Brett & Vince's C&C Kings Officers 1940-41 Campaign Diary

[vince hughes]

Session 2 of Scenario 2 "Operation Compass" in our nine scenario campaign C&C2 was played today with 5 more turns completed to take us to the end of turn 9 of 24 turns.

As before the British main advance continued to push to the main Italian defence on the furthest hill and to all intent and purposes, they pushed forward with little trouble really ? One thorn in their advance proved to be 2 x 20mm AA's commanded by a Maggiore with a 1 point fire modifier, meaning they could opp fire on the 11col up to 9 hexes away. In 4 such shots over 2 turns, this AA combo knocked off 3 steps and demoralised another unit. Quite amazing accuracy from the famed Italian gunners. Also, the distant British 25pdrs finally suffered one battery knocked out from massed Italian artillery pieces that had been in an artillery duel with them from very early on in the scenario.

There is also a small assault going on between the two opposing forces main lines here. A disordered Italian platoon that had fled earlier was caught by 2 x British INF platoons led by a LT. The assault has been going on for 3 turns now, with the Italian unit suffering a step-loss, but in good order and the 2 British platoons taking no morale or step-losses so far.

Other than that, the main hill is a direct fire scrimmage with the well-moraled British troops trying to wear down the Italian defenders and also aiming at Italian artillery positions. 4 x Italian HMG's are holding the main crest supported by 2 x INF platoons. The rest form a circular defence in case the British try to flow around.

Meanwhile, at the other, smaller, contested hill where the Italians deployed 8 INF platoons, no less than 3 of these Italian INF steps were knocked out because of

a) Persistant British direct fire from rifles, HMG's and some MKVI's that surround them and eventually wilted a platoon or two. And

b) Then, when one platoon fled, they were mown down completely by a whole company of Rolls-Royce armoured cars taking opp-fire at them.

At the end of the 9 turns I think both sides are happy with where they are. As a one-off scenario, the Italians are going to lose one suspects as far as VP's go. But with any campaign type game, its the scale of loss that matters for the overall campaign.

Points so far are:
British - 12pts ( 8pts for the unopposed hill capture and 4pts for step-losses inflicted)
Italian - 19pts (15pts for the two hills they hold, but for how long ? and 4pts for step-losses inflicted).

The struggle continues !