while 1 Platoon were defending the bridge, with 2 Platoon securing their flank (more of that in Scenario 4), 3 Platoon were tasked with investigating some info from a local, who said there was some sort of commander in a farm.
The main road ran West East, with a track up to the farm about 3/4 along. On the Left is a vineyard. The road has terracing, so it was higher than the field to the south, with a 1m bank and retaining wall dropping down, and on the north side the bank and wall went up over the road by a meter, giving the British cover for the first few 30-40 meters. Apart from the woods the platoon approached through, the rest of the ground was pretty open.
The Farm track entrance was guarded by some rifles. A brief firefight and close assault soon dispatched these.
Now Sunjester's woes began. And it was funny.
Classic British platoon attack – 3 Sec went right, after clearing the gate guards, and were to lay down covering fire. 1 and 2 were to work their way up the vineyard, flank and clear.
This relied on L/Cpl Micky Smith being able to drop smoke with the 2". Yeah, about that…
Smoke drop rules are simple. Nominate the target Range Band (Range bands are about 10-15cm a side). Roll a d6 6-Long, 1 Short. 2nd d6, 1 Left, 6 Right.
I think it is quite possible Sj used far more smoke than a Platoon carried. He dropped it on the Italian sandbags. He dropped it blocking his own troops line of fire. Where he didn't drop it was where he wanted it. Smithy got it right ONCE, out of god knows how many attempts. The problem was, as 1 & 2 moved in response to the battle because they weren't getting smoke cover, where the smoke had to go changed. This needed the Lt to run back and tell the mortar to shift aim. This meant he wasn't with the advancing sections, so they couldn't charge in (Close Assault needs to be ordered directly by a Leader stand. Your average PBI will happily not charge towards people shooting at him if no one is yelling at him.)
In the end Sgt Joe Benjamin left 3 Section to find out what the Rupert was doing, and having given Smithy a bollocking when he found out, went to join 1 Section.
The Lt ended up taking the Mortar team with him to 3 Sec. I pointed out they still carried rifles, so they were ordered to drop the mortar, and attached to 3 Sec.
The two MG nests were put under huge amounts of fire, then SJ risked it. Luckily the cards came out in the right order, and the Sgt and Lt each lead a section in before the Italians could activate. The activations for defensive fire found an awful lot of suppressed Italians, who, when charged, surrendered of fled.
Having seen the British get right up to the buildings, the rest of the Italians retired and the game ended.
During the game I had drawn a certain card 10 times. I asked SJ to roll a d6 – he didn't get over 10 (unsurprisingly), then 2d6 – still under 10, then he finally got over 10 on 3d6. 2 fails on beating the 10 meant that while he had enough info to realise this was the local Battalion HQ, the Colonel had had enough time to destroy/pack up and take any useful info.
Next – 2 Platoon learn the meaning of "Meeting Engagement".
's commission from one of our own.