SoN6

31 March 1936

Description: The best the Ethiopian army has to offer is being thrown into an attack against a fortified position. The battle is fought across the widths of boards 25 and 18. Cactus hedges are in effect which should serve to channel the attack.

The VCs. The Ethiopians must cross two board widths (18 and 26) in six turns exiting 15 VP between I10 and Y10.

The Opposing Forces: The Eritreans defend with 14 squads, 4 leaders, and 3 mgs. They also have to 65mm INF guns and 70mm OBA. For fortifications they receive 6 trenches and three sangars. The Ethiopians attack with 23 squads, 5 leaders, and 4 machine guns. They receive 81mm OBA Mortar with an off board observer. (The problem here is that the Ethiopian draw pile is not defined anywhere in the rules. FWIW my solution is to give them the same draw pile as the Italians)

The Defense: The Eritreans have the advantage of internal lines. The question is how to maximize the benefits of having those internal lines. First and formost is the artillery spotter. If he can bring down harressing fire on the Ethiopians then that will take him a long way toward breaking up the Ethiopian attack and victory. With this in mind, I want a spot where I can see all the exit hexes and a contiguous set of hexes from the left to right flank. Next we have two sangars and two 65mm INF guns. We want them to both have good fields of fire early on when the Ethiopians are most vulnerable to 10 fpf with a -2 to hit drm can help break up the attack. The Italian guns do suffer from ammo shortage so as the Ethiopians are about to over run the position the Italians will IF them in the hopes of breaking/killing a few more Ethiopians or breaking the guns so that they can't be used against there former owners. The Italians want to use the trenches to facilitate lateral movement across the front as close to the exit area as possible. Finally the machine guns need to be placed so that they protect the exit area from the Ethiopians like a roof protects a house from the rain. This is easy to do on the right flank but rather tricky on the left flank. The Italians want the attack to be forced to one flank or the other and Then to concentrate as much fire power as possible to prevent the exit. Hopefully by they time the Ethiopians reach the redzone they will be whittled down to near parity with the Italians.

The Setup: 18X5 8-0 w/phone; 347 in Sangar 18R2 65mm INF w/227 in Sangar 18T2 65mm INF w/227 in Sangar Trenches in 18I8, 18O9, 18P8, 18Q8, 18R7, 18Y8. 18F2 347 18I3 347 18K3 347 18K5 347; 8-1 18N2 347 18N3 347 18N6 347 18R6 9-1 18P2 347 w/lmg 18V2 347 w/lmg 18X3 347 18Z4 347 18BB5 347 18CC5 347 w/mmg; 8-0

The Attack: The Ethiopians will advance in five groups with 1 leader per group with a two hex gap between groups. The idea is to find or create a hole in the Ethiopian line. Then instead of running for the exit execute flank attacks to further widen the breach. If enough of a gap can be opened then the potential damage from enemey fire at the game end will be minimized. Of utmost importance for the Ethiopian is to find and kill the artillery spotter. The guy with the phone must die. The biggest problem for the Ethiopians is time. Six turns to fight through a semi fortified position and exit VP is extremely short. Fortunately only about 25% of the Ethiopians need to exit for the win. The AAR: Turn 1A: The Italians and Ethiopians both get black draws on there artillery. Defensive Fire breaks three Ethiopian squads. Turn 1B: The Italians bring harressing arty down of the left most Ethiopian platoon. 2 squads pin but now the whole platoon must manauever around and out of the mess. The Italians break one of the 65mm guns. The Ethiopians get there artillery down on top of the Italian spotter. Turn 2A: The Ethiopians reach the board 28/18 seem in fairly good shape. 16.5 squads are still in good order and 1 Squad has gone beserk. 2 squads are dead and 3.5 squads are broken and probably won't be able to exit even if they rally. So their leaders leave them behind. (note: Lesson learned. The squad that went beserk was CX at the start of it's movement phase. It had just spent it's fourth MF when it went beserk. I did two things wrong here. First, it should have charged another four MF immediately. Second, beserkers can't advance in the advance phase.) Turn 2B: The Italian is worried because the Ethiopians have made so much progress so quickly. They have four full turns to cross ten hexes. The Italian boxes the phone out trying for contact. The Italian 65 KIAs it's second squad then breaks on an intensive fire shot. The Ethiopian tries to bring down arty on the mmg squad but the SR drifts off board. (note: I'm not sure if a gun can intensive fire under ammo shortage. I read ammo shortage and didn't see anything but I was reading the rule to see the effect on B# and acquiring a low ammo counter. I need to read the rule again just to confirm or deny IF.) Turn 3A: The Ethiopians try to bring down arty on the mmg squad but the SR drifts off board again!. The beserk squad is CRd by a 5-2 attack but gets to the gun crew. The crew boxes the fpf shot and is destroyed but the Ethiopian half squad remains beserk. The Ethiopians are on the first set of hills on board eighteen in the center and on the right. The mmg on the Ethiopian left is slowing them down some. (Note: Rereading the beserk rules I discovered that three things end beserk status. 1: If the zerker dies. 2. If it kills an enemy unit in CC/melee. 3. If it kills an enemy unit with TPBF.) Turn 3B: The Italians complete their pull back to their second line of defense. The pull back is one turn sooner then they would like but the Italian has only lost one crew and 2 squads are broken. The Ethiopian artillery draw is red. Turn 4A: The Ethiopian surge forward continues. The idea for the Ethiopian is to pour through the defense like water through a cauldron. The situation is very confused. The Ethiopians get a SR down on 18J7. An Ethiopian and Italian squad kill each other in CC. Turn 4B: The Italians only break one more Ethiopian squad. The Ethiopians return the favor. The Italian sniper kills a broken Ethiopian hs fifteen hexes from the exit area and I chastise myself for not declaring a relocate. Turn 5A: The artillery shatters the Italian right. The Ethiopian attack self impales on failed MCs. Yes, they went 0 for 6 on NMCs/1MCs in this player turn. The Ethiopian player realizes that in his rally phase he can only get one squad back. Three squads and an 8-1 are ready to exit but it just isn't enough so the Ethiopian resigns. Final Thoughts: So much seems to depend on how well the artillery does. Even though the Italians only got one FFE down it did nearly as much as the two modules that the Ethiopians brought down. I believe the Ethiopians really lost on turn 4A. Because they had to rout first they lost squads that they wouldn't have if the Italian routed first. In short it isn't good to get that mingled with the infantry in your player turn. Encircled units were encircling yet other units. Routing was a nightmare. Turn six didn't help either. If the Ethiopians go 3 for 6 they have some fire they can bring to bear in the turn 5B Defensive fire phase and posibly exit with a leader for the skin of your teeth win. I think conceding the balance to the Ethiopian (an extra player turn) is to much. Perhaps adding the Italian balance provision (bumping the artillery to 100mm Art) would be enough to swing it back to balanced. On the fun scale I'd give it a five for either side. Maybe it would rate a bit higher if the arty were more effective.

Later,

Mark