This small fight starts with a little more than an Italian infantry company with ATRs, 2 81mm Mortars, and a 47mm AT gun holding a town in the southern board and trying to stop the French Moroccan troops from exiting the north side of the board or occupying any one 40m hill top hex by the end of 18 turns. The Moroccans start with double the infantry (10 to the Italian 5), with 2 of those HMGs that have a move of 1, an Engineer platoon, 2 81mm mortars, 2 75mm guns with 2 wagons to tow them. The French have a slight advantage in OBA, but that didn't help much until later in the game. I set up the Italians with the Capitano, an INF and an HMG in the southern hex of the 3-hex town, the AT Rifle with another INF in the western hex, and another INF with the AT gun and truck in the western hex. The remaining 2 infantry I set up dug in, one each on the two 40m hilltops on the northern board, the mortars stacked and dug in on the southern edge of the central ridge where they could range in on just about anything that moved on the southern board and support the Italians in town. The French Moroccans entered in 3 groups, the slow-moving HMGs with 2 Infantry, a Captain and an Sous-LT on the eastern side of the road, the wagons towing the 75mm guns lead by the Sergeant coming up the road, and the big strike force of infantry with the Commandant and LT bringing up the large body of infantry ready to come down on the town from the southwest, staying on the hills where only the mortars could spot them for their own fire or the OBA. With no leaders stacked with the mortars, they could only spot for themselves, but their own fire with self-spotting was of more value than the OBA anyway. When the French actually prepared for their attack, the Italians were able to demoralize the stack lead by the French Captain, but the Comandant and the rest of the troops moved into position northwest of the town to start their assault next turn. It was then that the Italians got really lucky, or the French just ran out of their luck, as the stack lead by the Commandant was hit with a 12 result, followed by a 2 for leader loss, hence the title for this article. With the mediocre morale of the French force, this was one of the first times the decapitation, mixed with the loss of an officer equivalent to a Major, had an effect on my games. Half of the other leaders failed their morale checks, including the 7-0-0 LT that was adjacent to the Commandant, and while the Commandant hex got chewed up good, the LT's stack felt the wrath of adjacent hex fire from the Italian AT gun, which could have been far worse had another really high or low number have been rolled. The assault stalled, the French LT fled, leaving a bunch of leaderless troops milling about just outside the town until another leader could take over, and as that other LT came into play, things looked just for a few turns like the luck was turning around, as the French succeeded in taking the southern town hex, chasing the Italians back into the northeast town hex, where the Italians succeeded in regrouping. The force in the western town hex held and nibbled away at French forces until there was nothing left there, and the French in the southern hex became a bit foolhardy when OBA and mortar fire demoralized or disrupted the Commandante's force, charging in but losing the initial assault turn. The Italians regained their morale faster then the French, and the loss of French Moroccan troops began to make it nearly impossible for their ever taking the town. The Sergeant with the guns was hit fairly early as well, and another extremely lucky combination of rolls ended up killing off the wagon and gun that he was stacked with, leaving the other wagon and gun to sit and ponder their choices for a bit before they chose to skirt the visibility and range of the Italian mortars. To the east, the troops with the HMGs made slow progress, while the mortars set up in a good spot to cover the attempts of their comrades in town. The mortars of both sides ended up spending much of the game exchanging fire, and the Italians lost the duel, with both mortar units fleeing back out of cover and then being hit by a very good OBA shot, destroying both demoralized units in one shot. As the French in town were wearing down to nothing, and the number of turns left that it would take the HMGs and guns to move north and have any effect on trying to take a hill top showed that they couldn't get there in time, let along have an even chance of taking a hill, I called the game. No victory conditions were met by the French, and more than 5 steps were eliminated, for a major Italian victory. Great game.