campaign scenario setup help

[valo2000]

After a few minuits more the ghurkas were out of manpower and routed. 3rdcompany managed to destroy the mortarbatteries and take control of the villages on the foot of the hills were the italian positions were.

2 ghurka companies were not enough to assault 3 askari companies.

The battle leaves Colonel Baggios men in the same position as before the attack.

[Ts4EVER]

After their stratagem of outflanking the roadblock through the mountains failed, the British will have to resort to brute strength.

[valo2000]

The Askaris were working on their trenches as the british artillery rounds started firing. Quick everybody jumped onto the nearest foxhole. For almost an hour the rounds kept falling. All the main positions got their fair share of lead. Contact was lost to the gun positions in the south all Colonel Baggio could see was a cloud of smoke and what seemed to be the only survivors of the bombardment running back trying to escape the bombardment.

This time the english tried for real.

[valo2000]

turn 1-6
Heavy bombardment at the beginning takes almost out an AT and an AD-Gun practically there are taken out. Also i advanced with myscouts only to see that ther is no hole in the cw advance one scout team is down to 2 men now looking for a way back home. Attacks all along the front luckily no tanks so far.

[valo2000]

here is the situation after 10 turns. i am slowly pushed back in the center but the regulars there are in open ground and under constant fire so they have a hard time advancing.

in the middle the ghurkas are also crawling forward und mortar fire.

Inthe north the ghurkas are beaten back but still have some fight left and need constant reminders by mortar that they better stay back.

I am thinking about storming forward here but the 3 Matildas that are advancing make me change my mind.

Also in the south 3 more matildas attack. I have nothing to stop them.... maybe they will run on a mine or get stuck in the rough terrain.

If i have to retreat to the trenchlines the cw units will be advancing on rough terrain which will give them better cover so i try to hold on as long as possible before going back.

[Ts4EVER]

BTW you didn't reinforce your units, right?

Anyway, what is the plan after this for the Italian units? IIRC you wanted to put them together with the German troops for Barbarossa, but what about the Askaris? Would be a bit weird to have them in Russia.

[valo2000]

i lost only 7 infantrymen in the battle before and i have to admit i brought the damagedsquads up to strength.... I dont like much fighting with halfstrength infantryunits.

Now i was planning to fill up squads by disbanding units or platoons with high losses and sticking put the survivors in the other units.

I dont replace tanks or gun since i imagine the italians would have trouble sending them to africa at this time.
For exapmle i just lost an anti tank gun to a airplane bomb i count that as a totally destroyed gun and will delete it from the unit rooster.

maybe i will loose in total a platoon in this battle.

For the italians there are two ways now escape by boat but it might be hard to cross the sue canal. or what would be an interesting what if trying to get to libya somehow but i think they are sourrounded by british forces.

i wanted to use them in the desert campaign later on. maybe there could be some scenarios simulating the escape through the sudan....

Anyway next would be the balkans i want to add a company of bulgarians finest

its quite hard to stop the matildas luckily the askari have bomba benzina. that helps a bit with the lack of smoke grenades that hurts them many times

[valo2000]

ok now the italians are couterattacking in the north an in the middle the ghurkas have been beaten third time that is not one of the brightest parts in their units history.

2matildas have been destroyed with gasoline bombs end grendes and a third one was immobilzed and captured. now the askaris are storming down the hills overrunning the mortar and artillerypositions.

in the south things are looking good also since only a few regulars are left advancing maybe here a counterattack is possible soon but the 3rd company is low on ammo and men.

The british galdiators keep harrasing colonel baggios men i still need some better airdefence tactics.

[Ts4EVER]

Maybe we could say that they somehow escaped to the north into one of the desert forts like kufra or giarabub and there the Germans could link up with them eventually.

[valo2000]

As the day ends the Indians couldnt break the thinly held italian lines. The italian counterattack itself had to be repelled by the english guncrews. 2 Platoons of italians supported by tankettes managed to reach the guns after overruning the forward commandpost of the CW troops.

They were stopped by the dugg in gun crews who manged to destroy one tankette with the 25 pdr guns which inspired the other one to retreat. the italian infantry traded shots with the guncrews disabling a few until they ran out of ammo and had to turn back to their lines.

Even though the attack had beaten back the situation of colonel baggios troops is hopeless if they try to hold further on.
English planes rule the skies and resupply cant be expected. Low on ammo and out of atrillery supply the decison to leave keren is the only vailable option.