This was a fun little scenario which was played in one session against the venerable Vince Hughes via skype. I had played this one solo before with similar results and it is a very tough one for either side to meet victory conditions, that is suffering less than 4 step losses and inflicting at least 4 step losses on the opponent. Both sides have great OBA but Italy does have the advantage of being dug-in and entrenched.

The Italians had set-up in and around three of the four entrenchments, leaving the one furthest east vacant, as defending entrenchments or keeping control of them were not part of the victory requirements. This allowed Italian units to consolidate and leave very little space between them. It seemed as if the Australian attack was anticipated on the right flank as that is where most of the machine gun platoons were placed and it was at a closer distance from the raiding party's intitial deployment.

I had observed the Italian deployment the night before and deemed that the safest approach would be towards the left flank under the cover of darkness and though it was further away I could get my units within direct fire range before sunrise and also it seemed to allow the safest distance away from AT guns for my armoured units to play a supporting role.

Somehow I thought that my initial advance would be unopposed for the first three turns but right away some either very brave or foolish Italian forward observers were sent out right away to spot for OBA. This seemed to be a logical move as some of these leaders were tenentes with a mere 6-0-0 rating. This stunned me at first knowing that there was more than just OBA fire threatening my raiding force but also 3 x 81mm mortars, 2 x 75mms and a 105mm for additional indirect fire support. Here I got lucky with the initiative more than once and in turn was able to demoralize the first forward observer before it could spot. Of course more spotters were sent out but those too were taken care of and soon there were four Italian leaders eliminated! But one of them was actually taken out by friendly fire so I could actually only claim three of those from my personal efforts.

Once the sun began to rise my luck changed for the worse. I had moved one A13 tank out too close after rolling over one of the spotters and in attempt to move it back out of harm's way. It took a step loss from a very well aimed 47mm AT gun straight away, counting as two step losses, already meeting half of the Italian victory requiremants with 8 turns left to go! Now with the sun up and visibilty increased the batlle began proper. However, this was to be more of an artillery slugfest with the Italians being able to inflict a lot more damage with their indirect fire support units. My raiding party was not able to advance any closer than 3 hexes away and were kept pinned down but luckily I had two leaders with morale modifiers at a 2 rating so units were able to rally quickly. I was able to eliminate the one 47mm that had forced a step loss from my armour support but soon lost 2 steps of INF and was fighting for a draw as my step losses reached 4 very soon.

Eventually I did manage to bring the Italian step losses to 3 with mostly OBA and mortar fire and it was a question of if my opponent could endure four more turns without a further loss. Unfortunately fleeing Italian units had retreated back to one or two entrenchments making the posts stacked three high and one of those were with support units so this is where I chose to direct my OBA and finally found my mark and forced the 4th Italian step loss with just two turns left to go. At this point, on turn ten, we stopped play. A draw is a draw but the Italians did hold the upper hand most of the time. Of course they had the defensive advantage of being dug-in and entrenched along with better support weaponry. I suppose that since OBA was really the deciding factor here I could of just called the raid off but then that wouldn't of been very sporting. Basically, as the scenario title suggests, the raiding party was "Turned Back" but it was a fun match. I do believe that Italy has better overall odds of winning this one but in most cases will end with a draw as it is tough for either side to not suffer 4 step losses. Ending losses after 10 turns were:

Italy: CAP(7-0-0), TEN(7-0-0), TEN(7-0-0), TEN(6-0-0), 2 INF, 1 x 81mm and 1 x 47mm

Australia: 2 INF and 2 ENG

Britain: 1 x A13