Outflank or Outlast. Options for Italians in Flames of War?

Another test game for our upcoming club event next month against clubmate Ric and his British Paratroopers in Outflanked.  

Ric defended the left objective with a Para platoon covered by 17pdrs and the right objective with the second Para platoon. I did a bit of cheeky spearheading and split my force to give me a shot at both objectives. 

I popped the ambush by pushing my L6s forward (see 6pdrs in the top left corner) and lost three in the ensuing barrage. Ric got his Churchill reserves on in turn one and his Stuarts in turn two. Immediate reserves indeed! The Stuarts pushed up Ric's left to try and send away my M14s and the Churchills pushed into the centre starting a game of cat and mouse with the Lancia da 90s!

I started noodling around the centre with my armour seeing if I could bring enough MGs to bear on the 6pdrs that sending in the M14s on the left objective could be done. Four pinned 17pdrs took out three M14s as a response to my noodling: 

That pretty much left me with one option - I ranged in the Semoventes on the 6pdrs and left my 25pdrs smashing away at the 17pdrs for several turns. Several. On my right flank, things got moving. My Motociclisti destroyed a Stuart in assault, and blew up the second one who'd been bailed by the M14s clearing a path to the contested house by the objective: 

I floated a Lancia da 90/53 out in the wind, Ric sent out his Churchills and blew it to bits. I thought that moving 6pdrs, 4+ save, and gun shield was a tolerable risk - I was wrong. In the end I passed the Last Stand and the Blitz and BOOM! Two dead Churchills and the last one fled!

That Lancia promptly ran away the following turn and all meaningful activity on that flank stopped while the Semovente 75s and the 25pdrs hammered away at Ric's gun platoons for five or six turns. I got 1 17pdr and 2 6 pdrs in that time. OOOOOF. But on my right, the brave Motocicliti assaulted and destroyed the last Para platoon. All I needed was to get rid of a couple of mortar stands but...

They would just not die! Dug in and with Fearless morale, they were assaulted repeatedly by M14s who drove into the forest and singularly failed to hit the blasted mortar or stick around for more than one round of combat. It was ridiculous.

We stopped shortly after this:

The para mortars finally got sick of being pointlessly assaulted by M14/41s and ran off the board. The remnant Para platoon shot down the HMGs and destroyed the Motociclisti CO to occupy the house on the objective. We called the game as I wasn't going any closer to that horde of guns on one objective and couldn't assault the house on the other (although it was a matter of time before the massed 47mm guns finished the job) and Ric couldn't move his AT guns knowing that as soon as they moved out of fox holes, there'd be Italian MGs everywhere! 

It was a good game and it has led me to one inescapable conclusion....

Lessons? 

I've decided to do what I would previously have considered unthinkable and downgrade the captured 25pdrs back to Italian 100/17 guns. I'm surprised by how much infantry and AT guns have been giving me problems (given the changes in last year's Dynamic Points update this is no shock) and the 3+ bombardment firepower feels like I need it more than the extra RoF of the 25pdrs to get my tanks where I need them to be. 

Also, it's been interesting to play a list this much in advance of an event for a change. I've made a few changes and had a few thoughts about execution that have all been interesting to explore.

 Mycenaean progress?

Not much this week - been spending a bit much time on work and real life and not enough time hobbying. I have just been to prime the first three bases of medium spear to paint this week so that's exciting. I've also had a delivery from Che at Potbelly Miniatures:

 One Achaean baggage with ironic Helen of Troy on the base. There's even a mast for the trireme (that's not even to scale - Che had to scale it down to fit on a camp base. I'll put some fill down as a bit of beach and then paint the boat and then add my favourite water effects (you know the ones!) to finish that base up. 

 And just a little bonus

Blogger Pel and I ran a teaching game for new Flames of War player Duncan at the club. He was an enthusiastic student running his D-Day Tigers and he definitely gave Pel's British a bit of what for in an assault despite his incredible string of 1s throughout the game. I don't think I've EVER seen a man throw so many 1s. But the treat? He's an impressive painter. Check out the oak leaf and pea dot camo smocks:

They're SO good.  The modelling and painting work on the Tigers was also very impressive.

Next Time

I've started on the first of the Medium Spear bases for my Achaeans and the process of cowhiding my Impact Chariots so those. And maybe a preview of the Mycenaean baggage if I've cracked the plan to make it work...