Kaos At Kalpaki - Greco-Italian War 1940 - Campaign Turn 3

This is the third and final action of my mini-campaign set during the ill fated Italian invasion of Greece in 1940.

Background Fluff

1st November 1940. Continued communication and weather problems have hindered the Italian advance towards Kalpaki. However the weather finally improved and clear skies and an extra day to get organised meant that the Italians were ready to attack. For the Greeks the weather and stubborn resistance by their Border Forces had allowed them time to dig-in and prepare defences, as well as bring forward their main forces to face the Italians. 

Italian Sapienza Column OOB

Losses so far had forced a major re-deployment of troops in and around the Kalpaki area. The Sapienza Column, much weakened by losses, had reinforcements in the form of 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, Ferrara Division, as well as L3/35's from the 31st Tank Regiment, Centauro Division. However they were still short on Artillery support, which lagged to the rear due to the terrain and the weather. At least the clear skies promised the chance of some support from the Regia Aeronautica Italiana...

Greek 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, VIII Division

For the Greeks, they had a re-inforced Infantry Battalion, well dug-in and with an atin-tank ditch in front of Kalpaki. Extra Artillery and MG units had been provided to help add to their integral firepower. Rumours abounded that the RAF had arrived and were preparing to fly in close support missions to break up the Italian attacks...

Scenario Details

• One Italian Column and the L3/35's starts using Static Deployment, the other Column uses mobile Deployment.
• All Greek troops count as dug-in as if in Trenches. The BUA's confer a 4+ save due to the strong nature of the structures.
• All Greek troops count as Stubborn.  (-1 die when rolling for fall-back if in the open. No die roll for when dug-in).
• All Greek troops add +1 to the die roll when rolling for fall-back to reflect their poor morale.
• The Greek CO & HQ's all have a CV of 8, to reflect their determination to resist the Italians and also the time they have had to prepare the communications in and around Kalpaki.
• Italian HQ CV's are 7, to reflect the poor state of their C&C at this point in the campaign. The CO has a CV of 8.
• One Italian Air support will arrive on a roll of 11-12 on 2D6 at the start of the third Turn. If support arrives, roll a D6 and on a 1-2, it is a case of Blue-on-blue, to reflect the complete lack of co-ordination between the Army and the Air Force. On a roll of 1-3, it is a Ground Attack aircraft, on a 4-6 it is a Bomber unit.
• One RAF Air support will arrive from Turn 4 on a roll of 8-12 on 2D6. It will be a Blenheim bomber attack.
• Victory is simply who is in control of Kalpaki at the end of Turn 12, or if one side fails its Break Test.

The Game

As is the norm now, the captioned photos should give you an idea of how the game played.

An overview of the table, with Kalpaki to the right, the Italians to the left and the top edge.

The Greeks firmly dug-in in and around Kalpaki. The AT obstacles to their front represent AT ditches.

ATG and Artillery cover the approaches to Kalpaki.

Of course a game without Francois le Fermier is just not the same...

One Italian flank.

Elements of the Centauro Division.

The remaining Italian units.

The end of Turn 1. The Italians made a good start, pushing forward, but the L3/35's came under fire from the off, as did the Infantry.

The L3/35's are in action from the off.

The Italian Infantry in support struggle as they come under Mortar fire.

Devastating Artillery fire really stops the Italians in their tracks!

The end of Turn 2. The Italian advance stalls and they lose an Infantry Company to Artillery fire, with another one suppressed!

The Greek Artillery is simply stopping the Italians dead in their tracks!

The end of Turn 3. Again the Italians struggle to move forward in the face of effective and devastating Artillery fire. They lose two L3/35's to ATG shooting.

A reduced Company wisely stay hidden behind a hedgerow, as to move forward would more than likely lead to their demise.

The L3/35's brew up.

More Italian Infantry arrive and try to move forward, but are at least out of view of the enemy.

The start of Turn 4 and the RAF turns up, causing mayhem to the exposed Italian Infantry by the roadside.

The end of Turn 4. The Italians barely move, but take more heavy losses from combined arms.

Any advances forward from here without heavy support would be nigh on suicidal.

Another Italian Infantry Company is all but wiped out.

Some heavier weapons arrive but cannot find the space to deploy.

The end of Turn 5. A small glimmer of hope for the Italians as they KO the Greek ATG that had been causing them so much trouble, but not before another L3/35 brews up.

The high water mark for the Italian tankettes.

Losses continue to mount.

A view from the Greek positions, that have not been seriously threatened.

End of the Game

At this point the Italians were close to their break point and with no realistic ability to be able to threaten the Greeks positions in and around Kalpaki. So they wisely chose to retire in good order rather than being routed in due course.

The Italian Butcher's Bill, excluding the three L3/35's.

The lone Greek loss.

Post Game Thoughts

Very quickly this turned into a very one-sided affair, with the Italians taking heavy early losses, that meant they soon lost any realistic chance of taking Kalpaki. So some thoughts on this scenario in no particular order:

• Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I think the Italians could have benefited from having a couple of Recce units, to help spot the hidden Greek units. As it was, they could sit back and rely upon indirect fire to do most of the damage.
• The lack of any Italian meaningful Artillery support really hampered them.
• Ditto Air Support, but then this did accurately reflect the shocking historical state of Army and Airforce co-operation.
• Even though this was so one-sided, it did feel 'right' given the reading I'd done before hand on the attempts to take Kalpaki.
• Certainly this sort of action works best as a solo game, as for a FtF one, being the Italian player would have been no fun at all.

Post Campaign Thoughts

So, how did I think the campaign went now that it's over?

• Well I did enjoy it, especially the research before hand, alongside creating the scenarios.
• Playing the games did highlight how completely unprepared the Italians were for this campaign on so many levels.
• Rather like playing the BBB scenarios, you really do appreciate how and why certain battles and campaigns unfolded as they did. 
• Here the Greeks doing delaying actions early on, to the point where they allowed for the main troops to come up, just felt right and fitted in with the reading I'd done.
• You do realise that you need good combined arms to achieve your objectives, so if you are missing one arm, as the Italians did historically with limited Artillery support due to the terrain causing movement issues, you get to see the knock-on effects of this.
• Before I've tried a 5 game Campaign format, but have found this too long to be honest, with the 3 game format working perfectly. Keeping momentum is hard, to fewer games makes this easier.
• The narrative approach to the Campaign meant minimal book keeping on my part, which was great. Fine if you have the time and the energy for something more complex, but this just worked fine for me.
• Once again BKCII proved to be the perfect rules for this, as with my familiarity with them, allowed me to tweak the OOB, CV's, unit compositions etc. As mentioned before, having core rulesets really paid dividends here.

What Next?

I think some painting is in order, but more on that as and when stuff is finished. Games wise a different period for sure, but I'm in no hurry to get anything planned just yet. A break from sorting out games is in order I feel!

As always, thanks for reading (if Blogger lets you see this!) and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.