Silly After Action Report - Able at Cesaro

 Tenente Dino Ingraziani cursed as he struggled with the entrenching tool. The hard Sicilian soil resisted his not particularly enthusiastic attack. All around him carabinieri were similarly engaged in an attempt to rearrange the landscape. One of them in a foxhole up to his neck was using a teaspoon to artistically arrange the dirt on the rim into animal shapes. "Oh for god's sake," snarled Ingraziani looking at his own pitiful scrape. "Were you a landscape gardener in a previous life?"

"For heaven's sake keep your voice down Ingraziani," Snapped the maggiore, "the whole point is that the Americans don't know we're here."

"What Americans?" demanded Ingraziani lowering his voice to a whine. For answer the maggiore pointed over the top of the hill to where a virtual sea of olive green was deploying in the distance.  Ingraziani felt ill. He cast a resentful glance at the field phone operators lounging on the top of the hill.  One of them was speaking urgently into the receiver.  Feeling Ingraziani's gaze on him he glanced up.

"I'm just ordering pizza, does anybody want anything?"

I recently acquire ASL Annual '90 after many years and was giddy to try the Italian scenarios therein. Scenting an easy victory my opponent Dave was more than ready to pander to what is, to be honest, one of the more socially acceptable of my fetishes. So here it is, Scenario A13 - Able at Cesaro.  I command a batch of Italian carabinieri who will absolutely not be doing what their historical predecessors did in real life as I attempt to deny possession of an apparently precious Sicilian hill to Dave's 47th Infantry.

To win Dave has to capture five of seven level 3 hill hexes after having panted across the width of two and a half boards to get there.  His force is impressive; 18 first line squads led by four officers including a doughty 9-2. He also has a heavy machine gun, three medium machine guns, two 60mm mortars (all dismantled at the start) and four bazookas. He also has two jeeps. My force looks impressive on paper until you remember that they're Italian.  I have twenty first line squads led by four officers including a somewhat less than doughty 8-1. I have four light machine guns, two medium machine guns, a pair of 45mm mortars and 48 factors of anti personnel mines.  I also have two field phones connecting me to two separate modules of 80mm mortar artillery.  The four leaders is somewhat less impressive when you realise that two of them are required to man the phones (what is this a battle or a telethon?).  I can set up on boards two and thirteen and can HIP five squads plus the usual assortment of hangers on but only on board two.

Below is my set up including minefields.  My plan was basically have a few speed bumps up front so he couldn't just pour down the board, then a second line to delay him further as he crossed the stream and approached the hill.  My final line of defence was behind the ridge beyond the reach of his firepower. I would dig foxholes there and hopefully sweep the Americans off the ridge with pointblank fire and reoccupy at the last moment for the win.  The two field phones I set up on the ridge to rain death down on the approaching Americans.  If I had checked a weather report I would have seen that the death was only raining one way.  I wasn't very keen about setting up on the ridge itself as I felt American firepower would handily sweep me off it before I could impose any serious check on him.  In this I was absolutely right.  Unfortunately to be useful the field phones had to set up somewhere they could see the enemy.

My set up

 

Before we start the AAR proper let's just get the artillery out of the way now.  It won't take long.  In the early turns as Dave advanced I dialled up my mortar batteries and placed a couple of spotting rounds.  In return Dave fired one of his mortars at my left hand field phone, scored a critical hit and broke, wounded and ELRed the officer manning it.  I was annoyed but not disheartened I still had one left.  In the next turn the officer manning that phone rolled an 11 and malfed the phone.  My annoyance increased and disheartenment was certainly knocking on the door.  The 7-0 manning the now malfed field phone ran across the ridge to man the first field phone whereupon Dave scored another critical hit with his mortar killing the officer and destroying the phone.  I got not a single fire mission out of either phone and lost two officers into the bargain (ok the first one survived but you'd be amazed how useless a 5-2 leader is). Disheartenment had arrived and was unpacking its bags.  Dave's mortars made the ridge unliveable.  Towards the end of the game desperate to have something to fire on his advancing horde I moved a concealed squad with a 45mm mortar up onto the ridge.  Whereupon Dave scored another critical hit with his mortar and that was the end of that.  The really annoying thing is that Dave managed that inbetween breaking his mortars (although they were rapidly repaired) and sitting under a fusillade of sniper fire which dismanned his mortars more than once.  My sniper number was four and when Dave wasn't rolling snake eyes he was rolling a lot of fours.

So onto the AAR which after that intro shall be mercifully brief. 

Dave's initial moves were cautious and well spread out to avoid giving any targets to my artillery.  There was little firing except on the left where a squad and a 45mm mortar team covered themselves with what could be mistaken for glory in a dim light. The rest of my troops frantically dug foxholes as the olive tide approached. Dave's jeeps sped forward (looking for minefields as he later explained).

This was early in the game and I still had hope that my artillery would play a role. The clutch of troops in the lane on the left includes his mortar teams.

By turn three Dave knew he had nothing to fear from my artillery and got the bit between his teeth.  He assembled a pair of kill stacks which could move with virtual impunity.  His machine guns he combined with a trio of squads and his 9-2 leader for a 30FP kill stack.  It was like being hit in the face with a slab of lead.  On the plus side my sniper got his first result, seriously my sniper was the one high point of the game for me it went off virtually every time Dave rolled a four and he rolled a lot of them.

No longer frightened of my artillery the Americans regroup

It has to be said that my outpost line and my first line of resistance did everything that could be expected of them.  They huddled inside stone buildings or foxholes and took their shots.  A trickle of broken American units moved backwards and more importantly the forward movement of the others was delayed as they winkled the carabinieri out of their lairs. Nevertheless by turn five he was across the stream and pressing forward.  His 9-2 kill stack was stripping any hex it fired at of all life and now he had troops to burn.

Here they come

One of his halfsquads plunged into CC with a particularly stubborn defender and when they couldn't get the job done in melee Dave simply hosed them all down with a 30FP attack.  By the end of turn 6 Dave had a foothold on the hill and was eyeing the summit with anticipation.

The concealed Italian units on the hill on the left is my mortar team. They will not last long

One of Dave's squads walked into a minefield giving me a brief moment of pleasure but other than that it was all one way traffic as he gathered his troops for the final assault.  I for my part eyed my troops hidden behind the ridge.  My best leader was here in a foxhole with a squad and an mmg.  The other squads had lmgs and could muster what for the Italians was decent firepower, at least at close range.

 

Dave is readying for the final push and yes I am still trying to dig a foxhole on the right

With manpower to burn Dave decided "to hell with subtlety" and pushed his forces up onto the ridge trusting that feeble Italian firepower would not be able to eliminate them all.  His trust was not misplaced.

I have one chance left...

 

With American troops on the victory locations it was time for my plan to prove its worth.  If I couldn't break an appreciable amount of the attackers their return fire would certainly annihilate me.  I took a few shots with mixed results but did at least manage to break up a couple of potential firegroups.  And finally it came down to the two leaders facing each other.  My 8-1 guiding an mmg squad hit his 9-2 kill stack with a six flat shot, and rolled an eleven breaking the mmg and what little was left of my spirit.  I gave Dave the concession.  There was nothing more I could do, he had enough remaining firepower to kill my troops through lead poisoning if nothing else.

Strangely I actually enjoyed this game.  I was not displeased with my play (except my minefield set up could have been better) and despite the total failure of the artillery managed to put up some sort of a defence (ably assisted by my sniper).  Many thanks to Dave for the game and because I am a depraved masochist (one of my slightly less socially acceptable fetishes) we will be playing Monastery Hill next.

Tenente Ingraziani blundered through the trees arms swiping wildly at branches that tore at his uniform and threatened to impede his path.  "What the hell is this?" he demanded as another branch hit him in the face.

"An olive grove," replied a soldier next to him.

"How do you know?"

"I was a landscape gardener in a previous life."