The Battle of Sawkhan

I've taken advantage of my day off and the fact that my daughter (aka the Young Padawan) doesn't go back to school until next week. We decided to play another Desert Raiders game using the same cut-down Flames of War rules that I used in the Rejects demo game at Broadside earlier in the year. I employed some of the same units from that game and we set up pretty quickly for a relatively simple encounter battle.

The Setup
An Italian Patrol is investigating a Libyan village that it suspects is being used as a staging post for the LRDG. By coincidence they arrive just as a the first of two LRDG Patrols approaches. Italian forces will arrive one unit per turn while the second LRDG Patrol will arrive on a dice roll so could turn up early or Late.

Order of Battle
British
  2 LRDG Half Patrols (each containing 5x Chevy Trucks & 1x Breda Gun Chevy)
  2 Jeep HQ Units
Italians
  AB41 Armoured Car Patrol
  1 Bersaglieri Campany in Trucks
  CV35 Tankette Platoon
  l AA Truck Platoon

The Action

The setup showing the village of Sawkhan and the arrival of the first LRDG patrol...however the leading Italian AB41 Armoured Car platoon has also just arrived in town.

The Italian Armoured Cars wind through the village cautiously...

But as the first pokes its nose out from behind the buildings it is hit by a mass of Machine Gun fire.

The next turn three trucks race into the village and immediately a company of Bersaglieri disembarks and takes up position in the buildings. 

In the distance the LRDG patrol takes up a defensive position behind a small ridge. This will give them some concealment from incoming fire while retaining clear lines of sight on the village. 

Shooting erupts across the desert as both side open fire. Both sides take casualties with exposed vehicles quickly being hit. 

The LRDG loose many their vehicles but fortunately their crews are all able to escape. 

After four turns without her reserves arriving the second LRDG
patrol finally turns up.

The second LRDG patrol begins to try and outflank the Italian positions while more Italians vehicles turn up and take position. 

The Italian Tankettes don't last long though!

Although the Italian troops still outnumber the LRDG  their position is now becoming untenable. 

The Padawan begins her outflanking move...

...and take apart the Italian units protecting the flank. 

With the Italian position in the town hopeless I send in the trucks to recover the few remaining troops still there. 

Analysis 
Another win for the young Padawan! She played well and I suspect she would have won even quicker if she hadn't had to wait so long for her second unit to arrive. The shear volume of firepower being dished out by the LRDG Chevy trucks overcomes pretty much anything quickly.