Looking at the map, Libya has a paved coast road connecting all major cities and airfields. Because Libya juts into the Mediterranean Sea, unpaved desert roads give armor and motorized infantry the potential to cut-off many coastal objectives.
Thus, my overall strategy is sending Italian foot infantry and both artillery units along the coast road to capture major cities, ports and airfields before Tobruk. All armor, motorized infantry, and the recon unit will take the desert roads attempting to encircle British and Commonwealth forces. Foot infantry is just too slow away from the coast roads.
I get Rommel! Rommel is the best leader I’ve seen in all Order of Battle games. His command radius is huge, his impact on both his unit and surrounding units is excellent. I attach Rommel to my lead Panzer III to encompass as many opening battles as possible.
I’m not going to discuss the initial objectives since they will quickly change.
Initial Offensive Turn
If you have read my other Order of Battle AARs you will remember that I seldom provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on how I ran a turn. Turn 1 in Libya is highly constrained by limited space. My choreographed sequence gets most out of your first turn.
First, the German engineer advances and attacks the British anti-tank gun. Do not advance into the space. Next, the lead Italian infantry hopefully destroys the damaged unit. If you don’t finish it off, your fighters should be able to follow up, strafe and kill. Italian infantry advances to take the space.
Second, Italian artillery moves two spaces and fires on the British Infantry. Do not advance to where the artillery mounts the trucks and cannot fire. Then fire the German artillery. Last, use your dive bomber to airstrike the British Infantry. This sequence is critical for maximum effectiveness.
Third, German mechanized infantry attacks weakened British infantry and does not advance into the space if successful. Keep the space open for the next attack wave.
Fourth, rearmost Italian infantry attacks flank of British Artillery. Infantry does not advance after the attack. The rearmost German Armor then advances (and hopefully) destroys the British artillery. Armor advances into the space if successful.
Fifth, your lead Italian infantry attacks and destroys the two heavily damaged British units and advances into the open ground. The lead German armor (with Rommel) takes full movement down the road as does the Italian armor. The recon car takes the lead.
If successful, the only visible opponent is a scout car. This strategy works about 80% of the time as shown. Sometimes fighters must mop up the damaged anti-tank gun. Worst case, your final German and Italian armor units destroy the heavily damaged British units and your recon unit is far in advance of the rest of your forces. On higher difficulty levels these initial moves work, but you don’t advance quite as far, and your scout car is far more likely to be exposed far ahead of your other units.
