Another Silly After Action Report

In 1911 Italy seized Libya as part of its spoils in a recently concluded war with the Ottoman Empire.  Why?  The only rational reason seems to be that Italy came rather late to the colonial race and all the good bits of Africa had already been taken.  It was much the same thinking that led them to invade Ethiopia a little over twenty years later.  Having saddled itself with Libya the Italians attempted to play the role of colonial master.  They settled the fertile bits and did their best to ignore the other 95%.  At some point, apparently to protect this glittering jewel in their crown from the predatory British they constructed a vast barbed wire fence running for several hundred kilometres along the Libyan-Egyptian border.  Since they neither patrolled the fence nor constructed effective fortifications behind it the Wire as it became known imposed, in the words of one military historian "a five minute delay on any Bedouin with wire cutters in his blanket roll and a girlfriend on the other side."  Then on the 10th of June 1940 Mussolini declared war on France and Britain and the Wire came into its own as a perfectly useless waste of scarce defence funds.

The British forces in Egypt, specifically the 11th Hussars (Earl Cardigan's cherrypickers for those who read Flashman), had no difficulty in making their way through the unguarded wire.  On the very night of Mussolini's declaration the Cherrypickers crossed the wire and cheerfully shot up an Italian military convoy, much to the outrage of the occupants.  Apparently while Mussolini had informed the public, his allies and his enemies that Italy was at war he hadn't actually bothered to inform his troops in the field.  That pretty much set the scene for how the war in the desert would go for Italy.  Still not even the Italians were prepared to let it go at that and after a few nights of getting their outposts shot up they decided to reinforce their frontier garrisons. 

Which is why on the 16th of June a patrol of the 11th Hussars encountered a long line of Italian trucks "protected", for want of a better word, by a gaggle of their perfectly wretched L3 light tanks.  This then is ASL Scenario A61, Across the Wire which pits armoured cars of the 11th Hussars against the 9th Light Tank Battalion of the Italian army with a collection of Italian lorries in a supporting role.  Ivan Kent and I sat down to play this at Bears this month.  Ivan had never played a desert scenario before and this one was a nice intro with some special rules but not an excessive amount and a manageable number of vehicles.  As the defending Italians I had an onboard force of twelve trucks (useless) and six L3s (almost useless) set up nose to tail in single file along a track heading north.  Ivan's initial force consisted of two (count them) armoured cars, one Morris and one Rolls Royce each with a -1 armour leader which would sweep in from the east and attempt to do execution amongst the Italian column.  Ivan would get another pair of Rolls Royces and another Morris on turn three to help him out.  To reinforce my onboard troops I would get a trio of L3s on turn two and another three on turn three two of which would be mounting the 20L antitank rifle in place of their usual machine gun armament.  The most formidable piece of firepower I possessed was a 65mm gun carried portee style in one of the trucks.  My first order of business would be to get that gun unloaded and in action before Ivan turned the truck it was travelling in to scrap. 

To win Ivan's British had to amass six or greater victory points than the Italians.  Victory points essentially were gained by killing vehicles and their crews.  Each truck was worth two points and each L3 was worth two plus another two if their crew didn't survive.  In turn any armoured car of Ivan's I killed was worth three points (plus two more for a dead crew).  Considering the sheer volume of helpless vehicles I had on board Ivan was off to a good start before we began playing.  Starting on turn three my trucks can exit off the north edge of the board without penalty so essentially the game is a running battle with the trucks racing north as fast as they can while the British try and shoot them up before they get there and the L3s in turn trying to hinder the British as they do so.  To add to the Italian's woes their tanks couldn't use platoon movement which means they needed a DR of six or under every turn before they could move at all.  Failure froze them into immobility for the rest of the turn, additionally the Italian tank force was considered "inexperienced" and suffered a +1 modifier to all rolls including shooting.  Since the British were inconsiderate enough to start the battle in the middle of the day intense heat haze was in effect (hampering accurate shooting) and there was light dust present (hampering accurate shooting), additionally each vehicle would throw up dust as it entered a new hex (hampering etc etc).  The difficulty for both of us wouldn't be hitting our opponents but seeing them at all.

I had to set my vehicles up nose to tail facing north on a little track that led to the north edge and freedom.  Naturally I had to set up as far south on this track as I could.  I set the vehicles up with a couple of trucks in the lead and the L3s sprinkled in between them.  Since Ivan could come onto the board anywhere on the east edge I had to give a modicum of protection to the whole column.  In the centre of the column and guarded by L3s fore and aft was the truck carrying my precious 65mm.  This was a potential game breaker as compared with the other weaponry of both sides it was a veritable monster.  Two of my L3s were the rare anti aircraft variant with one of the machine guns mounted on the roof.  I set both of these up with the crew exposed to man these guns since one of the (many, many) weaknesses of the L3 is its lack of a turret.  By manning these exposed guns I had at least two weapons that could actually shoot in a direction other than the one the tank was travelling in.

Ivan brought his cars in separately, one at the very south end of the board to hit the tail of the column and the other closer to the middle to hit its head.  His armoured cars roared up close and pulled up ready for some useful shots next turn.  I took a couple of shots at them for the look of it but gained no results (dust, moving, inexperienced crews, heat haze, small target you get the idea).  In my turn I set my plan in so far as I had one in motion.  The plan was as follows;  The L3s were to charge the armoured cars to give them something to think about apart from killing trucks.  The lead trucks were to stamp on the accelerator and head north as fast as possible.  The trucks in the middle and rear were to move more slowly forward and provide some dust cover for the gun carrying truck which was to stop and unload the 65mm.  With that done they too would head for the hills.

Every single one of my L3s failed its movement roll.  Since they were pointing north and Ivan had come in from the west four of them couldn't really shoot at anything anyway.  Despite this set back my plan unfolded, sort of.  The lead trucks did indeed race north away from immediate danger.  The rear most truck nosed forward, was hit by fire from an armoured car and promptly burst into flames.  What's more it did this while occupying (as I thought, briefly) a hex currently containing one of my L3s which was now choking in smoke and couldn't see a thing.  That L3 would refuse to move for the entire game.  One of the middle trucks making its dash for freedom was destroyed by Ivan's other armoured car, fortunately no flames this time.  In the centre a certain vehicular milling about had produced sufficient dust to provide cover for unloading the gun which I duly did.

Despite the immobile L3s I wasn't disappointed with the turns results, two trucks down (four victory points) it is true but the gun was ready for use, my reinforcements would be on next turn and surely at least some of my L3s would move next time.  Ivan's opportunities for carnage were limited by the fact that he had only two armoured cars.  He attempted to take out a couple of my immobile L3s but the dust etc etc was causing him issues as well.  He moved both cars north to be closer to the fleeing trucks and tried some low odds shots at L3s which didn't come off.  We now had a running battle as the scene of the action left my dismounted gun and burning truck behind.  My gun took a shot at an armoured car but missed.  The L3s did nothing useful.  On my second turn most of my trucks made it to the board edge (they couldn't leave until turn three) and cowered in their newly created dust thinking small thoughts.  Since the battle was now in the north I brought my reinforcements on there (two aaL3s and a normal L3) to provide a wall of (low grade, highly brittle, badly riveted) steel between them and Ivan's cars.  My gun took a second shot at an armoured car and promptly broke itself.  So much for the game changer.  In turn three Ivan brought on his reinforcements, in the north of course, and attempted to bull his way past my L3s.  I had actually managed to get two of my original six moving and had edged a little closer to his vehicles.  Ivan sent one car along the northern board edge and attempted to do execution amongst my trucks but fortunately the dust and movement spoiled his efforts.  One of his cars managed to hit and immobilise an L3 but immobilisation isn't a kill and while my crew initially fled their vehicle when they saw it wasn't blowing up they got back in and gallantly if inefficiently manned the weapons.

On my turn three my truck drivers gave a sob of heartfelt relief and roared off the board.  Ivan tried shooting but some bad luck prevented him getting any hits.  I tried to repair my 65mm gun and only succeeded in breaking it completely.  The only good news was that Ivan had similarly broken the main armament of one of his cars.  Things now looked good for me in my opinion.  Despite the loss of my 65mm the trucks had all left the board and with them easy victory points for Ivan.  From now on he would have to take out L3s which was harder than it looked as they are very small targets and have at least a little armour.  With nine L3s on the board (and three more coming) against five armoured cars I was feeling confident.  The L3s can get a kill or two with a bit of luck and they are quite difficult to hit.  Although Ivan challenged this assertion by hitting them repeatedly.  Ivan now had a car in the south menaced by a trio of L3s, three cars in the centre facing six L3s and one in the far north looking to sneak around behind.  In the only kill I made during the entire game an L3 bagged a Rolls Royce in the centre and Ivan's victory point requirements were looking rough.  They looked even rougher as my remaining L3s rolled up to augment my northern forces.

Sadly the one thing I didn't seem to be able to do with my L3s was move them.  Time after time they failed the movement roll while Ivan waltzed around behind them.  In the course of a brutal turn Ivan killed three L3s while my return fire such as it was didn't even scratch his paint.  To make matters worse in the process of this occurrence I broke the main armament on two of my remaining tanks.  On attempting to repair them both I rolled boxcars and lost them to recall.  Or rather I lost one to recall.  Ivan waited for the other to turn around and then destroyed it with a rear shot.  That happened in the south, up in the north I had finally positioned one of my 20L carrying tanks for a perfect close quarters shot in the rear of an armoured car.  I took the shot and hit.  It would have to be a very unlucky roll to avoid killing it.  It was a very unlucky roll.  At this stage with Ivan's victory points skyrocketing and my force dwindling by the minute I had a severe personal morale failure.  I had destroyed one car and immobilised another with a lucky shot but that was it.  I had one turn to go and Ivan was perfectly placed to kill a couple more of my tanks.  I offered to surrender but then thought damn it no so we played on.  Ivan killed a couple more of my tanks.  I offered to surrender, by this time there really wasn't any option, I had one turn left, most of my remaining vehicles were in dreadful positions due to their refusal to move and even if I had got terribly lucky I doubt if I could have garnered enough points to stop Ivan winning.  So I gave up.  The Italians were probably wondering what took me so long.

Despite a bit of soul crushing towards the end this was actually quite enjoyable with little armoured things whizzing about (on Ivan's side anyway), trucks charging for exits and loads of low likelihood shots being taken simply due to the lack of any other kind.  Thanks to Ivan for the game who probably hasn't heard the word "fuck" quite so many times in one afternoon before and stern disciplinary action against my surviving tanks crews.