I had to rate this scenario high for the sake of solitaire play though the balance of play is highly in favor of the New Zealander/Maori player. The scenario takes place at night though it is not specified whether visibilty is 1 or 2 hexes, so I went with 1 hex as it is described as an ambush. In setting up the Maoris I spread them out with one unit per entrenchment, sacrificing firepower but making the already tough German victory conditions tougher. The Germans have to be in control of all hill hexes by the end of play with fewer than 8 step losses to win. There is no possibility of a draw as the victory conditions state: If neither or both players win, the New Zealand player wins.

So with the Germans I did what I could and was very impressed with their results though New Zealand ultimately won in the end. From 22:00-22:45, the battlegroup advances having some intuition that danger is up ahead and at 23:00/turn 5, they make contact with the enemy. Surprisingly they don't take any step losses from Maori opportunity fire and are successfully able to encircle most of the entrenchments without any major morale breakdown, save maybe one or two disrupted INF units but leadership is intact. At this time the opposing portree' units bump into each other and the Germans call in fire support demoralizing the mobile, N.Z. 2-pdr.

By 23:30/turn 7, neither side is able to inflict much damage on the other, mostly because of nightime visibilty and hill hex modifiers, though at 23:45 the disabled N.Z. portree' unit is eliminated. The Maoris have only been able to shake up the Germans at this point, far from annihilating them as the historical conclusion states. At 00:00/turn 9, in one wave, all disrupted German units (5 of them)are rallied. Maori units rally as well with superior morale (9/8)and a German assault is postponed. At 01:30/turn 15, the Germans are ready, as their time and luck are sure to run out soon and a first assault is made. Neither side is able to cause much injury to the other, at least for a while. A second German trench assault begins at 01:45/turn 16, reinforced with pzIIs and has far better results, eliminating a step of Maori INF and demoralizing the other. By 02:15/turn 18, one Maori trench is in German control but at 02:30/turn 19, the Maoris bounce back and wipeout over half of the force attacking them, along with a German Major, from the first assault, leaving one demoralized HMG unit left in the assault hex. A third German assault is conducted, assisted by the pzIIs at this time and another entrenchment is weakened, losing an INF step but by 02:24/turn 20, the Germans withdraw.

I was really amazed at how this battle picked up towards the end and it was one of the most intense trench battles I have ever played. The 20 turns passed by very quickly and was able to finish it in less than 24 hours. Though the play seemed biased I enjoyed it immensely though I believe I would do no better with the Germans second time around, in fact they far surpassed my expectations to begin with. Though this was a nightime ambush, the German actually inflicted more step losses on the Maoris with the odds stacked high against them. Also, was very glad that the pzIIs have finally showed they are useful for something after all, combined with INF in assaults.