A little tussle in the desert

This weekend I didn’t get to game my usual Saturday game with either gaming group. The Mrs and I were up at the 3rd Minnesota Ladies’ Tea in Red Wing where we had an election theme going. I was tasked with stumping for McClellan. This is all related to my US Civil War reenactment group, the Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.

Ian and I played a Flames of War game on Sunday. We did a 1500 point a side early war Italians vs Brits. He with my Italian lead and me with my Brits.

I mounted an Infantry formation, backed with 3 Honeys, 2 Matilda IIs, 2 platoons of straight legs and an artillery formation of 4 25lbers.

We rolled up a Hold the Line scenario with me as the attacker.  Ian bought himself a hodgepodge, which even tho it wasn’t following book directly had to work given I only have so many Italians. His selection had 4 AB41s, a 102 truck mounted auto cannon thing, 4 M13/40s, a platoon of infantry, 2 plantoons of HMGs, 4 47/32s, a mortar platoon and a JU87 on limited support for good measure.

Ian set the table and situated a little oasis and a town roughly in the middle. The ground on either side was pretty sparse otherwise. Ian had 1/2 of his units starting off table, with 2 platoons in ambush per the scenario. He chose the formation of tanks and an HMG platoon for the ambuse. The rest of his stuff was on delayed reserves.

Ian’s Italians while Elite in the book require a roll to determine their motivation and skill. He rolled poorly and came up with reluctant trained. This can zap much of the enthusiasm of an 11 year old, being presented with what he figures will be crap troops, but also an important lesson of making the best of what you have.

With my Brits being vets and Ian having delayed reserves I figured I best strike fast as possible having the choice of an objective on the left and right flank. I’d go for the one on the left.

It could have gone better, least for the Brits. Turn 1 and 2 the straight legs on the right flank received lots of love from the Italian mortars, AB41s and other stuff that all added up to lots of losses over the next few turns. The Honeys lead on the left followed by the Matildas and then the straight legs pretty much were obscured from view so they were able to get up and get engaged. Since I wasn’t sure the infantry was obscured for sure I didn’t chance a move on the double dreading the possible double hits by indirect artillery.

Ian was able to roll well for air support especially given that it was supposed to be sporadic. In Flames of War parlance, that’s starting with 3 dice and every time you call for air, you lose a dice, going no lower than 1 dice. Get a 5+ on one of the dice and you get air. Turns 1 and 3 Ian was successful on his air support rolls and that made a big difference. Between the air in the form of  Ju87s dropping bombs, the M13/40s, and the 102 truck mounted auto cannon at long range, the Honeys went right up. Pop! Pop! Run-away! (sigh)

Turn 4 would see again plenty of luck for Ian. This time he was able to brew up a Matilda II and added to the additional infantry losses (as they were starting to get into the town) morale rolls became critical. Unfortunately for the Brits, failure there results in the remaining armor leaving the field and effectively that would be that.

Here’s at the end of Turn 4. You can see the AB41s moving up and there being very little I can do about it save doing an assault. My 25lbers are just out of direct range and using indirect I did drop rounds on them a couple of times, it only bailed out one. Given the reluctant Italian ratings almost good as a brew up.

I think a good lesson for Ian. Poor tactics on the part of one player can go a long way to rub out advantages in troop quality.