At first it looked as though the Italians didn't have a prayer to win this (I was right). They don't have enough force to both push the RKKA off the road, keep it free and exit nearly all their force, especially since the bulk of the Italian force was of the same morale as the RKKA. In addition, most of the RKKA starts out in limiting terrain and can't be seen until the Italians have crossed 2 1/2 boards of featureless terrain. Add to that the fact that the RKKA has strong artillery (OBA) and a hilltop spotting location which provides an 18 hex view of the Italians. The final nail in the coffin is that the road is solid mud which causes the trucks and motorcyclists to swear mightily as they attempt to grind their way forward.

But then again, they do have artillery themselves, 3 75/27s and 3 mortars, which hammer away in multiple hits per turn. Plus, they also have some decent leaders to help the morale checks, etc.

The Soviets, hidden and with plenty of time to prepare, dig in across the road and in the fields, waiting for whatever forces the Italians can get to within spitting distance without routing away.

The normal attack would have pushed straight for the hilltop to take out the spotter and remove the Soviet OBA from the game (the OBA can only be spotted for from a single hex, control that and the OBA goes away). On the other hand, the RKKA set up for that eventuality with two masked HMGs and 4 INF in support. I could have stood off and pounded the hex with my own artillery (great ideas always happen AFTER the event, or, of course, in the shower), routing the jerks and ridding us of the OBA in that fashion but NO I had to try a southern swing, clearing the road and becoming involved in a nasty fight in the fields to the south of the hill. Indeed, the Italians didn't ever attack the hill at all.

Why, you may ask is that so? Well, because the combined 30 point OBA rolled snake eyes (a "2") three times in 18 shots. Since on average that only happens once every other game of this length we can call this an abnormal result. I don't know how to swear in Italian but something of this nature can certainly get me to look a few up (I have a book with curses in Latin, but I don't think any of the hammered CSIR members were thinking of classical culture as they were turned into small pieces).

Despite this the Italians kept coming on, helped tremendously by the morale boosts from their leaders. As mentioned before the field is relatively featureless resulting in demoralized troops running for a good distance before finding a good place to go to ground. The RKKA has it a little better in terms of terrain. but still they run a good distance away from the road if you hit them from the south.

So the end of the game finds a strong Italian force embroiled with the RKKA in the southern fields when I take another look at the victory conditions. As noted above, I had pretty much given this to the RKKA from the beginning and played the game out to see what could happen, when I noted that if I could get ten steps of Italians off the board and keep the road clear I could get a draw. It would take a great shot by the lone remaining HMG (which was not in an assault hex) to stop the RKKA from coming and getting on the road. I saw two units which could make it.

First the RKKA hit the HMG with its OBA but (those pesky leaders again) it passed its morale check, then the RKKA mortars missed entirely leaving the HMG intact to fire. The first INF moved and got within one hex of the road before it was hit by the opp fire and was disrupted! One down, one to go. The RKKA got ready to move and found that the leader who had been in place to move the INF had previously been hit by friendly fire and routed from the hex. The INF could not progress towards the road without the leader so the Italians kept the road clear and got their ten steps off the map - Draw.

With the Italians behind them in sufficient force the RKKA would have to withdraw, especially since their OBA would be endangered by the Italians behind so I can make some sense out of a draw. The reason it wouldn't be a victory is that for many of the Italians this "First Action" was their last.