Played solo over three session, this was the scenario of the month for August. It depicts a Commonwealth attack on well defended Italian ridge. Please note I used the OOB as given which includes 6 Italian HMG, not sure if one less HMG would have made much difference to the result. The Italians set up in a box defense on the ridge with their left flank resting on the map edged. MTR and ATG guns in the middle with a box of HMG/INF/20mm stacks around them. All units are dug in, all are in limiting terrain. The Commonwealth force enter and swiftly dump the useless 2prs well to the rear. This was to free up the ACE wheeled APC's for action later once all the Italian ATGs had been neutralized. As the Allied force move to the attack the Italian forces hold their fire not willing to expose themselves to the slightly stronger Commonwealth off board artillery. However after 90 minutes of cautious advance Indian casualties start to mount as accurate ling range machine fire takes it toll. At 1100 three hours into the battle a minor Italian counterattack takes place and this halts the Indian advance from the south. More accurate shooting from the on board Italian mortars cause further losses and after 3 hours the Italians have knocked of the 8 Indian steps required to fulfill the It VC. There was now a lull in the battle as finally the Indian commander managed to get together a fire group of 4 MG platoons, well led, and began a fire fight right across the ridge Italian losses were slowly starting to rise, but accurate counter battery had destroyed the Indian 81mm mortars and a lucky ATG shot had disabled a Valentine. Eventually having knocked out all the Italian units able to damage the APC's and Valentine's a combined arms attack was made but this got bogged down in HtH fighting as a second Italian counter attack led by their gallant Col in person stymied the Indian advance. By GT 32 it was obvious the the Indian forces could not gain their objectives and they withdrew to lick their wounds. This is not a bad scenario and would normally rate a 3 but the doubts over the It HMG count and its seemingly unbalanced VC have dropped it down a point. At first glance it looked tough for the Allies, on set up it looked even tougher and on play so it proved. A slight tweak with either OOB or VC would make this a better game. Still has a simulation of an attack on a well defended ridge line it hits the nail on the head