Ci Arrendiamo continued

[winterbadger]

So, we waited in our scrapes for the enemy to approach.

First was the wave of tanks. He had the medium tanks (M13s, I think--for more on Italian tanks, see this page) up front, knowing that only the portee guns would have much luck penetrating the armour on them. In fact, I was able to immobilize one with an ATR shot. It was at this point we discovered I had set my howitzers up much forther forward than I was supposed to. He graciously allowed me to keep them and move them further back (the standard rule in tournments is that if you set something up wrong, you lose it altogether), but they were pretty much out of the fight at that point. Of course, if I had realized they had to be set up in the rear, I would have established my Main Line of Resistance (MLR) much further back, too. As it was, the main battle took place 1000 yards away from where the howitzers ended up, and at that range, firing over open sights, they were not hitting much (the one advantage of the Italian tankettes is that they are small and hard to spot). But, well, that's what I get for not reading the scenario card correctly.

We kept blasting away at the tanks, but the motorcycle troops started arriving behind them, and the British small arms fire moved onto them, as they were much better targets. The Brits (a mixture of Rifle Brigade and Hussars) had several small mortars, but these plunkers are close to useless. They can sometimes supply useful smoke cover if you are attacking (though they have a limited and random supply of smoke ammo, so you can never be sure), but their high-explosive shells either achieve dramatic results (one time in a hundred) or explode harmlessly with a lot of noise. Our best officer was helping to direct our one medium machinegun, and even grabbed it and kept firign himself when his squad was broken, but that got knocked out by the Italian tanks that made it through (one, their flame-throwing tankette, ran out of flame fuel after only a few shots, which was a small mercy).

Then, just as their truck convoy started arriving, one of my howitzers malfunctioned and then broke when we tried to repair it. One gun out of action and 1/9th of the victory points the Italians needed (if a gun breaks, it doesn't matter that it wasn't lsot to hostile fire--it's still "eliminated" and coutns for points). And his off-board artillery fire (OBA) broke one of the teams crewing one of my mortars and another rifle squad that had a forward position and a light machinegun. Grrr. Then I lost an armoured car to it. The Italian artillery was fighting far too well!

My portees got another tank or two, but eventually he knocked out both of them and my two remaining armoured cars. His infantry were able to detruck without taking serous casualties (it's always good to hit them while they're still in the trucks, but he had cleared the area within effective range with his tanks by that time). And once the grey tide began sweeping forward (Italian counters come in grey, to match their grey-green uniforms, even though the desert uniform was more tan), I knew I was pretty much done. Even with the relatively weak firepower the Italian infantry can muster, without any serious threat to his tanks, my outnumbered infantry were going to go down fast.

Lessons learned: Read the scenario instructions more carefully! Read the ruels more carefully. Think harder about what the enemy's initial plan is likely to be and how I can counteract that, and about what his response is going to do to react to my plan, once he perceives it.

In retrospect, I didn't group my defenses as well as I could have, and I counted on the hammadda being more of a deterrent to him than it was (I sited most of my infantry positions among the rocks, hoping they would bog down his vehicles--they apparently have no effect on tanks). And I should have spread the ATRs out more evenly, instead of assuming he would try and push through down the road and so concnetrating them there. Instead of preparing for the fight the Italians wanted (annihilation at any cost), I prepared for one I anticipated (an attempt to break through without taking severe losses).

Well, at least I'm closer to my goals of completing 50 scenarios by the end of the year (I started out the year with 31 and now have 37). I may have a chance to play another scenario with john_arundel tonight; even though that one won't count for the fifty (since Peter isn't in the Conscripts), it will be more practice with the rules and it should be a fun time, since gaming with him usually is.

Comments

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, game-geeky goodness. :)

[winterbadger]

Yeah, I figured you and vikingcat might actually read both entries. It's a small audience, but a select one. :-)

[vikingcat.livejournal.com]

A gripping tale (even startling, at least when I momentarily misread that bit at the end as saying that you'd played 37 ASL scenarios so far this year). This sounds like an irresistible one--I, at least, can't resist armored cars, though I prefer them to mount 2 pdrs.--which I must at some point have actually read and forgotten, before Hollow Legions went into my wargame cupboard rarely to emerge again.

It's a good thing I have our Revolt in the East game to distract me from the siren song of ASL, at least for the moment.

[winterbadger]

And the Brits certainly have their share of armoured cars, recon cars, scout cars, and so on. A few even have the mighty 2 pounder. :-) I think they had three or four times as many *types* of wheeled combat vehicles as the Italians.

It's a good thing I have our Revolt in the East game to distract me from the siren song of ASL, at least for the moment.

Though I gather from hints that poliscidiva has been dropping that the tide of revolution may be about to roll over the forces of communism and leave behind them only the storm-wrack of the Soviet Army...

[vikingcat.livejournal.com]

I don't want to ruin the surprise of the latest move before you open it, but suffice it to say that dealing with all these Soviet prisoners is going to be a challenge, and we're hoping that we'll be able to repatriate them soon. All in all, it was nice finally to get to make some attacks in this game instead of just trying to set up the most efficient possible speedbumps to your campaign.

Signals intelligence reports indicate that the Soviet defense may have been compromised by an intense dispute between Moscow and several commanders in the field over the question of how many kilometers there are between the inter-German border and the Polish frontier.

Be sure to tell your sister that the Poles fought valiantly, by the way.

[winterbadger]

They did, but they are subjugated all the same. Once this is over, no more Poland. We knew in the 19th century it was a bad idea, and it still is.