Okay, so let me say that, although I lost as the Italians, I was the much more experienced player in the game, and the Ethiopian player was aided by my coaching. That's actually fine with me, as I play the game to have fun, not for any sort of trophy.

I'll also note that we didn't use Fog of War in this one, as I wanted to keep it a bit simpler for my opponent. Who knows if that would have had any effect on things.

I set up the Italians along the hills near their set-up locations, with one 2 HMG hidden at the top of the hill, and an INF hidden in the rocks. The Ethiopians set up for a charge up the gut. We rolled for night visibility and it was only one hex. This was a bit of a problem for the Italians, as I couldn't take any advantage of longer range. Of course, even at 2 hexes, that really would have nullified the advantage. The Ethiopians in the center tried to work around my flank a bit, and put pressure along the Italian line. Suddenly, they stumbled across the hidden HMG who unloaded at point blank range...and missed. On the other flank, Ethiopians stumbled into the other hidden unit...who missed.

Meanwhile, I relocated my rear Italians to what looked like a more defensible hill, where they dug in and awaited the Ethiopian reinforcements. That clash was very straightforward, and I realized that separating the 2 Italian groups was probably a mistake, as the smaller group of Italians soon found themselves surrounded. All of the Italians were putting murderous firepower into the Ethiopians, who were generally at a -1 column even when adjacent (+2 adjacent, -1 uphill, -1 dug in, -1 night). While not a lot of Ethiopian steps were lost, a lot of units fled, and with their leader shortage, the Ethiopians weren't able to get them back into the fight.

However, the Ethiopian victory bar isn't that high. Eliminate 6 Italian steps. And eventually, a few lucky rolls started to bring the Italians in danger of losing that amount. Plus, I wasn't able to kill the freaking Shambel no matter how many times I shot at him! I pointed out to my opponent that the most effective technique in my experience in a situation like this (he had the big numbers advantage) was to assault, hoping at least one unit survives the first fire, and then rotate in fresh units to keep the assault going. He adopted this tactic, and many Italian troops got locked into the assaults. This meant they couldn't fire at the Ethiopians, which gave them a breather. And, eventually, numbers won out at the Ethiopians got the 6th step loss on turn 13.

Good fun, and definitely replayable.

Played with Matt W in 90 minutes.

A small force of Italians have to survive against a much larger force of Ethiopians.

Matt launched the Ethiopians on the attack immediately. I made a critical mistake from the outset because I decided to fight (in favorable terrain) instead of just harassing the Ethiopians and fight a moving battle. We both thought initially (after 3 or 4 turns) than it would be a Ethiopian cakewalk.

But it's not, the Ethiopian force which starts on the board have only 2 leaders and their attack lost steam at some point. I should have put my force on the move at that point and force the Ethiopians to leave their disrupted and demoralized behind. I did not realize this in time and lost.

The Ethiopians also receives two more leaders with a several units as reinforcements. So a strategy for them may be to contain the Italians with their initial force and only proceed on the offensive when their reinforcements arrive. Time will be an issue in that case.

Ethiopian major victory.

I gave this one a "4" because I like that it is more subtle than it first appeared, with both sides having important decisions to make.

A very good 90-minute scenario in my book.

Conquest of Ethiopia, scenario 21: Enderta: Dawn Fighting at Adi Sembet

The first 9 turns are in the dark with only a one hex visibility, the starting force of Ethiopians has three leaders and sends two of them with most of their ground forces to probe the Italian lines but leave the Shambel leader behind, dug-in and with a HMG and two Infantry units to protect him, as he is the key to the Italian victory.

The probing force of Ethiopians run right into the Italian line, some direct fire and assault combats happen by turn three. The Italian have one group of units that start a great distance away from their comrades and I decide to use those units to go after the Ethiopian Leader but as chance so happened the Ethiopian reinforcements with two leaders and bunch of Infantry arrive on turn 5 by dice roll and help the Shambel leader group fight off this flanking attack.

In the process of fighting, the Italian had already lost 7 step and one leader, the Ethiopians had lost only two steps. Both sides had a bunch of demoralized and disrupted units but with the Ethiopian getting the +1 modifier in assaults and the Italian at this point having no chance to eliminate the Shambel leader, so with 4 turns left, I quit combat, as Ethiopians had a minor victory and not much would change on the map with the current situation.

An interesting scenario as both sides have to attack to achieve their victory objectives. The Italians needing to eliminate the Shambel Leader and the Ethiopian needing to eliminate 6 or more Italian steps. I think this scenario favors the Ethiopians as the first 9 turns are under the cover of darkness, taking away some of the advantages the Italians might of have with better Infantry ranged units. But with that said, if the Italians would have rolled better on some of those assault combats, maybe eliminating a few more enemy units and a leader, this could easily have been a draw or maybe even an Italian minor victory but the Ethiopians prevailed in this combat.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Italy)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Ethiopia
Participants	ACav
Play Date	2023-02-13
Language	English
Scenario	COOE021

This 16-turn play-through required 4-sessions to complete online with a relatively new player, the aggressive & boisterous, ACav, leading the Ethiopians in what proved to be a clear victory over my Italian invaders. We played without the stultifying FOW, but with the excess initiative and consolidation optional rules. Both sides drew relatively poor leaders, and there was no armors in this sightly unbalanced scenario.

Both sides groped for each other in movement-to-contact phase in the pitch dark. As others have reported ,the Ethiopians came on in two assault forces, and chose to place the Shambei leader, accompanied by an infantry company out of harms way, and dug in. During the 3rd turn, the leading edge of the merged, Ethiopian advance were in decisive engagement. They quickly created considerable havoc in the Italian line and were reinforced with additional troops in game turn 6. A series of relatively bloody close assault result in the required 7 steps of Italian loss, and 5 for the Ethiopians by the end of the 10th game turn. The Italians stubbornly chose to fight on to the bitter end, and never did get a solid chance to eliminate the Shambei leader in such close-range firefights. There was an unexpected amount of maneuver in this one, but both sides had dreadful luck in morale recovery. There were also a combined 18 combat 7-die rolls by the end of game turn 16. Final step loses were 10 steps and 2 leaders for the losing Italians; and 12 steps and 3 leaders for the victorious Ethiopian side.

This one is best played for a draw by the Italians, as the Ethiopians do have an significant edge in night combat during the first 9 game turns. Further, the Italians must be very bold and aggressive in this encounter to have a chance at eliminating the senior Ethiopian leader. We found this battle to be a decent training scenario to learn how to move & fight in the darkness.