Conquest of Ethiopia, scenario #28: Second Ogaden: Battle of Gianagobo

This was a slugfest battle no doubt, with three battlegroups of Ethiopians and three battlegroups of Italians all fighting over some hills with caves in forest terrain to boot. I used extra cave counters I have from my laser to die-cast counter conversion days. So I think they are from my Saipan game but I wanted to use actual cave counters then entrenchment counters.

With Conquest of Ethiopia, the scenarios have few leaders for either side, showing how difficult it was to manage battles in this era of early WWII. It encourages you that you must stack three units per hex regardless of the combat modifiers when hit by enemy fire, or you will never get your troops to the battle. This causes more casualties but makes playing these battles more interest as well.

I won’t go into the back and forth of a slugfest 30 turn scenario as this, but the Ethiopians did send out a few units early to strike at the first group of Italians before their reinforcements arrive and then pulled back into the hills. The Italians were assisted by their air-forces and armor, including one Flame-throwing L3 unit, both of which open a small hole in the far western hill mass.

By the end of game play, the Italians had a small 6 point lead in causality points over the Ethiopians but more importantly, controlled one hill hex worth 8 points giving them a 14 point lead and a Minor Victory, on point short of a major victory. But really, this battle could have gone either way depending on attack strategies, setup and die-rolls.