On July the 1st, 1940, Capt. Paul Jourdier commander of the 1st Squadron, 1st Moroccan Spahi Regiment of the French Army, had decided to keep on fighting and join the British forces in Palestine. Later, he and his men, along with other Free French, joined the fight in Eritrea. On January 2, 1941, the reconstituted 1st Spahi Squadron, still a cavalry unit, was on reconnaissance mission on the Umbrega Plateau. On the east side, the men soon discerned through the bush, ferns and branches, elements of an enemy bivouac, while on the west side a more aggressive move from the Spahi forced the Italians to open fire and reveal their position.
Attacker: Free French (Elements of the 1er Escadron, 1er Régiment de Spahis Marocains)
Defender: Italian (Elements of VIII° Brigata Coloniale)
5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:9.5 D:14.0
AFVs: A:0
Horse x 9 Horse x 2
AFVs: D:0
Horse x 7
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
Very Dry, treat Woods as Brush, Orchards/Grain in season. Bldgs are collapsed huts.
A quick little scenario with a few tactical choices on setup. Mostly the attacker won't want to use their Cavalry I think. Better to be safe and work for that 2Camp/DoubleCVP victory. Getting 3 camps could be a stretch with the 5 turns.
2023-11-29
(D) Robert Wiebe
vs
Dave
Free French win
Dave and I gave this a go the other day, with me playing the Italians. Dave started the scenario charging with a hero and one 458 into three consecutive hexes, charging each time. I had placed three 346s and the 8-0 to the west on the high ground and not in the valley. Two of the MMC were dismounted and both failed their PTCs. Needless to say I rolled poorly, breaking one 346 (FPF), Pinning the next, and then breaking the other 346, and Pinned the 8-0. The balance of the French arrived in their MPh, galloping from offboard and then charging what I had left in the valley. So much for the western camp.
In the east, Dave entered dismounted and there was too much LOS hinderance for me to get effective shots off. I also had moved off two squads from the southern camp up towards the northern two; forgetting that Dave only needed to control 3 out of 4 camps, I just handed him his second. French shooting slowly whittled away my GO Italians, and he easily rolled into the last camp. There were only broken Italians at the end, and the French only lost two HS total.
2021-05-28
(D) Jeff Wright
vs
Scott Romanowski
Free French win
2019-12-27
(A) Paolo Cariolato
vs
Alberto Biserni
Italian win
2019-07-31
(A) Jeff B
vs
Magnus Rimvall
Free French win
Going into this I thought it would be tough for my French, being that they are outnumbered 1:1.5 and are the attackers. The advantages they have are not immaterial however, in particular their ability to attack from multiple fronts and a distinct ML edge. I didn't fall for the bait of trying to take the western camp, and instead entered all my force from the north and proceeded eastward to be in position to assist my reinforcing comrades the next turn. Most of them came on in a direct frontal assault in the north, with a token force in both the east and south to make routing for the broken Italians a problem. None of them entered on horseback. I felt, even at only 5 turns, that I had ample time to close in and slowly squeeze the Italians into submission. This proved to be the case, and by the end of Turn 4 I had two camps securely in hand with an absolutely decisive CVP count (not having lost a man and gathering up a boatload of prisoners. The latter begrudgingly due to damn F.5). This one had to be extremely boring to play as the defender, and really wasn't much more fun to play as the attacker.