Continuing the Indian Unity journey with Wayne Baumber, we played the Sugar Factory as our 5th scenario of the module, making it the half-way point of our goal of completing it. This was a tough situation that Wayne summed up nicely in his AAR. After seeing the setup of the Hyderabadi units, I planned to make a 2 pronged attack with a majority of forces shooting for the bridge and another, smaller force heading for the eastern town via a pontoon bridge.

As in previous scenarios, I setup the Indian attack to try and maximize the command structure so as to move units into positions and fire groups that would attempt to give the best chance for dislodging the Hyderabad dug-in positions. The force tasked with taking the bridge was able to accomplish that fairly quickly but the Hyderabadi Lt. Col. holed up in the town with an HMG and an INF unit and they were able to hold their ground until the end. The Indians did end up taking the eastern part of that town with an assault that involved both CAV and INF units but were never able to move beyond other than a last-ditch charge to inflict more casualties. Losing the armored train on a foolish move on its turn of entry was a punch in the gut as those extra factors would have been very helpful in cutting a path through the Hyderabadis along the rail line.

One of the sapper units with that group laid a pontoon on the far western edge of the board and the Indians were able to get some RIF and CAV units across with supporting INF and HMG fire from the adjacent river banks, demoralizing most of the RAZ units. However, one pest of a RAZ unit held his ground adjacent to the Pontoon and the Indian troops were forced to spend several turns recovering and attempting to drive off that unit. That unit was finally put out of action in one of the last turns.

In the east, the HMG, INF and leader in the town provided a tough nut to crack, finally forcing me to try and use 3 stacks 3 hexes away so that only the HMG could fire at those units. There were several successful disruption attacks but those were soon recovered due to the good leader and town bonuses. The sapper in this group was able to lay a pontoon in the closing turns but it was too little too late to matter.

As Wayne mentioned, the dice were not kind to the Indians, as with as many 7s that were rolled on the far end of the assault and fire charts, we should have attacked Las Vegas instead of the Sugar Factory!

In all, however, it was a good scenario to play and despite the final result, I felt that there was a chance that an Indian victory was achievable. Well worth trying again to see if a better result could be obtained.