Day after day in mid-January, the Soviets launched repeated attacks against the Italians of the Cuneense, Julia, and Tridentina divisions. Often the attacks never even made it across the frozen Don River to the fortified positions. On January 16th, they tried again, striking the Tridentina Division. . .
Attacker: Russian (15th Army Corps)
Defender: Italian (55th Battalion, 6th Alpini Regiment, Tridentina Division)
7 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Italian Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:20.0 D:11.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Mortaio da 45 Brixia x 3
Misc Rules:
GS, possible FS. A: WC
Map Board(s):
7
18
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Updated by HL 3rd edition by removing 1 LMG and 1 MTR from the Italian OOB
MMP
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
The Russian's pushed hard with an illegal human wave on T1 but never really took control of the scenario despite making great progress and having 8 squads on the hills at times. The combination of Wire, trenches, minefields and OBA in the end was all too much. As featured on IR 64.
2022-01-15
(D) Asad Rustum
vs
Jacob Elmqvist
Italian win
Set up as the Italians rather far back with only a few units overlooking the river. Once the Russians had crossed the rivers the Italians has a magnificent lt.mtr bashing hitting the Russians hard. OBA was tough. After finally gaining radio contact the access chit was red and the next turn the second red chit was drawn. The leader got mad and threw the radio at the Russians.
Quite a few weather changes came about with snow increasing twice after which it disappeared. The Italians has some good luck not only with rate on the mortars but also with IFT rolls and although rolling the Russian SAN quite a few times, the Russians did not get payback through effective snipers.
In the final turns the Russian 9-2 rolled for HoB and became berserk.
All in all a very nice scenario.
2021-05-10
(D) manzoli andrea
vs
Galletto
Russian win
2021-02-08
(D) Paolo Cariolato
vs
Alessandro Levarato
Russian win
I choose this scenario as a teaching tool for my opponent, breaking the radio was pivotal in getting a very close game that tha russian was going to lose having just 10VPs on level 1 of which 3 were the underdog in a tough melee with 1 and 1/2 italian squad and a concealed italian leader.
My opponent was going to concede but I encouraged him to play on, "you can always roll snakes". That's exactly what happened. Getting a 6+1 leader improved to 11 his VPs i wasn't able to break or eliminate any units and lost the game. It was fun.
2020-12-31
(A) Bob Schaaf
vs
Barry Grabow
Russian win
Played with the Russian balance (removing 2 SW MTRs from the Italian OB) and Pleva's heretical OBA variant.
Good first-turn ROF from the Russian 9-2-led HMG and failure of the Italians to gain battery access until mid-game allowed the bulk of the Russian infantry to gain the western shore largely unmolested. Which left plenty of time to grind down the Italian defenders. The Russian Sniper was also a key asset, wounding the Italian 8-1 (who later succumbed to a K result mortal wound), and later popping a cap in the 8-0 manning the radio (putting paid to that worry).
Game included a berserk Russian squad charging a berserk Italian (wounded) 8-1/squad combo. Alas, the surviving HS was unable to take out the Italians or even tie them up in melee.
Fun game. Certainly lots of luck on my side this playing. A lot (obviously) depends on whether the Italians can get the OBA into play. Seems like it'd be a real uphill grind without the balance. As it was, the one Italian 45 MTR put a real dent in the advance for a turn or so, breaking (and in some cases ELRing/reducing) several Russian squads.
