Silly After Action Report - The Wolves Last Tooth

 Lochagos Theo Tellisavalos had gathered his men for a quick briefing.  He did this rather a lot and it is a testimony to the resilience of the Greek soldier that so far they had put up with it.

"We must all be on our guard," the lochagos announced.  "I have heard that we are about to be attacked by the Wolves of Tuscany."

"Isn't that a football team?" asked one of the soldiers reluctantly in attendance.

"No," replied Tellisavalos, "they're an Italian infantry division and with such a name they must be quite a ferocious one.  Every man must be ready to fight to the death for the honour of Greece."

The lochagos' speech was interrupted by one of the sentries.

"There's a bunch of guys outside, they look lost."

The Greek soldiers pressed forward and saw a ragged group of rather desperate looking men shambling through the snow arguing with each other.  One of them was holding a damp tourist map of Albania and was looking around anxiously for landmarks.  At least some of them carried rifles so they might have been soldiers although heavily armed derelicts was also an option.

"Those are the Wolves of Tuscany," muttered one soldier, 'they look more like the Puppies of Calabria."

"I have to admit this is a little disappointing," replied Tellisavalos.  "Still, get to your positions we've got to stop them.  I figure this will take about five minutes."

In revenge for his defeat opposite my Italians Dave served up MP1 - The Wolves Last Tooth for my delectation.  As it was my turn to defend I would take command of the stalwart Greeks nobly fighting off the wretched Italian invader.  An indication of exactly how wretched these invaders of Greece are is the fact that the fighting is taking place in Albania.  Having been rushed to the front with no artillery, directions, maps or briefing the Wolves of Tuscany division got completely lost and promptly wandered into the Greek lines where about half of them were captured.  The remainder did a quick u-turn and are now attempting to find their way through the Greeks back to currently Italian soil.  I command the Greek soldiers attempting to bring the Wolves to heel. 

To do the heeling I have two groups of soldiers, six squads of green troops plus an lmg and 7-0 leader (representing ELAS militia) and six first line squads with another lmg and 8-1 leader (representing regulars of the Greek 15th division).  With these forces I had to throw a cordon across two boards that the Italians would be unable to penetrate.  The militia could only set up on board 47 and the regulars could only set up on board 41.  For some reason I was given a single foxhole.

Entering onto the board are the remnants of the Wolves of Tuscany commanded by Dave.  They have one objective, get the hell out of Dodge.  The Italians win by exiting 7CVP of non-crew infantry off the South East edges of the board; they enter of course on the North.  The Italians have eight first line squads and are led, somewhat improbably, by a 9-2 and a 9-1.  They have two light machine guns and one medium plus a 45mm mortar.  Wait a minute, did I say "non-crew infantry"?  Indeed I did because where would an Italian scenario be without a couple of L3s to round out the numbers.

Dave's principle advantage is that he can direct his attack at one specific location while the bulk of my defenders are scattered hither and yon.  Whatever was directly in his way would have to hold long enough for the remainder of my force to slush through the snow and reinforce. 

Below is my set up.  I thought Dave would try and work his way through the woods rather than risk the open ground on board 41.  As it turned out I was wrong and the bulk of my defence was flatfooted from the start.  Don't worry about the foxhole, it wasn't anywhere useful.  The Italian markers note the area Dave has to exit between.

Italians will be entering on the left

Dave eschewed the protection of the forest and instead advanced his entire force onto board 41 facing the green ELAS troops.  The short range of said troops and the dearth of support weapons meant that his forces made it across the bulk of the open ground without issue (something thirty seconds thought would have told me).

End of Italian turn 1. Spearheaded by the mighty L3s the Wolves surge forward

Fortunately the sheer distance Dave's troops had to cover meant he couldn't win the game on turn one.  Which was fortunate as there was precious little else to stop him.  I had a green squad with an lmg and 7-0 leader up on the hill which achieved nothing before being broken by accurate Italian musketry.  In my turn I rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic and sent out increasingly hysterical calls to the remainder of my force for assistance.

 The Greek first turn saw the death of the broken squad and the 7-0 reduced to wounded impotence.  Meanwhile troops of the 15th squelched through the snow bringing the promise of assistance to the Green ELAS troops left alone to face Italian fury.  Dave now had some decisions to make.  He had obviously tagged the bottom right corner as his exit location and having committed couldn't really change his mind now.  This meant he had to get over a wooded hill (defended largely by dummy stacks but he didn't know that) or take the road around which would bring him into closer proximity to my remaining ELAS militia men and the reinforcing regulars of the 15th.  For the L3s the road was the only sensible way to go, for the rest he chose a bit of both but with the road favoured.

To cover his flank he decided to clear out the couple of squads I had in the centre.  I had placed these in the completely erroneous hope they might prevent a much larger Italian force from charging toward the exit (I really don't know why but I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt and say it made sense at the time).  This they obviously failed to do but now they came into their own as speed bumps delaying a portion of Dave's force while my other troops knocked the snow off their boots and upper lips and prepared to intervene.

A portion of Dave's troops are trying to take out my centre "force".  Meanwhile rough terrain and some implausible threat displays on my part have limited his journey over the hill

Panting and somewhat frostbitten my troops began to take their places on my flank while improbably a squad or so of green troops plus some dummies still barred passage over the hill.  One of Dave's L3s broke its MA thus reducing his mobile machine gun support to one a fact for which I was grateful since I had precisely one weapon which could at least notionally deal with the armoured threat.

Despite the growing force on his flank Dave wasn't in too bad a position.  He only had to exit 7CVP for the win and I was uneasily aware of the fact that his damn 9-2 constituted three of them all by itself.

End of Greek turn two. 

Due no doubt entirely to my heroic defence on the hill (which consisted largely of hiding and then getting in his way) Dave decided to divert the bulk of his troops to creeping up the gully which split my defences on the hill.  This worked but took time.  Meanwhile he had swept away the pair of green squads which had garrisoned the centre but now needed to leave a couple of squads there to protect his flank from the vengeance crazed troopers of the 15th coming slightly belatedly to the rescue.

Halfway through the game.  My gallant hill defenders have been forced back to the last line of resistance.

I was pressing forward on the flank.  I took out an Italian squad in CC and started to menace his flank guard.  All this seems impressive but the truth is that Dave had enough troops on the hill for the win and with my defenders there now reduced to a single green squad (plus some dummies) the writing appeared to be on the wall.  To add insult to injury Dave repaired the MA of his L3 and now had both of them waiting to fend off any rush to reinforce the hill.  It is true that a couple of Italian squads now whimpered in the rear, unlikely to rally and another was stone dead but it didn't seem like enough.

In his fifth turn Dave made his move.  He announced the intention of serious action with the ceremonial malfunctioning of one of his L3s machine guns (the same one that broke previously, definitely a Friday job that one).  With the appropriate ritual performed he pointed his forces at the south western corner of the board.  Historically the remnants of the Wolves shambled and stumbled their way to a sort of victory.  It wouldn't be so easy this time.  A pair of green squads barred the way to his troops on the hill while the men of the 15th really had the bit between their teeth (and the spurs on their heels but that has nothing to do with this scenario) and were dealing with his flankers apace.  An Italian squad threw up their hands when a Greek half squad waved a woolly jacket in their direction (deception; the Greeks needed all the warm clothing they could get).

Dave is pushing towards the exit covered by his L3s

Dave tried racing a squad down the road only to be pinned in the street.  Nevertheless my hill defence consisting as it did largely of fakery was in severe danger and my reinforcements were not near enough.  It would all depend on two green squads to stop a pile of Italians exiting.  Dave exited a squad and a leader for four VP.  There simply wasn't anything I could do about it.  He then pushed a squad and his 9-2 into close combat with the sole green squad that stood in their path.  These unlikely heroes held the line or considering that the "line" consisted of them alone it might be more accurate to say they held the dot.  He had one more squad which managed to avoid the fire of my only other squad in the vicinity and exit for 6 VP total.  One more point would do it but my gallant green heroes saved the day.  The game ended with the 9-2 and squad still held in melee and one of my first line squads attacking an L3 in CC just for fun.

Somehow I have managed to win at the end

 

It has to be said it was pure luck at the end that gave me the win.  Dave rolled poorly in the last couple of close combat rounds despite having a negative 2 modifier to his attacks.  Still as readers of this blog will attest I am in no way averse to undeserved wins.  Many thanks to Dave for the game and a lesson.  Only I do better with Italians!

"We've done it," shouted Lochagos Tellisavalas punching the air in triumph.  Everywhere bedraggled Italian soldiers were throwing up their arms and throwing down their weapons.  A couple of the more confused did it the other way round.  Tapping a nearby soldier on the shoulder Tellisavalas pointed at one of the Italian tanks still rattling its way forward.

"Quickly man, attack that."

"Why, we've won the scenario."

"I want a souvenir."

"I'll buy you a postcard."