Oh, to be so close and then see it all come crashing down!!

Played ftf with Hugmenot.

I set my Hyderabadis with a strong hedgehog around the bridge, a significant force in the fort behind me and plenty of Razakars lurking in the forest to the front to delay the Indian advance. As I mentioned to Daniel the Razakars purpose was not survival but rather to delay the Indian advance and to get some LOS during the night turns to give the artillery something to fire at. Daniel suggested that I not tell them that...

The Indian advance was monstrous in size and well coordinated. My Razakars were able to surprise the Indian engineers who promptly found it not worth their while to recover for significant stretches of the scenario. As time went on, the Indians began to close in on the bridge where a Hyderabadi major (morale 9) awaited with a lit fuse. Unfortunately the major also seemed to have a bad case of ADHD as he became disrupted from some artillery fire and proved incapable of recovering time after time. Ultimately I had to release some leaders from the fort to help the major try to blow the bridge. As the hedgehog began to crumble under extreme pressure from the hordes of Indians I retreated my men across the bridge, leaving a force in the bridge hex itself and with a masterful stroke set the fuse alight.

Unfortunately, like Marvin the Martian, there was no earth-shattering "kaboom". I had rolled a three. Oh well, never mind we'll try again next turn. After the ensuing assault at the bridge cleared the Hyderabadis had only one leader left on the board, a Colonel who could not even get to the bridge as some intrepid Indians had actually run across the bridge while it was under assault. The demise of my leaders caught me by surprise (I imagine they were surprised as well as many of them were captured).

As a result of my leaders' failure, the bridge stood and the Indians were able to cross. This turned out to be the key point in the battle. Had the bridge been blown, the Indians could have had to use their engineers one of whom remained incapble of recovery for nearly the entire second half of the battle, to cross the river. The engineers would have been prime targets for the artillery and HMGs and victory would have been mine. On the other hand if "if's" and "but's" were candy and nuts we could all have a party...

The Indians swarmed across the bridge and although there was a significant fight yet for the fort with several Indian losses to occur, the ability of the Indians to at least contest the fort hexes was never in doubt and the ultimate score of the battle was 29-8 for an Indian victory.

This is a tense scenario with a lot happening. The SSRs concerning the bridge and the fort lend some novelty to the situation and make for an enjoyable afternoon. I give it a "4".