campaign scenario setup help

[valo2000]

oh good to know that would have been some bad surprise for the platoon i set up to take position in the trenches

[valo2000]

After some 40 minuits(9 turns?) of heavy fighting the ghurka companies tashed with storming the italian positions near keren still havent made much headway.

They have taken heavy causalities though and are under constanr artilelry fire. both sides are firing enthusiastically witha ll avaible guns with the cw forces having more firepower while the italians have the advantage of beeing dug in.

Causalities on the italian side so far are 1 dead and 2 wounded askari due to small arms fire. the lack of smoke grenades for the native troops and the limited avaiabilty of lmgs are cause of this.

The itaial tanks try to support but on CV-35 gets stuck in rough terrain while the 2 remaining crawl carefully up the mountain.

In the meantime the 3 rd company and parts of first company are attacking the southern flank of the ghurka attack not meeting any resistance as the scouts of 3rd company are only a few meters away from the cw mortar units. It looks like a complete rout for the attackers again. only tanks can save them now....

The airforce is non existant for booth sides until now but a cw airattack later on is expected.

[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.