Raid on Jakharrad

The Young Padawan and I managed to fit in another 6mm wargame today, this time playing a Flames of War battle set in the Libyan desert in WWII. I wanted to give my LRDG trucks a new chance to go toe to toe with the Italians to see what they are capable of. I soon learnt the answer was "quite a lot"!

The Setup

Three LRDG Patrols are converging on a target across the Libyan Desert. The patrols had traversed hundreds of miles of desert together but two days ago split up to approach their target from different directions. Their objective is an Italian held town, regional HQ and communications hub for forces in the area. If the LRDG can knock out their objective the Italian war effort in the area will be severely disrupted. 

Order of Battle

LRDG

   Command Platoon

   3 LRDG Patrols 

Italian Forces

   Town Defenders

     Bersaglieri Company

     Rifle/MG Platoon (Dug in)

   Reserves

     Armoured Car AB41 Platoon

     Tankette L3/35 Platoon 

     Bersaglieri Motociclisti Platoon 

The Action

Initial Setup - The Italian HQ and hub of local telegraph lines - As the Italian player I made a quick map of the town and secretly positioned my troops in various buildings. 

Likewise the young Padawan, as the LRDG player, decided on her plan and wrote down where her forces would arrive. 

The only Italian forces visible at the start are a series of sentry positions (Dug in Rifle/MG units)

The Rifle/MG pits cover all the approach routes

The first LRDG patrol arrives outside the town.

The second patrol arrives from a different direction...but the third patrol hasn't arrived yet, presumably delayed on the long drive to their objective.

The LRDG open fire and even their limited rate of fire (reduced because of movement) begins to deal out alarming damage to the Italian defenders. The red markers show infantry units destroyed and will be removed at the end of the turn. 

Maybe I'm a little too confident in my Italian troops....

..on the other hand. I knock out one of the LRDG Chevy trucks, although the crew are able to leap to safety. 

Another Chevy truck goes up in flames...this time the crew are killed. 

My Bersaglieri infantry are able to return fire and knock out several LRDG trucks. Maybe this British attack was a mistake. 

The LRDG don't move next turn and so can fire at their full rate of fire.... fistfuls of dice are rolled and an alarming number of hits result, even against troops in hard cover. Infantry save on a 3+ but with so many multiple hits on each unit I still loose several teams. 

The same is true on the other side of town. I'm beginning to worry that this will be a very short game!

...and then the remaining LRDG Patrol arrives on the scene. Oh dear. My reinforcements have not shown up yet and I'm really thinking this game will be a British whitewash. 

Despite heavy losses the LRDG are now in a good position. The latest patrol to arrive have taken up position on a hill overlooking the town, eliminating the problems of line of sight. 

Italian casualties continue to mount and the HQ building begins to come under direct fire. 

At last Italian reinforcements begin to arrive. A platoon of AB41 armoured cars race across the desert and outflank one of the LRDG patrols. 

Meanwhile an L3/35 Tankette Platoon threatens the flank of the latest LRDG patrol to attack. 

Of course victory is predicated on my ability to actually roll to hit!!

Lots of LRDG Trucks are burning but enough remain to dish out a significant amount of fire-power. This battle is far from over. 

Or so I thought. A hard volley of gunfire takes out my Bersaglieri HQ units and without these the remaining infantry fail their moral check, drop their weapons and flee in all directions!! My only hope is that my Armoured Cars and Tankettes can finish the job and protect the HQ building. 

We relied heavily on a laser pointer to help with line-of-sight issues and it worked really well. Not that this was much consolation to my troops.

Well that's it, game over. With the Italian defenders killed or fled the remaining LRDG teams rain fire own on the town and quickly set the Italian HQ building ablaze. 

I'm sensing that the Young Padawan may be happy with that result! 

Analysis
My string of defeats at the hands of my daughter grows every longer! My dice rolling was as awful as usual, whether it was to-hit rolls or saves. The Bersaglieri troops in the town had a big advantage, hunkered down in hard cover making them much harder to hit than if they were in the open. Despite this the massive fire power being brought to bare by the LRDG trucks (every one bristling with machine guns) meant they could quickly overcome local opposition before reinforcements could support them. The Padawan was lucky with her dice roles but in the end that's part of the game and no excuse for my loosing yet again!