The Italian Attack On Sollum

John has sent me this report of the Blitzkrieg Commander game he ran last night, as well as some pictures:

Last night, I organised a game of BKC, it was a modified scenario from Scott Fisher and Nathan Forney’s Skirmish Campaigns, North Africa. 40 – 41 Italian Misadventure and the Arrival of the DAK.

As it says the book is for skirmish campaigns so I upgraded all the forces by 3 so in the end, there was an Italian company against a platoon of British Infantry. A feature of the “Skirmish Campaigns” books is that each force has some options that are rolled for. This works as each game can have different forces. I was lucky in my rolls as I had the company commander with me in all the games I played so I had a leadership advantage.

The British started with a minefield and some trenches. I modified these by making the trenches up to platoon size positions and the minefield to the standard size BKC ones.

The game was on a three by three foot board. Geoff and I played 3 games in the evening.

In the first game the Italians had the assistance of an engineer section whilst the British had a leadership of 8 with the company commander. The Italians fought long and hard, losing one of their platoons, they were however defeated as the Brits prevented them from seizing their objective way beyond their given time, then withdrew intact. The Italian objective was to seize the white two-story building.

Of concern in all games was that the Italians could occupy the vacant entrenchments as the Brits could not occupy them all.

In the second game, the Italians had mortar support whilst the British had the company commander and another smaller minefield. The Italians were forced to withdraw after the loss of two of their platoons, this being their break point.

In the last game, the Italians had the company commander with a leadership of 8 whilst the British leadership was only 7. The British rolled Mortar support. However their MFC (Mortar Fire Controller) or FO was never able to call it in.

The Italians were very successful with their initiative rolls and quickly advanced to an assault position, one platoon with two in support. They were able to fire on the Brits and suppress them before assaulting the stone building and forcing the British out into their own minefield.

A problem identified with this as well as any BKC games with turn limits is that on average you can only move 50% of the time, thus making turn restrictions rather hard to achieve. Alan suggested we only count turns as recorded when the attacking side is able to execute at least one order. This worked well in the last game but needs a lot more play testing for larger games. And indeed all games with turn restrictions.

Here's some pictures.

Town of Sollum, looking west.

Town of Sollum, looking east.

Game 1 - First Italian attack.

Game 1 - Italians assaulting.

Game 1 - Italians retreating.

Game 1 - Italians on the northern flank.

Game 2 - Italians to the south.

Game 2 - Italians preparing to assault

Game 2 - Italians. In a trench.

Game 3 - Suppressed British troops.

Game 3 - The British in their own minefield.