1530 hrs, 6 December 1934: Ethiopian Omar Samantar, Ali Nur Mercenaries and Fitawrari Alemaio Regulars (green and red troops) move out into Italian Somaliland in an attempt to capture the a fort occupied by the Dubat Presidium (tan troops). Two companies of Dubat troops, lead by Italian officers move to intercept the Ethiopians. The disputed border conflict turns hot.

1630 hrs: The Ethiopians press the attack on two axis. the units approaching from the west hit the Somaliland defense line and try to fix and flank the position. The units approaching from the south are hit by Italian aircraft which breaks up the advance somewhat and then they collide with the defense line set up to delay them. An Italian Armored Car and Tankette show up and fire into the flank for the Ethiopians to little effect. The Somaliland defenders put up a good fight but start to run out of ammunition (marked by smoke counters) and will have to fall back to the fort for resupply.

1715 hrs: As the sun begins to set the Ethiopians close in on the fort. The West group pushes back the Somaliland defenders to just outside the fort. the southern group gets bogged down fighting the small Somaliland force sent to halt them. Italian air breaks up and scatters some of the attacking force, especially the Provincial Irregulars who broke through and almost outflanked the force. The air power may prove decisive. The Italian tankette and armored car move through the Ethiopians to head west toward their came to attack it.

1815 hrs: Night has fallen and the Ethiopian attack on the fort has begun. The mercenaries (red counters) managed to flank the fort in the east and have entered the fort but have yet to gain a foot hold. The Ethiopian regulars have had a tough go at the wets and north parts of the fort with the defender, many who have just fallen back into the fort, shooting up the advance to good effect. Elsewhere around the fort, the Ethiopians mop up Somali defenders caught in the initial attacks or try to rally troops scattered by Italian air attacks. But to the west, the Italian armored car and tankette have approached the Ethiopian camp and prepare to attempt to infiltrate the camp. Time is running out for both sides to achieve their objectives (four turns left)

1915 hrs: The last hour brings furious night fighting as the Ethiopians assault the fort while the Italian armor attempts to break into the Ethiopian camp. The Ethiopian mercenaries size the east part of the fort (later abandon it to chase down and kill Somalis). Both sides suffer in the fort as the Ethiopians storm the entire fort but they cannot gain control of most of it. The fight turns into a a raw attempt to to see who can kill the most. The Italian Armored car and tankette fight their way into the camp assaulting a dug-in mercenary platoon but only disrupt them. The Ethiopian regulars counter attack and flip over the tankette and pull out the hapless Italian crew and spear them to death.

Both sides meet their minor victory conditions (Italians: hold at least one fort hex; Ethiopians, kill more enemy steps than they lose) after both sides pushed to get their major victory conditions but failed. The last half of the final turn was blood sport to stop the Ethiopians from gaining their minor VC. Although a draw, it was an exciting last four turns.

Conquest of Ethiopia, scenario #2: Prelude: The Wal Wal Incident

A nice looking, odd situation, scenario. I had to play this, it just looked too cool, 4 maps, the victory conditions where both sides can defend or attack, or both. I the Ethiopians have to go conquer Italian forts or eliminate more Italian steps then they lose. The Italians can win by holding one fort hex or by going and conquering one Ethiopian encampment hex. So certainly the Ethiopian side has it harder and must take more risk. Both sides get reinforcements but the Italian get a lot of air-support and some light armor, as the Ethiopian have a ton of Infantry type of units including Imperial Regulars & Provincial Irregulars but the Italian led Colonial troops (Dubats) (BAN) have a much better morale.

The battle is spread out over all four maps, so there is a lot of movement. In fact the first shots fired didn’t happen until turn four by the Italian air-force. The Ethiopians move a little over half of their forces forward to go after the Italian forts while still leaving a large portion behind to defend their encampment hexes which are many. Somewhere In the middle of the map the Italians and Ethiopians do battle, then the Ethiopians enforcements enter from the south and the Italian L3/35 & Lancia armored car enter from the east. Separate groups spread-out throughout the maps doing battle.

In the end the huge amounts of Italian air-power was telling and the low morale of the Ethiopians was hard to recover unit. This game needed more Demoralized & Disrupted counters. The Italians controlled three out of the four fort hexes and only needed to control one for a minor victory. They attempted to get at least one Ethiopian encampment hex for a major victory but failed and by chance lost the Lancia armored car units to the only gun unit on the map, a 37mm IG. The Italians didn’t want to lose their minor victory and pulled back their unsupported L3/35 out of harm’s way. The Italians lost 8 steps while the Ethiopians lost 9 steps and had many more demoralized, so they did not fulfill any victory conditions. The Italians win a minor victory.

I maybe should have not saved so many resources protecting the Ethiopian encampment hexes but still, those forts are difficult to conquer with low morale units and the Italian air-force pounding them in the open desert. But I love playing this wide open scenario and unique situation and would even be willing to play it again.

Poor tactics crush the Italian chances in this one. A medium-size force of Dubats with copious amounts of 1934-era air support and the chance of some light armor arriving late are trying to hold a four-hex fort against a large force of Ethiopian regulars with some Provincial Irregular help. Half of the Italian garrison marches out of the fort to delay the Ethiopian advance, but are hindered by their own short range weapons (1 hex)and an ammunition shortage. The Ethiopian forces swarm the Dubats; they have enough leaders to recover any disrupted or demoralized assault troops and plenty of fresh troops to keep feeding into the assaults on the advance guard, and in half an hour the Italian advance guard is eliminated. The Italians can cause disruptions, but don't have the firepower or the range to kill anything. Armor reinforcements show up too late to help defend against the final assault on the fort. All in all, a nice lesson on how to handle a force with inferior morale in an offensive.

This scenario reminds me of the old 1939 black & white movie Beau Geste starting Gary Cooper, where FFL troops are defending a fort in the desert against overwhelming odds waiting for reinforcements to arrive, in this scenario it’s the Italians waiting for air and armor support. The Italian game plan was to pull back all their forces to the fort, those units which could not stack in the fort dug-in on the flanks. This enabled the Italian forces to concentrate at the primary objective & be closer to their ammo supply if needed.

The Ethiopian player won the initiative for the first seven turns & made a mad dash for the fort with most of the Imperial Regulars and two companies of Provincial Irregulars, while leaving the IG & two HMGs to guard the encampment supported by an infantry company.

These forces were just short of the border between map 89 & 90 when they heard the drone of aircraft coming in from the Northeast, thus began several turns of concentrated aerial bombardment which caused a few step losses but more importantly demoralized about half the attacking force. The Degiac & his Metoaleqa rallied what troops they could & kept moving towards the fort, looking to attack it from the northwest.

The Italian armored reinforcements arrived on time only to fall on the flank of the Ethiopian forces coming up from the south, they caused a few units to rout before moving into the Ethiopian rear harassing the disrupted & demoralized units trying to recover from the air attacks.

As night fell the Italian air support had trouble finding any targets (3 out of 5 turns no air support) which gave the battered Ethiopian forces an opportunity to close with the fort. They over ran one dug-in hex outside the fort & had forces attacking from the Northwest & Southeast but they did not have the strength or morale to assault the fort outright.

The key to this victory was the decision to pull back the Italian forces to defend the fort, the devastating air support & the Italian mobile forces wreaked havoc on the demoralized units in the Ethiopian rear, causing several units to be eliminated due to failing morale checks & others to retreat further west looking for a safe hex. Then the Lancia broke into the enemy encampment & defeated an attempt to dislodge it.

The second scenario of CoE was actually a prelude and serves as one of the earliest dated scenarios in the PG universe (December 6, 1934).

This scenario represents some of the pre-invasion border tension between the Italian colonial forces and the Army of Ethiopia. After weeks of posturing, armed conflict ensued, serving as the cause (excuse) for the Italian invasion.

In this scenario, a large force of Ethiopian Regulars and provincial irregular mercenaries attack an Italian border fort in the disputed area between Ethiopia and Italian Somalia. The Italian colonials are heavily outnumbered and short on ammo, but their morale is superior and their positions are all dug in or fortified.

The Ethiopians attacked on a broad front, led by the Irregulars (Ali Nur Mercenaries). The Ethiopian battle plan called for the mercs to lead the advance, absorb casualties and protect the regulars long enough to close the gap between their start point and the Italian defenses. They got off well, advancing quickly and maintaining good order as they closed in on the entrenched colonials. Fortunately for the Italians, just as the Ethiopians came into view, the air force became available and struck with incredible accuracy and ferocity. Over the course of 6 turns, each of the Ethiopian assault columns were disrupted by well placed direct fire. While casualties were minimal, the brittle morale of the Ethiopians made attack coordination exceedingly and increasingly difficult. The Italians were even able to shift over to the offensive and turned the Ethiopian defeat into a rout, harrying the Ethiopians with their armored cars.

These early war scenarios lack OBA or any kind of effective fire against tanks or aircraft. The technological advantage of Italian arms would continue to reign supreme and would eventually deliver Ethiopia into the Italian sphere of influence, but not without heavy losses in battles yet to come.

This is a weird scenario.

To win, the Ethiopian’s have to move across two boards to assault an Italian fort. The entire game is only 18 turns long, and half of that is at night.

The Ethiopian morale is pathetic, being 6/6 for regulars and 6/5 for irregular troops. So, they break early and often. Also, the Italians get three planes per turn from turns 4-14, then two planes each turn 2 planes per turn. Never mind that it’s night from turn 10 on. So, the Italians planes can strike at night, with accuracy? In 1935?

And, the Italians get some tankettes on a roll of 5-6 starting on turn 4.

In any case, this wasn’t close. The Ethiopians were devastated by the air attacks, and only managed a few shots at the fort before being driven off.

While interesting, the replay value is marred by the one sidedness to the scenario.

This scenario required 3 sessions to complete, with me playing the Italians and the colorful and daring, Tambu, commending the Ethiopian side. An interesting set of victory conditions in which either side has the option to attack or defend - and with lots of room for maneuver around forts and Ethiopian encampments. Their are reinforcements for either side, including lots of Italian air-support. As in many other PG scenarios, there is a premium on maintaining an effective, mobile reserve for both sides.

The Ethiopians chose a split strategic approach with a large force of infantry going after the Italian forts, and a much smaller portion remaining to defend their scattered encampments. Oddly, all reinforcing groups entered on time, the Ethiopians from the south, and the limited Italian armored contingent from the east. As others have reported, the Italian Air Force and the tiny armored force made all the difference in this play-through. The Italian Dubat infantry proved themselves very tough on defense throughout as waves of brave Ethiopian formations crested, broke an collapsed again and again. At the end, the Italians still controlled 3 of the 4 fort hexes. They also overwhelmed one Ethiopian encampment to secure a major victory. The Italians lost 6 steps while the Ethiopians lost 11 steps and suffered a great many demoralizations, mostly due to air attack.

Indeed, this was a wide open scenario, with many decision points and lots of movement. It was clearly designed to favor the Italian side, was a good historic simulation and fun to play in face-to-face mode. I give this unbalanced scenario a solid 3.