Italy's invasion of the Kingdom of Greece on 28 October initially resulted in an advance of several miles and the general withdrawal of light Greek forces at the border. Bad weather, poor roads, and general lack of infrastructure such as bridges held up the Italian forces more so than the Greek troops., who had only one division in the area. Still, few expected that the small Greek army would be able to hold the field against Italy's vaulted "eight million bayonets." Preparations on the Italian side left much to be desired, however, while Greek intelligence had been able to generally pinpoint the date of the attack, which then came as no surprise. By 2 November, the Ferrara Division reinforced by armor from the Centauro Division were finally nearing their first major objective, the critical road junction town of Kalpaki.
Attacker: Italian (23rd Infantry Division (Ferrara) and 131st Armored Division (Centauro))
Defender: Greek (8th Infantry Division)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:8.0
AFVs: A:8
L3 aa L3/35 x 6 L3 Lf
D:0
Guns: A:1
Mortaio da 45 "Brixia" x 2 Mortaio da 81/14
D:3
65mm wz.06 x 2 Bofors 75mm M34
Misc Rules:
Mud (E3.6)
Map Board(s):
81
86
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Gave the Greeks the balance bases on early results from this one. Came down to the very end, but the Italians couldn't claim quite enough buildings or knock out enough Greek guns in the hills. The fact that the 81mm mortar only got one shot off and the FT tank bogged in the mud and then immobilized trying to free itself without ever firing a shot in anger was probably the difference.
2021-03-25
(D) Jeff B
vs
Scott Sherer
Greek win
2/3 of the Italian vehicles got off to a slow start by not being able to enter until Turn 2, but my speedbump in one of the front buildings was quickly dispatched, and I immediately broke one of my few AT weapons in a LMG. My guns were all set up high on the hill to make coming after them difficult, but this would make hitting any Italians on Board 86 nigh impossible with my red THs and short barrels. The Italian mortars on the opposite hill drew my immediate attention. I lucked out on Turn 2 knocking out both tanks that were showing signs of moving up into the hills, while the Italian mortars did their jobs of forcing me out of the woods. Turn 3 was an exceptionally good turn for me, knocking out another tank with a HS in CC while creating a leader, blasting a squad to bits with my stellar MMG in the middle of the playing area, and eliminating the big mortar crew before he could assemble it. Meanwhile the Italians broke two MGs on their tanks. What looked to be an Italian cakewalk on the opening moves now looked greatly in peril. Next turn saw me break a gun and lose a squad for FTR as the Italians started to push me out the middle, but the Italians suddenly looked very low on bodies as they had quite a few scattered at various corners of the map. It was starting to look like it was in the bag for me, but Turn 5 saw another dramatic swing in momentum as the Italians wiped out 2.5 of my squads, 2 leaders, and my MMG. I was able to fix my gun however, and the FT tank immobilizing was certainly welcome. Still, despite all the things going right for me, it was going to be a close finish. But in the end the Italians were only able to capture 5-6 of the necessary 7 buildings (I had broke another gun on the last turn), I wonder how many people haven't played the Mud correctly, because it was certainly a big factor in our game.
2021-03-07
(D) Rich Weiley
vs
Dave Wallace
Italian win
Wanted to like the scenario but in the end found it too hard for the Greeks. Got off to a good start, making the Italian entry painful, eliminating about two and a half squads in the first game turn. All downhill after that. Italian 81mm mortar scored a critical hit to eliminate the 75 Art and I malfed one of the 65's during the Italian first turn. So I played most of the rest of the game with 1 gun operational. Italians didn't suffer another casualty until about turn five when opponent rolled a fate result on a self rally attempt. Around the same time I eliminated the broken 65 on a repair roll and the other gun malfunctioned. A couple of L3s had been recalled due to MA disablement and my opponent x'ed out the flamethrower but there were plenty of mobile L3s left to disrupt the Greek defence allowing him to take nine buildings. All my remaining infantry was either broken or locked in melee, so couldn't generate any firepower to interdict the crossroad hex.
