The Second BPA PBeM Afrika Korps tournament drew 26 grognards some 44 years after this game was first published. After 26 games, only the GM Bruno Sinigaglio and the defending champ, Ed Menzel, remained. Bruno resorting to his old tricks, took the Allies and trusted to his navy to sink Axis supply, leaving defending champ Menzel in command of the Germans.
In April 41, Germans 21 Panzer occupied the escarpments southwest of Bir Hacheim while the Italians starved the Brits in Benghazi. The 21/3 Recce drove as far west as R31, forcing the Allies to string out from the K18 escarpment all the way to L36. The Malta force sunk the only Italian convoy attempting passage in April.
In May, Rommel landed two supply convoys and brought in the 15 Panzer. On May II the 21/3 Recce moved further west into the escarpments south of Matruh while the Afrika Korps hammered to death a 2-2-6 on G23 at 6-1 with Bologna surviving a 1-3 soak. The Recce unit near Matruh forced the Allies to send two infantry brigades east to counter the threat to the home base while a 4-4-7 demonstrated outside Tobruk.
Rommel decided that the bait was easy pickens and attacked the 4-4-7 on H25 at 3-1 surrounded and a 1-1-6 on H26 at 3-1 while Bologna soaked against the rest at 1-5. The big 3-1 went well with a D Elim, unfortunately Ed rolled an exchange vs the 1-1-6 and Bologna could not resist the offer of spaghetti and wine by the Brits and deserted. At the end of June I, the Brits were hunkered down in Tobruk and screening Halfaya Pass while all else retreated east. The Malta dudes were doing their share, as Ed landed only enough supply to replace the two used in attacks.
On Jun II, the Afrika Korps swung around Halfaya into the escarpments. Bruno countered by falling back out of attack range with most units while leaving a lone brigade at Halfaya, another as a nuisance at K49 and one that was too slow to escape and thus acting as good counterattack bait at R53.
Rommel landed supplies on Jul I and being at full strength decided to isolate the lone 1-1-6 at Halfaya while killing the blocker at K51 and the bait at R53. At the end of July, the unit at Halfaya would starve and Ed would be bearing down on El Alamein with 24 factors while Bruno would be holding with 15 factors at most plus the four scheduled for August. So on Jul I Bruno sent the Recce unit south to enable a 1-2 surround vs 21/5 Panzer on Q52. A two was rolled - it is always better to be lucky than good - the Brits lost four one factor units and the Germans lost a 7-7-10. Ed landed another supply on Jul II and then waited in good defensive positions until the Brit at Halfaya crapped out. On Jul II the Brits dropped all the way back to the El Alamein - Ruweisat line with only ten factors alive.
On August I, the Afrika Korps was at full supply, but could not garner a good attack due to the previous hold up at Halfaya and the fall back by the chicken hearted Brits. On August I four more British cannon fodder brigades strengthened the El Alemein line to 14 factors. At this point, the bad luck rolls by Ed at Tobruk and the good luck roll by Bruno vs the 7-7-10 posed a dilemma for Ed. The Afrika Korps could possibly take the home base before Nov I, but two consecutive supply convoys would need to survive on the Sep I and Sep II turns - the odds were against Ed. So on August II, the Afrika Korps dropped back to Tobruk for the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" and rolled an exchange vs 18 factors. Thus the Afrika Korps ceased to exist and the forlorn wops hanging around at the end of turn surrendered.
Bruno finishes first. Ed finishes second to follow up his win in the previous BPA PBeM Africa Korps tournament. Another BPA Afrika Korps PBeM tournament will begin soon.
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