Mussolini, feeling upstaged by Hitler's bloodless conquests in Czechoslovakia, began putting pressure on King Zog of Albania to subject Albania to annexation by Italy. Zog's refusal and subsequent oppression of Fascists gave Mussolini all the pretext he needed to invade Albania. Knowing that British parliamentarians tended to leave for the countryside on weekends and therefore international pressure would be non-existent, Mussolini ordered the Italian armed forces to invade the small, rural country on Good Friday. However, despite the lack of warning and the small size of their armed forces, the Albanians would resist.
Attacker: Italian (3° Reggimento, 21° Divisione Fanteria "Granatieri di Sardegna" and 2° Reggimento Bersaglieri)
Defender: Albanian (Royal Border Guard and Albanian Marines)
6.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Albanian Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:12.0 D:11.0
AFVs: A:4
Lancia 1ZM x 2 L3/35 x 2
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
Fog (E3.31) Turns 1-3, A: Seaborne Assault (G14).
Map Board(s):
53
Overlays:
OC1
RR1
RR3
RR4
X17
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
When looking at the journal the first two scenarios immediately struck me as must-plays. Having played both of them now, I will recategorize them as must-never-play-agains. Firstly, I have issue with how SSR3 makes you slog through a rather large rule section to pick out the very few pertinent parts that will apply here. It would've been much better-served listing the specific rules that pertain. As it is I know we played this wrong, as my opponent insisted his Italians break on the pier rather than CR. Well...with my strong upfront defense there was plenty of this. Thankfully I don't think this would've drastically changed any result, as most of the breaking that took place was on the landings. Secondly, the Fog is cumbersome; exceedingly so. And it basically renders all small arms fire useless. Which means that the game will come down to if the two Albanian MGs hold up. If they do, the Italians will have it extremely rough. If they don't, the Albanians don't stand a chance. With B11s you just never know, and this makes this one dicey as hell. But back to my defense. With two buildings adjacent to it, the southern landing would prove impossible for the Italians to crack, as any units that broke would have to rout back onto the pier and kick the severe overstacking limits into effect. There was not a whole lot I could do in the north however, as units that broke off the pier could rout into the adjacent woods. Thankfully he could not get anybody into J2 or K2 to start forcing his way into the factory. And it was then a simple matter of blocking the way with bodies, replacing them with fresh ones every turn as needed, to delay his entry as long as possible. Rather than press the issue as I think was needed, he sent his men on a flanking route along the north to try and get behind me and reach the victory building. But the Fog was just too hindering to movement, and I was easily able to cut most of his men off and then populate the building with my reinforcements. The lifting of the the Fog on Turn 4 obviously completely changed the dynamic, but I was able to anticipate this and resituate my men to better positions. Rather than continue to describe turn after turn of tedium, in the end the Italians were not even able to take the factory, and without any vehicles (and Albanian OBA still in the pocket) there was zero chance of taking the VC building. This one was a completely boring slogfest.
2023-02-09
(A) Shane Pask
vs
Italian win
The fog slowed everything down and massively hindered any firing until it cleared. The MMG in the factory was rolling well but so were the Italian MCs with many pin results (which kept the Albanian sniper busy). Pins were not enough, however, and the MMG was encircled, broken and forced to surrender by the end of turn 3.
Reinforcement rolls were high so the Italians received a total of 7 squads, one LMG and leader for the 3 rolls but the vehicles arrived on time.
Albanians skulked, trying to keep enough troops to hold on to R6 but an all out assault by the Italians on turn 6 breached the building and reached the CVP target. The only GO Albanians left were one 3-4-7 and the 6+1 leader. Another HS was in melee at 1:8. Italian casualties were high but enough remained to mop up R6 if it had been required (including the 9-1 and two 4-4-7 sitting on an Albanian MMG in R6).
