Ending Reluctant Enemies

 

On the following turns, I tried to advance towards Damascus. However, the strong Armor units of Vichy France were too menacing and I was extremely cautious. I need to fully understand how to move infantry untis in this Desertic terrain. I was also worried about that nasty bombers and artillery so, to avoid density penalties i was only stacking two counters per hex. I do not know if this is a good tactic but my feeling is that i needed to be more aggresive and concentrate in the road.

Two pics of the situation:

Note also that Vichy France was retreating towards better defensive positions.

Too late i decide to spend some supply to build an advanced airfield and try to stop the bombing.

We put all our effort (and supply) into break the positions at the road coast. Unsucessfully.

More attacks continued on the coast and, after some advancements, there was a heavy counterattack of Vichy that destroyed CW line.

Initial CW attack

Vichy counterattack

At Damascus sector, an effort to pass the river turned into disaster for the CW, and the following attack of Armor units (after a double Vichy turn), completely outflanked the Free French units and arrived up to their HQs.

CW approaching river

Cavalry attack turned into big defeat (4-column surprise shift for the defender)

 

Collapse of CW position

No advances in the middle

And CW surrendered. Final map

Conclusion: this was a trial game of Reluctant Enemies. More of the time I was learning the supply mechanics and getting a feeling of how the game flows. It is a very interesting campaign that deserves to be played a few more times. In overall we have played in four sessions so it is not very demanding for a replay.

Now we are ready to move to a team play of a bigger OCS title: Blitkrieg’s Legend, the campaign of France’40.

And I should remember, this is a game about supply network and managing reserves.