The Shadow of the Axis - Alternative WW2 campaign - Combined arms Boltaction - The war in Tunisia - Campaign Turn 5 - Urban assault of Tunis

Tunis is a busy port city, the French invested heavily into their colonial possession with the city centre not unlike a European city. Having swept the French from their positions outside the city, the Battered Italians turned on the Jewel of Tunisia.

Faá di Bruno

Despite the stormy weather, the Regia Marina towed their only Navy Monitor into place to provide fire support to ground forces attacking the city, Ongoing Patrols of MTB's and Corvettes protected the vulnerable ship and took opportune shots at the defenders.

Both sides were largely unsuited to Urban warfare, a lack of SMG's on both sides and the weak armour of Italian tanks meant it was going to be a gruelling fight, Italy's advantage lay in its access to tank Flamethrowers which I was eager to exploit.

Street fighting in pest (Tunis)

 In this battle we chose the scenario Street fighting in Pest from the Budapest campaign book, the game was fought on a 4x4 map divided into quarters, the two quarters on the French side were worth 4 VP each and the 2 on the Italian side are worth 2VP each. To control a zone and score the VP at least one of your units must be fully in the quarter whilst none of your opponents units occupy that same quarter. Half the French army starts deployed whilst the other half stays in reserve.

Urban warfare

 Players can use the Urban warfare assets  if a battle takes place at or adjacent to a Cultural or Commercial centre or factory. The attacker and defender can use 1 asset for every 500 points (rounding up) of their force, assets can only be chosen once unless specified. Italy's assets are in Yellow, France's assets are in Green

Attackers assets	Neutral assets	Defenders assets
Preliminary bombardment: see page 131 Boltaction Rulebook.	Sewer infiltration: 2 units can be set to outflank, instead of coming on from table edges they can advance from any point on the battlefield so long as it’s more than 6 inches from an enemy.	Fortified building: Pick a ruin or building, units that occupy said asset get +1 to wound ie veteran is wounded on a 6+
Smoke screen: Call in a smoke screen, see page 84 roll of a 1 counts as a 2.	Snipers: Get a free regular sniper team.	Street barricades: D3 Linear obstacles counts as hard cover, impassable to vehicles can be destroyed on a HE roll of 10+
Big Push: Free infantry squad identical to the cheapest in your force.	Molotov cocktails: One unit gets anti tank grenades for free, this asset can be chosen more than once.	Minefield: deploy d3 Tank traps
Night infiltration: 2 Units can deploy as Snipers and spotters.	Ammo dump: Select one ruin or building, units that occupy that structure reroll 1’s to miss in Shooting and assault.	Barbed wire: Get d3+1 8inch Wire obstacles to place anywh ere in your table half before battle.
Prisoner interrogation: Reveal 3 enemy units before battle.	Frontline aid post: Select one ruin or building, that structure gives the same benefit as a medic within 6’’ of itself.	Ambush: D3 units can start in ambush.

Turn 1

The Italians forward deployed their 2 Sniper teams on their left flank, behind them the Forward air observer and the Free forward artillery observer I got for having a Naval unit adjacent to the battlefield.

Turn 1 saw the French go on ambush whilst the entire Italian army ran onto the board, the Italian snipers killed an AT Gunner and wiped out the AT Rifle team.

French MMG using its ambush fired onto the advancing Italian infantry on the right, killing a man and giving them a Pin.

Turn 2 saw more pushing with the Italian's whilst the French brought on most of their reserves to counter them, the Italians called in their Air and Arty support.

The street fighting intensified as the Char b tank fired its Light howtizer killing 4 members of the Italian infantry squad pushing up on the french in the ruins, whilst it's light AT continued to miss against the L3 tankette.

Turn 3 the Aircraft came in and the arty was delayed, the medium bomb landed on the French regulars that came out of reserve last turn and killed 4 members after they went down. The Colonials charged in and engaged the French regulars defending the barricade, the combat was tense as both sides killed 6 men each in the first round of close combat, round 2 the Italians killed 5 whilst the French killed 4, leaving only the Italian NCO to sneak back towards his own lines. Italian snipers picked off the French LT whilst the Italian Mortar zeroed in on the French MMG.

The rest of turn 3 was inconclusive with another missed Char b shot and Italian infantry taking a sprinkling of casualties from small arms.

Turn 4 the Italian LT snapped to action ordering the colonials to charge the AT Gun, the AT gun missed it's shot and was wiped out by the charging Libyans.

The L3 tankette moved up and Machinegunned the Regulars moving up in the ruin at the top of the above photo, whilst the Flamethrower L3 burnt the French infantry out of their ruins in the middle.

The final act of the game was an attempted advance order by the Veteran Char b, the French rolling a Fubar and the tank reserved off of the board ending the game with a lone French infantry squad going down after trying to charge the L3 tankette and engaging with their AT Grenades.

This secured the last objective on the campaign map for Italy, the 5 Victory cards were now drawn and 5 VP awarded to Italy ending the campaign.

Avanti Savoia!

The Shadow of the Axis - Alternative WW2 campaign - Combined arms Boltaction - The war in Tunisia - Campaign Turn 5 - fighting on the outskirts of Tunis

Stalemate has settled on the front, French armoured assaults failed to penetrate the Sfax defense lines whilst the Marine Nationale were routed outside Tunis. The delay in receiving supplies stopped Italian armoured assaults into the Neighborhoods of Tunis as the French marched reinforcements to support the defence of the city. Sands storms from the deep desert made visibility bad and sea conditions worse as the winds turn the water into a choppy mess, a small mercy for the ship crews was the only action they'd see was fire missions in support of the assault on Tunis.

The first battle of the Turn was adjacent to the Fortifications, drawing in French armour and infantry the two Italian tank units freshly supplied from the rescued Merchant ship Delphino, assault into the desert to move French forces away from the city in preparation for the assault on Tunis.

This games scenario is Sectors, as well as the special rules of Dawn assault to represent the Storm card drawn. The French play the card final stand which makes their infantry fanatics but also means they cannot retreat if they lose, in addition to this their national characteristic card they chose at the start of the campaign was warrior spirit which allows infantry to roll to destroy campaign map pieces if they can't retreat.

The Preliminary bombardment put down a lot of pins, so many that we ran out of pin markers and have to only allocate one and put a green dice to indicate how many pins.

Turn 1 Saw the Italians Rally to the colours, the only one failing their rally roll being the 1st LT who presumably was so busy rousing the men he forgot to stop hiding... or something like that.

The Italian artillery barrage called in turn 1 scatters in their direction and put 2 pins on this inexp. rifle squad.

The Italian reserves start to come on from their board edge, the M40 with its Light AT and L3 with its flamethrower shoot the Char1bis, but he stays strong.

French Dragoons charge the Forward observers, the observers kill 4 French before they themselves were captured.

The French AT Rifle having antagonised my M40 was treated to a point blank machine gunning by the CV33 

The End of turn 3, French reinforcements began pouring in and Italian armour starting to push forward. Turn 4 the dawn came and night fighting ended, timed perfectly for the Italian tanks and guns.

The L6/40 fired its flamethrower again and put the Char1Bis out of action

The CV33 moved up the centre by the Lagoon and began machine gunning the French infantry only for the Char tank on the road to turn it's turret and fire into its side arc, hitting by not penetrating.

Start of Turn 5 the Heavy AT AA Gun fires and knocks out the Char tank handily.

Inexp. Italian infantry charge the Inexp. French infantry holding the house, wiping them out to a man and occupying the home.

End of Turn 5 Saw a massive swing in the favour of the Italians.

Final act turn 6 Saw the Italians swarm across the French quarter ending with 27 victory points to 9 in favour of the Italians.

The French were automatically destroyed because of the card they played this turn, however they could still roll to destroy me as per their national characteristic. 

They ended up rolling a 1 and a 3 to destroy, needing a 4+ to destroy an armoured unit, the French having reinforced this turn forgoe attacking and the stage is set for the final battle of the campaign, the Urban assault of Tunis!

The Shadow of the Axis - Alternative WW2 campaign - Combined arms Boltaction - The war in Tunisia - Campaign game 3 - Part 2

 The skies were patterned with trails of smoke and fire as the Hurricanes and C.200's turn and burn, hulls of Transports engulfed in flame and wallowing MTB's light the morning gloom. Off of the eastern coast of Tunis two flotillas charge towards each other vying for control of the Azure sea, in the distance the heavy guns of a French armoured division pound the defences outside of Sfax in preparation for their armoured assault.

The Delfino was wallowing, a Small Merchant ship carrying much needed supplies of Fuel, Ammunition and spares for the Italian tanks operating around Tunis. 3 Vosper MTB's had successfully shot her up from stem to stern along with her escorts, they had expected her to sink but by some miracle she had remained afloat, her own momentum and the currents grounding her on a sandbar. The Crew of the Delfino finally got their radio working as the sun rose and called for help, Regia Marina Rear Admiral Angelo Piacentin lead a battlegroup of MTB's and a Corvettes to recover the vessel, however they were not the only ones who picked up on the transmission... 

Turn 1 saw the French MTB flotilla launch a barrage of torpedoes, mostly aimed at the Marineprahfarm gunboat and cutting across the path of the Garbanio class corvette. 

Turn 2 the Torpedoes close and it looks bad for the Italians, however they get to fire off 2 of their own 'Fish' aimed squarely at a Minesweeper.

The French get the first dice turn 3, however both their torpedoes are duds leaving the Gunboat undamaged. The rest of turn 3 was relatively uneventful with the distance making most shooting and speed of the MTB's ineffective.

One of the two Italian Torpedoes hit and cause 46 damage to the Minesweeper, the MG's and 20mm finish it off.

The Italians Pummel the French MTB's

Shortly before the French counter attack leaving a Mas Boat on 1 hull point

The final reckoning comes to the French MTB's as the Corvette and Gunboat pour fire into them knocking out one after another.

The French Minesweepers get 2 critical hits on a Mas Boat causing it to collide with a floating wreck and itself sinking.

Finally a duel between the remaining Minesweeper and the Gunboat, the Minesweeper puts 40 damage onto the gunboat and 2 engine critical hits before the Gunboat responds with a fusillade and the game ends a decisive Italian victory, followed by a successful roll to destroy! The Tunisian coast is the Italian Sea for the time being.

Battle for the Fortifications

The Paratroopers dropped onto the objective at the start of the campaign, through successful bombing campaigns the Italians have been able to prevent French assault forces reaching the objective until now...

With ample time to dig in, the Italians have been able to lay extensive wire and dragons teeth fortifications drawn from French warehouses, having rolled for the Italian defensive doctrine special rules they also get 3 dug in emplacements.

In this battle, I only involved the Infantry, partly to balance the game and partly so that if the infantry did lose the tanks would still hold the objective.

The Italian Paratroopers dug in, 2 squads of 9 Paratroopers with SMG's, a Flamethrower team and the 2nd LT stayed in reserve to counter attack breakthroughs.

The Preliminary bombardment destroys a section of wire and Dragons teeth, it also put 2 pins on almost everyone.

The French unable to run onto the board due to Italian special rules moved up conservatively.

The Italian Medium mortar fires turn 2 and hits the French foreign legion squad moving up along the board edge towards the oasis and is wiped out by a lucky shot!

The French S35 Fires it's machinegun into the relocating Paratroopers and kills the LMG.

The Italian Sniper having missed its ambush shot, now fires hits and kills the French Major!

Turn 3 the Italian Mortar fires again and hits again! Wiping out a regular Rifle squad!

The Mortar fires again turn 4 getting ANOTHER HIT killing 4 guys out of the 6 hit.

The Italian Reserves pour on, plugging the gap in the wire. The French tank retreats from the flamethrower and uses it's machineguns to little effect.

The Final act of the battle was the French S35 carrying out a run order and getting hit and immobilised by the Italian Heavy AT Gun, the following turn it fired again and set it on fire with the crew failing their morale test and bailing.

Rolling to destroy the Italians only got a 2 when they needed a 4+ and so the French tank retreat.

Next game and turn 5 of the campaign sees us fighting a massive battle near Tunis.