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Situation: France vs. Italy
Time: May, 1940
Terrain: Desert(!) with a series of ridges running north to south
Setup: 4500 points each, visibility 19, turns 17, French first move

Well we wanted something different and we sure got it. I am taking the French and Seth Gaines the Italians. As I opened the game up I realized that I was probably playacting a 1940 French officer too well and hadn't checked the map when buying my forces. Guess I just figured that we would be fighting along the French/Italian border somewhere. Well I don't think it would have made too much difference in what I bought but only time will tell. Italian artillery was obliging enough to drop smoke to cover my advance. Meanwhile the wine besotted fools manning my artillery batteries couldn't be bothered to answer a radio. Rushed my recon elements forward to start spying on the forward Italian units. Lost one Panhard in the process with out doing much but holing a pasta pot or two on the Italian side. Now to face the Italian advance.

We of the Italian side are also much confused. Why do we advance from the West? My explanation:
"The glorious army of Il Duce's new Impero Romano has advanced south from Eritrea, conquering Kenya, Tanganyika, South Africa, Rhodesia, etc. After the liberation of Pretoria, they then advanced North, conquering South West Africa, the Belgian Congo, French West Africa, and Morocco. We now advance on Algeria. Glory to Italy, glory to the Duce."
These Italians seem to be a little better than the Italians I'm using against Hellcat. They still can't hit anything, even at under 10 hexes, but they do get lots of shots. With these shots, I destroy two AMR 35s, three or four Panhards, and a Laffly 80. I damage a Peugeot 202 as well. Test shots against the SOMUAs show that the range is still too great. The smoke screen did its job, by preventing me from firing until the French were very close. With a typical starting 'to hit' of 7-11% at 7-9 hexes, I needed him not to stop and kill everything from far away. Not much advancing goes on, I'll let him come to me. My only damage is reduced mobility on a CL-38.
Seth

My recon elements are taking it on the chin but the Souma's have arrived and we begin to whittle down the Italian forces. Took out several tanks and Fiat armored cars along with some truck mounted guns. No sign of infantry though. Dropped what artillery I have on the southern most hill to try and disrupt his forces there. 155mm rounds might get that done. This looks to be a slugfest with no one having a heavy knockout blow available. My Souma's hit several of the Italian tanks with only causing damage. Here's hoping that the crew bails from them. So far I control most of the higher ground so I am hoping for some top armor shots.

He wants infantry, eh? Tada! Everyone rushes forward this turn. It seems that the CL 38s can't kill a SOMUA, even at point blank, but those that are not lost on the advance kill an FT-17 with a 75mm gun. The M 11/39s are similarly useless against the tanks, but another two Panhards are destroyed. One of my Autocanone kills a SOMUA, and the GGFF squads advance in their little armored cars and kill two or three more with assaults. Several infantrymen die in the effort, but I cause a similar number of casualties to his infantry.
Seth

Well it seems my tank gunners went to the Ray Charles school of gunnery. And when they do hit something they can't kill it unless it is a truck. Lots of forces out there, might be the last one with bullets wins this one rather then the last one standing.

My gunners are blind, and my men are cowards. Shoot at them once, and they panic for two turns at least. This is a very dull turn. I kill a SOMUA and a few men. I lose a CL 38 and a few men.
Seth

Aha!!!! They say that even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in awhile and apparently that theory also applies to 1940 French tank gunners as well as we found the mark this turn. Destroyed 3 CL-38's, 2 MII/39's, and an Autocannone this time. Of course we won't go into how many AP rounds my forces fired to achieve this remarkable success. The battle has developed into a stand up, slug it out fight along the ridges between the VP hexes. French infantry is just now getting into the fray as Italian artillery is slowing us down. Apparently some of my French Voltigueres are suppressed by loud noises. None the less, we press on to push back the Fascists as they can not claim this piece of worthless desert for the Italy. For the greater glory of France, we will claim this piece of worthless desert at the end of the day!

Sorry, I had to surrender. I would have fought it out, except that my troops wouldn't fight. My line was about 10 hexes deep with fleeing and pinned units, as well as units coming back to be pinned again. My tanks couldn't hit his at 5 hexes, and when they did, couldn't damage them. My infantry was unequal to the task of assaulting all the armor, and there were at least 20 SOMUAs visible coming up. I was just going to get supressed and murdered. Not fun. Again, my apologies.
Seth

Don't you just love the Italian soldier? :rolleyes: