"The more we learn about the Second World War, the better our chances that it will be the LAST world war." (LRC) 1ST ALAMEIN, JULY 1942 A World War II boardgame kit A BASIC, INTRODUCTORY WARGAME Copyright 1997 Louis R. Coatney Game Designer: Louis R. Coatney Graphics Wizard and Chief Playtester: INDEX Robert S. Coatney I. Dedication II. Introduction III. Components and Definitions IV. Victory Conditions V. Setting Up the Game to Begin Playing VI. Sequence of Play VII. Length of Game and Reinforcements VIII. Spent Units IX. Air Attack X. Terrain Effects XI. Allied Boxes XII. "Stacking" (More Than One Unit Per Hex) XIII. Operational Movement A. Basic Movement Rules B. Movement [vs.] Enemy Zones Of Control XIV. Ground Combat, Results, and Tactical Retreats and Advances A. General Rules for Attacking B. Combat Odds Calculation Sequence and Combat Resolution C. Combat Resolution and Results--See the Charts & Tables page. D. Tactical Retreats E. Tactical Advances after Combat [NONE in Beginners' Edition] XV. Supply and Isolation XVI. Control [In separate file:] XVII. Designer's Notes and Advice on Play of the Game XVIII.Historical Commentary and Insights XIX. Bibliographies 3 Dec97 FREE USE BY SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES AND A NOTE ON COPYRIGHT: I am very grateful for my Illinois education and the use of our excellent American libraries. Therefore, educators and librarians are free to make papercopies of 1ST ALAMEIN, freely, for educational use in schools and for public circulation from libraries. Any individual is free to make, use, and keep one copy of 1ST ALAMEIN, for his/her own personal use. It is not to be used for resale. All other rights, including publication rights, are reserved to me, Louis R. Coatney. QUESTIONS: Please direct any questions or comments about the game to: Louis Coatney 626 Western Ave. Macomb, IL 61455 mslrc@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu 309/836-1447(msg--I cannot afford to return calls) GERMAN EAGLE VS. RUSSIAN BEAR My classic World War II Russian Front game, GERMAN EAGLE VS. RUSSIAN BEAR--is published on ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) microfiche ED 361 256 as an instructional aid and should be available for examination via your local library. CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION: Coatney, Louis Robert, 1946- 1st Alamein: July 1942: a World War II boardgame kit; a basic, introductory wargame; beginners' edition. [game] Macomb, IL: Louis R. Coatney, c1997. ii, 8 p. rules booklet, 4 p. game design and historical commentary, map, 1 sheet of pieces, 2 p. of charts and tables. 1. Educational games. 2. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Africa, North. 3. War games. 4. El Alamein, Battle of, Egypt, 1942. 5. Rommel, Erwin, 1891-1944. I. Title. D766.9.C632f 1997 940.542 COATNEY ii I. Dedication: 1ST ALAMEIN is dedicated as a token of remembrance to the soldiers of the British Commonwealth--Australian, British, Indian, South African ... and New Zealander--and of Greece, Poland, Free France, and finally the United States ... who fought and defeated the Axis on the first "Second Front" of the Second World War: North Africa. II. Introduction: A. Historical background: 1ST ALAMEIN is an educational 2-player operational level military history game simulating the historical decision-making situations of Allied and Axis commanders in Egypt in 1942. Although one player must serve as the Axis commander, historically personified by General, and then Field Marshal, Erwin Johann Rommel ("The Desert Fox"), this is accepted in the spirit of learning. 1ST ALAMEIN is intended to be a basic introduction to the study of military history through manual simulation gaming--board wargaming-- and to desert tank warfare of the Second World War. For maximum educational benefit, a copy of the "Game Log and Analysis Form" should be filled out for each game by each player. The scale of the game is: 1 day of real time per game-turn, approximately 5 miles/8 kilometers per hexagon space width, and brigade-to-division (5,000-15,000 men) unit scale. B. General description of play: Although 1ST ALAMEIN may initially appear to be a complex game, it can be easily and enjoyably learned, as long as you learn and play its system one step at a time and remember how it is intended to model history. The game is basically a traditional two-player, alternating turn boardgame possessing a unique system of play, reflecting the nature of World War II desert warfare. Players should remember that if you move one of your units next to an "unSpent" enemy unit, that enemy unit must be attacked. (See the possible exception concerning Boxes for Allied units.) III. Components and Definitions: A. The Mapsheet: Ivory is a good color for the mapsheet, and it should be printed off (and/or photocopied/enlarged as much as possible ... so that the hexagons are at least 3/4"--19mm--wide. See the Symbols and Turn Record Chart page for an explanation of terrain symbols and types. B. The Units and Markers: Print-off and/or photocopy the units onto tan (for Allied) and gray (for Axis) paper. Then glue strips of the units onto cardboard. (Here, I would mark the backs of the units with a color to distinguish them when they are "dispersed"/flipped.) Finally, scissor them out. See the Symbols and Turn Record Track page, for an explanation of the symbols and information on the game pieces. Italian units have their divisional names spelled out. The "RCCE GPPE" unit is considered to be a German "armoured brigade." The units and box markers should be about 5/8" (15mm) square, to fit within the hexes comfortably. C. Definitions: 50% chance (die roll) = casting a die for an odd number, an even number, 1-3, 4-6--whatever the rolling player chooses. Hex = one hexagonal space on the mapsheet. "Stack" = any group of units in the same hex. ZOC = Zone Of Control = a hex adjacent to a unit. (A note to experienced wargamers: ZOCs are considered "active," except in certain cases near Allied boxes.) IV. Victory Condition: If the Axis Player has a unit in the Allies' reinforcement entrance hex (C11) and in supply during any Axis Victory Determination phase, he wins the game. Starting on July 6th, if he has a unit in the El Alamein Box and in supply during any Axis Victory Determination phase, he immediately wins. If the Allied Player similarly occupies the Axis reinforcement entrance hex (A1) during any Allied Victory Determination phase ... or El Alamein (to which he can trace a supply line from one of his map-edge supply source hexes) during his Victory Determination phase on July 10th ... he wins. Any other result is a draw. V. Setting Up the Game to Begin Playing and Special First Turn Rules: A. The German 164th Infantry Division, the Luftwaffe Afrika air unit, the British 2nd Armoured Brigade, the Australian 26. (infantry) Brigade, and the Australian 9th Division are all reinforcement units and do not begin the game on the mapsheet. B. The Allied Player deploys his 9 units, 2 (additional) boxes, and 2 "dummy" markers FACE DOWN. He gets to use both Desert Air Force units, beginning with the first turn ... July 1st. Allied armor units may be initially deployed no farther west than the El Alamein Box. Dummy units have the same limitation, if deployed alone. Other Allied units may be deployed anywhere, except on hex lines 1-3. The Allied player's units and markers are flipped back rightside up immediately after the Axis player has made his Operational Movement, in the first gameturn. C. The Axis Player deploys his 11 starting units in any hex no. 1 or 2, from rows A to H. VI. Sequence of Play: See the Charts and Tables Sheet. VII. Length of Game and Reinforcements: A. Length: 10 days/gameturns. B. Reinforcements: 1. Axis: 164. Infantry Division (3-1) and Luftwaffe Afrika, on July 7th. The 164. XX can enter the game only on hex A1. 2. Allied: The 2nd British Armoured Brigade (3-3) on July 5th, the 26th Australian (infantry) Brigade (1-1) on July 6th, and the 9. Australian Infantry Division (3-1) on July 7th. They can enter the game only on hex C11. 3. If the reinforcement entrance hexes are occupied by enemy units or are enemy ZOCs (not occupied by friendly units), they may not yet enter the game ... until those hexes are cleared. The entry hexes are not, themselves, counted against the unit's movement. VIII. Spent Units: In 1st ALAMEIN, this unit condition is very important. A unit can become Spent as a result of combat or over-exertion. A Spent unit is so indicated by being flipped upside down. Spent units still have Zones of Control and receive any defensive benefits from terrain for which they are eligible. A. A Spent unit may not *operationally* move. It may only retreat. B. A Spent unit may not attack. If, at the end of its owning player's Attack phase, it is adjacent to an unSpent enemy unit which has not been attacked by other units, it must accept an "AR" result. (If it cannot retreat, it is ELIMINATED.) C. Combat results against Spent units are read ONE COLUMN HIGHER on the Ground Combat Results Table (GCRT) than they otherwise would be. If at least half of the (terrain-modified) factors in a hex are Spent, all the defending units are considered Spent--otherwise none are--for combat odds calculation purposes. D. An already Spent unit suffering another Spent effect just stays Spent. E. A unit can only be recovered from Spent status in its owning player's recovery phase if it is, at that moment, in supply. IX. Air Attacks: A. The Allies begin the game with both Desert Air Force units, but the German Luftwaffe unit doesn't enter the game until July 7th. An air unit is held off the board until it is used, and it may be used only once during each gameturn. It may be used during the owning player's airstrike phase or (in its interception role) during the enemy's airstrike phase. After it has individually attacked each of the enemy units which are in its target hex at the moment of its attack, an air unit is removed from the mapboard --Spent, for the rest of that gameturn. B. Missions--each air unit may only do one, per gameturn: 1. Ground attack: An air unit separately attacks each unSpent unit in a target hex, from the top of the stack to the bottom. See the Airstrike results table on the Charts & Tables page. The defender may NOT voluntarily retreat his unit suffering a Spent result due to air attack. NOTE: An attacking air unit can be knocked out of the game for the following gameturn by an AA result. Note that British ground units have AA capability only in boxes and that German ground units have AA capability anywhere. (By contrast, Italian units are birdfeed, having no AA ability.) 2. Axis Aerial Resupply: Instead of attacking a stack of Allied units, The "Luftwaffe Afrika" unit may attempt to resupply a(ll the units in one) stack of isolated/surrounded Axis units during the Axis Supply Status Determination phase. 3. Interception: An air unit MAY be used to "intercept" an enemy air unit allocated to Airstrike friendly units, during the enemy's airstrike(s) phase before that enemy air unit has made its strike. The objective, here, is: "TO KNOCK OUT! ... the ENEMY-AIR-MASS." (Desert Air Force units may also attempt to intercept the Luftwaffe Afrika unit when it attempts an aerial resupply.) X. Terrain Effects--See the Charts & Tables page for terrain-related movement and combat bonuses and penalties: NOTE: A +1 or +2 infantry defense factor terrain bonus is a maximum for its hex and valid only if it can be matched by that number of infantry (or motorized infantry) unit combat factors in its hex. SPECIAL TERRAIN NOTE: If defending units on a ridge are being attacked by ANY units on the same ridge--F6&F7, G9&F10, or D5&E5--or if units on Mitieriya Ridge hex E5 are being attacked by ANY units from hex E6, the +1 defense factor for defending on the ridge is lost. XI. Allied Boxes--See the Terrain Effects Table: A. ... may NOT be captured/used--"turned"--by the Axis Player, and Axis units receive no benefits of any kind for being in/behind them. B. Axis Zones of Control (ZOCs) do not extend into boxes occupied by Allied units at the start of the Allied player-turn. NOTE: Thus, an Allied unit moving out of a box and into an Axis ZOC is always considered only to be moving into a ZOC, even if the Axis unit was adjacent to the box, to begin with. Therefore, Axis units should be cautious about moving up next to an Allied box. C. ... may not be moved, once placed at the start of the game. D. ... may be removed from the mapboard during the Axis Reinforcement phase, if an unSpent Axis unit occupies it. XII. "Stacking" (More Than One Unit Per Hex): A. Limits: 1. Only one side's units may be in the same hex. 2. A player may have as many as 3 units in a hex AT ANY TIME, but only 2 of them may be divisions. The third must be RCCE GPPE (for the Axis) or a brigade belonging to one of the divisions (for the Allies.) 3. An Allied box marker does not count against the "stacking limit." B. Violation Penalty: If, at the end of an owning player's Operational Movement phase or Attacks phase, any units are stacked in excess of the stacking limit above, they are ELIMINATED. The owning player decides which of his units are to be lost. XIII. Operational Movement: A. Basic movement rules: 1. The owning player may move any of his unSpent units during his Operational Movement, as he wishes. However, he may only move a unit once, operationally, per gameturn. He must finish moving one unit or stack of units, before starting to move another. 2. One movement factor is expended for each hex entered. A unit may also move a free bonus of 2 "track" (and/or road) hexes OR a free bonus of 4 road hexes (OR a combination of 2 road and 1 track hexes). 3. A unit of whatever type may never enter--let alone pass through-- a hex occupied by any enemy combat units without first attacking and ejecting them. B. Movement into, out of, and through enemy Zones Of Control (ZOCs): 1. A unit must stop as soon as it enters an enemy unit's ZOC. 2. A unit may leave any enemy ZOC without penalty. (Thus, a unit could move out of one enemy unit's ZOC and move into another's ZOC, as long as it stopped in the latter one.) 3. A unit may not operationally move directly from one enemy ZOC into another enemy ZOC of the same enemy unit, UNLESS it is moving into a hex already occupied by a friendly unit or is moving directly from the ZOC of one enemy unit to the ZOC of any *different* enemy unit. XIV. Ground Combat, Results, and Tactical Retreats and Advances: A. General Rules for Attacking: 1. Although a ground or air unit may attack only once per gameturn, a defending unit may BE attacked more than once, in the same phase and/or in others. 2. A unit may only attack hexes adjacent to the hex it is in. All hexes containing unSpent defending units adjacent to attacker's units MUST BE attacked, UNLESS the attacker is the Allied player and his units are in a box which was occupied by any Allied unit at the start of the Allied player-turn. An attacker's unit may end up an Attack phase adjacent to a defender without being required to attack it, if the defending unit is Spent, OR if the unSpent defending unit WAS attacked by some unit. 3. Although a unit must be unSpent to be able to attack, it does not have to be in supply at the moment of the attack. 4. The combat factors of units which are in the same attack but are attacking the same defending (stack of) units from different hexes may be combined. Attacking units in the same hex do not all have to attack the same hex. They may attack in different directions. A group of units MAY attack defending units in more than one hex, as long as all the attacking units in the battle can attack--are adjacent to--all of the defending units. 5. Each wave of attacking units must attack all defending units in a hex as a combined defending whole. 6. Attacks may be re-allocated or cancelled at any time prior to their resolution, unless forced by Rule 2 above. B. Combat Odds Calculation Sequence and Combat Resolution: 1. Attack factors of all attacking units are totalled. The attacker may choose to use a unit at less than its full attack/combat factor. 2. Then, any additional, matching defense factor(s) for boxes, ridges, and/or depressions earned by defending infantry units is (/are) added to the totalled defending units' factors. 3. Now, calculate the "basic" combat odds thusly: the proportion of the attacking units' total attack factor strength to the defenders' total defense factor strength is matched to the odds ratio on the Ground Combat Results Table (GCRT) which is nearest but no greater. EXAMPLES: 5 attack factors to 1 defense factor yields 5:1, 5 to 3 would most match 3:2, and 2 attacking 5 would most match 1:3. 4. Attacks having basic combat odds greater than 10:1 are reduced to that ratio before any further modification. Attacks below 1:4 are not allowed. 5. "NO RETREAT!" orders?: The Attacker now asks the Defender if he is giving "NO RETREAT!" orders to (any of) the units in the defended hex. If the Defender does, he must give those orders to units having at least half the terrain-modified defending factors in the hex. An R1 result will now become an S, and an R2 will become a DE. (If the Attacker forgets to ask, the Defender may choose not to retreat if the result is R1.) C. Combat Resolution and Results--See the Charts & Tables page. 1. Attacks can be resolved in any order the attacker wishes. 2. For each attack, the combat result is "rolled" with the cast of a single die. The results are read under the "final" combat odds. D. Tactical Retreats: 1. Tactical retreats are made immediately after each combat, if they are to be made at all. The winner can require the loser to move his units 0-1, 0, 0-1, or 0-2 hexes on an AR, S, R1, or R2 combat result. The winner-determined number of hexes must be the same for all the losing units in the battle. During the compulsory retreat, the winning player decides what the first hex each losing unit will retreat into (or through) will be. The loser may VOLUNTARILY (continue to) retreat his units 1, 1-2, or 1 hexes on an AR, S, or R1 result. In the case of a losing unit which was Spent before the attack was resolved the loser may voluntarily retreat it only 1 hex and only on an S result. When voluntarily retreating, the loser chooses his units' own route, and he can retreat some units and leave others behind, as he chooses within the combat results requirements. Regardless of which player is retreating them, losing units may be retreated into different (eligible) hexes. NOTE: A retreating unit may temporarily violate stacking rules retreating onto or through friendly units. 2. Losing unit(s) must be retreated into(/through) a hex which is: a. ... with every retreated hex, farther from the attacked/vacated hex and physically accessible to movement. b. ... not occupied by an enemy unit. c. ... not an enemy Zone Of Control, unless it is occupied by a friendly unit. d. ... is not itself under an (as yet unresolved) attack which could (possibly) result in the hex being occupied by the Attacker. e. ... is not adjacent to any of the hexes from which the unit was attacked--or, in the case of an AR, was attacking--unless the hex being retreated into has a friendly BOX which is not under attack. f. ... if possible into an empty hex or one stacked as little as possible. g. ... if possible into an hex serviced by friendly supply at that moment. 3. Any defending unit unable to retreat 2 hexes is considered to be in a "NO RETREAT!" situation. 4. A losing unit forced to retreat off the mapboard (or into the sea) is ELIMINATED. The winner may not retreat a unit off the mapboard or into the sea if there is another retreat route available. 5. Any "DE" result against the German RCCE GPPE or the British 7th Armoured "Desert Rats" Division, becomes an "R2," unless the unit is in a "NO RETREAT!" situation. E. Tactical advances after combat: There are none. However, it should be noted that even a box becomes "No Man's Land," if its defenders are retreated out of it. XV. Supply and Isolation: A. Supply Determination: 1. Supply sources: a. Axis: Hexes A1 and E1. b. Allied: Hexes C11, E12, and L11 and the El Alamein Box (D7). 2. Supply lines: A supply line is a line of hexes of any length to a friendly unit which is not interrupted by an enemy unit, by an enemy unit's ZOC which is not occupied by a friendly unit, or--for the Axis--by a box which not at that moment occupied by an Axis unit. 3. Aerial Resupply of Axis units: See Rule IX.B.2., above. B. Effects of being Unsupplied: Being unsupplied during your own Supply Status Determination phase drops an unSpent unit to Spent status. XVI. Control: A village or Box is controlled by the last side to move a combat unit into or through it.