Conquest of Ethiopia, Scenario Eight: Graziani’s War: A Sorrowful Victory

An interesting scenario and a unique game. I wasn’t sure I played it correctly, as I played it that the Mechanized and Motorized units could only cross the Wadi at the two fords while the infantry could cross anywhere paying the terrain costs. So if that wasn’t correct, take my results for what they are. The Italians first group enters the north edge of the map on turn one followed by the second group which rolled to enter on turn 2. Once the Ethiopian blunted most of the Italian Dubats Infantry, the Italian armor assault across the Wadi but paid a price and the only Italian armored car unit to escape had to be hunted down over a number of turns. Once those colonial Italian troops demoralize with a 7/5 morale, they rarely come back, especially the half step units. The Ethiopians eliminated 14 steps including some armor and a leader but gained a Major Victory by not allowing any Italian armor to stay on the south side of the Wadi. I kept my Ethiopian Armor Cars out of harms way, only the Italian Fiat 611 can harm it or an assault. But avoid that Fiat 611 or you will give the Italian as easy victory.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Italy)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	Tambu
Play Date	2022-11-10
Language	English
Scenario	COOE008

This was an extended 3-session play-through with the relentless and hard fighting Tambu leading the Ethiopian side. I led the Dubats and tankettes for the Italians. As others have reported, we played it with the mechanized & motorized units crossing the the Wadi at the two ford locations, and the infantry units crossing wherever they choose to. We played using the FOW, excess initiative and smoke optional rules. All the Italian troops were on the northern section of the battle map by the end of game turn 3, and their infantry started demoralizing almost as soon as the Ethiopians opened fire.

Both sides had poor leader draws, but it proved especially hard for the Italians to recover morale as this overlong scenario progressed. Once into and slightly across the wadi, close range DF and assault combats became lengthy die rolling contests. Step losses mounted continually for both sides, and multiple leaders were eliminated. By turn 20, it was apparent that this would be a draw given the big casualties sustained and the fact that the Fiat 611 armored car platoon had survived to savage the "do-it-yourself" Ethiopian armored cars. Unfortunately, there were insufficient Italian colonial infantry to support the efforts of this is rampaging armored car unit by the end of turn 22. There were 6 FOW-shortened turns in this play-through. I give this frustrating scenario a generous 3, due mostly to how much fun it was to play with a resolute opponent.