Salerno 1943: A Rommel AAR

My son and I hosted a couple of friends for a game of Rommel.  I wanted to try using the "Mid-War" operation sheets and the terrain placement rules as written.  I decided on a loosely historical setting of Salerno, pitting the 36th Infantry Division (the Lone Star Division) against elements of the 16th panzer division, and 26th and 29th panzer grenadier divisions.

This was the Rommel "Breakthrough" scenario, with the Americans on the defense.  The idea was the Germans were trying to breakthrough to the beach head to drive the Allies out of Italy.

Here are the forces:

Unit	#	Cost	Total
16th Pz Div
Inf. Battalion	2	8	16
Panthers	1	13	13
Wespe	1	4	4
			0
26th Pz Gren			0
Inf. Battalion	1	8	8
Panzer IV	1	13	13
Stug	1	12	12
Field Howitzer	1	3	3
			0
29th Pz Gren			0
Pz Gren.	1	11	11
Panzer IV	1	13	13
Motor Batt.	1	8	8
Field Howitzer	1	3	3
			0
155mm Artillery (Parent)	1	4	4
Nebel werfer (Parent)	1	2	2
			110
Americans (36th Infantry Division)
141st			0
Green Infantry (4/3)	3	7	21
105mm Howitzer	1	3	3
			0
142nd			0
Green Infantry (4/3)	3	7	21
105mm Howitzer	1	3	3
			0
143rd			0
Green Infantry (4/3)	3	7	21
105mm Howitzer	1	3	3
			0
M4 Shermans (Parent)	2	11	22
			94

The German plan became very apparent as they threw the bulk of two kampfgruppes at my lone regiment on the North flank.

Our extreme south flank was unopposed.


So our CnC decided a bold "Off Road" move to attack the German artillery was in order.

The Germans continued to press the north flank.

Which left our infantry battalion in a position to wipe out the 155 and Nebelwerfer.  Finally, moving to oppose our rampaging troops, the Germans send back a battalion of Panzer IVs.  Our troops retreat onto their supply source!

Back on the north flank the Gremans reach the second objective and our troops have more defensible terrain.

Plenty of fighting has taken place in the center too.

The lone battalion on the supply source was eliminated and the Panzer IVs returned to the attack in the center.


We got to turn 12, called it a draw, and went for pizza.  It was very probable that the Germans would take a second objective, but their own objective and supply source were still vulnerable to a determined attack, so we thought it could go either way.  The multiplayer modifications are based on number of players and not on size of forces, so this may have had an impact on this scenario with 110 vs 96 points.  The Germans had scads more armor, but the Americans had more units.  These "green" units with higher attack, than defense values were poor defenders, and encouraged us to attack.  I resisted this temptation with my regiment simply because the German forces were concentrated there, and I felt is was more important to delay.

Here are the Op sheets that I modified for our 4 player game. They were only reset once.  You can see the double boxes I put in for the extra tactics.  Rolling 8 or 4 dice for op "chips," and a maximum of 12 ops increased the attrition rate on both sides.



One last thing we noted about the terrain placement.  Due to the process, scenario, and forces, all of the "rough" terrain ended up on the American side of the table.  It seemed a little unreal.