Author	treadasaurusrex (Italy)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Ethiopia
Participants	ACav
Play Date	2023-02-13
Language	English
Scenario	COOE021

This 16-turn play-through required 4-sessions to complete online with a relatively new player, the aggressive & boisterous, ACav, leading the Ethiopians in what proved to be a clear victory over my Italian invaders. We played without the stultifying FOW, but with the excess initiative and consolidation optional rules. Both sides drew relatively poor leaders, and there was no armors in this sightly unbalanced scenario.

Both sides groped for each other in movement-to-contact phase in the pitch dark. As others have reported ,the Ethiopians came on in two assault forces, and chose to place the Shambei leader, accompanied by an infantry company out of harms way, and dug in. During the 3rd turn, the leading edge of the merged, Ethiopian advance were in decisive engagement. They quickly created considerable havoc in the Italian line and were reinforced with additional troops in game turn 6. A series of relatively bloody close assault result in the required 7 steps of Italian loss, and 5 for the Ethiopians by the end of the 10th game turn. The Italians stubbornly chose to fight on to the bitter end, and never did get a solid chance to eliminate the Shambei leader in such close-range firefights. There was an unexpected amount of maneuver in this one, but both sides had dreadful luck in morale recovery. There were also a combined 18 combat 7-die rolls by the end of game turn 16. Final step loses were 10 steps and 2 leaders for the losing Italians; and 12 steps and 3 leaders for the victorious Ethiopian side.

This one is best played for a draw by the Italians, as the Ethiopians do have an significant edge in night combat during the first 9 game turns. Further, the Italians must be very bold and aggressive in this encounter to have a chance at eliminating the senior Ethiopian leader. We found this battle to be a decent training scenario to learn how to move & fight in the darkness.