Attacking Fort Nibeiwa

So, following last Wednesday’s Desert fight, Terry and I returned to refight the Fort Nibeiwa scenario. Seeing, how successful Terry’s Matilda was last week, I elected to take two platoons, so I could take two Matilda’s. I also had a unit of engineers to break through the walls, a few team weapons, and hopefully, we can get through. 

The game began with the British barrage going up and shelling the Fort. Terry’s troops took a heavy pin count. I got excited when I hit Terry’s Mortar team, causing damage. Precisely what Terry had done last week. I hit all three men, and then promptly rolled 3 ones. No one died. That was really annoying.

Turn 1 and 2

These two turns, saw my British rushing forwarding, under the cover of darkness. I elected to send two squads up either flank in the cover of Matilda. The plan was to get the Matilda through the wall and cause as much havoc as possible, whilst the squads slipped through unnoticed. 

What I hadn’t planned on, and this is a lesson to learn for the future, that had elected to take some veteran rated paratroopers and defend the wall with them. Though we did very little damage in combat, I had a nasty suspicion, they were going to be hard to shift from their fortified point. 

Turns 3 to 6. 

And I was right, I tried to get through the holes that the Matilda’s had made, which was a difficult task, as they kept getting pinned. But, Terry was able to rush a tiny Tankette down the middle, which used it’s twin machine guns to keep several squads at bay. More, frustratingly, despite having a clear shot at the side of the Tankette with a 2 pounder anti-tank gun, it took three turns to destroy. 

I was finally able to get a squad through and to contest the building on the la flank, but it was the last turn and though the dice didn’t give us another turn, they would have been destroyed if we had. The right flank didn’t go so well, with the squads being either obliterated by artillery fire, or engaged in a close-range firefight with a veteran paratrooper squad that refused to die.

In the end, Terry was able to get a decisive win and fended of my attack.

In hindsight, what I think I should have done was taken less artillery and team weapons and more squads in trucks. The key is to get the squads moving fast into the compound and let them go roaming and destroying to their heart's content. 

Oh, well on to the next scenario