DAR: Italy vs. GB - North Africa 6/40

[RERomine]

Turn 14

What it amounts to up north is flesh against steel. Alpha is getting still hanging in there, but it is hurting them. More men down, but another Matilda II is immobilized. Maybe they can get a kill next turn. The rest of the enemy are deflecting to the south. Only a Matilda I and A10 are hanging with the immobilizied Matilida II. Mortar rounds still falling on the shifting enemy tanks. Maybe I can immobilize one or more with indirect. I kill is out of the question with these. This area is a true brawl.

Bravo is deployed a bit looser than Alpha, so the enemy tanks might be a problem. If I can neutralize more of the enemy Matilda IIs heading this way, my tanks can take care of the rest. This will cost a lot of men, but my tanks have been totally ineffective against them.

Enemy infantry in front of Charlie is still fighting, but slowly losing ground. The take fire, break, retreat 50m and are shooting next turn. One of the Matilda Is referenced above has popped out of the smoke in this area. I have one Zulu tank that got separated from the rest, so it is helping out here.

Delta is bracing for the enemy Matilda IIs moving up. In the meantime, they are dealing with some enemy infantry to the left of their sector. It is only about a platoon, but my tanks in supporting them have ducked for cover from the Matildas. They haven't fired yet, but I know I can't destroy them at 150m, much less 500m, but the 2-pdr can kill mine easily. The Matilda IIs have a Matilda I pulling up the rear and a truck mounted 2-pdr on their flank. I think it is the one I damaged earlier. All enemy infantry is running.

Smoke cleared near the engineers position, so a fire fight broke out with enemy platoon again. Only one of my units can see them, so I'll just duck into the wadi. The position is solid and they won't get me out of it with just a platoon.

The first two of my tanks cleared the rough in Foxtrot's position and engaged and destroyed a Matilda I. Two more on coming up, but won't fair any better. There is are two Vickers tanks around, but one is immobilized. Once all the tanks are dealt with, my tanks will be able to mop up the enemy infantry. The far right Foxtrot platoon is moving up to help. Mortars capped the remaining Bren carrier.

Casualties

Friendly: Estimated 15 casualties.

Enemy: 1xMatilida I tank and 1xBren Carrier destroyed. Estimated 15 casualties.

Rather than screen prints, I've attached my current save if anyone wants to see the status of this battle. It is a real knock down, drag out fight.

[Mobhack]

Hmm - I must remember to change the AI buy routines to not buy Matilda 1 in North Africa in the first months of the war.

Also - you bought level bombers - Why??. Level bombers are for a pre-plotted fire-blow (and are really only for scenario use - e.g. the opening carpet bombings in some Normandy scenarios). If you don't pre-plot them before the battle, then they have about a 12 turn delay for impromptu calls. They do not target anything specifically either (unlike strike planes) - but simply go to an X,Y (with deviation) and offload the bombs and then leave.

Cheers
Andy

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Hmm - I must remember to change the AI buy routines to not buy Matilda 1 in North Africa in the first months of the war.

No Matilda Is would be fine as long as they don't get replaced with Matilda IIs

Also - you bought level bombers - Why??. Level bombers are for a pre-plotted fire-blow (and are really only for scenario use - e.g. the opening carpet bombings in some Normandy scenarios). If you don't pre-plot them before the battle, then they have about a 12 turn delay for impromptu calls. They do not target anything specifically either (unlike strike planes) - but simply go to an X,Y (with deviation) and offload the bombs and then leave.

Cheers
Andy

I picked up the level bombers because I thought they would be perfect for hitting the east-west passes through the wadis. My three registration points are in passes and the turn delay is only 1 if used then. The problem was I opted for number of bombs instead of size of bombs, so they were ineffective. As it is, I normally don't use aircraft other than spotters anyhow. Too many experiences with blue on blue attacks in the past, but I might be thinking about SPWaW. I haven't played that for years, but it sometimes is difficult to remember which nuances belong to which game model. Anyhow, I knew I would need something to deal with the Matilda IIs and level bombers were what I selected.

The major problem, which has nothing to do with the game design or anything, is Italian equipment is bad across the board. Infantry and artillery is fine and on par with that of other countries of the time. When you look at tanks, ATGs and aircraft, the Italians were well equipped to fight WWI again. Maybe this is no different than any other country at the time with the exception of Germany, but with the Italians it doesn't get better over time. Two years after this battle, the Italians are still relying on that lame 47mm gun for tanks and ATGs in home grown equipment. Once this battle is over, I'm going to have a vexing problem on how to re-equip my force and stay reasonably realistic

Cheers,

Ray