IABSM Battle Reports; 24/03/05 Vs Max's Italians |
Inside the camp I knew I had 1 infantry platoon (poor),
under the command of Captain Corebelly (of Mandarin
fame), a machine gun platoon and 2 Guns, one infantry,
one Anti-Tank. The central bunker on the V held one
HMG and behind it an AT gun. The other MMG's were
two the rear of dummy bunkers on the berm. The
Infantry Guns crew were in a building close to their
position and a mortar was in place on top of the hill. A
squadron of CV33's were hidden in barracks at the top
rear of the position.
I had an FO (prepared position) controlling 4 75mm guns
in the centre of the camp and had pre plotted 3 strike
zones.
I could then roll D6 +2 for reinforcements. These were
then randomly allocated from a chart Id drawn up, I got
6. This chart is on the bottom of this mail. We felt it
would be more fun to wait and see what these were until
they had come onto the table and could be spotted. I
was less than pleased when I did know!
Kev (if I remember rightly) had elected to use the Jock
Strap On rules for his force. He had a Command section,
1 infantry platoon, an HMG platoon and a mortar unit. An
additional Infantry platoon and a squadron of 3
Crusaders rounded this force out. By using the "Desert
is a tough place" factors almost all of his units suffered
losses. With no effective artillery and few infantry, this
would be a considerable feat.
Kev adds "The lack of decent artillery support meant that
the only way to take the camp was to get in there quickly.
If Clive and I had decided to stand off and try to shoot
with our mortars and HMGs the Italian artillery would
eventually home in on us and that would be it. Our only
real hope was to use fire to pin the enemy, thereby
affecting their firing ability and to put them to the cold
steel!"
Kev's late arrivals would come on from move 4. For him,
this was lucky as I pulled the Teabreak (Chianti Siesta?)
3 times from the 1st 10 chips!
My own reinforcements arrived quickly, without
knowing what they were I moved them into positions 3
on each side. My blinds cards came up quickly and I
moved one of the new blinds up to the unoccupied top
bunker area on the axis, another into buildings the rest
into positions on the crest. I received 2 guns (great), a
tank section (3 M13/40's), a small very poor infantry unit
of cooks and mechanics, one blind and nothing!
Luckily I'd placed the 2 gun cards either on the ridge or
in the barracks area. On the far side, beside the tanks, I
had nothing!
My initial moves also saw me move the CV33's towards
the wire to skirmish with any Brits that might come over
the open ground. The remainder spotted.
The Brits had pushed their mortars into some scrub at
the base of one of the hills and scouted with blinds. We
began a desultory duel between the HMG in the central
Bunker (a lovely Timecast piece) and the Mortars. This
would continue almost all game.
With little going on I thought I was ok until both the
British Blinds and then Recce cards came up. Sprinting
across the table the Teabreak revealed two infantry
platoons less than a jog away from the berm, almost
unscathed!
The Imperial buggers even moved their HMG's onto the
other hill to pin my camp.
The M13/40's were opposite their berm facing a full
platoon as were the light tanks. Right then the
Crusaders appeared!
Our early blinds moves had allowed us to move all the
guns into position, 2 AT and 2 Field guns against 3
tanks, plus our own armour - well the game was ours
wasn't it?
The next moves saw Kev and Clive pin my 3 MG
bunkers skirmishing forward to the berm with their
infantry. Encouraged by their big men they jostled for
position. My guns missed everything! The Crusaders
and M13's slugged it out for 3 turns, we destroyed one
in a flash of flame and hate, then were riddled
in return. One brave crew held on all game despite 2
permanent disablements and a jammed turret.
My pre-ranged artillery began to pick off the attackers.
There was wire and a small minefield around the first
bunker and wire in front of the two others forming
channels and I'd placed fire in front of these channels
before the game.
Sadly it wasn't enough. Clive pushed his men on. A
brave sergeant rushed the light tanks around the berm
smashing one of their machine guns forcing it off table.
The two AT Rifle tracks made for the Crusaders to
extract revenge. My forward troops also suffered from
the barrage and soon we were broken in the front line.
It looked dicey for the Brits. I had an infantry platoon
dug into the centre, 3 functioning guns and a scratch
blocking force in the barracks still left. Then all hell
broke loose.
The Brits on the far side under Kev rounded the tanks,
killed a remaining machine gunner and set off to
outflank my position. Their only threat, a blind.
On Clivey's side a rash assault that was several dice too
short saw one of his infantry squads caught in the open
and butchered by the brave Italian squadies.
Our mortar pinned some of his men but he was now
under our artillery and free to move.
Clive is a quick learner and brought up his HMGs. In
combination with the mortars and the infantry now
holding Italian dug outs the Casino Division now stuck
to their name and collected dice. The Italians are very
brittle and with only Captain Corebelly, who was a little
confused, their effectiveness dwindled quickly.
My guns remained in an unequal contest with the
remaining Crusaders, managing not to hit one of them
all game.
Now pinned the Brits big men really showed. They
brought their squads back up to strength and a series of
violent assaults saw the cooks routed, a gun overrun
and the other flank penetrated.
At this point we realised that the Italians could do more
to secure a Fascist victory by using up British Transport
and rations as Prisoners of War that as mere
combatants.
It had, after all been a hard fought victory for the Brits,
losing nearly 1/2 of their infantry and one tank. The
Eyeties, however, proved that they are a one shot
weapon if the opposition brings his force to bear and a
couple of casualties giving only one dice will not put up
an effective threat for long.
Kev adds "We took an awful lot of punishment from
Max's pre-logged in artillery. Most of our casualties came
from this. Unfortunately, wherever we seemed to be the
chip for that location turned up. I also threw away a
section by advancing through what turned out to be a
minefield. Clive threw away a section when, on my
advice, he tried to assault an artillery piece and failed to
roll enough PIPs to close. A nearby Italian MG then had
him as a 'great' target.
Our redeeming feature was that our troops had six Big
Men to Max's one. Plus our British were able to remove
wounds using their 'Rally' , and Big Men, whereas Max's
boys were unable to do so and quickly lost the initiative
to be able to reply. We finished the game with all our Big
Men standing - extremely rare for me as I like to lead
from the front!
The effect of our pinning fire had a massive effect upon
Italian MGs which never seemed to get a clear shot in on
us except when pinned, moving them into the next range
category"
And Captain Corebelly? Well, afraid for the safety of his
Mandarin, he tried to save the day by rushing to a field
gun to see off the closest Crusader.
Suffice to say he missed so badly that the only decent
thing seemed to be to surrender.
The CV33's have earned a great sobriquet, Kev's advice
to Clive was to "treat them like wasp's, ignore them and
they wont hurt anybody". And sadly, he was right.
Will we get our revenge, Si! Si! and again Si! Andiamo et
avanti! (I think).
Kev "Not a hope mate! The Italian's are by far the worst
troops I've ever seen in IABSM. Very, very brittle indeed.
Without a helluva lot of luck I can't see them winning
many games. That said they're very good fun to fight
with, and against. I'm just glad we didn't face the DAK
they would have crucified us.
I look forward to a re-match upon return from the USA"
Max (who also did the map - Kev)
under the command of Captain Corebelly (of Mandarin
fame), a machine gun platoon and 2 Guns, one infantry,
one Anti-Tank. The central bunker on the V held one
HMG and behind it an AT gun. The other MMG's were
two the rear of dummy bunkers on the berm. The
Infantry Guns crew were in a building close to their
position and a mortar was in place on top of the hill. A
squadron of CV33's were hidden in barracks at the top
rear of the position.
I had an FO (prepared position) controlling 4 75mm guns
in the centre of the camp and had pre plotted 3 strike
zones.
I could then roll D6 +2 for reinforcements. These were
then randomly allocated from a chart Id drawn up, I got
6. This chart is on the bottom of this mail. We felt it
would be more fun to wait and see what these were until
they had come onto the table and could be spotted. I
was less than pleased when I did know!
Kev (if I remember rightly) had elected to use the Jock
Strap On rules for his force. He had a Command section,
1 infantry platoon, an HMG platoon and a mortar unit. An
additional Infantry platoon and a squadron of 3
Crusaders rounded this force out. By using the "Desert
is a tough place" factors almost all of his units suffered
losses. With no effective artillery and few infantry, this
would be a considerable feat.
Kev adds "The lack of decent artillery support meant that
the only way to take the camp was to get in there quickly.
If Clive and I had decided to stand off and try to shoot
with our mortars and HMGs the Italian artillery would
eventually home in on us and that would be it. Our only
real hope was to use fire to pin the enemy, thereby
affecting their firing ability and to put them to the cold
steel!"
Kev's late arrivals would come on from move 4. For him,
this was lucky as I pulled the Teabreak (Chianti Siesta?)
3 times from the 1st 10 chips!
My own reinforcements arrived quickly, without
knowing what they were I moved them into positions 3
on each side. My blinds cards came up quickly and I
moved one of the new blinds up to the unoccupied top
bunker area on the axis, another into buildings the rest
into positions on the crest. I received 2 guns (great), a
tank section (3 M13/40's), a small very poor infantry unit
of cooks and mechanics, one blind and nothing!
Luckily I'd placed the 2 gun cards either on the ridge or
in the barracks area. On the far side, beside the tanks, I
had nothing!
My initial moves also saw me move the CV33's towards
the wire to skirmish with any Brits that might come over
the open ground. The remainder spotted.
The Brits had pushed their mortars into some scrub at
the base of one of the hills and scouted with blinds. We
began a desultory duel between the HMG in the central
Bunker (a lovely Timecast piece) and the Mortars. This
would continue almost all game.
With little going on I thought I was ok until both the
British Blinds and then Recce cards came up. Sprinting
across the table the Teabreak revealed two infantry
platoons less than a jog away from the berm, almost
unscathed!
The Imperial buggers even moved their HMG's onto the
other hill to pin my camp.
The M13/40's were opposite their berm facing a full
platoon as were the light tanks. Right then the
Crusaders appeared!
Our early blinds moves had allowed us to move all the
guns into position, 2 AT and 2 Field guns against 3
tanks, plus our own armour - well the game was ours
wasn't it?
The next moves saw Kev and Clive pin my 3 MG
bunkers skirmishing forward to the berm with their
infantry. Encouraged by their big men they jostled for
position. My guns missed everything! The Crusaders
and M13's slugged it out for 3 turns, we destroyed one
in a flash of flame and hate, then were riddled
in return. One brave crew held on all game despite 2
permanent disablements and a jammed turret.
My pre-ranged artillery began to pick off the attackers.
There was wire and a small minefield around the first
bunker and wire in front of the two others forming
channels and I'd placed fire in front of these channels
before the game.
Sadly it wasn't enough. Clive pushed his men on. A
brave sergeant rushed the light tanks around the berm
smashing one of their machine guns forcing it off table.
The two AT Rifle tracks made for the Crusaders to
extract revenge. My forward troops also suffered from
the barrage and soon we were broken in the front line.
It looked dicey for the Brits. I had an infantry platoon
dug into the centre, 3 functioning guns and a scratch
blocking force in the barracks still left. Then all hell
broke loose.
The Brits on the far side under Kev rounded the tanks,
killed a remaining machine gunner and set off to
outflank my position. Their only threat, a blind.
On Clivey's side a rash assault that was several dice too
short saw one of his infantry squads caught in the open
and butchered by the brave Italian squadies.
Our mortar pinned some of his men but he was now
under our artillery and free to move.
Clive is a quick learner and brought up his HMGs. In
combination with the mortars and the infantry now
holding Italian dug outs the Casino Division now stuck
to their name and collected dice. The Italians are very
brittle and with only Captain Corebelly, who was a little
confused, their effectiveness dwindled quickly.
My guns remained in an unequal contest with the
remaining Crusaders, managing not to hit one of them
all game.
Now pinned the Brits big men really showed. They
brought their squads back up to strength and a series of
violent assaults saw the cooks routed, a gun overrun
and the other flank penetrated.
At this point we realised that the Italians could do more
to secure a Fascist victory by using up British Transport
and rations as Prisoners of War that as mere
combatants.
It had, after all been a hard fought victory for the Brits,
losing nearly 1/2 of their infantry and one tank. The
Eyeties, however, proved that they are a one shot
weapon if the opposition brings his force to bear and a
couple of casualties giving only one dice will not put up
an effective threat for long.
Kev adds "We took an awful lot of punishment from
Max's pre-logged in artillery. Most of our casualties came
from this. Unfortunately, wherever we seemed to be the
chip for that location turned up. I also threw away a
section by advancing through what turned out to be a
minefield. Clive threw away a section when, on my
advice, he tried to assault an artillery piece and failed to
roll enough PIPs to close. A nearby Italian MG then had
him as a 'great' target.
Our redeeming feature was that our troops had six Big
Men to Max's one. Plus our British were able to remove
wounds using their 'Rally' , and Big Men, whereas Max's
boys were unable to do so and quickly lost the initiative
to be able to reply. We finished the game with all our Big
Men standing - extremely rare for me as I like to lead
from the front!
The effect of our pinning fire had a massive effect upon
Italian MGs which never seemed to get a clear shot in on
us except when pinned, moving them into the next range
category"
And Captain Corebelly? Well, afraid for the safety of his
Mandarin, he tried to save the day by rushing to a field
gun to see off the closest Crusader.
Suffice to say he missed so badly that the only decent
thing seemed to be to surrender.
The CV33's have earned a great sobriquet, Kev's advice
to Clive was to "treat them like wasp's, ignore them and
they wont hurt anybody". And sadly, he was right.
Will we get our revenge, Si! Si! and again Si! Andiamo et
avanti! (I think).
Kev "Not a hope mate! The Italian's are by far the worst
troops I've ever seen in IABSM. Very, very brittle indeed.
Without a helluva lot of luck I can't see them winning
many games. That said they're very good fun to fight
with, and against. I'm just glad we didn't face the DAK
they would have crucified us.
I look forward to a re-match upon return from the USA"
Max (who also did the map - Kev)
Italian Base Assault
Max Maxwell reports....Following the heroic assault of the Australian position last week we
went back in time to the turning point in the Desert. We also used the opportunity to test out
some of our systems to create and randomise our forces in the Desert. More importantly, this
was the first full scale outing of the Italians.
The scenario: a Jock column, led by the redoubtable Major F. Alouicious T'Walliver and his
occasional companion Captain Clivey attacked an Italian bastion in Tripolitania. The position
was held by elements of the now famous Casino Monaco Division in approximately battalion
strength. Our action was at the key point of attack, a corner of the sprawling camp.
The table, running left to right saw the Italian position across around 1/2 the table with a >
shaped corner of the camps perimeter edging into the right hand desert wastes. At the far right a
low ridge hid the main advance of the Brits. At the apex of the V the Brits new there was a pillbox
with perhaps two more along each axis. The perimeter, a low ditch and berm was more designed
to keep out camels than the 8th Army and only troops adjacent to it would be afforded any cover.
Outside of a few clumps of brush, little if any cover was available.
went back in time to the turning point in the Desert. We also used the opportunity to test out
some of our systems to create and randomise our forces in the Desert. More importantly, this
was the first full scale outing of the Italians.
The scenario: a Jock column, led by the redoubtable Major F. Alouicious T'Walliver and his
occasional companion Captain Clivey attacked an Italian bastion in Tripolitania. The position
was held by elements of the now famous Casino Monaco Division in approximately battalion
strength. Our action was at the key point of attack, a corner of the sprawling camp.
The table, running left to right saw the Italian position across around 1/2 the table with a >
shaped corner of the camps perimeter edging into the right hand desert wastes. At the far right a
low ridge hid the main advance of the Brits. At the apex of the V the Brits new there was a pillbox
with perhaps two more along each axis. The perimeter, a low ditch and berm was more designed
to keep out camels than the 8th Army and only troops adjacent to it would be afforded any cover.
Outside of a few clumps of brush, little if any cover was available.
Idiots Guide to Reinforcements (Italian)
D20 roll, D6 +2 available
1 Infantry platoon
2 Artillary Bonus Strike
3 Tank section
4 Just a Blind!
5 Infantry platoon
6 Scratch platoon - vehicle crews, cooks, mechanics etc
7 Infantry Gun, plus truck
8 Big Man (D4), plus section
9 Nothing, they went the other way!
10 Anti Tank Gun
11 Portee Unit
12 MMG section
13 Infantry Platoon
14 Scout section
15 Tank Killers, Molotov's, iron bars, bits of plastic to get through the
windows etc
16 Infantry Gun, plus truck
17 Nothing, still cooking dinner!
18 Infantry Platoon
19 Bonus artillery strike 2
20 Just a Blind!
D20 roll, D6 +2 available
1 Infantry platoon
2 Artillary Bonus Strike
3 Tank section
4 Just a Blind!
5 Infantry platoon
6 Scratch platoon - vehicle crews, cooks, mechanics etc
7 Infantry Gun, plus truck
8 Big Man (D4), plus section
9 Nothing, they went the other way!
10 Anti Tank Gun
11 Portee Unit
12 MMG section
13 Infantry Platoon
14 Scout section
15 Tank Killers, Molotov's, iron bars, bits of plastic to get through the
windows etc
16 Infantry Gun, plus truck
17 Nothing, still cooking dinner!
18 Infantry Platoon
19 Bonus artillery strike 2
20 Just a Blind!