At 0700 hours on the morning of November 9, 1942, units from the USA 2nd Armored Division were pursuing some isolated infantry platoons from the II and III Battalions of the 7e Régiment de Tirailleurs Marocains when they encountered Vichy reinforcements along the Rabat-Port Lyautey road. Personnel units of the US were dug in on the ridge west of the road, while two Stuart platoons hunted the Vichy infantry in the woods on a ridgeline NE of it. The French Moved north on the southern end of the west ridge, while some of the French R35 platoons headed NE to assist the beleaguered infantry. A Vichy command post was set up on the south central hilltop. Naval bombardment from the cruiser USS Savannah struck both a Vichy truck carrying an 81mm mortar platoon and an HMG position prior to 0800, which secured the US positon on the west ridge in the early fighting in that area. French units continued to move north and east towards the west ridge, while the R35 platoons that had been dispatched to the NE hill had eliminated one Stuart platoon and were chasing the other one back east toward the road. By 0815, the naval bombardment had eliminated another French infantry platoon approaching the west ridge, but the Allied hold on the area was becoming quite tenuous due to French movement from east, west and southern approaches to the ridge. At 0845, the HMG, mortar and infantry platoons that had held the ridge were heartened by the sight of two Stuart platoons and an anti-tank group from Company C, 70th Tank Battalion arriving from the north to help fend off the encroaching R35 platoons that completed the encirclement of the ridge by the Vichy units. The battle began to turn in the Allies favor around 0900 hours despite the loss of a Stuart platoon approaching the ridge to R35 fire. Following many fierce exchanges of fire and hand-to-hand combat, the French began to retreat from the ridge. Three R35 platoons succumbed to fire from both Stuart and anti-tank platoons. The ridge was cleared by 1045 with a final naval bombardment, and subsequently secured by the US troops.

This scenario is made more interesting by the victory conditions: major victory is secured by the US eliminating nine French steps, while the French achieve major victory by eliminating at least 8 American steps AND losing fewer steps than the Americans. The strategy for the French would seem to be to strike fast and take 8 steps before the eighth turn when the US reinforcements arrive. Then they could assume strong defensive positions and try to avoid the 50-point naval bombardment that occurs on selected die rolls for the USA. In this game, the US had bombardment rolls on 7/16 turns, a bit more than one might expect from basic statistics. The other difficulty for the French units is the low morale, which makes them vulnerable to demoralization on morale rolls, and very difficult to rally; hence, they end up fleeing more often than not. Couple that with the special rule that does not allow combat advance when the French player loses initiative, and it becomes difficult to get those eight steps before the Americans get a lead in step attrition. Ergo, the French have to try and eliminate more US steps, which is made difficult by the poor morale. The only other compromise the French suffered in this game occurred on Turn 11 (of the 16 turns) when a random event caused them to suffer a logistical shortfall, an optional rule that I generally don’t use; however, by that time, it was looking pretty bleak for the French to eliminate more steps than the Americans anyhow. At the time of the random event, the US had eliminated 12 steps to the French total of 11, and many of the French troops were not in good order. The final count in step losses was 22 French steps lost to 14 US lost. Technically, the results would indicate either a minor French victory (eliminate at least 6 American steps) or a major American victory (eliminate at least nine French steps), which I suppose some might call a draw due to both sides meeting a victory condition. However, I scored this as a USA victory, since their victory was a major one, and they had stifled the French attack.