EW North Africa Escalation League (3)

Tonight we had a special Tuesday night session for our Escalation league since our normal day (Thursday) is the Thanksgiving holiday. Early in the evening Chris stopped by and started assembling his horde of Italian motorcycles. While he worked on that Gordon with his Italian Posizione Di Fucilieri (Defensive Infantry Position) company and I with my Australian Divisional Cavalry Squadron set up to play a game using the "Night Attack" scenario. Gordon and I both had 950 point forces to use for this game since we've already played each other earlier using our 600 point forces earlier in the league.

I thought the Posizione Di Fucilieri was scary at 600 points, but at 950 points it's absolutely terrifying! Gordon put 3 template forces on the table, two with direct fire capability that on paper seemed impossible to even approach with my thin-skinned Italian leftover tanks. Still we set up and I made one of the two critical moves in the game for me: I placed one of my objectives hidden behind a small ridge behind Gordon's defenses. If I could somehow sneak some of my force there I might have a chance....

Early on as soon as the shooting started things looked scary. As soon as I would shoot something in my force, Gordon's defensive bunkers and masses of artillery would jump on it. I lost a Bren carrier and an armored car on Gordon's first defensive fire. Luckily for me that 'lit up' one of his batteries. This allowed me my second opportunity of the game. I could smoke one of the guns in that battery and use that smoke to make a run for the previously positioned objective!

Over the next 4 turns I somehow miraculously was able to continue to range in on the critical smoke screen. I lost most of a platoon of tanks in one turn through direct fire from Gordon's howitzers and dodged a huge bullet saving 5 out of 5 savings rolls when his Stukas ranged in on a cluster of tanks, artillery guns and artillery command teams in my rear area.

The flanking maneuver and smoke screens held out long enough for me to get a narrow victory with one of my 4 platoons down to a single tank and my armored cars only surviving through the fortune of several lucky savings rolls. In a tournament environment this surely would have been a tie game with each of us walking away with precious few points. Great game, lots of fun and great company. Thanks Gordon!