desert. He always gave the Italians their due as hard fighters; he said their problem was poor generalship and lack of transport.
The ED fan club approves this episode and this series 👍🏻
Our moar ED 2023 campaign has paid off. YES!!!!!!!!
Absolutely please I would love to see the rest of the campaign finished. My wife's grandfather fought and was injured during this campaign and it's always held an interest to me after finding that out.
This is one of those channels where I automatically hit the like button, even before I’ve watched the video
The Desert War was pivotal to WW2, before El Alamein we never won a battle after, we never lost one. More please.
Never clicked off another video so fast, to watch tiny soldiers do battle. Love these battles!
Another vote yes for more of the North African campaign and glad to finally see the great GHQ MicroArmour on LWTV!
More of the North Africa campaign and Ed please. Such a great episode.
Excellent video as ever.
The WW2 war games are a joyful mix of history/entertainment
I hope the Vietnam games may make a return one day ?
This balanced engagement alone shows the potential for future fun and mayhem. Yes please.
It's always refreshing to see a theater of the Second World War that ISN'T D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge or the Eastern Front. I would love to see more of how the Matilda II became the Queen of the Desert!
wouldn't mind seeing Fall of France, Greco-Italian War, Talvisota, or Continuation War games either.
Absolutely , I have a reasonably large force of old GHQ and CnC AFV , Guns , transport and infantry. Maybe this will inspire me to pull it out after many , Manu years.
Greg likes playing the Italians because he gets to wear the fantastic pith helmet!
I liked the rhetorical question at the end…… of course we want more war games from this theatre
I think a whole desert campaign would be an amazing series to watch!
I would love to see the rest of the North African campaign. Thank you
One thing I've learned watching these videos is that Miles, for better or worse, is almost always hyper-aggressive in his early moves no matter what.
Thanks for going to North Africa, the most interesting theater in my opinion.
Something about it always captures the imagination. There’s a kind of odd romanticism of the desert war that lingers
North Africa has always been one of my favorite theatres! I would love to see more wargames for this period!
Thanks for the disclaimer about Benito, I was worried.
Watching again a few months later and gotta say Ed saying, "Night march was completely bollocked" gave me memory of a school teach in secondary school losing his temper with a projector just as the Head Mistress came in.
Absolutely return to the North Africa. This was a great video.
I have always been interested in the North African campaigns, I’d love to see more.
As the late, great Richard Berg said, unless Italian forces have to account for extra water rations for their soldiers to boil pasta, the game isn't truly a Campaign For North Africa.
That was a most enjoyable pair of games. Lovely tables, definitely want to see more North African action.
As Italian, I am excited to see! Well done Guys!
Very timely - A friend and I are about to (tonight) start a campaign - starting at Tummar West Dec 1940 - right at the start of Compass (using Rapid fire reloaded)
Been waiting for this since I glimpsed it in the season trailer! Love your battle reports and your tables, always beautiful. Much underrepresented period, looking forward to seeing more.
Can't wait to watch the rest of this series!
Great to see a desert war game. Nice to see some recognition to the Australian actions in the war. More due in future scenarios.
This was great! Thank you guys for all the cool content.
You always give us great Battle-Reports! Thanks so much!
I'd love to see more of these. That was splendid!
LOVE this. Glad to see you back to gaming consistently. The battlefield tours and rule reviews are fun, but I love seeing y'all roll dice!
Yes, please continue the North Africa Campaign. Ed please do more . I really enjoyed this video of WWII battle.
Love the stuff you guys do. The tables and figures are fantastic. Thanks.
Always loved the Desert War. Hope to see you keep these going! Thank you for posting these on UA-cam.
Another excellent video. I really like the hex terrain you used. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Great video, great tables and figures. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the battles
I could watch this as a whole season, more please!
Yes, definitely it will be great to see this theatre played out on your channel.
Very nice indeed. Well done finding a gameable scenario from this part of the campaign! If you do continue, good luck recounting the craziness of Operation Crusader.
This was a great video! I definitely want to see more.
Great video Guys. Well done.
great game, love the 6mm WWII games, and looking forward to the rest of your planned North Africa games!
Fantastic content fellas, please keep it coming.
Fantastic stuff - more please. The figures and terrain look superb and I'd love to see more on this (with close ups !). Hopefully there'll be a follow-on.
Another great video. Fascinating stuff 👍🏻
Yes definitely want to see more! Also a review/game of "Bomber Command" which I saw in the background and have struggled to find much about.
Fantastic game! The Western Desert Campaign is my favorite theater and period of WWII. Looking forward to the next battle!
Love when you guys play campaigns - makes each battle matter more.
Always love the sound effects during the battle.
Great looking table Ed!
Well, no one is going to say 'no' to another...and another... Yet another brilliant half-hour video, with verve, wit and imagination. I don't know how they manage to create so much consistent and frequent quality!
Excellent video! I didn’t know anything about the North African campaign until I played No Retreat #2 by Carl Paradis, but now I can’t get enough of it. Please do cover this more!
Really enjoyed the video. Please keep the North Africa stuff coming!
Great video guys! I must say that episodes featuring Ed and Miles are my favorite! I look forward to the rest of the campaign.
When I played FOW we always did it in micro armor, it was so much more fun!
Looks like a fun system, I'd love to watch more in this vein.
Terrific video that! Really enjoyed it!
Absolutely would love to see additional battles
These tables look great!
Fantastic episode guys, great table Ed!! And most definitely, keep the North African series going! :-)
Jolly good stuff, keep it up chaps!
Yes! Would love to see more!
Great report! Love the terrain and well painted models! Go micro!
This is so unbelievably good. The kind, mild-mannered narration, the passion for the game and the theater, it all just fills me with such a good feeling. I look forward to the continuation.
Yes please more. Love your videos
That was a great game and video, as always. I can't wait for the video on the Generals. More North Africa, please
Excellent video! More of this please! The North African campaigns are so interesting and very often overlooked. It was great to see another of your club games too. It is good to look at other clubs and other features, but it is your club games which keep bringing me back. Thank you for such a great video.
I absolutely want to see the North Africa campaign in wargame! Do it!
Yes. Would be really interesting to see more of this campaign an it is a nice scale to see a bigger part of the battle.
Cracking episode chaps. Lovely kit on display and great terrain as usual. Also using my favourite set of rules for 6mm SWW and Modern games. Yes to more N. African games please.
Absolutely return, WW2 North Africa is one of the best back and forth, lots of what ifs also...
Yes you should return to North Africa. Ed delivered the goods with this game set on two tables. You guys could try a game set in the East Africa campaign in WW2.
Another fine wargaming video. Thanks for putting it out. Of course, like everyone else, I'd like to see more! Only reservation - the accusation of Italian 'cowardice' was never directly addressed. I think we all know their problems stemmed from poor training, equipment, senior command and logistics.