Mid War Raiding - Italians vs Indians

Kieth dropped by today and wanted to try out his Italian raiding force!  He brought along 585 points of an Arditi Jeep Company with sporadic air.

Fearless    Veteran	103a Compagnia Arditi Comionettisti (MW) Arditi Jeep Company	Italian Mid-War
Mechanised Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Combat Platoons
Arditi Camionettisti Platoon  p.150	1 3 1 2 1 1	AS42 Sahariana with extra AA MG AS42 da 20/65 with AA MG AS37 da 20/65 with AA MG AS42 da Solothurn AS42 da 47/32 with AA MG AS37 da 47/32 (late) with AA MG	495
Support Platoons
Air Support  p.149	3	Sporadic Air Support FIAT CR.42 Falco	90
Company Points:			585

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Source document: Burning Empires

I fielded 1150 points of an Indian Rifle CO with 1st Army support.

Fearless    Veteran	Rifle Company (Indian) (Tunisia)	British Mid-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Rifle Company HQ (Indian) (Tunisia)  p.171	2 1	Cmd Rifle team Troop Carrier	40
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon (Indian)  p.171	1 1 1 6 1	Cmd Rifle/MG team Light Mortar team Anti-tank Rifle team Rifle/MG team Entire platoon turned into Gurkha Rifle Platoon	235
Rifle Platoon (Indian)  p.171	1 1 1 6	Cmd Rifle/MG team Light Mortar team Anti-tank Rifle team Rifle/MG team	225
Weapons Platoon
Carrier Platoon (Indian)  p.172	3	Indian Pattern Carrier with extra hull-mounted MG	115
Anti-tank Platoon (Indian)  p.173	1 1 2	Cmd Rifle team Jeep 6 pdr portee	110
Brigade Support Platoons
Transport Section (1st Army)  Confident  Trained   p.175	4	3-ton lorry	15
Divisional Support
Infantry Tank Platoon (1st Army)  Confident  Trained   p.165	3	Churchill III	410
Company Points:			1150

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Source document: North Africa

I really enjoy both "The Convoy" and "Get The General" missions.  We decided on Get the General.  I choose to have my Ghurka's as far foward as possible near the town and the Pattern Carriers in close escort with the staff vehicles x5.  The rest of the defending force is in scattered reserves.

Keith's Italian raiding force starts with one platoon swooping around the town and the other in Ambush!  My pattern carriers make a recce deployement move to try and protect the staff vehicles. 

 The Ghurkas are dug in protecting the centre area that the convoy will pass through shortly.

 Keith moves into position preparing to bring all his guns to bear.

The convoy carrying the General spots the Italian raiders and puts the pedal to the metal!

 Turn 2 Keith pops his ambush and lights up a couple trucks!  The road is now difficult going due to the pair of trucks on fire!  This will slow the Jeep rated staff vehicles down to 4" move for a turn.

  Behind the convoy keith is concentrating fire on the Indian pattern carrier escorts.  His MGs end up bailing one and destroying another!  Return fire takes down one raider.

Turn 3 the Indians get their 2pdr portees on the table.  And a lucky roll for scattered reserves places them right in firing range of the ambushing Italians.

 One kill!

Things are getting messy.  Keith relentlessly and mercilessly takes out the remaining carriers.  However the Indians are able to take out one more of the Raiders before being eliminated.

The Ghurkas start taking pot shots with AT rifle, mortar and any in range MG teams possible but are ineffective.  

Turn 4 the last remaining staff cars make it off the table to safety.  Keith now has 3 staff car objectives in his pocket.  He just has to escape with the platoon that did the killing in order to get an 4-3 minor victory. 

Burning vehicles.   

Turn 4 also saw the Indians receive reserves.  An Indian Rifle platoon and the churchills.  The Indians race to catch up to the escaping Italians.  I chose to keep them in their lorries!  Bad decision...  Keith opens up destroying over half the platoon in the process.  The survivors cower in the nearby palms.  Only the CO and 2IC remain charging forward. 

Its now or never for both sides as the Italians only have a short distance to go before making it to safety.  The churchills move forward and take ROF 1 shots hoping to connect.  In a huge stroke of luck for the Indians they manage to pull of the needed hits while keith expertly failed both saves. 

That brought the match to a close.  We both had a blast and like every raiding mission ive ever played this one could have gone either way.  Fast and fun right down to the wire!