In early December, Emperor Selassie reluctantly ordered a counterattack by three of his armies to cut off the Italian advance on the northern front. On the morning of 15 December, the Ethiopians of Ras Imru's Army of Gojjam forded the Takazze river and quickly advanced up a mountain trail toward the Italian-held pass of Dembeguina. The Ethiopians lost a chance at gaining surprise when their advanced guard wildly attacked an Italian horse patrol. The local Italian commander, Major Criniti, called for support, which arrived in the form of a squadron of light tanks. Eventually superior Ethiopian numbers began to tell. Several L3's were overturned and others had their tracks torn off by swarming groups of native soldiers!
Attacker: Italian (Elements of the Gruppo Bande Altopianno and armor support from the Duke of Abruzzi Detachment)
Defender: Ethiopian (Advance Guard of the Army of Gojjan)
7 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:24.0
AFVs: A:5
L3/35 x 5 Horse x 3
AFVs: D:0
Horse
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
Treat Scrub as Candelabra Trees. NQ (A20.3) in effect.
An interesting very early war engagement with some unique terrain and troops (candelabra trees?!?). By turn 2 this one felt like an easy win for the Italians, who were poised to exit a few vehicles and loaded trucks. One truck ran afoul of some Hammada, and one tank was attacked in CC, but the defense was a bit too scattered. Unfortunately, since we played this in two sessions, I forgot that my tanks needed to use Platoon movement when we started session two (turn 3) and so easily drove them off the board. Had I/we remembered that, it would have been a somewhat tighter game, though still probably a victory for the Italians (Noah graciously conceded the victory based on A.2, but it comes with a big asterisk!). Noah mentioned in our second section that he forgot about his Ethiopian human wave and tank flipping ability, which was a big disappointment since I really wanted to witness a tank flip. Given a tighter defensive setup and some tactical use of HW/Tank flipping, this seems like it would be a good tight scenario.
2022-05-15
(A) neal ekengren
vs
Solo
Ethiopian win
Solo playtest.
The Italians have to cross 2 boards of ratty Ethiopians and exit most of what they started with.
The Ethiopians should setup scattered in Hammada and collapse on the Italian column crossing.
The Italians can protect some with armored assault and hold the loaded trucks behind till a path gets cleared or simply just walk across.
IMHO Just a fair number of good shots should break enough Italians to win the game.
2022-04-16
(D) Jobbo Fett
vs
Gary Bartlett
Ethiopian win
The Ethiopians were furnished with red hot dice, constantly rolling below 6 on 1 and 2 FP attacks, coupled with an above average response from the Italians. The Tankettes made valiant attempts to overrun any and all Ethiopians they could reach (and were successful in breaking at least 6 squads), but a twice-lucky break involving a reaction CC destroying a tankette on starting its engine, and another being penetrated by an LMG at range 6(!), as well as the massive number of broken Italians put this one in jeopardy. We would've kept playing, but a two-week break wasn't justification enough to keep it on the table and hoping for the Italians to recover as they could only must some 27 EVP and hadn't reached the middle board with their Infantry at the start of Turn 5. Criniti also failed to escape, dying when a 2 down 2 shot resulted in a 2, and the leader failed a wound check.
Interesting scenario for the defender, provided they don't trounce the attacker with great rolls. Definitely one that allows you to practice with vehicular dust and overruns, although there may be better scenarios for that purpose out there.