The Brits decide to defend only the eastern ridgeline in order to spread out to attempt to prevent he Italian's from breaking through and exploiting east. Their main effort is in the north to block the the only road heading east. The cent, if not engaged will adjust toward the Italian area of attack.

The Italians launch their main attack with most of their infantry supported by L6.40 Light Tanks while one company of infantry supported by the L3/35 Tankettes attack the southern portion of the defense to either fix the Brits in place or breakthrough if possible.

The Italians have artillery and air support.

The attack jumps off well with the tanks and tankettes in the lead while the guns take up a position on the west ridge to support by fire. The infantry moves to their attack positions under British mortar fire that has little effect. Both Italian forces hit the British line before noon. Immediately the northern attack suffered heavy casualties from the well dug in UK troops but the southern force has success and appears to be about to break through.

However, just before 1 PM the northern Italians rally and hit the British line again in a more coordinated infantry assaults' with tanks and artillery. The British line in the north break and the Italians look to break through and clear the road. In the south however, the brits rally and halt the Italian attack.

The brit center reacts as planned and manages to set up a second line of defense along the road in the valley behind the ridgeline. The UK machineguns hammer the Italian infantry coming over the ridge. the in the south, the brits fall back and stubbornly halt the Italian infantry. The afternoon sees see-saw fighting and neither side is clear who is winning. The surviving Italian tanks in both sectors break through and head off map and the Italian infantry almost clear the road but one stalwart Brit Platoon holds out as the other two fall to intense Italian airstrikes and artillery bombardment. The UK commander is killed which causes disruption in the British chain of command. In the end the British suffer too high casualties and the Italian tanks gain the needed breakthrough for an Italian victory.

This scenario was great fun as it was never clear who was going to win. It went right down to the wire. But the Italians getting off five steps of tanks (which count double for the required ten steps) ended up being decisive. This was possible by artillery and assaults taking out the two Brit 2 Lbr AT Guns early in the game.

Starting a play through of 3 British lieutenants and 3 Italian Tenente in the attack on Eygpt in the early part of the war. The British lieutenants were Wright, White and Roberts. Lt. Wright is a good leader from the start, he is a natural 9-1-1 leader with mortar/artillery skills as well as serving initial in the cavalry unit. Lt. White is an average leader 8-0-0 with skills in survival and commanding AT guns. Lt. Roberts is also average with 8-0-0 and has urban assualt skills and commanding convoys with advanced driver skills.

For the Italian leaders, Tenente Gallo is slighly better than average 8-0-1 with rural assault and pathfinder skills. Tenente Costa is slighly below average 7-0-1 with rifle comba and endurance skills. Tenente Lombardi is better than average at 9-0-0 having mortar / artillery and endurance skills.

In the scenario the Italians have crossed the border and attacking the first line of defense for Eygpt. Britsh regulars from the Coldstream Guards are manning the line. Their line stretches' across a ridge perpendicular to desert road that the Italians could use for their line of attack. Dug in on the ridge the company size unit has limited heavy weapons, just there organic 3-inch mortars and 2-pdr AT guns. The three lieutenants serve with the captain as well as the battalion major is on the line to help command.

For the Italian force a reinforced set of two companies are tasked to penetrate the British line and drive as far as possible. They have attached L3/35 and L6/40 tanks as well as organic 81mm mortars and off map support of 90mm battery and aircraft. The Tenentes serve with the company captain as well as the regiment's Major in overall command.

The Italian attack must eliminate British units and get units off to the map to the east. The approach will be along the desert road and once contact is made a broad front attack with an assault group to hit the weakest point once artillery and aircraft have reduced the resistance.

The first hour has the Italians moving down the road to the east in mixed groups of infantry and armor. The guns and mortars trail and will move the first ridge to prepare for firing on the British position. Once over the first ridge, the Italians form two assault groups to attack the British position. Artillery and aircraft attack knock out the first AT Gun dug in on the road. Lt. White barely survives the attack with Tenete Gallo's force moves to assault his position. Mortar fire from Lt. Wrights units to the south slow Gallo's force, but Tenente Costa moves to the north and assualts' the north end of the British line. Tenete Lombardi is in charge of the mortars and guns and commences bombardment. Intial success cause British casualties rise bend the British line but it does not break it. Lt. Roberts is killed in one of the air attacks on the road.

Costa and Gallo suffer heavy losses over time and they both demoralize and retreat. The company Captain needed to come forward to lead the attack, but he to is demoralized. British luck turns as the Italian attacks fail and the British can reestablished the line on the reverse side of the hill away from the Italian artillery.

The southern end of the British line is hit by mixed force of L3/35s and infantry. The other AT gun is able to knock out several L3/35 before they can get up the hill. Infantry charge in an lock up the tanks as the mortars peel away the infantry support. Eventually the Italian force is stopped and it has to retreat.

In the end it is a British win with 32CP to 10CP for the Italians. Lt' Roberts is killed while Lt. White performs poorly with several morale failures. He will look to redeem the next scenario. Lt. Wright performs well enough to get mentioned in dispatches and gains urban assault skills. For the Italians, both Gallo an Costa have poor experiences and will need to redeem the next scenario. Tenente Lombardi performs well as artillery director for the scenario, scoring several key hits in the initial attack, but he does not participate in the assaults' and limits his advancment.

On to the next...

This scenario begins Vince and I's early Desert war campaign played without leader characters with a few campaign and scenario victory condition adjustments. I have played all of the 'King's Officers' desert war scenarios once before but shared plays are a different matter and will likely have far different results and outcomes.

This first battle with the Italian invasion of Egypt went quite differently than my solo play. The British set up first with a very modest defending force attempting to prevent Italian forces from getting past the Egyptian border of the east edge. Control of the road was one of the objectives, worth more to the Italians than the British so I set up most of the defending force there, dug-in, in the north with a few INF closer to the center and brens loaded with 2-pdrs directly center to anticipate the movement of the tankette "cans of beans" otherwise known as L3/35s and L6/40s. Vince took a logical approach knowing that getting a potential 50+ steps (and victory points) off the east edge was far more important than trying to gain control of a road worth a mere 10 VPs. So he set up his force's units as far from the road and to the south as possible making the first few turns a race. Honestly I don't know what the best deployment for the British could of been and I couldn't very well leave the road unguarded but perhaps should of placed just a token force there with more units central to move more quickly to where the Italian invasion would actually begin.

Surprisingly, despite the overall predictiment, the British did have some luck with a lot of the initiative rolls and got full use out of the 2-pdrs by incredibly eliminating 3 steps of L3/35s early on but that favor was repaid with the more tankish L6/40s taking out both of my bren carriers that had moved in too close chasing down the horde. I did manage to get my foot units to cut-off a sizeable portion of the advancing/exiting force and did manage to keep them cordoned off from getting further. There was a lot of battle going on for the second half but the Italains did have the advantage of superior on-board and off-board artillery and one aircraft each turn. Honestly, I think the British did quite well considering being at an overall firepower disadvantage. I was able to keep a lot of Italian units and leaders in disrupted or demoralized condition. Soon though, both 2-pdrs were eliminated along with my only source of indirect fire, the 3-inch mortar. I would also lose 3 steps of INF along with a Lieutenant before this little battle was finished. I did manage to eliminate 4 steps of Italian INF through assaults but even that was difficult to manage.

In the end though it was a clear, major Italian victory with 30 Italian steps exited with relative ease added to 8 British step losses for a total of 38 Italian victory points. The British received a modest 5 VPs for keeping control of the road and inflicting only a mere 10 Italian step losses for a total of 15 VPS giving Vince a 23 point lead in this campaign. Other than blundering with the bren carriers, driving right into range of AT fire I believe I did fairly well considering my initial deployment and Vince's entry points. I think that the scenario would have to favor the Italians just a hint as they should be able to start this war off with some sort of success or else there would be no need of cause for the upcoming 'Operation Compass' in response. The practical choice of the Italians avoiding gaining control of the road made the difference between a major and minor victory or draw with Italian VPs gained and this being a campaign it's the amount of points that matter. I gave this shared play a '3' rating though solo I had rated it a bit higher previously and when played with the leader characters months ago. The only reason I didn't rate it a '4' this time was because I believe Italy has a heavy advantage though not overwhelming. Still, personally and against a crafty and experianced axis player this was chock full of action and hope to get the Brits in gear to go on the offensive in the next battle and balance, if not actually tip the scales.

"Sorry, Can't Stop, We Are Invading Egypt"

This 16 turn game was played in 2 sessions over Skype against Nebelwurfer, totalling about 6 hours play. It is the first of 9 scenarios that represent a desert campaign in North Africa between 1940-41. Each of the 9 scenarios are a seperate entity of a battle from that which follows thereafter. This campaign has a scenario for Italy's opening move towards Egypt, Op Compass, Bardia, 2 x Tobruk, Beda Fomm, El Ageila, Op Brevity and Halfaya Pass all follow this one. The campaign features for the Axis mainly Italians against a mixed bag of British Empire forces. VP's are awarded each game and the sum of the 9 games can be totalled to detrmine a winner. For each scenario, we are using a 30% greater score of VP's as a minor victory and a 50% more as a major win. The same applies for the campaign as a whole.

This opening battle has the Italian 10th Army 'gloriously' advancing into Egypt. The Italians score points for exiting troops at the other end of the half-map and controlling the one main road. Their opponents, The Coldstream Guards score points for having at least one hex of the road and keeping Italian exit steps to less than 10. Both sides score points for eliminating enemy steps.

The Guards set-up with nearly all their infantry on their right flank dug-in on the first hill line and across the east-west road. On their left flank was posted 2 batteries of 2pdrs, and a section of mortars. In the middle were just 2 x INF platoons. Seeing these dispositions, the Italian commander decided against a head on attack along the road against well-motivated and well-trained Kings Guardsmen. Let them have the road was the attitude. Instead, the Italians pushed ahead from the far left flank of the British forces, deciding that their thinly protected tankettes could brave the 2pdrs and that their infantry could do their best to out run a British redeployment and get most of them Egypt bound.

At 1000 hours to the singing of "Italia, Italia", Mussolinis new Roman legions entered and pushed west in attempt to bypass the British left flank. The Italians also immediately deployed their 2 x mortar platoons and 75mm artillery battery which would be used to harry any British attacks on the advancing Italian infantry and tankettes. Unfortunately, these guards and their AT guns were pretty well-drilled and the 2pdrs soon took out a step of L3/35's that were lumbering along. The demoralised survivors soon about turning and making their way to the Italian rear..... They never returned to battle! By 1030 hours, the Italian on-field artillery had zeroed in on the meanly accurate 2pdrs on the ridge and destoyed one of the two batteries. But this was not before the same 2pdrs had completely destroyed another and complete L3/35 unit. There was just no place for these thin-sheeted slithers of metal to hide and the experience must have been terrifying for them. To their credit, the remaining platoon of L3/35's and 2 x platoons of L6/40's manfully pressed on up the ridge and away from the determined surviving 2pdr battery.

By 1100 hours, the Italian infantry advance was in full flow with the southern part of the ridge scaled and yomped over. To their left, the Coldstream Guards were rushing from their initial positions on the road to try and cut some of this force off from the main body. The Italians were forced to detach their HMG platoons as they were just too slow to make the dash. In the longer run, this probably helped a little elsewhere as will be seen. The British Guards laid down some good accurate rifle fire and this too caused some stragglers amongst the Italian foot troops as some disruption and demoralisation set in some units.

By 1130 the British began to get bolder as they saw a large part of the Italian force now nearing the map edge. They thrusted their 2 x sections of Bren Carriers forward to try and cause mayhem, probably in the belief that the lightly armed L6/40's would struggle to cause harm to them. But at 800 yards, and having a bit of time to hand before having to move again, the L6/40's fired a salvo (both needing to roll 10's in PG terms). Their gunnery was perfect and both sections of Brens came to a shuddering halt as they were picked off and destoyed by the tankette fire. With that, the British seemed to sayisfy themselves in concentrating on picking off enemies that had failed to make the dash. Therefore, the Guards attention now turned to these heavier ladened stragglers or disordered enemies. To help with their comrades survival, the on-board Italian artillery started to bombard the attacking Guards. A well aimed bombardment removed a step from 2 such platoons about to assault Italian disrupted machine guns. Like the MG's, these Tommies themselves were disrupted and demoralised, with some survivors fleeing back to the main road.

The final 8 turns became a struggle for survival for the remaining Italians and a desperate attack by the Guardsmen. Slowly, the Italians generally retieved their cohesion and it was their HMG's that were unable to exit that were used in effect to protect what remained on board. One Italian infantry platoon was assaulted by twice their number of Guardsmen and although holding out for an hour, they eventually succumbed and were completely overpowered. To balance that up, the aforementioned fleeing guards platoon was eradicated by Italian artillery and mortars and Italian OBA accounted for another 1/2platoon. Another Guards assault finished off a second Italian infantry platoon, but once more, the Italians countered by destroying the British mortar section and using withering fire to force the final 2pdr crew to flee its guns. Italian planes stalking overhead also had a slight say in causing some of the British problems. Over the final 8 turns (2 hours), both sides succeeded overall in inflicting another 4 steps each on each other. The Italian guns were never harmed.

The Italian force exited 3 plns of tankettes (12pts)and 9 x plns of infantry (18pts). They had inflicted 8 steps of casualties on the Guards for a game total of 38pts. The British, quite flimsily held the road, despite the HMG unit there receiving some unfriendly bombardments and air-strikes and so gained 5pts. They inflicted 10 steps of casualties on the enemy (3 x AFV, 4 x INF). Both sides lost a LT each (0pts). The final game score therefore was Italy 38pts, Britain 15pts for a major Italian victory. The 38/15 points score will now be carrried over to total with scenario #2's result. This incidentally will be a representation of Op Compass, the British offensive. I expect the Italians to have to cling on in the next one and perhaps have their time at taking a bashing. Therefore, their 23pt lead will be something they will be keeping an eye on and trying to allow minimal damage to.

I score this scenario a '3'. Normally it would have been a '2' because, despite 1 x Brit win being shown on PGHQ, this really should be an Italian victory and as a one off scenario would be unbalanced. The only thing that should be decided is the points advantage the Italians end up with. However, on this occassion, as it is designed to sit with 8 other scenarios where many favour one side or the other, it should be judged like that. With that in mind, the husbanding by both commanders of their points totals in the last 8 turns was something quite refreshing and obviously something that needs to be considered for the campaign overall totals. You can't just concede in these campaign games, they have to be seen out to the end. That made for some indulging and intriguing play, so '3' it is :-)

I admit a fondness for European Axis forces that didn't speak German. Not because they were allied with a vicious genocidal partner but because they often seem comical in their ineptitude. Fronte Russo makes it clear that, at times, the Italian army could be the equal of their partner in crime. Afrika Korps, however tends to focus in the other direction. The King's Officers gives one the chance to see if it had to be that way.

The first scenario provides three fledgling Italian leaders the chance to beat up some Brits. The Italians have armor (sort of) perfect for running off the edge of the map for victory purposes while the Coldstream Guards have, um, uh... better morale, at least until they are all shot up.

The Italians focus their attention on the road, as the only territorial objective other than exiting units. They lose some tank(ette)s to the British AT fire which is quickly hammered by OBA leading to assaults and overwhelming force being aimed at insufficient defense. Add to that the fact that the British leader characters who could have helped spent most of the scenario trying to recover morale. The Italians shot up 15 steps of British forces (most from hammering demoralized troops) while the British only managed three steps of infantry/artillery and two tank.

The final campaign score was 41-7 as most of the remaining Italian tanks left the board while the infantry continued to attack the British.

One Italian leader actually managed two medals in one scenario and still managed to avoid promotion. Another got one medal and the third seemed to have been lost on the battlefield.

None of the British leaders had much positive to say. One actually had a negative LP total while two others were barely positive and none made it to "mentioned in dispatches".

It should be noted that this is the likely and somewhat desired result. The scenario introduction and conclusion make it clear that there really wasn't much of an objective to the Italian attack on Egypt except to attack Egypt, therefore great results from such a promising start aren't expected.