This Scenario is an expansion of scenario 3. It begins the same way but then the Australian needs to push towards the town.

Again, the primary worry for our boys is the Italian Regimental artillery. Intelligence reports a large number of heavy artillery batteries in the area. To deny an Italian victory, under 14 steps can be eliminated while cleared out the entrenchments and the Italian reinforcements.

Aftermath

Australians suffer way too many casualties clearing out the Italians. A technical Draw.

The dice rolling for Italian artillery strikes was bordering on ridiculous. It was actually quite frustrating, as there is little room for Australian error in these missions, and a few lucky strikes can easily give the Italians their victory condition. As was the case in this mission, where the Italian off-map artillery was more accurate than Robin Hood!

*This was another case of horrid Australian luck. The engineers began the turn failing their morale check to recover (+1). Italian artillery scores an “M2” and the Australians roll a “12”, therefore losing a half platoon. I almost felt like giving up and restarting at this stage, as I felt the Australian advance was generally quite cautious as only 2 steps out of 13 losses was from direct fire.

In the end, the Australians lost 26 steps, twice their allowance. Although only 4 were from direct or anti-tank fire. The majority of the 22 steps lost to bombards were from Italian off-board artillery.

The Australians tried to focus on demoralising and eliminating the Italian leaders, but the 2x15 and 3x10 (making two “30” attacks with very little cover available) were deadly.

Overall, I much preferred Scenario 3, as even while using possibly the best terrain available, the Italian reinforcements didn’t have a chance. So, the second “half” of the Bardia Breakin, wasn’t as “tense” as the first half.