The Bitwoded Gamble SoN 4
12 Feb 1936
The setting: The Italians have setup a strong point which dominates the movement of the retreating Ethiopian Army. The Ethiopian commander, Bitwoded decides to attack this outpost.
The VC: The Ethiopians must capture two sangars from the Italian player.
The Opposing Forces: The Italians defend with 12 squads, 4 leaders, 3 mgs and 4 leaders. They can also try and entrench about half their force prior to start of play. The Ethiopians have a mix of 26 x 237 and 337 squads 4 leaders (including a mighty 9-2) and a couple of mgs.
Brief Analysis: The scenario is fought on 3 desert boards. The Italians setup on the northern half of any of those three boards. The western most board contains a wadi and a small cluster of three buildings. The middle board has a large hillock. The eastern board has two hillocks and another wadi on the southern half of the board.
Prior to start the Ethiopian player must split his force into 3 roughly equal groups. One group sets up in either the western or eastern wadi (not both). The second group may enter anywhere along either the east or west edge (not both) and the final group enter along the south edge on turn 2. It seemed logical to use the wadi on the west since it was closest to the potential Italian setup areas for the first group. Also it seemed reasonable to enter group two along the eastern board edge in case the Italian chose to defend one or both of the eastern hillocks. The group entering from the south will have a long hall no matter where the Italians setup. 30 hexes will take around five turns to travel over open desert. Of course by the same logic, the Ethiopians could have setup in the eastern wadi and entered their reinforcements from the west.
The Italians decision boils down to where should the Italians place the sangars. This in turn means should the Italians defend one or two hillocks and which one(s) to defend. None of them seem to offer a definite advantage. The Italians tried a point defense of the hillock on the centerboard. The idea is to put a screening platoon to the left and right of the hillock to put out fire lanes and when it looks like they are about to be overrun pull back to the hillock for the last stand. The hope for the Italian is scattered attacks that can be repulsed individually.
The trick for the Ethiopian is tightening the noose slowly until all his forces can be brought to bare for a final all out assault. Another possibility is for the Ethiopians to human wave the Italian outpost platoons. If they succeed then the Italians will be very hard pressed to last out eight turns. Provided the Ethiopian doesn’t self impale. The wave is a big gamble with a potentially big payoff in this scenario.
The AAR: Turn 1. The Italians have a screening platoon in the 3 buildings on the right flank. The Ethiopians have 10 squads 2 lmgs and Mr. 9-2 only 2 hexes away. The situation is ripe for a wave. The Italian breaks three of the six squads and kills another in CC but lose two of their own. Fortunately they manage to pull back the mmg squad and leader.
Turn 2. The Ethiopians regroup on the Italian right. Mr. 9-2 rallies a couple of his brokies. The Ethiopian reinforcements are moving rapidly toward the Italian positions. Perhaps the Italians should have left a squad or two further out to discourage the Ethiopian from stacking and using CX to cover so much ground so fast.
Turn 3. The Ethiopian continues to tighten the noose. Both sides trade low fpf shots without effect.
Turn 4. The Ethiopian presses the attack on the Italian left. The Italians have 2 lmgs one is holding up the southern reinforcement group and the other is slowing the eastern reinforcement group. So the eastern group closes with the flanking platoon and once again survives many low firepower attacks with only a couple of breaks. One of those attacks breaks an Italian lmg. On the Italian left Mr. 9-2 manages to break the squad and leader with the mmg and maneuver another squad in to force the Italian to rout away from the mg. Advance fire is devastating and breaks the Italian line on the hillock. The door is wide open.
Turn 5. The Ethiopians swarm up the hillock to the Italians front and left. On the right an Ethiopian and Italian squad kill each other in CC. An Italian squad goes berserk which only hastens the demise of the hill. Instead of falling back to defend sangars he must charge a squad on the fringe. Three Italian squads die for failure to rout on the hillock.
At this point it’s obvious the Italians are not going to win. They have a broken 136, a broken 347 and a good order 347 to defend against 4 x 337 and 6 x 237.
Last thoughts: The scenario may be a good teaching scenario. It is infantry only and the terrain isn’t really that complicated. The low firepower factors which each side tosses at each other will quickly show a new player the power of maneuver. There are five viable defense plans (at least) and two good attack plans (at least) so replay is actually high. The scenario plays fairly fast < 3 hours. Excitement level is right around a 6. With so many negative modifiers but such low firepower every die roll is an adventure. If I play this again it would be with Italian balance, which is an extra 347 w/lmg.
Later,
Mark
