The Bardia breakin scenarios are fun but a real mess. The Aussies managed to punch through the Italian trenchline, but the process of rolling up the rest of the defense and penetrating into the backfield left them spread out and straggling all over the place. Similarly, the dispersed defense of the italians meant there were small groups of them rushing here and there trying to contain the Allied breakthrough. Fog of war was brutal, you could never keep everyone moving and fighting. In the end, another example of the operation running out of steam. Still, a lot of fun to watch it all unfold.

In this scenario Australian forces must break the Italian line of defense and occupy a zone in the rear of Italian positions. The battle takes place in a great space of land (2 maps) and with a lot of participants. Italian units: 40 platoons of INF, HMG and ENG, on and off-board artillery, mortars and 5 tank platoons (M11/39 and L3/35). The Australians have near 40 platoons of INF, HMG and ENG, mortars, 1 battery of 2-lbr, BREN, 2 "Matilda" tank platoons and a powerful off-board artillery. The game lasts 36 turns. The Italians win if they destroy 16 or more Australian steps. The Australians win if they occupy certain number of Italian trenches and an objective behind the Italian lines.

The Italians are unfolded behind an AT ditch and 15 hexes with trenches. In this scenario is applied a special rule about "Surrender", but only for Italian units.

0530-0630: The Australians advance to Italian positions. They go preceded by the fire of the OBA. This fire demoralizes and disrupts some Italian units in the trenches. On the other hand, the Italian OBA shoots on the Australian units that advance in open field. 3 Australian steps are eliminated. The Australians dig in.

0630-0645: Direct hit of Australian OBA in an Italian trench. Two Italian steps are destroyed and other demoralized. Australians advance fearlessness in the central sector of the front.

0645-0700: An Italian unit surrenders in the face of several Australian platoons. Falls the first Italian entrenched hex. The Italian line is broken in one point, in central sector.

0700-0715: Australian engineers open a passage through the AT ditch (hex 1122). The Italian line is broken for vehicles as well.

0715-0730. Assault on another Italian trench in the central sector. A 47 mm Italian battery is destroyed and a Maggiore captured.

0730-0745: The Italian OBA destroys 2 steps of Australian HMG. The British tank platoons ("Matilda") cross the filled AT ditch and pierce the Italian line in the central sector.

0815-083: Three Italian units surrender to a platoon of "Matilda". The Australians occupy a new entrenched hex. The fight is intense, specially in the central sector. In the south sector there are only skirmishes. In the north sector Australians units advance towards Italian positions preceded by mortar fire.

0845-0900: Australian OBA destroys the last Italian AT gun that was entrenched in the South zone of the defensive line.

0900-0915: The entrenched hex 1319 surrenders to the Australians. It was assaulted by infantry and adjacent to a "Matilda" platoon. Nevertheless, the Italians respond. This hex lately occupied and crowded with Australian infantry is bombed by Italian OBA and mortars. The Australians lose 1 step and the surviving units are demoralized.

1000-1015: The Italian OBA destroys 1 step of Australian infantry adjacent to entrenched hex 1517. However, a platoon of "Matilda" surrenders this Italian position shortly after.

1015-1030: The Italian forces of reserve (in map 2) begin to unfold.

1045-1100: Strong Australian attacks in the North zone of the Italian defensive line. Australian OBA beats first enemy trenches before the assault. The Italians respond with their OBA and Opp. Fire. Losses in both sides. First Australians assaults in that zone.

1100-1115: Another Italian unit surrenders. Italian OBA shoots against Australian units adjacent to entrenched hex 1509 and causes some losses, but the "friendly fire" demoralizes an Italian unit as well. Situation at this moment: It is hard for the Aussies. There is a lot of Australian units scattered on the map, disrupted and demoralized. The advance is very slow. The Fog of War rule makes dificult the reorganization of the troops. The Italian defensive line is long, very long (35 hexes, 7 kilometers). The Australian can not break the front at one point and march quickly towards the objective. They must conquer 10 (all in all: 15) entrenched hexes scattered along 7 kilometers to win. The Australian have 4 BREN carriers, but they are waiting the destruction of 2 Italian AT batteries (65 mm) in the hill of map 1 to advance, but the Australian infantry is disrupted and can not destroy these batteries for the moment. They have only 2 slow "Matilda" platoons tanks to support the infantry along all the line. The Australian attack is slow and bad coordinated.

1115-1130: Australians begin to assault hex 1509, that finally is occupied. The Italian survivors flee.

1130-1145: Entrenched hex 1513 surrenders to an Australian infantry unit (4 Italian steps and 1 Tenente lost). A little Australian success, but the Italian resistance persist in other positions. The Italian positions are occupied one by one. This battle is a race against the clock for the Australians.

1145-1200: In the North sector of the line, the Australians assault the last entrenched hexes, but they undergo some losses by Opp. Fire. The map is a chessboard of red and black squares. The battle is chaotic.

1215-1230 Australian OBA bombs entrenched hex 1506. It destroys an Italian battery of 47 mm, but "friendly fire" destroys an attacking unit as well. Simultaneously, in entrenched hex 1504 Italian units surrenders in the face of enemy assault.

1230-1245: Entrenched hex 1506, that was assaulted by Australian infantry, surrenders because of the presence of a "Matilda" tank platoon. Australian OBA beats the only entrenched hex in Italian hands in the North zone. A 47 mm battery and 1 step of Italian INF are destroyed.

1245-1300: Italian OBA bombs to the units that approach to the last hex with trenches in the North zone. An Australian INF platoon is annihilated and the attack is desorganized.

1300-1315: The Australian OBA beats again the last entrenched hex in the North zone. The surviving Italian unit becomes demoralized and flees. Australians occupy the hex (1502). The Australians have been able to occupy all hexes they had to conquer in the initial objective. The Italian OBA responds beating the Australian units that have penetrated by the breaches and approach map 2. New Australian losses. New attacks disrupted. There are not Australian reinforcements. The Australian impulse is exhausted. On the other hand, the Italians have some fresh troops in map 2 waiting enemy attack and some units ejected from entrenched hexes are slowly reorganizing and establishing resistance pockets.

1315-1330: Italian OBA continues beating Australian forces that approach map 2. A complete platoon of Australian INF is destroyed. The Italian OBA is a nightmare for Australians units and leaders. Only 4 turns to finish the game. The Australians can not win. They have lost more than 16 steps and their objective is too far. The Australians retire. Italian victory. Australian losses (steps): 23. Italian losses: 39. Conclusion: Artillery is an awful arm. The war is chaos.

Bardia Breakin II is better that the first one, but it still needs some help with the victory conditions. As written, the Aussies need to capture 10 dispersed entrenchments as well as race across a second board and clear out 36 hexes of Italians, without losing more than 13 steps. Quite a tall order for the Aussies. Given that the Italians have 2 groups of 30 OBA, all they need to do is keep taking pot shots at the Aussies and they will get rack up the steps. They can also dig in troops around the second Aussie objective and sit and wait. To make this a little more interesting and get the Italians moving a bit more I changed the VC's slightly.

The VC's I used still had the Aussies VC, but each one was a separate objective. It they captured both, a major victory, only one a minor victory. The Italians still need to kill 14 steps for a minor victory and 28 steps for a major victory. If both achieve the same level then a draw.

So given this change I played my solo game. The Aussies started by moving to assault the Italian trench line and try to get a breach to move units in and beyond. The Italian artillery was right on target in this game. Of the 23 step losses for the Aussies 15 were by OBA fire. The Aussies did breach the line, thanks to the surrender rule they were able to divide into two groups to roll up the line and a third group with the armor moved to attack the second objective. The Italian fire continue to b good with several INF units providing some surprising accurate OP and DF fire. Aussie OBA pounded the entrenchments and they soon began to surrender. Several held out and needed to be assaulted. In bloody fights the Aussie's gained the required 10 entrenchments. The fight for the 36 hexes was a different story. Italian OBA pounded the advancing troops disrupted/demoralizing many of them. The British Matilda's destroyed the L35 and the M13's in brief fights which the Italian armor had no chance of winning. But this cost time and the Italians in the 36 hexes dodged and weaved to keep them occupied. This cause the Aussies to only gain a minor victory and with the Italian minor victory for the 23 Aussie/British steps. In the end a draw.

As I stated, a good scenario but chance the VC's for a better fight.

This Scenario is an expansion of scenario 3. It begins the same way but then the Australian needs to push towards the town.

Again, the primary worry for our boys is the Italian Regimental artillery. Intelligence reports a large number of heavy artillery batteries in the area. To deny an Italian victory, under 14 steps can be eliminated while cleared out the entrenchments and the Italian reinforcements.

Aftermath

Australians suffer way too many casualties clearing out the Italians. A technical Draw.

The dice rolling for Italian artillery strikes was bordering on ridiculous. It was actually quite frustrating, as there is little room for Australian error in these missions, and a few lucky strikes can easily give the Italians their victory condition. As was the case in this mission, where the Italian off-map artillery was more accurate than Robin Hood!

*This was another case of horrid Australian luck. The engineers began the turn failing their morale check to recover (+1). Italian artillery scores an “M2” and the Australians roll a “12”, therefore losing a half platoon. I almost felt like giving up and restarting at this stage, as I felt the Australian advance was generally quite cautious as only 2 steps out of 13 losses was from direct fire.

In the end, the Australians lost 26 steps, twice their allowance. Although only 4 were from direct or anti-tank fire. The majority of the 22 steps lost to bombards were from Italian off-board artillery.

The Australians tried to focus on demoralising and eliminating the Italian leaders, but the 2x15 and 3x10 (making two “30” attacks with very little cover available) were deadly.

Overall, I much preferred Scenario 3, as even while using possibly the best terrain available, the Italian reinforcements didn’t have a chance. So, the second “half” of the Bardia Breakin, wasn’t as “tense” as the first half.

As others have reported " . . . Bardia breakin scenarios are fun, but a real mess." This 5-session play through was indeed fun to play, especially with sufficient beer and a high-morale, entertaining, face-to-face opponent. Unfortunately, we played with the defense-favoring fog of war optional rule which was partially responsible for the eventual Italian, near-victory. We also used the excess initiative, smoke & consolidation rules.

The brave Australian attackers were able to tear a gaping hole in the Axis-held trenches, but at a substantial cost, thereby contributing to this rather unsatisfactory drawn game. It was very difficult to properly-sequence either side's attacks, or counter attacks in this scenario. In part, this was due to the dispersed nature of the initial set up, and the difficulty of moving troops in the open with the amount of OBA available to both sides. Units that were disrupted or demoralized often stayed that way for turn-after-turn due, in part, to the sets of very poor leaders drawn by both sides.

In the end, the very high casualty rate & the brutal victory conditions proved too much for either side to cope with. This scenario gets a very generous 2 from me.