Operational Combat Series

 

Operational Combat Series games are usually big monsters where you must deal with hundreds of counters while carefully planning your supply network in order to perform movement, barrages, attacks, …

They are not for the beginner wargamer who may get overwhelmed just during the setup. Fortunately, this year it has appeared the last game in the series, Reluctant Enemies. This is not a monster game, just one map, low counter density and it should be an introductory game for the whole series. So, I have decided to give it a try and, introduced by my colleague Alberto, to learn rules, and get a feeling of how to deal with operational problems.

Reluctant Enemies depicts the fight between British and Free French troops against Vichy France for the control of Syria en the summer of 1941. There is a really nice Starter Guide  here that you should read before playing this game. This is how our game was with me playing the Commonwealth side.

 

Initial setup: At the beginning CW player must secretly note where his Commando units will disembark. These units will be in supply for the first turn. My goal was to sacrifice the units to mainly disturb the supply line that goes along the road in the coast. So my landing was close to Damour.

Then I will try to advance towards Damascus from Amman in one side and from Lake Tiberias in the other side. Unfortunately, I was out of Naval Barrage for the first three or four days, so my commandos died slowly. And I missed the attacks against the unit at

Rest of Commando surviving against Vichy French

Missing the attacks at Fiq I could not connect the whole railroad until 14th June

In the open side of the map (right side), I was advancing without opposition as Vichy French troops were retreating slowly just to prepare a counterattack in time…

During this time, there was a few skirmished at the open terrain south of Mt Hermon with both sides trying to put units out of supply.

On June 19th, CW troops achieved to establish a position close to Kuneitra where they were stopped by  Vichy France. In Syria two battalions were destroyed after being surprised by French Armored Units. This nasty maneuver will be repeated three more times during the fight: releasing armor units, rolling for surprise, getting a +6 columns in the attack and destroying CW units. A tough lesson to be learned for a beginner.