Kasserine Pass: Scenario Considerations

 Well by now everyone who follows the blog is aware of the Kasserine Pass preparations.  With the miniatures done and the terrain in good enough shape, it's time now to focus on developing the actual scenario.  We're going to play this with my "36 Inch Battlefield" modifications to Peter's WW2 Gridded rules, that can be found at his excellent blog "Grid Based Wargaming - But Not Always".

I've had some good dialogue with Martin Rapier (of "The Games We Play" blog) regarding re-fighting Kasserine Pass, in terms of scale, OOB, map, and rules, and frankly this scenario is strongly inspired by Martin's Kasserine Pass game played in Spring, 2020.

Kasserine Pass, as is common with the North African engagements, is heavy on maneuver, with movement, complex reinforcement schedules, and potentially more complex victory conditions.  It all has to be boiled down into something that can be playable in a few hours, has realistic victory conditions, and reflects the nature of the battle itself.  I think we just found our design objectives!

• Playable in a few hours.
• Realistic Victory Conditions
• Evocative of the Kasserine Pass (and Tunisian Campaign) Battles.

So how do the objectives translate to the scenario design?  

Playable in a Few Hours

I think this means a few things.  Our Kharkov game of late was a rip-roaring good time full of blasting tanks with 88s, rampaging artillery strikes, and isolated pockets of Soviet infantry breaking from the treeline to assault your rear-guard 88s.  It was glorious!  You could really see the armored spearheads of the Germans as "blue arrows on the map".  But it was also crowded for a 20x20 hex battlefield,  and it was a long battle, probably just over 3 hours.  Why. 

German Breakthrough at Kharkov - A little crowded

For starters, the units were down to platoon scale from a Fistful of TOWS scenario, so there were many units on the table.  Probably too many for the size of the battlefield, and in keeping with the "36" Battlefields" ethos, that should have been cut down a bit further.  Martin offered this suggestion to me, and kindly steered me away from units set as Battalions (still way too many units on the table for a 20x20 hex game).  He then sent me a modified OOB with units representing Regimental Combat Teams.  Perfect!  I might have added one or two units here or there because I'm a tank junkie, but overall I think we have our scale, and units as Regiments or scaled down Brigades, offers us about 20-25 units per side, coming in at different times on the table.

Realistic Victory Conditions

Kasserine Pass is an embarrassing defeat for us well-read Americans, and caused a big (albeit necessary) shakeup within the command structure afterwards, but the Germans are racing against the clock and a tenuous supply line while the Americans and British are lavishly equipped but with suffering prestige.  (The British kindly referred to us as "our Italians" during the campaign.) 

It's arguable that all of the ingredients for both sides to win (and lose!) are present, so how best to represent that on the table with a 36" Battle?

Martin's objectives are very realistic for the level of battle he is portraying on the table.  His objectives are as follows:

The Germans must:

Drive the Americans out of the Valley, capturing Gafsa, Feriana, Kasserine, and Sbeitla.  They must destroy at least 3 Regiments/Brigades, and either capture the main supply base at Tebessa or exit at least 2 infantry or tank regiments off the north edge of the map at the end of the game for a "major victory".

The Allies must:

Conduct at least one armored counterattack if the line is penetrated.  They must preserve the supply base at Tebessa, prevent penetration off the northern edge of the battlefield.  For the sake of prestige, the Americans must try to win at least one tactical engagement with purely US forces, while avoiding the loss of more than two regiments/brigades.

The 36" Battlefield Version:

Given the highly attritional nature of the 36" Battlefields rules modifications, a point is awarded for destroyed units (rather than put a cap on it).  The Germans are awarded 3 points per unit that exits the northern edge of the map.  The valley towns of Gafsa, Feriana, Kasserine, and Sbeitla are all worth 1 point, awarded at game's end after the clock runs out.  Capture of a minor supply point is an additional 1 point (so a town that holds a supply staging area would be worth 2 points).  The Americans gain 1 vp immediately if they successfully destroy a supply dump before it is over run.  (4+, 1D6).

Turn Length w/Random Events and Variable Ending

The turns in Martin's rules seem to be roughly 12 hour operational periods most likely dusk until dawn.  I'm going to take a page from Norm's playbook and make the clock variable, and we will abstract the "night" periods.  At the end of each turn, players will roll a 2D6, the result of which will tell you how many hours have passed since the beginning of play.  The game ends after 108 hours have passed.

If doubles are rolled, this is a random event (credit goes to Norm for this idea).  For Kasserine Pass, the suggested random events are as follows:

2: Weather - movement reduced to 1 hex except on roads / no air sorties available

3: Weather - movement reduced to 1 hex except on roads / no air sorties available

4: Weather - movement reduced to 1 hex except on roads / no air sorties available

5: Weather - movement reduced to 1 hex except on roads / no air sorties available

6: Enemy lost supply column ambushed by forward patrol.  The German unit nearest Allied forces with a "D" marker may freely remove it without rallying.

7: "Wait 'till they get a dose of that Artillery fire" Allies receive 1 free Artillery Fire Mission Salvo

8: "The timeline is slipping, General, get moving." All Germans allowed 1 extra hex movement regardless of terrain or weather

9: "Rangers Lead the Way" furthest north German unit loses its movement this turn due to enemy ambush.

10: Desert Rats.  British Vic Force arrives now regardless of turn.  If already on table, 1 x British unit may freely remove a "D" marker without rallying.  If no British units have a "D" marker, this may be saved for use when/if they do.  

11: Big shake-up at HQs!  All Allied units on the table may not move this turn.  THey may fight, they may use IDF or close air support.  Any arriving reinforcements must remain at the baseline.

12: 501st Panzer Withdrawn.  Remove the Tiger Battalion from the table.

Orders of Battle

Afrika Korps / Panzer Armee Afrika

10th Panzer: 1 x recce 2 x tank, 1 x Tiger, 1 x Mech Inf, 1 x Mot Inf, 1 x AT

21st Panzer: 1 x recce,  2 x tank, 1 x Mot Inf, 1 x SP AT

Centauro: 1 x Tank, 1 x Mot Inf,

Zvb 288: 1 x Mot Inf

Corps Artillery: 1 x Artillery Unit

II (US) Corps

1st Infantry Division:  3 x Motorized Inf, 1 x Engineer Battalion, 1 x AT

34th Infantry Division:  Inf, 3 x Inf (maybe Mot?), 1 x AT

1st Armored Division: 2 x Tanks, 1 x Mech Inf 

6th Armoured Division: 2 x Tanks, 1 x Mot Inf

Corps Special Troops: 1 x Corps Artillery Unit, 1 x Engineer Battalion, Ranger Battalion, 1 x recce unit

Fire Support

Germans have 10 IDF fire missions.

Allies have 14 IDF fire missions.

Each turn both sides roll for potential air missions.  Tactical air support is available on a roll of 5+ (weather dependent)

Reinforcement Schedule

• Turn 1 1st Armored Division/CCB-1 at Point J.
• Turn 2 1 x RCT/34th Div. on Highway 3 at Point J
• Turn 4 "Vicforce"1 x Tank and 1x Mot Inf  on Highway 3. 26th Amd Bde (1 x Tank) on Highway 3 at Point J
• Turn 5 9th Divisional Artillery on Highway 2 (SP Arty) at Point K

Initial Setup

• 10th Panzer Div massed at Faid Pass with 501 Tiger Bn (adjacent hexes in and around Point A)
• 21st Panzer Div the pass NE of Maknassy, with Rommel (adjacent hexes in and around Point B)
• Centauro Amd Div (-) in reserve at El Guettar (may enter on any southern road).
• Corps units: 501 Tiger Bn, Zbv 288 Afrika (dug around Point A)
• 34th Infantry Div (-): 1 x RCT north of Faid Pass, 1 x RCT at Sbeitla (Point C, and D)
• 1st Armored Div: CCC at Foundouk junction , CCA at Faid Pass X roads (Points E and F)
• 1st Infantry Div: 2 x RCT at Gafsa (G), 1 x Div Support at Kasserine (H), 1 x RCT Thala (Corps reserve (I))

The Map

I tried to faithfully recreate Martin's Map (which is excellent in its own right) to better fit my 22 x 22 hex mat.  The new map, drawn in powerpoint, is a bit wider than Martin's which could be good or bad...  I have to admit while it's not perfect, it was fun sliding all these hexes around and creating wargame maps, and it looks good enough for an hour's work. 

Very happy with this map!

The setup is marked with upper case letters while the wadis are marked in blue and roads in black.  the heights are darker brown.  Overall, I'm happy with the map and I think we're about ready to develop a scenario outline and post it on the blog!