Captain Abdul Mahut Behbey el Efanti stared aross the searing desert sand towards the low hills sparsely adorned with the sort of scraggly vegetation that made you wonder why nature even bothered. From a track between the hills he could hear the sound of vehicles. The French were coming. He turned to his troops crouched over an ancient machine gun.
"Get ready," he whispered. To his right was an ancient truck plastered with random bits of metal, his armoured support. Wisely el Efanti didn't place too much faith in it. It was difficult to take an armoured vehicle seriously when bits of the "armour" dropped off every time you revved the engine. He was also more than a little concerned about the machine guns his troops had been equipped with.
"Where did they say we got the machine guns?" he asked a corporal next to him who seemed a little under employed.
"I think the Household Cavalry stole them from the British Museum," was the reply.
"Stealing from the British Museum, that's new."
"Sadly the machine guns aren't."
I selected this scenario to play based purely on the title and the fact that I don't know of too many scenarios involving the Arab Legion. Dave very kindly pandered to my less than scientific method of scenario selection and took up the doomed cause of the Vichy French while I commanded Glubb Pasha's finest or at least most geographically convenient. The Arab Legion are tasked with defending a small and utterly worthless Syrian village from the predations of the French. Dave needs to control ten building hexes or amass 30 CVP while my soldiers of Jordan win by avoiding those two situations.
I have seven second line British squads led by three officers including a 9-1. In addition to this rather slender force I have four incredibly heavy and very old medium machine guns which labour under ammunition shortage and red to hit numbers. I also have two "armoured cars". God knows what these are but they are depicted by Chinese counters which doesn't fill me with confidence. They have a cmg and an aamg which can't fire through the vehicular covered arc. These vehicles are technically there to support me in actual fact they're really just there to help the French get the CVP they need. On turn three the Household Cavalry comes steaming to the rescue with four tiny Daimler scout cars. Their armament is derisory but the armour is quite impressive for their size.
Fighting bitterly to hold onto France's least desirable province are the men of the 1st Light Desert Company. Dave has nine first line squad equivalents transported to the battlefield in four large trucks. They also have three officers, five light machine guns and three mediums. Rolling on in armoured support are no fewer than six AMD 50 armoured cars. They carry stubby 37mm guns and a machine gun which for some reason sticks out the rear. These would be Dave's go to tools for victory.
I set up two forward outposts in the only semi defensible terrain forward of the village. In the east a squad and a Chinese gun truck lurked among the olive groves. The job of the squad was to lunge forward and take possession of the two forward buildings, just to make Dave fight for his prize and hopefully slow his progress a bit. In the west two squads with an mmg and a leader prepared to make fight for the only other two buildings forward of the village with the other gun truck in support. The remaining force went into the village with a pair of mmgs (guided by my best leader) covering the track and a third mmg (under a less impressive leader) guarding the eastern flank. I think I had fantasies of catching Dave's forces in a crossfire as they obligingly manoeuvred under my sights. Strangely Dave didn't cooperate with this delusion.
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| End of French turn 1. Apart from one long range shot my guys remain nestled beneath their concealment counters |
The first couple of turns were largely violence free as Dave closed the gap between our two forces. His trucks rolled up onto the hills to deposit his infantry out of sight of my defenders while his armoured cars sought positions of advantage. Incidentally we forgot that the French armoured cars have to use platoon movement until turn two. Dave was able to link up five of the cars but the rear most one (naturally containing his 9-1 armour leader) failed its independent movement die roll two turns in a row. In my turn my easterly squad lunged forward and did indeed occupy the forward buildings. So far everything was going according to plan. This would be the last moment when I could say that.
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| End of French turn 2. That is quite a frightening armoured force Dave has amassed. Mine, not so much. |
The second turn saw Dave's trucks kick their passengers into the sand and head for the rear at a great rate of knots. Infantry started moving towards my flanks while on the track five armoured cars (their commander was still trying to start his vehicle in the rear) prepared to strike. I could do little except wait for the oncoming storm and pray safe in the knowledge that all would eventuate as god willed. Inshallah.
In my turn I managed to break one of his units taking up position on an inconvenient hilltop (well it was inconvenient for me) but sadly not his mmg team. My squad in the east which had so boldly staked its claim to the two forward buildings now slunk into the rearmost of said buildings in the hope of avoiding the terrible retribution coming its way.
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| End of French turn 3. Dave makes his move in the west (bottom) |
With his armoured cars and an infantry stack giving my lone squad in the east their undivided attention Dave sent the rest of his infantry forward against my position in the west. Defensive fire resulted only in a squad going berserk. With Gallic shouts they lunged forward towards the exact sort of crossfire I had been hoping for. Sadly the results were a little sub optimal. One of my trucks broke its cmg and the other results didn't even achieve that much. The berserk squad shrugged off the hail of poorly directed fire and broken weapon parts and readied itself for the final charge next turn. In the east retreating to the rearmost building proved to be a wise move and my squad got away with a pin result.
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| End of British (Arab) turn 3 |
With my turn 3 the Household Cavalry arrived just in time to witness one of my hapless Chinese trucks being blown apart by the less than impressive 37mm gun on an armoured car. I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do with these little vehicles. Their 2FP armament didn't seem to threaten infantry much more than armour and being open topped their crews were not immune from small arms fire themselves a fact proved when Dave promptly shot one of them up terrifying its crew so much that they drove immediately for the rear. The other two circled up onto the westernmost hill, breaking a French squad on the way. There they sat trying to pretend they knew what they were doing. My mmg team had their moment of glory, immobilising an armoured car the crew swiftly left but later got back in. On the other hand my other Chinese truck broke its cmg as well, cheap imported rubbish.
Speaking of cheap imported rubbish I managed to break the car killing (or at least car hurting) mmg when I took a shot at the berserk guys as they rushed towards certain death. Once again they survived the (distinctly lighter) hail of fire and jumped into CC with the squad now reduced to throwing bits of broken machine gun at them. But that wasn't the only close combat as Dave now rushed forward to deal with my forward defences. In the west a squad leapt into close combat with my armoured truck while in the east approximately half the French army swamped my poor isolated forward squad. Dave really went all out with this one. He sleazed the defenders with an armoured car and then poured three squads into CC while moving another stack carrying his two remaining mmgs next door. My heroes neatly ambushed his troops and fled before the combat could be resolved. Of course this left them sitting in the open adjacent to three squads worth of troops but it was the best I could do at the time.
Meanwhile his sniper managed to kill one of my officers the accompanying squad naturally failed its LLMC and suddenly my eastern mmg position was gone. I was now desperately short of officers as one of the two remaining was locked in melee with his berserk squad. Somewhat to the rear his armour leader had finally persuaded his driver to turn the engine over and his last armoured car was trundling towards the battlefield where a pair of scout cars awaited it.
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| I think time is running out for my eastern defenders. |
Over in the east there was a brief moment of glory as the squad which had withdrawn from melee took an 8+3 shot at its neighbour and managed to break all three squads and their leader. Sadly they didn't have much time to celebrate as return fire from the next position along wiped them out. I reversed my surviving truck out of melee which in retrospect was possibly a mistake as it allowed Dave to reinforce the melee with his berserkers who had so far made no impression on my defenders. Up on the hill Dave's newly arrived command AC took a shot at one of my scout cars but their so small you need a microscope rather than a gunsight and both of them rolled around behind his car, sadly failing their own bounding fire shots.
At first glance things didn't look too bad. The main village was as yet unthreatened and I was still contesting the buildings in the south (I killed half his berserkers in CC) but this was misleading. Half my force was gone and my remaining machine guns plinked harmlessly at his armoured cars while Dave pulled his troops together for a final push. The simple fact of the matter was I had no answer to his armoured cars. Their 37mm guns were more than capable of killing any of my vehicles and it would be sheer blind luck if I was able to inflict any harm on them. As the end turns approached Dave used them more aggressively, essentially daring me to try and knock them out.
Well I tried. My little scout cars now well to the rear rolled up behind his armoured cars and did their best to make an impression with their cmgs to no avail. I slipped my only available officer across to the east to rally the squad there. They celebrated by destroying their mmg on their first shot (I rolled five boxcars in the last two and a half turns of the game). Dave's other armoured cars (ie not the ones occupied with my scout cars) rolled around and destroyed my other truck which had been a monument to worthlessness the entire game and started menacing what was left of my position there.
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| My peashooters are doing their best but Dave laughs at my attempts. |
It all ended rather anticlimactically. There was no final charge on the village. Dave sniped another of my officers and killed the third in CC. That plus the three vehicles destroyed put him on nineteen CVP. The deaths of a couple of other squads was more than enough to tip him over. I managed to kill a couple of half squads and break some infantry but never enough to truly slow him down. His armoured cars absolutely ruled the battlefield, roaming with impunity and laughing at my feeble attempts to stop them. The one immobilisation was the sole result I achieved against them despite hitting them with enough metal to overstress their suspensions if nothing else. Both Chinese trucks broke their MA on the first shot and two mmgs also broke. Not a single officer survived the battle.
Despite the miserable tale above we both enjoyed this game but agree that it seems a little tough on the British. The simple fact is that they have no answer to the French armoured cars except to roll incredibly low, a lot. The French for their part can afford to lose all six on the road to victory but the British vehicles are little more than rolling CVP.
"Do we have any of those machine guns left?" asked Captain el Efanti as the tattered remains of his force attempted to regroup around a water barrel.
"A couple," replied the corporal. "The men are using them as clubs. They work much better like that."
Suddenly a noise attracted the captain's attention.
"Glubb, Glubb, Glubb."
He leapt up electrified.
"We're saved. It's Glubb Pasha himself come to rescue us."
"Actually that's Sergeant al Khaponi drowning himself in the water barrel."
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