In intense, frustrating, too long and rather flawed scenario. It was our first involving a number of demoralized Italian units surrendering when confronted. Not sure that there is a way for the Italian side to win this one as published, although they begin with a relatively well-laid defense along the the southern ridge of Map 1 (Landscape). The have no motor transport or even wagons to move what artillery they have, so once in-place, the guns stay put. I had to modify my existing map by hand-drawing the 20 and 40 meter contour lines since we played using the 4th edition rule set. Oddly, the Italians side did not begin dug-in and it was a judgment call as to which side of the slope their units actually occupied.

My opponent was his usual steadfast and playful self, and this looked like a sure British win right from the start. He had bad luck throwing dice, especially in assaults and morale recovery. Uncharacteristically, I had better die rolls, and fewer Italian units surrendered than expected . The final score was 25 for the British and only 11 for the Italians, resulting in a draw, since the Brits lost 6 steps of armored cars and 3 of light tanks. The UK got no where near the 40 steps of Italian losses required for victory. I suspect that if he had stood off and used more direct fire from 2 hexes or less, rather than getting into a substantial number of assaults, his tanks and armored cars would have sustained fewer casualties. For the Italian side, getting into assault fights was not a bad thing until one or more of the units involved became demoralized.

For better play balance, I suggest that the victory conditions be changed to require that the Italians eliminate at least 14-16 steps of British units, and that the Brits eliminate 26-30 Italian steps. It would also make some sense to replace the next-to-useles-in this-scenario, British 2-pdr AT gun & truck, with 2 trucks, another leader and some infantrymen. The Italians should have at least 2 wagons to move their artillery around if need be, plus one more HMG platoon. Twelve turns instead 15 would make this a more exciting scenario.