Monaldini and Monticelli – A Crossfire Battle Report in Italy 1

Jamie and I played my Monaldini and Monticelli Scenario. Kiwis and Greeks against Fallschirmjäger and “Turcomen” during the Italian Campaign. And lets not forget the six Shermans.

Summary: Great scenario. Lots of tactical decisions for both players. Nice to get a few tanks on table. Great game. We’d play it again. I won. Or perhaps Jamie did.


Table

The table used my modular terrain but still gave a sense of “Italy”. I think it was the white washed walls of the houses and the vineyards.

Monticelli-101 Table
Monticelli-101 Table

For the rough ground features I used some of my rocks. Seems more Italian than brush or swampy bits. I had a few Flames of War vineyards (BB116), and we used them, but for most we just used my normal fields with hedges on top. Close enough.

Monticelli-104 Objective at Monticelli
Monticelli-104 Objective at Monticelli

This was also the first time I have used the Flames of War BB115 Italian Monastery – from their Battlefield in a Box range. In this case used as the church of San Lorenzo in Strada. You can see it in the near ground in the following photo.

Monticelli-103 View of all three objectives
Monticelli-103 View of all three objectives

Deployment

Historically the Kiwis combined a tank troop, a Kiwi rifle platoon and a Greek rifle platoon into sets. Jamie did it differently.

Monticelli-108 Allied deployment
Monticelli-108 Allied deployment

His Kiwi infantry were clustered near the river. One platoon was far forward and the other was towards the rear near the tanks.

Monticelli-105 Kiwi infantry
Monticelli-105 Kiwi infantry

All of the Shermans were in the centre on the rear base edge. From there they could attack either Monaldini or Monticelli.

Monticelli-106 Kiwi Shermans
Monticelli-106 Kiwi Shermans

Both Greek platoons were on the flank near Monaldini.

Monticelli-107 Greek infantry
Monticelli-107 Greek infantry

1900 Hours

Jamie kicked off by attempting Reconnaissance by Fire (RBF). In Crossfire this means rolling 1d6 for each firing stand and any six is a hit. He only had one of the weak Greek platoons attempting RBF so the probability of success was low. He tried several times, on several features but failed more often than not and the only success was on an empty feature.


1915 Hours

Jamie decided to drive towards Monaldini. The table is quite congested there, with lots of vineyards. So Jamie tried driving through one. That is when he discovered the bogging rule and that he needed 5+ on 1d6 to move in most terrain. As it happens this Sherman stayed stuck there for the rest of the game.

Monticelli-111 Sherman bogs in the vineyard near Monaldini
Monticelli-111 Sherman bogs in the vineyard near Monaldini

With the Shermans out of reach, Jamie sent in a Greek platoon. Or a scout from a Greek platoon. I revealed one of my Turcomen platoons and shot the Greeks out.

Monticelli-112 Turcomen shoot up Greeks as they enter Monaldini
Monticelli-112 Turcomen shoot up Greeks as they enter Monaldini

So Jamie decided to take the more open approach and started his Kiwi infantry advancing in the centre.

Monticelli-113 Kiwi infantry advances in front of Shermans
Monticelli-113 Kiwi infantry advances in front of Shermans

1930 Hours

Jamie cautiously had the Kiwi riflemen advancing in front of the Shermans. But you can see a suppressed guy in the following shot.

Monticelli-115 Kiwi infantry probe towards Monticelli
Monticelli-115 Kiwi infantry probe towards Monticelli

And then the suppressed guy got killed. This was the Fallschirmjäger 12cm mortars at work.

Monticelli-116 German 12cm Mortars open up
Monticelli-116 German 12cm Mortars open up

Rather than risk the infantry further Jamie pushed one of his Shermans forward towards Monticelli in the centre of the table. I did nothing. Actually that was true for a lot of the game. I didn’t have much in the way of anti-tank weapons and I wanted to ensure I got a good shot. I was hoping Jamie would get rash and give me an opportunity. So a whole lot of Germans and ex-Soviets just sat in their positions and watched the Kiwi tanks approach, without firing a shot.

Monticelli-117 Sherman approaches Monticelli
Monticelli-117 Sherman approaches Monticelli

Two Shermans rolled into Monticelli and the lead tank opened fire on the Turcomen (Platoon 2) on my left. Boom. One down.

Monticelli-118 Sherman opens fire on Turcomen
Monticelli-118 Sherman opens fire on Turcomen

Then Jamie took out the Turcoman PC. With “Commonwealth” Command & Control that platoon was immobilised for the rest of the game.

Monticelli-119 Sherman gets Turcoman PC
Monticelli-119 Sherman gets Turcoman PC

Then I saw my chance. Jamie advanced one of the Shermans up the banks of the river. I took at shot as it crossed open ground. With my revised anti-tank rules the 7.5cm Pak 40 got 6d6! Yay! Finally I’d get a say in how this battle progressed. Oops. Six misses.

Monticelli-120 The big Pak reveal - 6 dice
Monticelli-120 The big Pak reveal – 6 dice

Jamie quickly pushed his tank into cover and I got another big miss. Actually four misses and a PIN from 5d6.

Monticelli-121 Another another big Pak anti-climax
Monticelli-121 Another another big Pak anti-climax

1945 Hours

Back at Monticelli we began a bit of a cat and mouse battle. Using smoke to try to shelter our own troops. I started it off by smoking off the lead Sherman.

Monticelli-123 Germans smoke off the Sherman at Monticelli
Monticelli-123 Germans smoke off the Sherman at Monticelli

Jamie pushed the FO for the 3″ mortars across the Rio Melo into a better position. Better to annoy me with.

Monticelli-124 3 FO crosses Rio Melo
Monticelli-124 3 FO crosses Rio Melo

And he dropped 5cm smoke across the front of his how Sherman to protect it from the Pak 40.

Monticelli-125 Kiwis smoke off the Sherman in the fields
Monticelli-125 Kiwis smoke off the Sherman in the fields

So I started chewing on the Kiwi Platoon lined up along the Rio Melo.

Monticelli-126 German 12cm mortars target Kiwi platoon on the Rio Melo
Monticelli-126 German 12cm mortars target Kiwi platoon on the Rio Melo

Having miserably failed to affect the Sherman it was shooting at, my Pak then got suppressed in reply. Mutter, mutter.

Monticelli-127 Sherman suppresses Pak
Monticelli-127 Sherman suppresses Pak

Luckily the Pak rallied and finally knocked out the Sherman in the fields.

Monticelli-128 Pak rallies and knocks out Sherman
Monticelli-128 Pak rallies and knocks out Sherman

Unluckily, the British mortars then pounded the Pak. Oh, well, at least it got one tank before it got wiped out.

Monticelli-129 3 Mortars kill the Pak
Monticelli-129 3 Mortars kill the Pak

Back in Monticelli the lead Sherman destroyed a Turcomen squad.

Monticelli-130 Sherman in Monticelli kills Turcomen
Monticelli-130 Sherman in Monticelli kills Turcomen

The rival mortars continued lobbing missiles in each direction. After the loss the of he Pak, I killed another Kiwi squad.

Monticelli-131 Mortar tennis
Monticelli-131 Mortar tennis
Monticelli-132 German 12cm Mortars score again
Monticelli-132 German 12cm Mortars score again

As the game progressed we both started relying on smoke more. By this time I really wanted that lead Sherman in Monticelli to advance. Even a base width would be enough. So I put all the smoke I could around it… if it wanted to fire it would have to move.

Monticelli-133 Lots of German Smoke in Monticelli
Monticelli-133 Lots of German Smoke in Monticelli

Meanwhile my 12cm mortars finished chewing on the Kiwi platoon.

Monticelli-134 German 12cm Mortars finish off platoon
Monticelli-134 German 12cm Mortars finish off platoon

That meant I was free to evacuate Strada and counter-attack Monticelli. Actually I favoured an out flanking move by the Fallschirmjäger but Jamie’s rear line of Shermans made that impossible. So I sent a single Fallschirmjäger platoon into the village.

Monticelli-135 Fallschirmjäger counter-attack into Monticelli
Monticelli-135 Fallschirmjäger counter-attack into Monticelli

And, of course, that just encouraged Jamie to bring up his next Sherman.

Monticelli-136 Another Sherman moves into the fields
Monticelli-136 Another Sherman moves into the fields

And the Sherman started chewing on the Fallschirmjäger, in combination with the mortars.

Monticelli-138 Mortar and tank combo
Monticelli-138 Mortar and tank combo

And in Monticelli the lead Sherman destroyed my Fallschirmjäger squad.

Monticelli-139 Sherman scores in Monticelli
Monticelli-139 Sherman scores in Monticelli

Jamie got all keen and rushed a Kiwi squad across the street in Monticelli. So I revealed my last troops – Platoon 3 “Turcomen” – and suppressed it half way. This platoon, with their panzerfaust is why I’d wanted Jamie to edge her Sherman closer. There was no way I was going out into the open. But I would have been most happy if he incautiously got close to my armour piercing shaped charges. But he didn’t.

Monticelli-140 Last defenders of Monticelli revealed as Kiwis make a dash
Monticelli-140 Last defenders of Monticelli revealed as Kiwis make a dash

So I charged the rest of my Fallschirmjäger platoon into Monticelli.

Monticelli-141 Fallschirmjäger counter-attack again
Monticelli-141 Fallschirmjäger counter-attack again

The lead Sherman kept pounding the Turcomen in the wood.

Monticelli-142 Sherman chews on the Turcomen in the wood
Monticelli-142 Sherman chews on the Turcomen in the wood
Monticelli-147 In Monticelli the Sherman clean up Turcomen
Monticelli-147 In Monticelli the Sherman clean up Turcomen

The Kiwi Mortars pounded my Fallschirmjäger.

Monticelli-143 Mortars pound counterattack
Monticelli-143 Mortars pound counterattack

And the Sherman in the field finished them off. Game over.

Monticelli-146 Sherman in the field crushes counter-attack
Monticelli-146 Sherman in the field crushes counter-attack

Observations and Conclusions

After the game Jamie said, “the sign of a great scenario is when you’d like to play it again straight after finishing.” And we were keen to give it another go. It only took 1 hour 45 minutes to play so we could have, but instead we stopped to have a fuller debrief.

We liked that both the attacker and defender have big tactical decisions. Does the defender defend everything or concentrate on one of Monaldini and Monticelli? Does the defender deploy in the settlements or outside. Do they keep a reserve? How to use the veteran Fallschirmjäger? How to shelter the infantry from the Kiwi Shermans. etc etc. The Allied player has a similar array of decisions to make. That is what made us want to try again, we were both thinking, “what if I tried this … ?”

Jamie fielded six Sherman IIIs from Steven’s Kiwi Armour in Italy, or more specifically 2 and 3 Troop, A Squadron, 20 Armoured Regiment, 2 (NZ) Division. These are just great models. We both love the mud-grey with blue-black disruptive pattern. So much cooler than the normal Allied dark green. Oops, I got distracted.

Monticelli-151 Kiwi Sherman III and Knocked out Sherman III
Monticelli-151 Kiwi Sherman III and Knocked out Sherman III

Six Shermans on table. That is a lot but it didn’t seem overwhelming. Punchy but not too punchy.

Jamie used his tanks well with the forward tanks always having tanks behind to provide covering fire. I never got a chance for a flanking attack, despite searching for one the entire game.

My emerging revision to the armour rules survived another play test. 5d6 seems a lot for a tank to dish out against infantry, and it is, but they only shoot individually so it didn’t seem overpowering compared to a rifle platoon sized crossfire. And when I pulled out 6d6 to use for anti-tank fire from the Pak 40, I thought, hmm, perhaps this is too generous. But then I missed with all six dice and the Sherman scooted into cover. After that it was 5d6 and although I eventually got the tank, it wasn’t a given. So very encouraging.

There are some very long lines of fire on the map. The Germans can reach the Allied base line with fire. Similarly the Allies can fire on the German positions in Strada from the beginning of the game. I was also concerned about the long line of fire down the road. Play testing showed my concerns were not founded. If you find it a problem then drop in a couple of crests to break up the offensive lines of fire.

So who won? Well, technically I did. The scenario specifies the Allies lose the game if they take five casualties. They did. But this is because Jamie wasn’t playing cautiously. So I took my win and then we kept playing. It only took a bit longer for the Sherman firepower to grind down the defenders and for Jamie to take the objectives. On balance we thought the 5 fighting stand victory condition was justified. The Allies have a lot of firepower, but if they are too rash, they will lose.

2 thoughts on “Monaldini and Monticelli – A Crossfire Battle Report in Italy 1”

  1. Excellent report. It seems to be a challenging scenario for both sides. Very interesting. 👏

    Reply

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