Phillip and Martyn at the Leighton Buzzard club have been observing my
games with Stephen Mark, Dave & David closely over the last few
months, and when I asked Phillip whether he wanted a Napoleonics game,
he said he really wanted to try BKC (and Martyn was invited to join in
too, as he used to play back in the day with v.II), so we arranged a
date. I put out two 1500 point combined forces lists and we played an
encounter game so that they could enjoy learning the basic rules. We
used the 'hits stay on' varient, and discussed the 'spread hits' system,
but decided to keep fire at platoon for this game.
They chose to
join together and play against me, using the Germans (better command
stats, therefore easier to use), terrain was closed on one side, more
open on the other. Both armoured groups headed to the open flank, while
infantry headed through cover on the closer left. apart from a small
selection of British infantry that wasn't keen on moving off that base
line!
The
infantry on both sides decided the best course of action was to take
what limited shelter there was from the palm thickets, and Colonel
Antrobus use HMGs and Mortars (or in the German case HMG and PaK36s)
over the oasis to wear each other down.
In
the middle, the German CinC takes over the Panzer IVDs and supporting
infantry, while the British central infantry refuses to move. "The tea
urn was not sufficently warmed. Until that pot is made properly, we are
not leaving this spot!"
On
the right, the German armour tears through the British, even though
tthey were classed as being hull down. The British armoured second line
refused to move, making our superiority in numbers pointless as the
front line evaporated.
The
middle British infantry finally moves, but blunders and drops their
command staus by one, permenantly! He will soon be retired...
Meanwhile,
Antrobus sent the two carrier platoons out wide to provide covering
fire on the Germans in the scrub, reinforcing the support weapon's fire
(as the Vickers guns were taking repeated hits from the German support
weapons). 
But
all this cunning was not helping the armour, which, when it did move up
into line, found a line of burned out hulks. The inferior numbered
German tanks had systematically chewed through their line. A13s and
Crusaders all perished, while only taking out a single platoon in
return.
In
the end, an emphatic German victory, while the British could not even
claim a minor victory. Phillip and Martyn really enjoyed their games,
and spent a long time talking through extra rules with me and future
forces. Phillip has ordered an army, Martyn has dug out his long
unpainted troops and they are setting up forces for 'Operation
Crusader', looks like the Western Desert will be busy for a while.
I'm glad we kept the 'concentrated hits' rule, as I have a feeling my tanks would have died even quicker than they did!!! 
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