Assault on Tobruk!! - Introduction to our Afrika CoC Campaign

STOP PRESS: The Afrika CoC campaign is finally in motion!

The final arrangements were agreed during the week and finally last Sunday the opening game took place. The post today wants to be an introduction to the campaign framework and will be followed by more detailed battle reports of the different games as we did with our Stalingrad campaign.

The campaign will be conducted using the excellent supplement published by TooFatLardies called At the Sharp End that was already reviewed here on February. As a remainder, the campaign system works around a “ladder” of different scenarios starting in the “no-man’s land” and moving up and down in steps (outposts, main line of defence...) depending who wins each game, until reaching a central objective.  

Our campaign setup is Tobruk and the year is 1941. The Empire troops are garrisoning the city and Rommel’s German panzer elements will have to breach the fortress defences and ultimately conquest the city.

Due to the large number of players involved (eight) we have decided to play in two different areas of the battlefield, with 2 Axis and 2 Empire players in each area respectively. In principle, each side in each area will command 1 infantry platoon (with the supports available in the CoC Armies lists for each type of scenario) and 1 armoured elements troop.

Each side will also have a reserve of men and tanks (1 platoon and 1 tank troop) that will be distributed between the players depending on their individual performance over the games. Wounded and replacements are handled as per the campaign book.

Two final house rules to govern the campaign:

·         In the first two games it is supposed that both sides are undertaking mainly recon efforts, so no heavy armour will be allowed to be chosen as support   

·         The difference in terms of “ladder steps” between two areas in the same side will not be larger than 2 steps; if higher, the troops in the most advanced position will have to yield at least one step to avoid being flanked and surrounded

The first game of the campign was played last Sunday resulting in one Empire victory and one Axis victory. A battle report will follow soon, so stay tunned.