The Italians began their day with the artillery in a deep valley with the troops just south on a small dune (no elevation in this scenario). The Aussies had dug in on top of and just north of the objective, with their Arty just in front of it. The Italians had very little time to take the flag, so to speak, and attempted to move quickly. All they did was move quickly into heaven, or hell.

The Aussies had a great view of the Italians attempting to quickly move forward, their big gun showering the Aussie gun, but causing no real damage. Stopping just short of the opposing infantries’ ranges, the Italians set up for what would be a quick-dash attempt at the objective, the idea being to take the hex, thus “winning” the scenario, although the battle fought afterwards to keep it would be ugly. They never made it that far.

They were pounded by great dice from the sky and the dug in troops showed no mercy. Sometimes digging in is bad and I intend to rerun the scenario purposely digging in the Aussies again, but this time trying a different mode of attack from the Italians. I think the arty guns on both sides are a little useless, or I just don’t know how to use them correctly yet, but they just traded volleys while the infantry ran beneath them. The Italians were able to use the mandatory 1-hex no-friendlies-to-fire rule to their advantage, and that saved them a little, but the Allied troops were just too strong.

Certainly, as noted in the conclusion, this one is balanced towards the Allies, and it showed here. Good little scenario (with a really big map) that shows how to use the line of fire rules and how to exploit them on both sides. Note that the Aussies must set up knowing how these rules are going to affect their shots. They have the advantage of knowing the Italians have to run as they only have 2 hours to get it done.