World at War #64 - The Rats of Tobruk, North Africa 1941

From Decision Games:

The Magazine:

Rats of Tobruk - Thorn in Rommel’s Side: With Rommel's Afrikakorps driving toward Egypt in April 1941, the reinforced Australian 9th Division holed up in Tobruk to block the Axis supply line. The result was an epic eight-month siege.

Other Articles:

• Timberwolves - Terry Allen’s 104th Infantry Division: The US 104th Infantry Division was a rarity in World War II, earning a name for itself as an expert night-fighting organization.

• Operation Toenails - New Georgia, 21 June-5 August 1943: The New Georgia group in the Solomon Islands was targeted by one of more than a dozen component operations of the 1943 Allied offensive to capture the great Japanese base at Rabaul.

• Soviet War Plans 1941: Soviet military planners had to look both east and west in the 1930s. The signing of a non-aggression pact with Japan finally allowed them to focus their efforts in Europe, where Hitler's expansionist Germany posed the gravest threat.

The Game:

The Rats of Tobruk uses a derivative of the Famous Divisions Series that appeared in W orld at War #20 (Grossdeutchland) and #34 (Guards Armored). Rats of Tobruk is a two-player operational/tactical game that simulates Rommel’s Easter Day attack on Tobruk in April 1941. This battle primarily involved the Australian 9th Infantry Division, as well as British artillery batteries that were tasked to prevent the capture of Tobruk harbor by the German 5th Light Division. Each game turn represents approximately six hours. Game turns are not divided into separate friendly and enemy turns, but rather they are comprised of numerous individual headquarters activations. The map represents the western half of the Tobruk fortifications in 1941. Each hexagon encompasses about 500 meters.

Components: 22x34 inch map, 280 die-cut counters.