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 Once the Americans officially entered the war, their first offensive in the European theater was actually in North Africa. Operation Torch was a naval invasion that started in Morocco and Algeria, and then spread eastward. This would squeeze the Germans out of North Africa with the British already in Egypt and then Libya fighting on the other side. By the time of this battle in Tunisia, the Afrika Korps was on its last legs, and merely doing its best to allow as many of its units to escape as possible. Torch November 8, 1942 24 Turns  Objectives (defensive scenario): Algiers, (Phillippeville), (Bone), (Bizerta), (Tunis), (Sfax), (Gabes), (Tebessa)  This is a fairly small map, which definitely works against us. Allied planes will be able to hit us anywhere they like. We can't retreat, and we're in no position to advance. The only terrain that really matters is the area we can defend. The Medjerda River will present the biggest challenge to the Allies. From there south the uneven terrain makes for pretty decent defense as well. If they do break through, they can use roads to get around and the objectives are in mostly open terrain; if that happens those towns will be hard to defend. The coastal towns like Bizerta can probably hold out for a few days, but only if we can get troops in them. OOB pre:Unit Name Unit Type [Transport] Exp Land Units 2 39 Wehr Inf [SPW 251] ** 2 39 Wehr Inf ** 9 39 Wehr Inf [SPW 251] *** 1 40 Wehr HW [SPW 251] ** 2 40 Wehr HW [SPW 251] *** 1 40 LuftW FJ *** 2 Pz IIIj ** 1 Pz IVd *** 1 Pz IVf2 ** 1 Pz IVf2 *** 1 Pz IVg ** 2 Tiger I ** 1 PSW 222/4r *** 1 PSW 232/8r ** 1 StuG IIIf/8 *** 1 Marder IIIh ** 1 StuH 42 ** 2 sIG II *** 1 10.5 lefH [SPW 251 ** 1 SdkfZ 7/1 *** 1 SdkfZ 6/2 *** Air Units 1 Bf109g ** 3 FW190a ** 2 Ju87D ** Starting Prestige: 835 The biggest advantage our forces have is that they have a fair bit of combat experience. Most of the Americans coming at us have never been in combat at all, and the British contingent is fairly small and also inexperienced. Our tanks can easily beat anything the Allies can offer, on the ground at least. But I don't think we should get too attached to these units. We're somewhat lacking in the artillery and flak guns that would be better for defending. While we have a few quality planes, we'll need to be very careful with them since the Allies have a near-endless supply of planes to fight us with. As this is a standalone, newly purchased units also come with experience, which will be pretty nice for us.  The plan is to make our defensive line along the river from Tebessa to Tunis. The coastal towns on the north can't really be defended effectively, but we might try to put some roadblocks there if the Allies don't advance quickly. A tough thing for us is that we can't afford to bring in new units, and we'll need to race to the line and get entrenched as fast as we can. The river only goes so far; while we expect the main offensive to hit us there, they could always try and head around the south. But that's where our tanks can do their job well. On that side they'll be in a mobile formation, and if the Allies expose themselves, we can make some attacks. Axis Turn 1: November 8, 1942 Clear(dry)  We put our plan into action. An 88mm flak gun will be the anchor of the line at Tebessa. They'll be good to shoot down enemy aircraft, and will hold off the ground troops (until they bring their artillery in range). Allied Turn 1: November 8, 1942  The enemy bombers do halt when they see our fighters, but there sure are a lot of them heading our way.  Fighters show up and overwhelm our Messerschmidts.  Then the rest of the fighters show up. Then the boats to shell the ground troops. Axis Turn 2: November 14 1942 Clear(dry)  We have to focus on the enemy fighters first. The Americans have the P-38, and the British have the Spitfire IX; both of them are roughly equivalent to the Bf109g. But that doesn't matter, since we just lost the only one we had. The Focke-Wulf 190a can handle either one with relative ease.  The enemy did not advance with even their weak armor in front, so we put our tanks out there to knock out their transports. And also, mistakenly, a mobile air defense unit that won't get a chance to fire. The unusual feature of this battle: Although this is a defensive scenario, we don't actually earn any prestige per turn. The only way to earn it is by eliminating enemy units, which actually nets us a fair amount, especially if the units are valuable. Allied Turn 2: November 14, 1942  The enemy bombers note our lack of adequate air defense and simply fly over to bomb at will. The FW190 can handle one squadron of planes, but not four at once, especially when it includes a veteran British unit.  The American armor does come forward to attack Bone. Before the scout cars are destroyed, they report that there is a very large fleet in the Mediterranean prepared to support the offensive. That fleet's going to be a bit of a problem... we have nothing that can deal with it.  Bizerta, too, is lost much sooner than we'd hoped for. Axis Turn 3: November 20, 1942 Clear(dry)  Our air defenses face more planes than we can deal with. We focus on the fighters, because it's the only way for our planes to survive. We're down to two Fw 190a's and one bomber.  Our Tiger in the south is able to devastate the American tanks when they draw close.  Tebessa looks like it will hold back the first wave. We bring in towed artillery, which may survive bombing if it can be moved closer to the big flak guns. Allied Turn 3: November 20, 1942  Allied bombers try to weaken our tanks. They're hitting us harder than their ground units, but still don't inflict many casualties.  The Allied fleet nears Tunis. This is not going to be easy to survive.  The Panzer III's in the south were doing well against the first line of tanks, but they are quickly outnumbered and take heavy losses. Axis Turn 4: November 26, 1942 Clear(dry)  Anywhere the enemy planes choose to fly, there are just too many of them for our guns to have much effect. But we have been chipping away at a squadron or two.  The first enemy assault across the river is pushed back, with two units of their infantry lost. Allied Turn 4: November 26, 1942  Most of the time we can retreat our units to get reinforcements. With the Allied bombers having free rein in the region, nowhere is safe.  The enemy ships have blockaded Tunis now, and they have destroyed both our anti-air guns and the ground artillery. Axis Turn 5: December 2, 1942 Clear(dry)  While we've held off the attacks at Tebessa rather well, our tanks over the river near Tunis are surrounded with no way to retreat. Even if they could, they'd probably just get bombed anyway. Allied Turn 5: December 2, 1942  The Allies shift strategy to attacking our weaker infantry. We're not able to replace all our units, and if they thin us out enough there will be gaps in our line they can exploit.  We scramble to field whatever guns we can find at Tunis, but even their fighters can do serious damage to them.  As many tanks as we've already eliminated, the Americans can always bring more. Axis Turn 6: December 8, 1942 Clear(dry)  Oddly enough, the fast-moving British scout cars are able to survive an attack from our Tigers better than the American armored units. Allied Turn 6: December 8, 1942  Air raids and naval bombardment have reduced Tunis to only a handful of infantry units and some mobile AT guns.  Once the infantry thins out, the sheer number of tanks facing us allows the Americans to capture Tunis. The line along the river is pushed back as well. I don't need to say that this is not going well for us. 
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