Keen readers of this blog may remember that some weeks ago I played an ASL scenario with Ivan Kent called Flea Circus which pitted my Italians attempting to defend Rome from the vengeful predations of their erstwhile allies the Germans. Such readers may also remember that Ivan essentially carved me up for dog meat. If nothing else this followed historical precedent as the Germans did precisely that in real life.
The Germans pushed on and captured a bridge that same evening but the Italians, despite a disintegrating command structure and a government hiding in a hole somewhere, weren't prepared to leave it at that and the next day launched an attack to recapture the bridge. If nothing else they provided scenario designers with fresh material. Athirst for revenge I sat down to play this scenario AP27, All Roads Lead to Rome. The winner would be the side who amassed the most victory points. Points would be awarded for killing enemies (as usual) but the Italians also got points if they captured the bridge, the Germans got points for every unit exited off the north (left) edge of the board and the Italians got points if the Germans didn't control a north south road.
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| This is the set up, I have a huge stack lurking somewhat nervously underneath the little tank |
Both sides set up more or less on top of each other with the Germans holding the bridge just a few tantalising hexes from the Italian set up area. A series of hills provide alternate vantage points and protection. My heroes would be from the Grenadiers of Sardinia division with (very thinly) armoured support from the Montebello lancers. Ivan once again commanded the German 2nd Paratroop division.
To start I had ten squads (five elite and five first line) a pair of medium machine guns, some light machine guns, a small mortar and a 75mm artillery piece. I also had an L6/40 light tank and a SMV 75/18 self propelled gun. Ivan had eight elite squads, a panzerschreck, a medium machine gun and a couple of lights. For reinforcements Ivan would get another nine elite squads and three artillery pieces; a 37mm AT gun, an 81mm mortar and a 105mm recoilless rifle. My reinforcements were a lottery. By this stage the Italians were grabbing whatever they could find and throwing it at the Germans. A series of random rolls would produce a series of random reinforcements from tanks to armed civilians.
My set up was guided by two considerations, firstly there was a hill just behind Ivan's front line. If I could control that I could shoot up his oncoming reinforcements. The second consideration was the murderous firepower the paratroop squads could produce thanks to their assault fire capacity. I wanted to kill some Germans immediately and capture the hill. With the hill in my possession to stare down his reinforcements I hoped I might be able to seize a bridge hex or two, more to force Ivan to spend time taking them back than because I hoped to hold them at game end.
Ivan's set up surprised me a little as I thought he would place more on the hill. Instead he put his troops in the forest guarding the bridge. I placed a massive kill stack (three elite squads, an hmg, 2 lmgs and a 9-1 officer) right next to his nearest squad giving it a little protection by placing the L6 tank in the hex as well. The mortar went on a convenient hill where I could hit the other end of the bridge. The 75mm gun is out of the picture above on a hill to the left. A smaller kill stack set up on the hill. The SMV was placed to roll straight up to the hilltop and (hopefully) dominate the road his reinforcements needed to come down. A squad with an lmg was with them as infantry support as I suspected (correctly) that his unit hiding in a building behind the hill would have his panzerschreck, an almost guaranteed tank killer.
There was a lot of risk in the set up. If my early rolls were shockingly bad the bulk of my force was sitting in the open with no protection apart from a rather flimsy tank. On the other hand even average rolls should get a result and I desperately needed to kill Germans swiftly.
Things didn't start off so well when an attempted smoke round from my gun failed, a follow up HE round didn't do any better. The mortar banged away across the river at a force on the other side of the bridge without any result but then it was time for the big show. Firstly my L6 fired on the adjacent squad without result but then my kill stack hit it with a 40+1 shot and killed the squad outright. Up on the hill my mini kill stack broke the nearest defender and my remaining guys moved forward. The SMV mounted the hill ready to do badly aimed execution on all who approached while a squad jumped into the foxhole that had recently contained defenders
My revised plan once I saw Ivan's set up was to smash the force in the woods thus leaving me well positioned to seize the bridge while my SMV up on the hill at least provoked caution in any reinforcements.
I couldn't quite do it. The bloodshed was appalling, I killed another half squad and Ivan in return broke my mortar squad and another advancing a little too boldly. I moved into the woods, grinding down his shellshocked troops (and killing another squad or so in the process. I also managed to break the main armament on the L6 which to this point I haven't had the courage to try and repair. So far so good but while I was pounding his guys in the wood Ivan was preparing a nasty surprise for me as well. The photo above doesn't show it but on the other side of the bridge is a patch of ground and nestled in the trees there is a squad with a medium machine gun. The distance is too great for the infantry to fire so Ivan hit two squads (one in woods and the other in a foxhole) with a spectacular rate tear on the mmg that killed them both. Suddenly my handsome CVP lead was looking less impressive.
On the first turn his guns arrived coming onto the board on the far right but with the SMV giving them a friendly wave they moved circumspectly. On the second turn nine squads of elite paratroopers turned up to avenge the blooding I had given their comrades. Who was supposed to avenge my guys was left up in the air. Still while all this lot made its way to the main battle zone the onboard forces would have to struggle alone. Despite the carnage caused by Ivan's machine gun I managed to kill another squads worth of troops and (I thought) consolidated my hold on the woods. Alas across the road sat another squad with a 9-1 leader. His 4 flat shot got a K/2 killing half a squad and breaking the rest.
The carnage was appalling. I had lost two and a half squads killed from my onboard force with two more broken. That two was made three when his squad near my SMV dropped concealment and blasted away my protecting squad. It then hopped up onto the hill toting its fearsome panzerschreck eyeing my increasingly nervous SMV. I took a bold (reckless) decision. Rolling my somewhat battered L6 forward to freeze an inconvenient squad in bypass I launched a squad up the hill and raced across open ground towards his schreck boys. Drawing fire at its worst but I didn't have many big guns and I needed my SMV. Ivan fired at my guys once and despite to -2 modifier gained no result for once but grimly held his last fire for the SMV. He aimed, fired and destroyed...the panzerschreck. I breathed again. I contemplated going into CC but realising I would get murdered hopped down into a convenient building instead.
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| Schreck danger removed but I can't help thinking that squad is going to worry me at some point. |
I rolled for my first load of reinforcements and gained a bunch of carabinieri, 3x347 squads and a leader. These guys entered on the north (left) edge of the board and started pounding towards my increasingly flimsy front line. On the other side of the hill (literally) Ivan's guns were coming up. The recoilless rifle unloaded on a hill despite my SMV's feeble attempts to shoot it. His 37mm ATG was carried en portee (on the back of a truck, think Somalian technicals) and, having had an opportunity to assess the success factor of my SMVs shooting Ivan had no hesitation in rolling up to six hexes range and swinging around to shoot over the tailboard.
Alas for his hopes. First he tried special armour killing ammunition but he didn't have any. Then he tried normal armour piercing and gained a hit but to the surprise of both of us the shell bounced off the SMV's tinfoil armour. With the bit between his teeth Ivan intensive fired the gun, and broke it. But worse was to come. With nothing better to do my suicide squad in the building tried shooting at the truck and scored a snakes eyes. The truck, gun and crew exploded in a burst of flame which promptly put me well ahead on victory points again. I promised Ivan I would stop the petulant whining that had greeted his superb rolling earlier in the game. I think we both know that promise isn't going to be kept.
We stopped at the end of turn 3 for the night. The situation is in the balance. Ivan's onboard force has taken terrible losses but so has mine and Ivan has another nine excellent squads moving up. The recoilless rife is ready to shoot and the mortar carrying truck has nestled in behind some trees. On the other hand my SMV still improbably rules the hill, some reinforcements of my own are moving up and my 75mm gun is starting to pound the medium machine gun position that caused me so much pain. Much will depend on whether I can rebuild a defensive line before Ivan can swamp me with his better armed and motivated troops.
Can the Italians stop the German paratroopers?
Will the Germans sweep all before them?
Will the semovente ever hit anything?
All these questions and less answered next time.
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