Divisione Corazzata, scenario #8: Hell on Wheels

I finally had some space to setup this cool scenario! It pits Americans against the Italians in North Africa with the Italians having upgraded German tanks: PzIIIJ & PzIV or P23/41 & M22/41 according to the Italian renaming of these tanks. These counters come from the Gold Club 2007 counter sheet. I think AP still sells it or offers it in a download form. The battle use two desert maps and it is 40 turns. The Americans must block the Italians from exiting the far side of the map and setup a thin line of Infantry, AT-Guns, Artillery, Mortars, halftracks and other sorted units with some hexes setup open, with only a zone of control or firing lane to block it. The Americans start rolling for a large force of Sherman tank reinforcements as early as turn one.

The game starts with the Italians only entering the map with their two large armor groups, divided into two sections, so the American can’t focus their defenses in one area. The Italian also hold back their huge Infantry, support units and transport units until the Italian armor punches some holes through the American lines, as the American have a large amount of off board artillery to really hurt the Italian soft-skin transports. The Italian armor starts to push through the American line, thus the large Italian un-armored units enter the board to exploit the break thought points but now the American Armor in now entering the map on the far east side and will a take 4-5 turns to even reach the action. The American also pull some of their units out of the line on the far end to help out the hot points further south, so now both sides have loading transports moving around the map and easy prey to artillery & armor units.

The two armored groups from both sides finally make contact but the Italian machine have range on the American machines, so the Sherman have to close with the Italian armor, allowing them to shot first. The Italians also have the higher elevation advantage when they meet. Some of the Italian Infantry and support units get tangled up in the break thought areas with American Infantry and Artillery but rest that made it through try and end around to avoid the armor battle going on and some American units are also doing the same thing but only to setup another defensive area further east. The whole battle seems to be spreading across the two maps now, from one end to the other.

The Italians have found a huge hole to exit many units off the map and they have in inflicted a few more causalities on the American armor then they have received. Remember neither side has armor efficiency in this time period. Both sides have lost loaded transports with units and leaders, which with a battle this size with large spaces that need to be covered and adjusted all the time, it is going to happen! In the end the Italians had a Major Victory but really at any point in this battle it could have been a minor or major for either side.

This was really fun scenario to play and there are not too many Italian vs. American scenarios in PG so far but this one rocks!