O-Group in the Desert II.

A second foray into the desert saw two out of the three players with limited/to no knowledge of O-Group, could I get them enthused about the game?

I’d put together another fictitious scenario, again based on the Allies attacking the Italians, ‘somewhere in the desert’.

I’d cut down on the armour and supporting weapons, to try and give more of that ‘infantry’ feel to the scenario to let the new players get a better understanding of the challenges faced by the ‘orders’ system. I limited the Allies to an HMG and a couple of Vickers Mk VI light tanks and the Italians to an HMG, 20mm anti-tank rifle and a L3/35 ‘very ‘light’ tank.

I gave the Italians a hasty minefield & some entrenchment’s and both sides artillery barrages, 2/1 in favour of the attacker as suggested.

Initial dice rolls went well for the Italians, with three ambushes available, one round of interdiction and the remainder as combat patrols (CP). The Allies also faired reasonably well, with two units on the table and the remainder available as CP’s, but no casualties on the Italians due to the notional opening barrage.

Leif had taken the Italians, having never played O group before, and indicated his hasty minefield (which never came into play!) and ambush positions, deciding to ‘deploy forward’ with a platoon on either flank. Si (had played before) and Mark (not played before, but had the rules), took the Allies. Mark & Si took a flank each and both deployed a platoon and advanced. 

I purposely wanted to play the game lengthways down the table to help get the concept of the ‘orders’ process for deployment and movement (which, I think he’ll agree, took Leif a little while to get his head around!) 

As Si advanced, Leif sprung his first ambush, not very effectively, but it had the effect of slowing the Allies advance down that flank, and Si did take on a rather cautious stance for much of the game (in the umpires’ view!)

Mark was not so cautious, allowing Leif to deploy his second ambush, with a bit more success. There then followed some ‘toing and froing’ as both sides took hits, rallied them off, redeployed and tried to call in their mortars or artillery (not in the same turn of course!), with little success for either sides artillery (it’s the wrong map sir!).

Mark deployed the light armour and a second platoon, putting pressure on the Italians on that side of the table (note to self – armour cannot deploy from a CP!) and the Italians started taking casualties on that flank. Mainly from the infantry, as despite the Mk VI’s firing with three dice each, they were having little effect.

As the Mk VI’s advanced further, Leif saw the opportunity to engage with his 20mm antitank rifle and managed to cause some damage (once I remembered how to calculate the results!), which caused them to reverse out of line of sight.

The Italians were starting to take some damage by now and some effective shooting by the infantry, a successful call in of a medium battery and some continuous mortar stonks over multiple turns saw the Italians take their first FUBAR.

Despite deployed the L3/35 and getting a successful medium battery barrage, Leif was unable to cause the casualty count on the allies to mount significantly.

With Si having to leave early and Mark taking over full control of the Allies, pushing forward aggressively, and getting another medium battery barrage, the writing was soon on the wall for the Italians and two further FUBAR’s were soon taken.

All in all I thought the game played well and Leif and Mark appeared to enjoy the rules, we were certainly getting through the turns by the end with little problem. And although they apologised for the multitude of questions, it actually helps to get a better understanding of the rules as you look up those vaguer sections, or calculations, that don’t come up that often.

As ever, I forgot a few things, having remembered to treat the Italians as ‘second rate’ this game! As mentioned, I forgot that armour cannot deploy off a CP, I convinced Si that you didn’t need an order to deploy from Ambush, when your do, and I forgot the ‘regroup’ for a couple of turns, until Si reminded me!

I really enjoy putting on these games and think they are a great set of rules, well supported by the author, on the Too Fat Lardies forum.

Thanks to Mark, Si & Leif for playing the game in a good spirit and putting up with the delays while I looked up the rules!

Figures are a mixture of Peter Pig & Battlefront, I think the L3/35 was Skytrex and the Mk VI’s Battlefront.

Next up will be the scenario based on the Battle of Beda Fomm taken from the ‘Lard’ magazine.

Steve M