Finally the big day had arrived, the buildings were constructed, terrain set, soldiers briefed and painted. The biggest slog for this scenario was providing the town of Gela. Both Commander Roy and I had a smattering of suitable building but we'd never been able to lay out an entire town before so this was a bit of a challenge. We're both very proud of the table we managed to put on and it was laid out especially well by Commander Roy to match the scenario map from the Soft Underbelly book.
The Forces
Darby's Rangers (800pts)
This small elite army consisted of the compulsory units Colonel William Darby and a 37mm Anti Tank gun, then two small squads of rangers with anti tank grenades, a lieutenant, a squad of engineers with a flame thrower, a Bazooka team and a HMG toting jeep
Darby's objective was to stop the Italians reaching the Piazza on the East of the city
Commander Roy's plan was to set up a thin line of defence as far west of the town as possible, the Anti tank gun was to be set up in a ruined building with an extensive view of the straight road into the town. The engineers were deployed centrally behind a building to jump out and wreck the first tank that came anywhere near it on the Americans' right flank. Due to the small amount of units at the Americans disposal, Commander Roy had put slightly more units guarding the right flank than left, assuming the Italians would avoid the antitank gun as much as possible due to the ridiculously good field of fire that it had.
Sub-Lieutenant Navari's Tank Company
Navari's tank company consisted of a small band of surviving light tanks from a previous engagement, consisting of five captured R35 tanks. Three of which were the lovely Warlord versions and two were 3d printed. The 3d printed ones didn't seem to have the same luck and detail of the warlord ones.
Navari's objective was to somehow reach the far side of the table and be at the piazza in turn six. I had looked at the map and had reservations of getting to the other end of the table in six turns. Due to the nature of the single turret rule if I had to make too many turns, it would mean taking more order tests and failing tests would mean the tanks would end up doing down and reversing. This meant, the only feasible option I had was to race down the straight road, using either Run or Fire orders so as to not take order tests. I split my force up slightly with two tanks on my left flank to try and draw some units on them and the remaining three, including Navari on the right. I thought his command bonus might come in handy to keep them moving if I needed to take an advance order.
Turn One
The Americans began their run of pulling the first order dice, this went to El Darbo and he snap ordered everyone around him. Most importantly the Antitank gun got an Ambush order.
Although I had decided on not using any advance orders if I could help it, I figured the command bonus of Navari would allow me to attempt some advance order at the start. All three of the tanks on the Italian right passed their advance order and took aim at the AT gun and missed wildly. The first tank must have used up all the luck as when he moved up, the AT sprang his trap and fired, unfortunately the round failed to penetrate the paper thin armour.
On the Italians left flank, the two tanks cautiously approached the town, the HMG jeep sprang out and riddled the first one, but no pin or damage was caused and took some return fire for his effort. The deadly bazooka moved up to attack next round
Turn Two
The second turn began with an American dice, and Darby snap ordering everyone around him. This lead to very ineffective infantry vs tank close combat as the defenders hit the small tanks with everything they had to no avail and jumped back into the small line of trees on the road. The AT gun must of been too excited at seeing so many targets and missed the closest one he could see. The Italians got the next dice and both tanks on their left went into ambush. Then in a stunning stoke of luck the bazooka team leapt into action, scurrying around the corner, safe in the knowledge that they would be incredibly hard to hit with so much cover between them and their targets. Unfortunately for them, the rear tank sprung their ambush and fired their hull MMG, completely destroying the two man team after some very lucky rolling.
I managed to get the lead tank within spitting distance of the gun, really hoping for a first dice pull as the dice in the bag were getting close to being 50/50. Perhaps if I fired all his guns he could make the AT gun ineffective
On the American left flank the jeep exchanged more fire with the tanks and the 2nd Ranger squad ran into the building closest to the tanks to get an assault in next turn
Turn Three
Alas it wasn't to be, American dice first pull and Darby set to ordering everyone around him to get busy
One the other side of the town the jeep and the first tank exchanged more small arm fire, the second tank started to get confused with the single turret and thought it best to reverse away from the action, possibly to translate the French R35 instruction manual and find out how the forward gears worked.
The main source of action was the AT gun lining up an easy shot on the tank bearing down on him, hitting it square in the face and unfortunately rolling low but causing the tank to get extra pins and go down.
The other two tanks hit the turbo buttons and flew up the road, the lead tank was now past the gun and hopefully on his way to the piazza. Navari came up to be beside the now stricken tank to offer morale support next turn. There was another couple of ineffective infantry tank assaults. it was becoming clear that small units of tank fighters were unlikely to cause much damage
The engineers were placed on ambush order to toast any tanks coming up the road
At the end of turn three, whilst reading the infantry assaulting tanks rules I discovered a rule I had never considered using before and crossed my fingers my tanks could pull it off.
Turn Four
In a move that surprised nobody, the Americans got the first dice again. Darby ordered everyone to charge the stricken tank, but it was once again ineffective. The AT gun, noticing that a tank had got past him, spun around and fired at the tank approaching the piazza causing massive damage. This resolved itself as on fire and a crew stunned. OOer. Luckily the Italians were on top form today and the brave tankers got the fire under control but went down with three pins.
Then the Italians got an order dice and my new found knowledge gave me the option to tank assault the AT gun and overrun it. Thankfully Navari was close at hand to help with the order test and the tank tracks spun into action and crushed the AT gun under the prow of the war machine
Crunch
This then left one tank right beside the piazza, but having received a run order, it wasn't able to enter the piazza. worse than that was that it would take an advance order to get him there. Gulp!
On the opposite side of the town, the jeep was eventually knocked out, the brave jeep largely managing to contain the Italian left flank attack all by himself
The Squad hiding in the building near the edge of town finally joined the party, assaulting a tank causing a fine amount of damage but nothing permanent, then ran back towards the second tank who had previously leap frogged the first tank in an attempt to open up the town
Navari decided that he was in such a target rich environment that he would stay where he was and try and take out the American Colonel and machine gun the small infantry group.
To absolutely no effect. Boo
Turn 5
American dice again, more tank assaulting, little effect. Navari raced up the road to make sure the other leading tanks were ok, narrowly missing the colonel and his men, it turns out men get out of the way of tanks a lot easier than antitank guns.
The R35sSuffered a bit of hi-jinx when the tank nearest the piazza refused to go any further and reversed. This allowed the second tank to overtake after he showed how to correctly make a left hand turn and made it on to the piazza
The engineers ran, ever closer to the piazza for a BBQ party
On the other flank, the jitters struck again and the tank failed to understand his commanders run order and presumed he meant run backwards
Turn Six
Hopefully the final turn, but the option for a seventh turn on a roll of a dice
For once the Italians got the first dice and Navari sensing that defeat could still be an option, spun around to target the advancing engineers with everything he had and cause a couple of casualties
Afterwards the American lieutenant made it to the piazza church to prepare for a possible seventh turn, the engineers took up a position to run out and hopefully take a tank out
In a churlish action another of the tanks successfully made it to the piazza, loaded an AP shell and fired at the American lieutenant, but only manged to hit the church door. He'd probably have to confess to the Priest about that on the next Sunday.
On the other side of the table the Italian left flank crumbled even further when the first tank assault finally was completely successful and left no tanks in that area. The other tank being forgotten about and probably heading home for tea
Colonel Darby and his men run to deal with the tanks on the piazza
Unfortunately for the Americans the game did not make it to extra time and ended on the sixth turn. There were a lot of very relieved Italians. Although they had successfully made it to the piazza, the flamethrower squad was in a nasty position and there was still the opportunity of another possibly successful tank assault.
Another incredibly enjoyable game, after a post match discussion it was decided that the Americans had had a solid plan, but the antitank gun had not reached its potential. Its tough in the smaller games when this happens as there is no back up and my tanks were free to do what they wanted for the remainder of the game. Losing the bazooka so early on was also bitter pill to swallow. Possibly the greatest takeaway from the game was the excitement both of us felt over having the possibility of many more urban battles with such a large collection of superb buildings from Sarissa and Empires at War
Onto the enormous challenge of Primosole Bridge
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