Historical Date: Late November 1940
Location: North Of The Escarpment To The Seacoast
Situation: Coastal Plain Battle For Maaten Baggush
Double Click Images
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After the Italian I Corps won The Battle of Mersa Matruh, Commonwealth Forces retreated to defensive works at the Port of Maaten Baggush, Egypt. The port is not shown. It is located under the 4th Indian Division north of the word 4th on the coast.
The Italian II Motor Corps swung out into the desert and was checked by 7th Armoured Division in our game on 8 January 2011. The battle along the coastal plain occurred 19 March 2011. However, both battles occurred on the same campaign day sometime in late November 1940 though played more than two months apart.
The 4th Indian Division was tasked with improving the works in a one mile wide coastal plain south of Maaten Baggush to the escarpment.
The plain was made wider out to the escarpment than it really was. Ditto for a narrow band of beach near the seacoast. For the former any unit moving there bogged down on a throw of 1D6 = 1/unit. Along the seacoast bogging occurred on a 1 or 2. Bogging automatically ended in the next turn.
Point Comparison
Italian I Corps: 6,805 pts. (Todd B., John B. and Chuck L.)
versus
4th Indian Division: 3,543 pts. (Jim H. and Bill P.)
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Commonwealth artillery assisted by MGs and infantry concentrated fire on the Italian infantry. Meanwhile, Italian smoke discombobulated an already slow to arrive troop of Matildas. The latter were seconded by a pair of 2 Pdrs. which combined to take out leading Italian tanks. It was lucky for 4th Indian that the Italian armour did not penetrate even deeper into the rear area. Had that occurred, the Commonwealth left flank would have been lost. The Matildas were tough nuts to crack - especially aided by better than average saving throws.
Chuck's Battlegroup reached break point and was forced to retire.
John's Battlegroup could not continue and electively retired.
Todd elected to voluntarily retire too.
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CLOSING REMARKS & THANK YOU Chuck, Todd, John and Jim!
1. Game Start/Finish: Noon/3:30pm. Great chow! Thanks for that too!
2. Super hard for an attacker to overcome strong defensive works.
3. Italian losses: 6,805 - 2,171 losses + 543 (25%) recovered = 5,177 left.
4. 4th Indian losses: 3,543 - 0 losses = 3,543 left.
5. We discussed ideas to better balance the lopsided result above. Such as:
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Attackers in this situation need 3:1 odds at least. Our attackers almost had 2:1 odds.
Engineers now clear obstacles in the "Initiative Phase" only. We discussed allowing them to continue in the "Command Phase" for one extra opportunity to clear obstacles.
Return to the rules where hitting inside hasty trenches and pits occurs on a 5 or 6 and saves on a 6. This is apparently is what the author has in mind. On reflection, we should have used these principles.
Exceptions: Mersa Matruh, Maaten Baggush, Bardia, Tobruk and the Mareth Line in Tunisia. Hits occur on a 6. Saves occur on a 5 or 6. Super hard to crack.
The consensus was to continue using Auto Suppression on non-AFV targets.
British artillery:
I (Bill) usually fired two batteries (two units) each consisting of 8x25 Pdrs. It is inexpensive, has lots more tubes than others and was highly effective with 12 D6s thrown causing 2-5 hits per infantry stand. This was not enough to knock out a stand outright. When immediately followed up by MG, mortar and rfle fire, stands can thereafter be taken to six or more hits. Six hits generally removes a stand of infantry.
More conversation is welcome.
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What's Next?
Next is December 1940 when the initiative swung to Commonwealth Forces.
Italian I Infantry (5,177 pts.) and II Motor Corps (2,653 pts.) have retreated to defensive boxes west of Mersa Matruh. The III Italian Infantry Corps (6,000 pts. second line soldiers) has been busy building hasty works for four "boxes."
The British 7th Armoured (2,628 pts.) and 4th Indian (3,543 pts.) Divisions will follow and take the initiative adding undetermined forces to the Western Desert Force.
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Zero Commonwealth losses!!!? Something in the game is broken. The fallacy of the incredible regenerating Troll stands is shown it seems.
ReplyDeleteThat regeneration works both ways. The Italian losses would ahve been much worse if the stands trnsfered hits form turn to turn.
ReplyDeleteThe big problem was the ammount of firepower it took to shift guys out of heavy cover. We only had a 1 in 6 chance to hit than those hits had a 1 in 3 chance to be saved. In any given turn, a good portion of my units that were in position to fire couldnt because they were pinned from artilery. I couldnt put enough dice against anyting to make a difference
Artillery was the game winner. Bill and Jim could have left most of theri infantry home. As it was, I only enganged three stands of Jims in the entire game. Two of those were maching gun stands and accounted for some casulties. Many of those came from picking off stands that were already wounded and pinned from artillery.
Bill and Jim played a great game as usual. looking back I would have did things a little different. We probably should have had Todd just go straight ahead and supprot johns advance rather than risk all the bog checks. I could have timed my preregisterd artillery defferent as well.
Next time the Italians are dug in and the Brits get to face the guns.