D-Day Dodgers : Operation Ponte Natale

Happy New Year to one and all.  Now let's go back to just before Xmas - 1943, that is, 'somewhere in Italy'.  British forces launch an operation to secure a vital ( yet entirely fictitious ) river crossing at Ponte Natale; German forces mount a hasty defence. 

The explanation for this: I fancied to do a quick and simple game before Xmas, and I thought it was time the 'D-Day Dodgers'  WW2 Italian campaign forces had an outing. I thought Bob Cordery and friends 'Fast Play 3X3' version of The Portable Wargame might  offer something very simple, so I consulted his recent book The Portable Wargame Compendium.  I was in luck: see page 47 for 'Fast Play 3X3 Portable WW2 Operational-Level Wargame Rules' by Mark Cordone - for fighting the major battles of World War Two.  Essentially a combination of the '3 X 3' system  and the WW2 rules in Bob's  Developing the Portable Wargame book.  That should do nicely. 

The Compendium also has a chapter containing a selection of '3X3'  terrain set-up suggestions - I chose number 20, which features a river with a bridge,  and hills overlooking them, which seemed suitably Italian and a good defensive position for the Axis forces. I kept it very simple, as you can see:

The Bridge at Ponte Natale

Armies in this variant are of 6 units plus an HQ each side, available  unit types being Airborne, Armoured, Artillery and  Infantry all with 2 Strength Points (SP)  each ,  plus some special units:  Assault Guns/Tank Destroyers, Self-Propelled Guns and Heavy Armour which have just 1 SP each. ( I am assuming that the basic (2SP) units represent Brigades, or perhaps Divisions? )  There must be at least three Infantry units in each  army. 

With that in mind, I selected an attacking British Force : 

General Badger and 'Badger Corps'

Three Infantry units, 1 Armour, 1 Artillery, 1 Self-Propelled Gun  : total 11 SP

and a defending German Force :    

Her General Von Kleist and Kampfgruppe Kleist

 

Four Infantry Units,  1 Artillery, 1 Assault Gun : total 11 SP.

Each side also has its HQ, of course, and the ability to conduct airstrikes, for which the model aircraft make a rather extravagant 'marker' (all that is required by the rules, simply to mark the grid area under air attack) . I decided that all units would be 'Average' quaility, just for simplicity (  if 'Airborne' had been in use by either side, it would have been only fair to make them 'Elite' ).

Allowing 6 SP for each side's HQ, the total strength was 17 SP each, therefore 'Exhaustion Point' would be reached at a loss of 6 SP. 

Deployment is Defender first, in his baseline or middle row grid areas ( or Reserve ),then Attacker in his baseline or Reserve areas only ( both sides' Artillery units are placed in 'Reserve' area  ). I duly deployed both sides: 

Iniital Deployments

Notice a single brave German infantry deployed in front of the bridge, the other three remaining behind the river. Perhaps unfortunately for the defenders, I forgot to allow any of them to be 'dug in' at the start - perhaps the defensive position was only a very hasty one, having just rushed to the area in response to the British advance! And so to battle. 

The  sequence of each turn starts with initiative die rolls (1D6) - highest roll  moves first, and the die score gives the number of units that can move. Then 'Airstrikes' : again 1D6 each, highest score gets an airstrike - if a tie, both get strikes. If one side is deemed to have air superiority, they get two dice and use the highest score - I gave this advantage to the British, as befits Italy in 1943. A nice touch was that the 'Initiative' die rolls could give a result which indicated bad weather - so no airstrikes. Then both sides Artillery get to fire simultaneously, followed by the player who won the initiative moving his units, then combat, then the other player moving, and combat again.   That's the end of the turn, and we go again for the next turn.  

Victory is achieved by one side if they can occupy one of the opposing side's baseline grid areas at the end of the opponent's combat phase - so obviously the British needed to cross the river to win. If neither side achieves victory that way, battle continues until Exhaustion Point(s) are reached.  There can also be a designated terrain objective that must be taken to achieve victory - though  in effect that would be the same, the British would need to cross the river and reach the German baseline. By default I assumed  the Germans would win if the British did not reach their baseline - it seemed unlikely that the Germans would try to counter-attack to reach the British baseline!

Airstrike! First blood to the R.A.F..

I won't give a blow-by-blow account, partly because despite the simplicity of the rules, I still managed to miss vital points on several occasions, so I may have played them completely wrong at many points! Suffice it to say it lasted eight turns, and was pretty 'ding-dong' back and forth stuff. Airstrikes and Artillery had a big role right from the start, on Turn 1 a British airstrike hit the German  infantry defending  the bridge, taking 1 SP and 'pinning' it,  only for the German artillery to mete out the same treatment to the British infantry advancing to attack the bridge, and forcing the supporting Self-propelled guns to retire!

The British made a general advance to  keep pressure on the defenders across the board, even though the bridge was obviouly going to be the focal point ( I decided that the river could only be crossed there).  The Germans hastily 'dug in' their infantry where possible, and brought up their Assault Guns to back-up the bridge defenders. British airstrikes wiped out the forward defending  infantry unit as early as Turn 2, while British artillery concentrated on counter-battery fire on the German artillery - without  much success, it has to be said.  German artillery focussed on trying to break up the British attacking formations, with quite destructive effects. This was lucky for the Germans, as  they knew they would have fewer opportunities for airstikes.

British SP guns go 'up in smoke'

 

The British central  thrust at the bridge struggled from the start, with their Self-Propelled Gun unit destroyed  by defending Assault Guns  quite early on, but their infantry fire kept the pressure on by destoying a second German infantry unit - at the end of Turn 3 losses were British 3SP, Germans 4SP.

Turn 6: the Luftwaffe makes an appearance

 

Inevitably the British armour had to move to the centre to spearhead the attack on the bridge - probably should have done so from the start!  British armour and infantry repeatedly tried to advance to assault the bridge, but defensive fire from the German infantry and Assault Guns kept knocking them back. Finally the British armour and Infantry attacked across the bridge on Turn 7, taking 1 SP and 'pinning' the defending infantry, but themselves having their infantry forced back - attack stalled! 

Turn 8: the final British 'push'

 

In the next turn, the British won the initiative and pushed forward again for another assault - defensive fire damaged the British armour, but in the ensuing close combat the British finally prevailed, the defending  German infantry and Assault Guns both being destroyed. The British infantry was forced to retreat, however, leaving their Armour, with only 1SP left, sat unsupported on the German baseline... thus the Germans on their turn had to kill the British armour to save the game. They brought their last Infantry unit down from the hill, attacking the British tanks from the flank - and just couldn't kill them. The infantry lost 1SP and ended up pinned down, the British armour held position on the defenders' baseline, and the day was won. 

German Infantry's desperate counter-attack ( 2p coin for 'pinned', 1p for 1SP lost )

 

Final losses totals : British 5 SP,  Germans 9 SP  - only 1 German infantry unit and their Artillery remained in position, both having only 1SP each remaining.  So, a pretty thorough bashing received by the Germans, but they made it pretty tough for the attacking Brits.  As I've said, I think I managed to play the rules wrong in several ways - a salutory lesson in just how easy it is to overlook or misinterpret even the simplest rules! In paricular I got the characteristics of the 'special units' (SP Guns and Assault Guns)  wrong, and even worse I only allowed firing to occur about half as much as it should! I think if played correctly, it would have been a much more 'quick and dirty' battle, but all the same I had a throughly enjoyable time, and the balance of the game  swayed back and forth throughout before that decisive last assault over the river.  A nice simple little game for a pre-Xmas afternoon, before the eating, drinking and gifting took over - and it gave the D-Day Dodgers some table time, of which there needs to be much more, I like these 'old-school' forces.  I plan to review them and organise them  a bit more formally - probably making formations suitable for the 'Rapid Fire Reloaded' rules. does that count as a New Year's Resolution? 

I hope everyone had a good festive season, and are not too downcast by the return to normality and (for those in the Northern Hemisphere ) dreer January.  The answer is of course, to cheer ourselves up with hobby activities... Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.