Author	cjsiam (India)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Britain, India
Participants	Dan Storm
Play Date	2019-03-02
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa001

The Punjabi forces set up on each of the three hills with an Entrenchment, occupied by Machine Gun, officer and Inf. Platoon—on a slope hex facing south….where the Italian Colonial forces were advancing.

The only British officer which had a morale modifier was the Indian Subedar from the Punjab…he and his Niab Subedar set up on the southeastern hill…couple dug in platoons with them and MG…

And the Chaos began….The Brits also set up the Bren with an HMG (instead of putting it on the northern hill) on the SE hill—dug in…MG unloaded and dug in…with range of 4 these mattered…

The assault came---the Italian focused on the SE hill…converging from both the south and eventually the east….the Bandis thought to run up the eastern side…but with the chaos of the hill assaults not resolving came over to help on the hill…They ran back to sieze the northern slopes of the SE hill—intending to approach the SW hill.

The Bren had turned on turn 3 and rushed the HMG back to the NE hill (in hind site really not necessary)…and then he came back to the southern hills. The Clever British strategy was to keep him out of harms way until the end…and then sieze a hex or two of hills to frustrate the Itallian Victory conditions….HAAHAHHAAH (evil laugh)…

Tragically---he got too close---the Bandis got adjacent—got initiative and assaulted…OOPS…Scratch one Bren on north facing of SE hill….the Bandis then continued over to the SE hill…

The hill attack was Epic…initially the fire was used to disrupt the defenders, and assaults started. My opponent had a “crises of faith” about his assaults having experience poor results in previous games…and it played out here in similar fashion for a while. The small Indian commanded contingent on the SE hill held out against multiple multi-stack Fire combat attacks, drove back at least one full assault. This went on from Turn 3 until the final Punjabi unit was picked up on turn 17…They actually at one point decapitated the command structure of the Italians. Overall they fully demoralized at least 3 stacks (most did come back…but the impetus of attack was put back a turn). During the time of assault some 12 Steps were lost by the Italians…so this Punjabi company basically won a Minor Victory---by themselves!

Finally---after basically occupying the Italians for at least 17 turns…the overwhelming fire of multiple adjacent stacks caused a final step loss to the Infantry Platoon, demoralized the reduced MG, and caused a leader casualty—snake-eyes—on the Punjabi Subedar---“You’re a better man then I, Gunga-Din”… EPIC

At that point it was a race---the SW hill was being seized…the British Mortar had long ago been “Blown to hell” by the Italian mortar and Arty….The Entrenched MG with officer was faced overwhelming numbers coming his way…his Dug in platoons next to the entrenchment were systematically reduced and the Italians kept on coming.

About turn 20 the British forces on the North hill sent out two platoons with officers(2) to threaten the SE hill and SW hill….Intention was to force some allocation of forces to protect the hills from being occupied by British (victory conditions)….The Italian 8pt off-board artillery ended up disrupting and demoralizing one of these stacks almost every turn—very accurate—that prevented the “threat” from developing, but did at least force some forces to respond….

At this point it was all about the hill entrenchment….the British commander sent a demoralized reduced platoon out of the trench –to fend for himself as he fled---avoiding the +1 for 3stack…he was overwhelmed by the Bandis….

Last few turns the Italian stacks fired at the entrenched Brits….from adjacent hexes….no officers with modifiers so attacks were only so strong and luck favored the Brits. The Italians sent in the Bandis to Assault (+1) and even Bombarded the hex at the same time---suffering Friendly Fire rolls on the Bandis and the adjacent firing FAN troops—these didn’t cause too much disruption of Italians…but did prove hurtful to the Brits—though not fatal…. Some fog of war rolls in the last 6 turns helped prevent the Italians from laying in as many as they could.

Last two turns the Italians Occupied all the hill hexes---save the Entrenchment---which they continued to Bombard, Fire, Assault…..

And in the end…A British Machine gun and officers still occupied the entrenched hex when the whistle blew.

EPIC….Gunga-Din’s valor made the difference….British Minor Victory.

Couple things came up--- Bandis get a +1 for Assault---how is that resolved when the Assaulting infantry is both Bandi and FAN? Does the +1 apply?...

The current LOS rules(4.0) basically provide no LOS protection to units on top of hills…if the Ground level observing unit is further away from any slope hex then the unit on the hill….I think that is how it is interpreted…this means that units NEXT to hill can’t shoot up---but units a few hexes away can see the top of hill, and thus fire(arty or mortars)…

Great Game….Good fun in a simple scenario….A Classic Infantry Assault coordinate puzzle...Entrenchments and defenders in Cities---the bug-a-boo of attackers in the game me thinks...

Now---to try and defend the rest of British Somaliland….onward!