Buon Natale!

5 minutes research online informs me that this is the Italian version of "Merry Christmas" and thus a fitting opener for the following battle report. Apologies for the appalling photo quality.

Billy surveys his Jump-off Points (in a triangle on the left) and plans how best to approach mine (spread along the opposite table edge). 

I was planning to be wargaming with Suzanne over Christmas, but unfortunately her daughter has been laid low by glandular fever and therefore she's exempt on humanitarian grounds. Fortunately, another dear old friend foolishly expressed curiosity and I brought round the figures and scenery for an introductory game. For a change, I played the Italians with their large but unwieldy 2-squad platoon while Billy played the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth deploy two sections and a Stuart tank to cover the Italian jump-off points.

We played an introductory game which I did not record, but which serves as another cautionary tale about the evils of going easy on beginners. I rolled a good few double phases early in the game, which meant I was able to rout Billy's first section. I decided not to push this early success too hard, and so instead was hammered when Billy got a run of double phases which led to multiple leader casualties and crushing defeat. Be warned!

Commonwealth troops advance cautiously towards Italian positions. The small markers are indicating teams on overwatch.

So as a follow-on I suggested a Probe scenario (plays like British Bulldog, but with guns) with some tanks as support. The table used was small by most gaming standards, but due to the jump-off point system this wasn't a problem at all: we found plenty of firefights taking place at effective (not close) range so there was certainly enough room to manoeuvre. The only problem was than I had difficulty deploying my huge 20-strong squadra within 6" of a jump-off point in an effective firing line. I think this elegantly communicates how the designers think different military organisations work in practice.

The Thin Italian Line deploys and mauls the leading Commonwealth section.

According to received wisdom, I held off deploying until I was confident I could concentrate my fire against one target at a time. This was not rewarded with great success, as despite some absolutely abysmal movement rolls from Billy to retreat his beleaguered section, I could not roll the hits either. We were therefore reduced to two firing lines blazing away away at each other.

As both sides blat away at each each from a hundred paces, the Stuart creeps ominously towards the tri line...

Having initially deployed my autocannon-toting armoured car (AB-41 for the rivet counters at home) out of the line of fire of the opposing Stuart, I now decided to drive over with my superior wheeled speed and catch Bill's tank in the side armour, but the dice were not so kind and I was left behind the ridge.

The armoured car moves up to screen  the infantry and also flank the opposing Stuart. Wait, is that an anti-tank rifle team that Billy is measuring the movement for?!

What happened next was a series of brilliant strategic manoeuvres from both sides ruined by the dice refusing to co-operate. First, Billy used a Chain of Command dice (built up during the game and used for fun stuff) to move one of his jump-off points to deploy an anti-tank rifle team in line of sight of my Autoblinda. This is straight out of the Lardy playbook, and even I must admit that it was a tragedy the shots merely bounced off my armour (total damage one point of shock).

Disaster! My armoured car misses at point-blank range and is one-shot by the Stuart. Looking back at this photo still upsets me.

My masterstroke was to "put pedal to the metal" and to sweep over the ridge and catch the Stuart in the flank. All I had to do to at least inconvenience the tank was to roll 6 or more on two dice added together to hit. Gentle reader, it was not to be. In return, the Stuart turned round and wrecked the armoured car with a single shot. My best hope of stopping the tank from romping home to victory was extinguished, and one force morale point away from flight, I threw in the towel.

Game over for the Italians as history repeats itself once again...

So, why did I lose? To some extent, I can blame the dice: I swear Billy made half a dozen force morale checks and got the best result on all of them while I was making the same rolls and took the hits. Missing the Stuart didn't help either, but I'm not sure it would have made too much difference in the end. I think the one thing I did was to deploy too late: I couldn't spread out properly within 6" of the jump-off point and didn't want to try moving in the face of enemy fire. In future I would probably deploy them earlier to get my troops in better firing positions first.

It was a fun couple of games nonetheless. In the coming month I've got some finished terrain (and the explosion markers which feature here) to show off, plus the ALL NEW Kings of War 3rd edition tournament as well, which may or may not be reported and for which I need a few more knights painting. Looking forward to picking up the brushes again after a few weeks off though!