As part of the British invasion of Eritrea, Colonel F.W. Messervy’s “Gazelle Force”, a motorized commando unit comprised of three machine gun companies, a filed gun battery and a mechanized cavalry unit, was established with the mission of creating as much havoc among Italian and Eritrean commands as possible, a task it took on with enthusiasm at every opportunity. One typical encounter occurred on the night of 5 November 1940 when pickets from Skinner’s Horse were overrun by an Eritrean camel column on a small rocky knoll in the Tamanau Gap. The next morning, bolstered by two Sikh platoons on loan from the 3rd Royal Frontier Force Regiment, Gazelle Force assaulted the Eritrean position, which had itself been reinforced during the night.
Attacker: British (A and C Squadrons 1 (Skinner's) Horse and A Company, 3rd Royal Frontier Force Regiment "Gazelle Force")
Defender: Italian (II Group Bande Polizia, 35th and 101st Colonial Battalions)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.5 D:12.0
AFVs: A:4
Carrier A Carrier B Rolls Royce AC x 2
AFVs: D:1
M11/39
Guns: A:0
OML 2-in. Mortar x 2 Boys ATR
D:1
Cannone da 70/15 Mortaio da 45 Brixia Fucile-cc S
Misc Rules:
Light Woods. D: Air Support
Map Board(s):
50
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Human Wave 2022.
Ed moved very aggressively through well placed smoke, using sleaze freeze to prevent my forward units from firing. That got him on the hill and I started sweating. Decent shots with my mortar prevented him from flanking in strength but I was clearly in a vise.
British turn 3 ended badly with me x-ing my MMG on a sustained fire shot and malfunctioning my mtr.
But dice can be fickle. In CC I managed to destroy a carrier in with a snake eyes and generated an 8-0. On my player turn I broke most of the Brits on the hilltop and destroyed another carrier with my Gun. As Ed very graciously pointed out, I could then bag 2 more squads by moving off the hill and eliminating them for failure to rout. Killing another CXd squad guarding prisoners in CC, along with the previous body count (a lucky roll KIAd his 9-1 and another 447) put me over the top of the CVP cap, and that was game.
2022-02-12
(A) Vic Lauterbach
vs
JM
British win
The P5-P6 woods was the Italian Alamo (ADJACENT to hill hexes). Jim's solid plan was to slow me down and it almost worked. I had to take the hill AND get over it to push him out of those woods. Both key Italian stacks broke and Jim's defense crumbled into routs on GT5. The terrain is challenging as is playing 2nd Line British infantry. I immobilized the Italian tankette with ATR fire but it survived CC. The FB broke a squad strafing but wasn't really a factor. This was a close, well played and fun game.
2021-11-01
(A) David Garvin
vs
Nick Faryna
Italian win
2019-11-03
(A) mark watson
vs
Jeff Busey
Italian win
Poor play on the first couple turns slowed me to a point I could not take the hill. Good scenario!
2019-11-03
(D) Jeff B
vs
Mark Watson
Italian win
Italian mortar caught some Brits moving as a stack in woods and killed 1.5 squads and busted the others, while the ATR flamed one of the Carriers making its way up the hill. British mortars situated themselves nicely in hex D2 after I failed to give them the proper respect. They would make me regret that. One of the Carriers had swung around to interdict my reinforcements when they entered. I tried to take it out with my gun but the LoS was blocked, so I left that job to my M11, who succeeded on its first try. The gun immediately broke on its one good shot later. My FB failed to appear on Turn 4, but it would prove unnecessary due to some timely hot shooting. I managed to knock out one Carrier with my ATR, and the last with an LMG. Unfortunately a pesky crew would survive to force a FtR on one of my squads. In the end though the terrain proved to be too brutal for the Brits to make much of a toehold in a timely fashion. Fun scenario though.
2017-07-29
(A) Kermit Mullins
vs
Rick Reinesch
Italian win
St. Louis Tournament. Rick's Italians refused to break and I couldn't take the hill from them.
2017-07-29
(D) Dan Best
vs
Mike Stubits
British win
St. Louis ASL Tournament 2017.
2017-04-08
(D) Ian Morris
vs
Simon Church
British win
2015-07-07
(D) patrick palma
vs
John Bays
British win
2015-05-23
(A) Russell Dewhurst
vs
Sebastian Hummel
British win
2013-08-18
(D) Richard Jenulis
vs
Paul Hart
Italian win
2012-06-17
(D) Andy Beaton
vs
SteffenK
British win
First try at PBEM - worked well, except I just got outmaneuvered.
2012-05-31
(A) Steffen Knippel
vs
Andy Beaton
British win
2011-10-08
(A) Will Willow
vs
R. Woloszyn
Italian win
ASLOK
2011-08-08
(A) David Ramsey
vs
Tim Bunce
Italian win
2011-03-24
(D) Lars Nordström
vs
Martin Svärd
Italian win
2011-03-11
(D) Will Willow
vs
P. Chamberland
British win
FtF NorEaster
2011-02-24
(D) Bob Callen
vs
Brian Brown
Italian win
I felt this was pretty playable for fun factor, but also felt a little tough on the Brits. Forgot to roll for the air support entirely, didn't need it, still controlled the action with a fallback defense. All the moving uphill and ability of Italians to block the forward movement with their broken bodies a problem for the Brits.
