The Axis set up in a crescent around the village facing east with the wire out front. The Allied air strike does nothing except cause a couple of easily passed morale checks. But the Allies do get a +4 result on the Activation roll. They advance down the road with their armor and mounted infantry. The Axis Anti-tank battery misses their shot and some of the Allies infantry are able to follow and dismount in a forward position. The remainder of the Allied infantry dismounted out of Anti-tank gun range. At 1350 the Axis anti-tank battery were able to knock out a whole Stuart platoon for a 4 step loss in one gulp! This lowered the Allied morale to 4. Then at 1345 the Axis reinforcements appeared on their first roll. There after the Allies took a beating. They did manage to assault into the village and cause some Axis casualties with the help of their artillery. But that is as far as they got. With the Axis reinforcements coming up the door got slammed into the Allies face and casualties mounted to 12 steps to the Axis 4. The Axis won the armored battle vs. the Grants and then moved in close to the Allied Infantry assaulting the foxhole line and blasted away. The Allies broke off. Axis victory. This was a really great scenario. There are so many variables that can greatly effect the outcome that both sides are always on the horns of a dilemma. Despite a fair amount of luck for the Axis in the form of the early reinforcement they still could have lost because the fate of the village and the result of the armored battle were not decided until the last gasp. Had the Axis lost either the village or the armored fight this could have had a different outcome.

Of course Bardia would eventually fall later in the evening but the morning belonged to the 10th Army with a marginal victory claimed over commonwealth forces, despite the odds against them.

After being all but decimated during Operation Compass, the Italian army regrouped and dug in for the inevitable seige on it's remaining posts in Libya.

The pre-dawn Aussie assault began slow and tactful -two entrenchments were surrounded by sunrise with an intact chain of command. The Italians constructed their fortified positions in a pentagonal formation with effective 47mm A.T.guns dispersed evenly around their camp, between gaps, dug-in. The anti-tank ditches were of no benefit to either side however -the mobile portion of the Aussie attack force was dropped off in the hills East of the fortifications while the carriers and armored cars drove out of A.T. gun range before dawn and sat the battle out until a safer opportunity would develop to assist the assault later on.

The defending force's casualties began to mount early on but were able to keep bouncing back with incredible, yet tested morale despite the seemingly omnipotent force facing them. Of course artillery support played a huge role for keeping the Aussies in check.

At 07:00/turn 7, high command deemed that some of the trenches were ripe for the picking and the first assault began when the defenders seemed disrupted and demoralized enough -they were half-right. Three-quarters of first units assaulted were eliminated initially after being reinforced but one half-strength platoon of INF remained defiant until the end, showing unheard-of bravery for forces expected to buckle under and surrender. Their Tenente, without a morale modifier, was able to keep his cool and rally them from demoralization twice and manage to send both a HMG and ENG unit fleeing towards the hills, leaving ony one INF left to carry out the assault. A second Aussie assault fizzled out and ended in a stalemate. A third assault was ready to spring on a machine-gun nest about to cave in but by then time had run out and the assault was called off at 09:15.

When all the smoke cleared the Italians retained control of all five trenches. The disgruntled Aussie force fired off a few remaining artillery rounds on hapless and exposed demoralized units for a final act of attrition to compensate for their failed foray and were unable to pull a victory from their Digger's hats.

The Italian victory was borderline and in the grand scheme of the overall campaign, the British and Commonwealth forces were still winning this war by 18 V.P.s. reaped from the profits of Operation Compass earlier in the year. The 10th Italian Army would face the 6th Australian Division again very shortly in their defense of Tobruk -more would be asked of them then ....

This was a standard Australian desert trench assault gone wrong again. It seemed like a lot to ask of the Diggers to take five entrenchments in just 3 hour's time. The advance did have the cover of darkness to start but immediately tragedy struck before the main Italian lines were reached when one of my Bren carriers ran smack into a 45mm AT gun. This initial loss was very unnerving as a whole loaded platoon of HMGs were also wiped out. Playing with hidden AT guns and a visibilty of one hex is a very deadly combination but does add a bit more realism to play. No-one's fault but mine as drove right into a well-sprung trap. Then Vince sent one of his annoying forward observers into my advancing line to get some OBA in on my advancing linear formation which succeeded in diverting my attention. Activations got burned up trying to sort the spotter out and reorganizing mobile units when fog of war struck. A whole turn was wasted that should of been used to get in close to the trenches before sunrise. My overall personal morale was seriously damaged from that point early on but still attempted to muster something resembling an attack. Vince and I mostly played the attrition game pounding each other with artillery barrages early on but I was losing an average of two steps to every one of his while the Italian lines continued to hold. With time running out very quickly I got my blood up and did make an assault on the left flank of the lines. One dug-in position was breached but the sole trench attack failed miserably. With nothing to lose Vince poured OBA fire into the assault hex with Aussies atacked three high while his units benefited from the entrenchment defenses. What I did manage to do was even the losses somehow by taking out a lot of soft targets and all field pieces of artillery, the AA gun and all but one of the 47mm AT guns was eliminated. But each held entrenchmant was worth 2 VPs each for Italy and in the end that is what counted. Though this was an Italian victory the losses were exactly 50/50; 13 steps each. It was a Commonwealth failure but I believe that I managed to not lose too badly; I expected things to turn out a lot worse in the end. This campaign is still far from over for Vince and I. Italy is in the lead but only by 13 CPs. So far the first three scenarios of this early desert war camapign have panned out the same as when I played them solo with the leader characters except that Britain is losing a LOT more units than it did before. When I played this before one not Italian entrenchment was taken that time either. It was a nice challenge and feel that I was able to keep my wits together the second part of the battle and at least broke into the Italian lines instead of just continuing to trade back shots of artillery and direct fire. It's a tough one for the Aussies but not impossible to win so it gets a standard "3" rating this time around.

This game was played using Skype over 2 sessions with nebelwurfer and is the third scenario from our 9 scenario campaign game from C&C2. It is a representation of the Australian infantry attacks on Italian fortified positions at Bardia. They have 16 turns to do it

The game starts at night 4 turns before dawn. For the Italians, that means their greatest fear is having the Australians advance on top of their positions pretty unscathed due to night cover. The Italians are issued with 11 INF plns, some MG's, lots of artillery and 7 tank-ditches. I set up the Italians pretty central with the entrenchments just 2 hexes apart in a circular formation. The front obviously bristled with the most punch. Within the circle, dug-in were the Italian guns plus 2 of the 4 AT units. One AT unit was placed 'advanced' 7 hexes from the Australian edge, hidden by night and set up on the track. The other was to the west on a hill there. The AT ditches were placed along the road and track to make it a generally waste of time to use and therefore prolong the time Australians could reach Italian positions. The Australians had 18 INF units supported by HMG's, Brens and 4 x modules of OBA. Their morale was 8/8 against the Italian 7/6, but in this scenario, the Allies had drawn the worst leader selection I'd ever seen the Aussies have. Only 3 of 16 leaders had a beneficial morale modifier.

The Australians entered in the dark and as expected, sent their HMG's on Brens up the tracks. When the first platoon came into the sight of the lone Italian AT unit, they were blasted away losing 3 steps. Worse followed in turn 2 as the Diggers made sure to redeploy their HMG's and Brens to safety. This ate some activations and FOW came before their infantry had moved forward again. This placed them a turn behind schedule and meant the trenches would not be reached in the dark. Turn 3 saw the end of the Italian AT gun and normal service was resumed. Thereafter, for the next 6 turns, it was a case of the Aussies setting up fire lines and bombarding Italian artillery whilst DF'ing at the Italian hedgehog. The Italians meanwhile slung back their own artillery shells and less threatening DF. BY the end of turn 9, Aussie losses had reached 8 steps and the Italians 5 steps. Most of it from on and off board artillery.

After turn 10 the Allies sent their left flank forward in an attempt to crash into the Italian west side. An Italian AT unit was wiped out on the western hill and one of the dug-out positions was in serious strain. This was really to be the pinnacle of the Australian attack. They did tentatively try an assault on one entrenched position and although it inflicted some disorder, their own troops too became disordered. Italian OBA was now throwing caution to the wind and attacking any 3-stacked assaults for max effect. The attempt to take the trenches failed and not one fell into Australian hands. It should be mentioned that from turns 10-16, the Italians also had to choose between trying to knock out fleeing units with OBA for points, or using the OBA to cause chaos on the Australian main line and thus later gaining points for holding trenches. The latter option was chosen and rare was the time the Allies had full control of all their forces.

Both sides lost 13 steps. Italian 5 FOOT, 8 GUNS & 3 OFF, Australian 12 FOOT, 1 APC, 4 OFF. As the Italians still held all 5 trenches, they gained an extra 10pts. The final score therefore was a 23-13 win for Italy. On going campaign score after 3 battles, Italy 86pts, Commonwealth 73pts.

Overall, a pretty standard desert war attack against lesser-moraled Italian defensive position forces including their ubiquitous artillery counters. Nothing wrong with it, nothing special about it, so a middling 3 rating from me.

This is the third scenario in the 1941 campaign in C&C. It is a assault on the desert strong point Bardia by the Australians versus the Italians. In this scenario, three British lieutenants are assigned to the Australian command for the attack. Lt. Wright will be attached to a flanking force while Lt. White and the newly minted Lt. Brown are assigned to the main infantry force rushing the center. Brown is new to North Africa and is an adept leader to direct fire in support of attacks and we will see how he can help the attack at Bardia.

On the Italian side, we start to follow three new Tenentes, Morertti, De Luca and Romano. All three are replacements from the Italian main land army rotated in for North African service. They have been assigned to the outpost to fill in for losses in prior battles. All three are average leaders, but Moretti has FO skills as well as De Luca having worked with artillery. Both are helpful as there is a good amount of artillery to support Bardia. Tenete Romano is a good infantry man with assault and shooting skills.

Bardia is a dugin outpost in the desert with several heavily fortified positions for artillery and infantry defense. The Italians have for an supportive defense with infantry and AT guns facing the British advance and supporting artillery behind. Our new Tenentes are setup within the defense, but Tn. Moretti is in a lone outpost on the top of low hilltop to the southwest.

The Australians start the attack before dawn and advance quickly taking advantage of the dark to close on the forts and dugin Italians. Once close they jump right in the forts and foxholes to close assault the Italians. Soon the Italians respond with artillery and counter assaults stalemating soon of the attacks. The Australian flanking force converges on the southwest hill and attacks Tn. Moretti's foxholes before the can call in artillery. After a short fight the Italians run for the fort and Moretti is demoralized. The flank force, with the British Lt. Wright, continue to move to get to the Italian guns.

Over the course of the next several hours the Australians continue to attack but determined Italian counter attacks drive the Australian casualties, but the forts start to fall as the morale and determination keep the Italians losing ground. The game goes down to the end and even one fort remains in Italian hands, but in the end the Australians win.

The Italian Tenentes all are lost in the battle, two are captured and one killed. Their performances are lack luster before their loss. Disrupting and demoralizing left them with negative numbers despite some artillery hits and assault successes. As for the British Lieutenants, all survived the battle. Lt's Brown and White suffered from disruptions that hurt their performance, but we able to rally and help get some platoons back into battle. Lt. Wright was able to get some performance bonus from his actions. He directed assaults and rallied troops while avoiding disruption and demoralization. Although his performance is good, it is not enough to get promoted to Captain.