Crossing the Aoos - The Greco-Italian War 1940 - Campaign Turn 1

This is the first part of my mini-campaign based upon events around the ill-fated Italian invasion of Greece in 1940.

Background Fluff

28th October 1940, Albania-Greek Border. At 5.30am Italian units crossed the frontier at multiple points into Greece. The XXV Italian Army Corps was tasked with seizing the important road junctions at Kalpaki in Western Macedonia. Spearheading one of the advances was the Sapienza Column, formed from elements of the 23rd Infantry Division (Ferrara) and the 131st Armoured Division (Centauro).

Italian Sapienza Column OOB

1 x CO (CV8)

2 x HQ (CV8)

2 x HQ (CV7)

1 x FAO (CV6)

9 x Infantry (+1 die when rolling for Fall-Back)

2 x MG

1 x 81mm Mortar

1 x 75mm Artillery (Off table)

3 x L3/35 Tankettes

Greek 5/42 Evzones Border Guards OOB

1 x HQ (CV8)

3 x Infantry (-1 die when rolling for Fall-Back)

1 x MG

1 x 81mm Mortar

Scenario Details

• The weather is 10/10 cloud so there is no air support available to either side.
• Turn 1 takes place in the pre-Dawn, so there is a -2CV to command rolls.
• Turn 2 takes places at Dawn, so there is a -1CV to command rolls.
• From Turn 3 onwards visibility is normal, with no penalties to command rolls.
• The Greek objective is to slow down the Italian forces, trading space for time, to allow for reinforcements to move up and form defensive postions in the rear (later scenario).
• The Italian objective is to exit the the table as quickly as possible, avoiding casualties, as logistical problems mean that replacements will be hard to come by.
• The river Aoos can only be crossed via the bridge, as the river has risen due to recent rain making it impassable.
• The game last for 8 Turns.

The Game

As is the norm these days, annotated photos should help tell the tale of how the game unfolded...

An overview of the table. The Italians arrive from the left hand table edge using Mobile Deployment.

The Greek troops concealed within the rocky terrain, which counts as Hard cover, over looking the bridge over the river Aoos.

The view from the Italian entry point.

Optimistic advertising hoardings 'welcoming' the Italian troops.

The Italian Sapienza Column in all its glory.

The end of Turn 2. Despite the darkness and the early Dawn light, the Italian troops made reasonable progress towards the bridge, but soon came under fire from the Greeks concealed amongst the mountainous terrain.

The lead Italian Company is suppressed by Greek mortar fire.

The end of Turn 3. Shocked by the sudden barrage of fire, all the Italian units failed to move. Seizing their chance the Greeks using combined arms destroyed the leading Italian Infantry Company.

Only the MG unit is left of the lead Italian Infantry Company.

The end of Turn 4. A turn for the better for the Italian's, as the sudden arrival of the L3/35 Tankettes and accurate Artillery fire helped their cause, leading to the Greeks failing their command roll this Turn.

A welcome sight as the L3/35 Tankettes move up and cover the bridge and its approaches.

The Italian Infantry struggle to move forward.

A Greek Infantry unit caught in the Italian Artillery bombardment.

The end of Turn 5. The Italians begin to take the fight to the Greeks, with the L3/35 Tankettes and Artillery causing hits on two Greek Infantry Platoons. A command blunder for the Greeks sees half their force making a withdrawal back towards their own lines of communication.

The Italians are still struggling to get even close to the bridge.

Greek Infantry take effective fire from the Italian combined arms.

Some Greek units mistakenly fall back, but probably a wise move given the casualties they have already taken.

The end of Turn 6. A completely ineffective Turn for the Italians, which allows the Greeks to move their Infantry in the frontline back and out of sight of the Italians.

The Greeks begin to fall back.

The Greeks prepare a second defensive line.

A view from the Greek positions.

The end of Turn 7. The L3/35 Tankettes push tentatively across the bridge as the Italian Infantry move up to try and cross. Unfortunately for the Greeks once again they fail their command roll!

The mighty Italian tankettes move forward over the bridge.

The Italian Infantry try to get close enough to move across the bridge.

The end of Turn 8. A similar Turn once again, as the L3/35 Tankettes push forward and as the Italian Infantry move, they come under desultory mortar fire as the Greeks withdraw towards their own lines (off table).

A minor move by the Italian tankettes.

The Italian Infantry still on the wrong side of the river.

The Greeks retreat and live to fight another day

End of the Game

Despite early losses the Italians put up a good show, inflicting enough casualties on the Greeks to make them make and orderly withdrawal, leaving the Field of Mars to the Italians. However the Italians lost an Infantry Company and the Greeks only an Infantry Platoon. Certainly a tactical victory for the Greeks, but the Italians still have more troops on the way.

Post Game Thoughts

As always great to get in a game of BKCII and of course just a game in itself, as for multiple reasons, games have been in short supply this year. Some musings on the game in no particular order:

• The opening Turns of Night and Dawn worked well once again, with its limited visibility and command penalties. Simple but rather effective in game terms.
• The mixed Italian CV's reflected nicely the poor Italian C&C during this campaign, as well as replicating some of the issues related to the terrain. 
• It's not often that one can say that the appearance and firepower of the L3/35's helped turn the game slightly in the Italians favour. Great when this happens though!
• I was not expecting much from the Italian Artillery, given the FAO's CV of 6 and the fact that the 75mm guns only had two dice each, but they did just enough to limit some of the Greek firepower and an important part of the game.
• Any side with on table Mortars can be a force to be reckoned with, and this was certainly the case here. Even one more successful command roll could have caused real problems for the Italians, but 'twas not to be. This does reflect the fact that the Greek Mortars and Artillery dig inlfict significant losses on the Italians, as they were dug-in and somewhat hidden in the mountainous terrain.
• The Greek Border Guards did well and had enough firepower to put up a fight, but not too much for the opening moves of this Campaign.
• This made for a great solo game but I'm not sure how much fun it would be for a two player one. This is the advantage of solo games and also narrative campaigns, in the fact that you can play rather assymetric engagements but still have fun doing so.

What Next?

Well I would like to paint up some Italian Mountain Guns for the next scenario, so that is high on my priority list. Then of course there is the small issue of sorting out the next scenario in the mini-campaign, so back to reading my books so I can scribble down some ideas to mull over.

As always thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed the AAR, so any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

It's All Greek To Me

As the current heat remains largely unabated here in large parts of the UK, pretty much all gaming related activity has come to a halt. Free time has been spent trying to keep my plants alive, to the point that watering them has become rather onerous to say the least. It is a rare thing to wish for cloud and rain here in the UK! I have also been having fun with my woodturning, but you can have too much of a good thing, and so I needed a break from this. As painting is off the table at present, I decided to try and get a game or two in.

Initially my plan was to do a sort of continuation of an AVBCW campaign that I've dabbled in on and off over the years, but for that to happen, some painting needs to be done first. But more on that later. Instead I plumped for the Greco-Italian War 1940, which I've been wanting to do for sometime, but never quite got around to it. In the past I've done the odd one off game, but the chance to do a mini-campaign never quite materialised, until now.

Naturally I needed to re-fresh my memory on the opening stages of the conflict, so picked up these two excellent books from my small library.

The Osprey gives a very good overview of the campaign, along with some useful maps, as one would expect, but it is the 'Hollow Legions' one that really gives lots of useful info for the wargamer. Having mulled over whether to go with the Littorale group along the coast and the possibility of some amphibious landings of some sort, in the end I went with the 23rd Infantry Division (Ferrara) and the 131st Armoured Division (Centauro) and their advance towards the Kalpaki crossroads. This gives me three scenarios, which is just about right for this sort of mini-campaign. This will be very much inspired by rather than a strictly historical one as, if I used the latter approach, it would be a rather dull affair I feel. Famous last words of course!

The table is set up ready for the game, but more on that in another post.

Wars of the Roses

I have managed to carry on playing some simple trial games with my wooden blocks to get more au fait with the 'Test of Resolve' rules. I've learnt a lot, which is good, which will help me as and when I get around to painting some figures at some point in the future. I did treat myself to two of the scenario books and one on standards and liveries etc, as I know sod all about the latter. Again this will be a very useful reference when I do get around to the painting of the units.

Painting

I did manage to get some base colours on a unit for my AVBCW forces in between heatwaves, but since then it really hasn't been the right temperature to try and paint at all. Also with the windows constantly open, everywhere is covered in a fine layer of dust, rather reminiscent of the Harmattan when I live in Nigeria!

What Next?

The plan is to kick off the Greco-Italian campaign later today, so hopefully an AAR will be up in the next day or so. The Waterloo game is still on for the first week in August, so I'm rather looking forward to that and meeting up with some old friends. Colours wargames show is only about 6 weeks away, which is rather scary as to me that sort of marks the end of Summer and the move away from gardening and back towards wargaming and painting. No details yet on what games are on this year, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

Well with Blogger still playing silly buggers, who knows if and when this post might appear. So if it does, any comments are greatly appreciated as always!

TTFN.

A Test Of My Resolve

This year I had no plans to buy any new rules, given that I was pretty happy with everything that I had and used regularly. Afterall my bookshelf has plenty of rules that were bought, glanced at and never really did what I hoped they would. Maybe one day I'll get around to selling them or sending them to a charity shop.

But my resolve was sorely tested when I read Norm Smith's excellent review of the 'Test of Resolve' rules on his Blog. For once these rules intrigued me and, after a bit of deliberation, I decided to treat myself to a bit of retail therapy, as life had been rather hectic on the parent carer front.

The 'new' print of the rules, with a contents page and definitions section which really helps when looking for or reading through the rules.

Not the cheapest rules, but being self-published and with an admittedly limited audience compared to the 'Big Boys' of the industry, I was very happy with what I received. After a couple of read throughs, these really seemed to be perfect for the solo players and as one would expect, they are very much full of period flavour.

Now whilst I do not have any figures based up for this period, I have some that cold at a squeeze, pass muster, but given these will be mainly used for solo play, it's only me I need to keep happy! If I was to do two 'Starter Forces', I worked out that I would need at least several hundred figures, possibly up to five hundred, which was a daunting prospect painting wise, aside from the financial implications.

So instead, for the moment, I went down the route of using my wooden blocks to allow me to get to grips with the rules, the size of games like to play etc. Luckily these blocks are a perfect fit for what I would most likely use base wise, namely 25mm square ones, with unit frontages of 50mm or 100mm if in 'wide' formation.

Said blocks all set up to run through the basic scenario, on a 2' x 2' board. This is a tad small, but currently works well as I can put it down anywhere with minimal fuss and roll the dice.

From my trial games so far, which have been VERY basic, I'm really taken with these rules, as not only do I feel like I'm playing a WotR game, but the inherent friction within the system makes for really good solo play. As Norm mentioned on his Blog, the run of the cards and the actions that arise from them, prevent one from going about the game in the same old fashion, something that I've been very conscious of when I tried pre-Black Powder period games.

To help me with some inspiration and a bit of background reading, I pulled the following fodwn from the bookshelf.

I remember when these came out, as at our local show, these were incradibly popular and certainly breathed new life into a period that wasn't gamed that much, or so it seemed to me.

Suddenly every 'Tom, Dick & Harry' seemed to be jumping on the band wagon, with Lion Rampant II containing some sample warbands, and then HCII having a section on the WotR, before this supplement came out. This is a great book and I'd forgotten it has a nice and simple campaign section in the back, which I hope to use in due course.

A superb book that highlights to me at least about how little we actually know about the battles, how the armies fought etc. In the end I think it will be down to personal preference whether you have 'Bow & Bill' units as per HCII, or go with seperate Archers & Foot as per Test of Resolve.

Another cracking book and one that again highlights how little we really know.

As we are in the 3rd heatwave of the year and once again breaking records on multiple fronts, I hope to give these rules a good run out in the next few days, as frankly it's too hot to do anything else after about 10.00am!

WWII

I had planned on doing some more painting on my AVBCW forces, alongside sorting out a possible Greek campaign again, but a mix of the heat, 'real life' and these new rules has put all of this on hold. I did look through the very good Osprey book on the first part of the Greek campaign, just to refresh my understanding of things, so progress in that respect.

I also bought Max Hasting's book on Sword Beach, which Norm Smith had highlighted as being very heavily discounted at a supermarket, so I was happy to find that Amazon had price matched it as it were. I do like his writing style so this is most likely my next read, aside from perusing some WotR texts.

Woodworking

In between the heatwaves, I was able to pop into the garage and have some more fun doing some woodturning, which I find is a nice and therapeutic break from my life as a parent carer. Wargaming hits the same spot too, but I was in the mood to do some turning, which can be seen below:

Some small Yew bowls and bud vase, all about 4" diameter. A joy to turn and they come up to a smooth finish and should develop a lovely patina as they age.

What Next?

Well with the heat not breaking for at least another 5-6 days, trying to stay cool and get a good sleep will be the number one priority! I do have Waterloo game scheduled for 4th August at Shrivenham, which should be good. Being an all day affair this should be a real treat and a good chance to meet up with some old gaming friends and some new ones to boot. 

As Blogger has been up to its very annoying tricks of late, whether anyone gets to see this is a mute point. However, if you have received this, then I'm happy and as always, any comments greatly received!

TTFN.