Brett & Vince's C&C Kings Officers 1940-41 Campaign Diary

[vince hughes]

One other thing.

How are the commanders feeling ?

It appears both seem quite happy at present with this battle's situation.

The British commander is confident of the win and feels well placed (I believe). The Italian, though losing the battle is keeping it at a level in Campaign terms that is acceptable.

[Brett Nicholson]

With 9 turns left to go the main attack on the larger hill is getting worn down and starting to dissolve but with some luck, if the smaller, southwestern hill can be taken quickly enough then those forces may be able to link up and reinforce the others further north. But time is running out. Colonel Blimpty is not faring so well attempting to hold the front lines together and the overall British commander has taken ill from a bad batch of battlefield grog but nonetheless satisfied with the results thus far; especially with losses being a lot lighter than expected.

The battle so far has been successful for the British but not quite a "shock and awe" rollover. There aren't too many "easy" targets left but I did notice that one platoon of L6/40s have edged in a little too close to the Rolls Royce and MkVIs, threatening to attempt relief of the smaller hill. But the A10 tanks have caught sight of that so there may be one final armored showdown before this one is finished. I think we will both be happy with the outcome of this one but the real trial will be with Bardia on the horizon; facing actual entrenchments rather than dug-in units.

[vince hughes]

"there may be one final armored showdown before this one is finished."

Showdown usually implies that both sides are having a go at each other LOL .......... Gunfight at OK Corral, Waterloo. My Can o' Beans L3 would have trouble up against the Brady Bunch !

Good scenario from a Campaign angle and more points to be earned and lost here and there and no doubt the odd twist and turn next Thursday night :-)

[vince hughes]

Friday night saw the 2nd scenario Op Compass completed with Brett.

We got in 9 turns in fairly short order really. The British completed their attack by taking the 2nd of the small hills but failing to even make contact with the main hill. They were however, pretty hard on the Italians in removing casualties as the game closed, and managed an extra 9pts by this means in the last 4 turns.

It was not a bad game which perhaps slightly fell away from the Italians in those last 4 turns. I would have been happy with a 15pt deficit, but had to end up accepting a 20pt deficit in a 45-25 result.

Our full AAR's are listed in the HQ under the 'Op Compass' scenario listing.

Campaign Score After 2 Scenarios is: Italy 63, Britain 60

We begin scenario 3 on the 15th Feb as we head for Bardia

[Brett Nicholson]

I'm going to have to whip my Aussie Sheilas into shape for Bardia coming up. Sure to be an all out ditch-jumping, trench-raiding, brain bashing and gut knitting brawl.

[vince hughes]

A good point raised by Nebelwerfer on a comment to my AAR on this site about the campaign aspect of the game.

I mentioned that the British never really made an attack on the main hill. Brett stated that with the campaign points aspect, it was not 'cost-effective' to launch the attack with the weakened line due to the points I might gain and therefore, carrying those points forward.

This raises another good point about the campaign itself. That being had it been a one-off game, Brett may have tried his luck as there were not many repercussions for a mini failure and he would still have won the game. However, in the long term campaign, those points he might have gifted to the Italians, although they would not have won the battle, the points would have been forever included in the campaign tally. This shows another form of realistic aspect about the decision making in these battles.

Also, though I have said it before, i really do like having to play to the last turn. It tests the mettle a bit more because if you are losing, it is now important to try to lessen the defeat or make the best of a bad situation as the winning side tries to rack up points. No longer can you just say "I concede now". The end game delivers the final ACTUAL state of play.

I will admit that when I bought the 2 x C&C books, I did think, as they were not actual encounters but rather based on actual encounters, that I would probably not use them. This campaign with Brett is providing a lot of interest for me, and whats more, I'll soon be starting the same thing (without leader progression again) with Matt.W. but using the C&C1 book, Op Barbarossa. Its certainly adding to the PG experience.

[Brett Nicholson]

I'm glad that the campaign format for "The King's Officers" suits you and hopefully others will get involved with the C&C series; whether they use the leader characters or not. When I purchased it my funds were low and I needed something low cost and that would be playable with the two desert war boxed sets that I already owned. In this case I could play out 17 of the 18 scenarios in it with 'Afrika Korps' and 'Desert Rats' alone. I also like the fact that it is not just one big campaign scenario alone, like 'Cassino 44' for instance, that the two desert war campaigns are broken down into scenario segments. I mean if you foul one scenario up early-on or midway through there is still hope to finish off well. If it were one long campaign scenario with 100-200 turns then I could see where one player could easily give up if things go south and concede early.

Also, I like that it is somewhat A-historical but not with ridiculous "what if" stituations. That it is loosely based on the actual events but still somewhat realistic. Also, the Italians gradually get better forces with better morale as the scenarios progress; whether it is Bersaglieri INF and MG units or Germans. Plus there are units used by both sides that are not used much from the boxed sets like the Italian AB-41 armored car or the British Bishop self-propelled artillery which was not used previously in either AK or DR. Instead of L3/35s the Italians get the L6/40s which actually were able to eliminate one of my Bren carriers in the first scenario. Also, I like the use of the AK and DR maps in this series. Anyway, once again, I am glad that this campaign is suiting you so far Vince. I am both dreading and anticipating the 'Bardia' scenario soon to come next month, I can promise you that whatever the case it won't be boring for either one of us!

[vince hughes]

Scenario 3 "BARDIA" - Session 1

Scenario 3 of this 9 scenario kicked off today and it represents a high-moraled (8/8) Australian trench attack under the cover of early morning darkness against lesser moraled Italians (7/6) defending in 5 entrenchments and others dug-in. The Australians are a mainly infantry force with some bren-carriers. The Italisns, apart from infantry have a collection of 4 x AT guns and a bit of artillery.They can also place 7 x AT ditches which they use to sabotage the roads and tracks to negate their movement.

At 0530 hours (turn 1) the Australians entered buttragedy came early. With only a night vision of 1 hex for the first 3 turns, a bren-carrier carrying an HMG platoon drove up the track right into an Italian AT unit. These were despatched in their entirity with an AT shot causing a 3 step loss. Brett may say otherwise, but I think this early shocker put him off his stride for the rest of the session and the Aussie command seemed to be put out of its stride.The rest of the Aussie force entered at full speed in linear formation. Turn 2 was bloodless, but ended quickly. All the Aussies had time to do was redeploy their bren force whilst the infantry stood still in the darkness. At 0600, the Australian units with the Brens took their revenge and eliminated the offendingAT gun from turn 1.

The Australian infantry were now once more advancing toward the Italian hedge-hog trench position, but by 0630, with light slowly creeping in, they suffered 2 steps of INF lost to Italian OBA. OBA was now being 'exchanged' and casualties were being taken. The Italians losing no less than 3 pieces of artillery and an INF step. The Australian firing line that they had formed had taken a further 3 steps themselves. Disruption and some demoralisation was also suffered by both sides.

As we ended turn 9 (of 16) the Australians had suffered 8 steps and the Italians 5 steps. The Australians have the tried and tested Commonwealth firing line ahead of the Italian positions and they continue to pour DF into the enemy tenches and dug-outs. For their part, the Italians continue to cause disorder to frustrate the Australians. This one should finish in the next session.

[Brett Nicholson]

That initial loss of the Bren carrier loaded with the platoon of HMGs really did set me off balance. It really could of been avoided if I had sent infantry first to scout out what lay ahead and I had them available nearby. Playing with hidden AT guns does add a bit of realism to the game. Then losing that one potential activation on the second turn from fog of war only made things worse as I needed the cover of darkness while it was briefly available to get my forces close to the Italian lines. Instead I was too concerned with the one spotter and getting rid of that 47mm gun.

I knew once visibilty increased that Italian OBA was going to make a mess of my attacking line combined with the on-board artillery, which it did. Now going into turn 10 there are all sorts of demoralized Aussie units strewn about the map, easy prey for OBA and will likely be tallied up as casualties as it would require a lot of activations just to attempt to rally them as spread out as they are. So the best I can do to respond is by trying to take out a few more Italian guns maybe but time is running out and it doesn't seem likely that any assaults will materialize on the entrenchments. The Australian main attack line has been shattered and become more and more disorganized. I predict that most likely I will end up losing at least two steps for every one that I inflict on the Italians for the remainder of the battle and there is no doubt that it will end in a major Italian victory. However there are still six battles left of this campaign and going into this one just down by 3 CPS doesn't make the situation hopeless. The difference is that when I played these first three scenarios solo the outcome was the same except that the Commonwealth are taking a lot more step losses this time around!

[vince hughes]

As the Italian, I'm dreading the Beda Fomm scenario !