Desert Rats

Surrender Rule. Certain units listed in the special rules of some scenarios are subject to elimination through the surrender rule. The surrender rule is triggered whenever an active, undemoralized enemy unit with direct fire values starts its activation adjacent to or in the same hex with one or more demoralized units that are subject to elimination through the surrender rule. At that time, the inactive player must roll two dice, and if the result is higher than the current morale of his highest-morale unit in the subject hex, ALL units and leaders in the hex (whether demoralized or not) immediately surrender and are eliminated. If the result is equal to or lower than the morale of the unit with the highest current morale in the subject hex, there is no surrender and the inactive units are unaffected. The active units that forced the surrender roll can take all normal actions during their activation, whether the enemy units surrendered or not. So, that means that a moving tank (or other moving unit) can't force enemy units to surrender, because a unit can only force enemy units to surrender at the beginning of its activation (before it moves or fires).

The Italian Engineer backsides have the full strength printed on them but the reduced side should be 2-3 direct fire.

Also the Italian armored cars: AB41, AB40, Fiat 611 & Lancia should have a NATO reconnaissance symbol.

AB40 is not even listed in the OOB.

The victory conditions on sentences one and two contradict each other, ignore the second sentence.

Inconsistency. In the Victory Conditions is said: "The Italian player wins if at any time during the course of play he or she controls all upper level hexes of one hill", but Indian reinforcements arrive "three turns after Italian units have occupied all upper level hexes of either hill".

Surprisingly, despite the title of this scenario, there are not Italian cavalry leaders. I propose that all Italian leaders are cavalry leaders.

British have OBA but no leaders to spot for it. I allowed tank leaders to spot for the OBA due to necessity.

Brits are told where to enter but not when. Presumably this is turn 1.

As stated by others, there is no leader to act as an off board artillery spotter included in the counter mix for the British side. Suggest that others do as I did and add 1 LT and a Bren carrier (so that he may keep up with the the Stuart tanks) to the British order of battle for this scenario.

Scenario does not note when initial German force enters the board. Presumably this is turn 1.

Hill marker in 707 should be on 708.

Axis set up instructions dictate that units off hills must deploy within 2 hexes of both hills, which seems very strange. I believe this should say either hill, to make more sense.

Scenario special rules don't specifically say so as it does with other scenarios, but this is a night scenario based on the clock.

The second hill complex is misprinted as being 2005::2006. It should in fact be 2005::2007, thereby matching up with the levels printed on the Desert Rats Map (No. 5).

Hill in 2005/2006 should be 2006/2007.

Add the following to the German victory conditions "or no British units remain on the map".

If one accepts the map set-up and orientation on page 41 as correct, then there are several problems.

British set-up in hexes xx25 or greater on maps 4 & 5 places them on the EAST side of the space. Thus the Victory Condition as written make no sense. Presumably, the British are to exit off the WEST edge of the boards (also consistent with history as UK forces were attacking from the EAST).

The Italian set-up instructions are either misprinted or broken. As written, Ariete forces must set up in hexes xx10 or less only on board 4. The E/W road on board 5 is 14 hexes away from the map 4/5 boundary. British tanks setting up on xx25-xx28 can exit the WEST edge in two turns whereas the best Italian tank, the Sem. 75/18 takes three turns even to get in range of the road!

Thus, all the British need do is run five Crusader I units (movement of 9) along the E/W road on board 5 and off (five units x two steps/unit x double/tank step = 20 "steps" for VC. Now all the British need do to win is kill 10 IT steps without losing 20. They can keep their armor out of it and let the infantry attempt to achieve this result. Totally a-historical.

My solution is to allow Ariete to set up on xx10 or lower on both boards 4&5, not just board 4 as given on page 41.

Two British infantry have their full strengths printed on the back. They should both be "2-3" when reduced.

Two 105mms (ID#s 1204, 1205) have "16-31" fire values in black (direct fire), when they should be in white (indirect fire).

The Pz IVe appearing in the original Panzer Grenadier game had an Anti tank value of 4-7. As of Afrika Korps (2002), continuing onward through the 3rd and 4th edition games, the anti tank value has been 4-4.

All SPW 251s have an armor value of 0.

Four counters (ID#s: 1502 to 1506) have the incorrect NATO symbol (infantry in lieu of armor).