Sunday 20 April 2014

More Africa Action in Easter




Some of my club mates returning from the Easter break on Sunday organised a late afternoon Chain of Command game to start the working week tomorrow in good spirits. Due to the late minute call, we decided not to plan too much and to use the available forces (British and Italians) at hand.

From the CoC book we chose the “Flank Attack” scenario, with the Italians forces (an infantry platoon) defending an oasis from the attacking British. In order to make life harder to the attackers a small armoured German kampfgruppe (2 Sdkfz 222 and a Pz II) were also used.


 The battle was truly short with the British achieving a clean and straight victory when the Italian moral crumbled (fall to 2) after the destruction of the small armoured unit by the British Honeys. 

In fact the infantry almost saw no action and I could hardly deployed just one of my two sections! The first squadra deployed at the edge of the oasis line to fend off the menacing British infantry about to de-crest  a hill in front of its position. Suddenly a group of tanks emerged on the right flank that was quickly covered by the German AFVs.



In the ensuing gun duel the Germans took the worst part and were taken one by one by the British tanks. The destruction of each vehicle prompted a force moral roll and after the third was destroyed (including the senior tank commander) the level had already fallen to 2. With no other AT weapons at hand, the Italian decided to surrender.



The only other interesting action saw in the game was the 81mm Italian mortar barrier falling on the very much concentrated British infantry platoon, causing several casualties. However, the effect was short lived as the British players used the Chain of Command dice to end the turn and the barrage lifted as a result. There was no time to call again the artillery before the game ended.

 
Bad day for the Axis forces, but we’ll see how they will perform in our incoming campaign. Talking about which, I leave you know with some photos of the new jump-off points that one of the participants have been working recently...



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.. and these other for a future project in Spain 1936





12 comments:

  1. Nice (and QUICK!) fight. :) Look forward to reading about the campaign.

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  2. I really like the jump off points. Those look great. Interesting game report. Sounds like things did not go as planned.

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    1. Not at all! In a campaign environment the Italians would have probably put some smoke and disengaged before getting any casualties, considering that they were outgunned in armour

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  3. Lovely jump off points and nice pics and AAR overview

    What do you plan to do regards Spain 1936...a campaign series of one off games?

    ...what forces do you have. Looking forward to seeing the CoC:Espana stuff get started...be sure to post on LAF as well!!

    Cheers

    Happy Wanderer

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    1. This will be a project for the second half of the year and therefore still subject to lots of planning; but it will most likely a campaign rather than one-off games

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  4. Such a great looking game.

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  5. Very interesting AAR again, a bit too fast!
    Poor Italian... but they have wonderful toys. I like a lot your terrain and models; fantastic the warmat!

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  6. Excellent models, terrain and AAR. I like the jump-off points. The unexploded bomb at the foot of the broken tree is a nice touch!

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  7. As always a good read and lovely pics! BTW, which colours did you use on the bases for your Italians? They seen to match the new mat very well.

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    1. Hi Mike
      We use trhe following Vallejo references:
      Base 875 Beige
      First dry-brush 847 Dark Sand
      Second dry-brush 837 Light Sand

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