A72 - Italian Brothers

10 March 1937

The Setting: In an ironic twist of fate Italians fighting for the Republicans encountered Italians fighting for the Nationalists. Suddenly the civil war of Spain became the civil war of Italy being played out on Spains pitch.

The Terrain: The scenario is played out on half of boards 6 and 17. The orchards are vineyards.

The VCs: The Republicans (Allied Minors) win if they control building 6N4. Otherwise the side that controls three of four buildings 6J8, 6K4, 6K1, or 17P2 Wins. Otherwise whoever has the most CVP wins. Otherwise the Nationalists (Italians) win. For clarity sake henceforth I will refer to the sides as Minors and Italians.

The Opposing Forces: The Allied Minors have 14 x 437 squads, 4 leaders including a commissar & 5 machine guns.

The Italians have 18 squads with 3 leaders, 6 machine guns, and 3 x L3/35s.

The Defense: The Italians intend to shield 17P2 with the tank platoon and send 2 squads to give infantry support as well. An additional 2 squads will set up in the building and vineyard on the board 6/17 seem to give additional support while maintaining the ability to aid the rest of the Italians on board 6. 4 squads with 2 lights will take and hold 6K1. 2 squads will defend 6K4 directly. The rest of the Italians will be stuffed into 6N4, the chateau.

The Attack: The minors will try to kill the tanks with machine gun fire. 6J8 will be seized first. Then a decision to isolate and seize 17P2 or slug it out around 6K4 will be made. The idea is to grab 6J8 for the first building. Then use the superior fire power 4 factors vs 3 factors, superior morale 7 vs. 6 and some 7, superior leadership 5 leaders vs. 3, and superior SAN 4 vs 2, to rack up some CVPs. Once the Italian is weakened then the Minors can make a last minute assault toward one of the other victory buildings to secure the win.

Turn 1A: The Italians run onboard and establish themselves in 17P2, 6N4, 6K2, and 6K4. The Minors fire on the tanks. 6 shots yields 4 hits but no kills and broke the mmg.

Turn 1B: Minors repair the mmg. Minor Prep fire was ineffective. 4 shots yields 1 hit but no kills and breaks a lmg. The Minors CX their way almost to the 6J8 building and run another 4 squads through the vineyards. The Italians mantle their mmgs.

Turn 2A: The minors X the lmg. The Italian prep fire breaks two of the three tank MA. The mmgs have no effect on board 6. The Minors keep pounding at the tanks with their mgs. 2 shots 1 hit no kills.

Turn 2B: The Minors are flirting with the idea of rushing 17P2 early but 1 tank manages to repair its MA. The machinegun pelting continues 3 shots, 2 hits, no kills. Italian and Minor fire continues to be ineffective.

Turn 3A: The Italians finally break a squad with prep fire. The lmgs join mmgs to form two adjacent 12 fpf stacks. On the upper level of 6N4.

Turn 3B: The Italians repair a broken mmg. The Minors rally their broken squad. Then WHOA! Snakes on a to kill roll finally gets rid of an Italian tank!. The Italians are smelling blood and start to attack 6K4. One squad is broken by defensive fire and routs back to the commissar. Pressure on 6K4 is enormous 5 x 437 squads have fire power they can bring to bear on 2 x 346 in 6K4.

Turn 4A: Minor squad is CRd for failure to rally with the commissar. Prep Fire breaks 2 squads and pins another. One of the tanks breaks its MA ... again. Defensive fire CRs one of the Italian mmg squads. At this point the Italian skirmish line ran from 6L3 to 6I2 while the Minor skirmish line ran from 6L7 to 6I4. 6K4 remains the point of contention.

Turn 4B: The Italian tank Xs out it's MA and is now under recall. Prep Fire breaks one 346 and CRs/ELRs the other 346 in 6K4. But Defensive Fire breaks 2 x 437. The Italians lose another half squad to interdiction in the route phase. In the Advance Phase they seize 6K4!

Turn 5A: The Commissar CRs two squads in the rally phase. The squad in 6K4 is broken in prep fire and will have to rout out. One L3/35 exits the board for recall and the last L3/35 is destroyed in Defensive Fire. The other mmg squad is CRd by Defensive Fire, but other squads are ready to move in and pick up the mmg. The 437 in 6K4 is CRd by interdiction. The Italians seize 6K4 back!

Turn 5B: The Commissar kills yet another hs in the rally phase. The Minors finally repair their mmg. All fire was ineffective for both sides. The Minor Sniper lands on his own commissar and for a moment I'm tempted ... The Italians have 7 CVP so far 5 of those are the direct result of the commissar shooting his own men for failure to rally. But the sniper moves on and pins an Italian squad. The pin is meaningless.

Turn 6A: The Italians need to bolster the 6K4 position just a bit more. Once again the commissar helps the Italian by killing ten more of his own. Yes, 2 more hs die for failure to rally. The Italian machine guns finally heat up leaveing 1.5 squads dead and 1.5 squads broken. Further the Italians get a 346 into CC with the Minors kill stack in 6J8. CC kills a hs but the melee keeps the kill stack from affecting the Italians in the critical last turn.

Turn 6B: It's desperation time for the Minors. The Commissar doesn't help, he kills two more hs to bring his tally to 9 CVP for the game. The Minors are left with a 9-1 and 437 squad charging into open ground adjacent to 6K4. 16fpf - 3 leave both broken. An AM 227 out of spite shoots at the commissars hex. I wonder what the RB says about fragging. The Minors do win the 9-1 CC to chalk up one more CVP. CVPs Minors 21 Italians 17, Commissar 9 of those 17.

Afterthoughts: There wasn't a whole lot of maneuver in this scenario. It felt more like a chess game where the center of the board is sharply contested. My other thought is commissars suck. Yes, commissars suck. Give it a seven.

Mark