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.

The Shadow of the Axis - Alternative WW2 campaign - Combined arms Boltaction - The war in Tunisia - Campaign game 3 - Part 1 - Air war over the Med.

 

 The French Juggernaut arrives, Across the desert pillars of sand signaled the movement of French armoured columns. Regia Aeronautica despite its best efforts were unable to despatch it's bombers to annihilate the logistical tail of the French armour and strand them in the desert, the French sent their own air assets to support the Marine Nationale MTB flotilla in its hunt of the convoys supporting the Italian armour landed outside Tunis and it's ongoing assault into the city, the Regia Aeronautica responded with its own Fighters and Bombers to engage in the battle.

The first battle was the air battle over Tunis as the Regia Aeronautica fought to defend the Italian tanks and bomb the French infantry.

Using their higher skilled pilots and the Ace's ability to Out maneuver the Italains were able to push down and shoot 2 French Planes down ending the game in 5 turns.

The Second battle be played Fighter sweep, but no special card this game for the Italians.

This game the Italians were caught in the open, bouncing from their starting position into a cloud then out into the thick of the melee the Italians missed 4 rounds of shooting before getting caught by the French as the their shots landed home and shot down 2 Italian planes and breaking their squadron up.

Despite the victories of the French and Italians all bombings and attempts to destroy failed - On to the Naval battles.

We played this mini game to teach my opponent the ropes before a full on naval battle, in this scenario we imagined the Italians are shipping fuel and ammunition to the Tanks fighting around Tunis, if the Italians succeed in getting their merchant ship off of the table the Tanks can assault Tunis, if not they can't attack this turn.

The Italians went first and aggressively attacked, and paid for it as the heavier armed French MTB's began to shoot them apart.

A lucky French round of shooting set fire to an Italian MTB

The French then begin to shoot apart the Transport

A collision is narrowly avoided!

With 5 Hull points remaining the French sink the Transport with a final burst of MG fire, the Italian tanks are on the defensive this campaign turn!