After weeks of prodding from both Mussolini and Bodaglio, Italian General Rudolfo Graziani was prepared to resume his offensive on Eithoipia's "Southern Front". In the centre of the advance they encountered the Ethiopians of Ras Nasibu's army solidly entrenched near the wells at Borgut. The Ethiopians had carved numerous trenches and dugouts into the hard soil and were bolstered by the presence of two modern 37mm Oerlikon AA guns and a small contingent of the "Ethiopian Foreign Legion" who manned a nearby outpost. After an aerial bombardment, two assaults were made on the camp; the first by Somalis and Eritreans and the second made by the Blackshirts of Legion 221 supported by engineers with flamethrowers.
My Italians failed to do diddly with the Planes and then got whacked going against the hill force. My flamethrower helped to take the hill. On Turn 1 Ethiopian, both my CMG armored cars were shot to pieces by the AA Guns. My infantry tried moving to contact with the Ethiopians...but couldn't pass morale checks as the Ethiopians rolled very well with -1 and -2 shots. I gave up on Turn 5 as it was clear that I had no chance.
2022-07-31
(D) Jobbo Fett
vs
RootinPutin
Ethiopian win
Surprised to say that we have a fun, balanced scenario out of the old ELR->CH->ASL crypt!
Rootin' started the session well by failing both Sighting Task Checks, ruining my plans for the AA guns I had set up. My defenses were spread out as much as possible to take advantage of the defensible terrain (more like shrubbery) and to force as much movement over open ground as possible. The downside is that anyone that breaks will be eliminated, or at the very least easily isolated from the rest of the force.
Things were going well, bar a critical hit from a FIAT that managed to kill the crew of one of my AA guns, but the other did better than I could've hoped, burning one and wrecking two of the attackers rides. The scenario progressed with caution by the attackers, and the Ethiopians not giving an inch without spilling blood. As is customary, the FT was used once, the MMC using it was promptly eliminated, and nobody spoke of FTs afterwards. Of the 20 of so SAN numbers we rolled, only 1 sniper activated, causing the early break of one crew manning a Brixia mortar. CVP losses were mounting on both sides, and the Italian player refused to rally for fear of rolling boxcars and inching me closer to victory.
In the end, Rootin' was able to get into most of the necessary trenches (we failed to account for Berserkers not being Good Order, but that could've been fixed during play) as well as the necessary CVP! The final roll of the final CC (turned Melee turned Hand-to-Hand) killed a squad, bumping the Ethiopian CVP gains to 22 and netting themselves a brutally close game that could've gone either way multiple times.
2022-05-23
(A) neal ekengren
vs
solo
Ethiopian win
Eritrean spread out and try to run across all the open ground to take Trenches before the timer runs out. Setup defense for Ethiopian and nothing else to do except shoot. At least you will figure out those Hillock rules. Winner could go either way it seems.
2022-05-20
(A) Shane Pask
vs
Italian/Eritrean win
It seemed everything malfunctioned during this game (except for the FT but it was only in range for the last 2 turns). By turn 5, Terik Bey and his specials were dead but not much else then things heated up: One Oerlikon malfed, so the other took out both Fiats (burned one, the crew survived the other) and almost one Lancia in a single ROF tear. That Lancia then disabled its MG and withdrew. However, the same turn the Eritreans overrran the line of trenches with the MMG. On turn 6 a broken 6+1 went berserk with a squad, rushed the main AA trench line and the deadly 9-1 and his 2 squads and won the CC! (eventually and with some outside fire by the FT into the melee which broke the 9-1). This demoralised the Ethiopians who began breaking to 1+1 shots (AA crew died with CR). Final score Eritreans 34 CVP, 10 trenches. Ethiopians 15 CVP.
