I finally got to play a scenario from Desert Rats. With two maps, I had to move the game into the kitchen area for space, as two maps takes a lot more room then my normal desk will allow. I try out #10 Bir el Gubi and had the same results as the British did historically. It was nice to have all those Crusader Tanks but their gun is pretty weak even for the Italian armor. Now throw in the fact that they have to attack fixed/entrenchments with Italian BER Infantry that doesn’t surrender and AT guns not to mention the Big 102mm Naval guns and M13/40 tanks as well. The British have a small off board artillery allotment of a 1 X 10 that you can barely suppress, with few rolls, if you are lucky, those big 102mm portee guns. Most of my Crusaders are now burning and the Italian lost zero entrenchment’s as I put a ring around them of dug-in units. The Italians clearly won this one with just a few dug-ins lost, a few Infantry and truck steps lost and a few M13/40 steps lost as well. I lost count of the Crusader steps burning. The British had to take all four Italian entrenchments and eliminate 10 Italian steps. The second one is doable but both together, looks very hard. All the Italians have to do is avoid the British victory conditions and destroy British armor. Maybe I should have went after the Naval 102mm guns first, instead of avoiding them. But that opportunity fire would have made me pay just the same. My play was a clear Italian Victory!

102mm in scenario #10: In #10 Bir el Gubi, the British only have armor in this scenario with a weak off board artillery of 1 X 10. But next time I play I'll use the charge tactic but the Italians can always block it, with those M13/40's or at least hold it up, so those 102mm will still take a toll. Hopefully there will be enough left of my Crusader tanks to attack those fixed positions! It is a challenge. Note; save the two CS Crusader units for the entrenchments.

I also put a ring of dug-in Infantry around my AT-Gun entrenchment’s, which makes a pretty good defense in not losing the entrenchments.

I will have to re-visit Bir el Gubi from Desert rats someday! It was great moving all those Crusader tanks around, I think about 19 platoons in all. I lost with the British last time but I have a new strategy for next time. I highly recommend that scenario as well. There are quite a few scenarios I want to play in DR, as I now feel it is one of the top three games in this system for good scenarios. The only problem is that about half require two large maps to play! Space seems to be my problem right now.

For many years I have been wanting to replay this scenario and I finally got around to it, as I thought I could do better as with British side this time around. I have additional counters for this scenario and I now have gaming space for two desert maps, so I had another battle from Bir El Gubi, which is a battle that has always interest me.

This time unlike my first play, I sent my whole British armor forces, both groups after those giant 102mm Portee Italian Naval Guns. I took them out, both units and I did pay with about 4 steps of Crusader I’s but this was much better then my first play. Now I could concentrate on taking those four Italian entrenchments, but as last time I circled the entrenchments with dug-in infantry, AT-Guns and Italian M13/40’s and still had another smaller group of M13/40’s maneuvering around as well. So this time I took my two armor battle groups of British Crusader I’s & Crusader CS’s and attacked one side of the Italian fortifications hoping to slowly eat away at them until a victory but slowly my British armor was eaten away as well and the turns went much faster.

By turn 23 of 28 I started to get desperate as the British player and took some bad risks, including assaulting Infantry hexes without any Infantry support, which didn’t pay-off but they don’t have any Infantry in this scenario either. In the end I did take one of the four Italian entrenchments, far short of the four needed for victory but one more then my first battle. I improved my game play with this scenario but not enough, as the British were through as a fighting force and the Italians had another victory with the same scenario.

I think this is difficult for the British to win but a very fun scenario to try regardless.

One more note, I do not know who can spot for the British 1x10 of off board artillery in this scenario as there are no Infantry Leaders No big deal, as it's very small amount. I also didn’t rank the scenario as high this time around.

Author	Blackcloud6
Method	Solo
Victor	Italy
Play Date	2020-08-21
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa010

And interesting albeit one-sided scenario. This battle was one of the high points of the Italian Army in WWII where they soundly defeated the British. The scenario plays that out.

The brits attacked with one group on the their left flank to hit the main Italian defense while the right flank group had the mission to push back the Italian tank screen and kill or push away the deadly MILMART naval gun portees.

The right flank Crusaders did their job but took heavy casualties from the naval guns. The remainders of this force then came over to support the main attack.

The main effort hit the Italian tank line and defeated the M13/40s after a few turns of battle. The consolidated west of the Bersaglieri positions. Once all together, this force moved around the flank to the rear of the defense and attacked. They had no success getting into the positions with a pure tank force. Whenever they assaulted, the Bersaglieri counterassaulted and demoralized or killed the attackers. By 1630 hours it was apparent that British were not going to gain any position and were about to lose the entire force, so they withdrew.

I gave this a four rating becasue it is an interesting scenario to see how a pure tank force is inadequate to take a dug-in position. Probably it is best to play solo.

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	Italy
Play Date	2022-12-13
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa010

This is a fun but ultimately hopeless exercise. Brits have an all tank force and must attack a fortified Italian position, bristling with AT guns. Italians also have better morale and naval guns. It works about as well as one would expect.

Brits enter in 2 nearly identical groups, one of which is immediately under extended range fire from the Italian naval guns. These slaughter the Brits on approach and survive a short dual with the remnants of the British formation.

The other group enter and have a dual with the Italian tanks on the map, ultimately winning but being about 3/4 strength at its conclusion. This is not nearly enough strength to make a dent on the Italian hill, not that full strength would have been enough either.

Its a doomed situation, but the shooting gallery for the Italian naval guns is a bit amusing for a quick solo game.

I would have have given this a 3 on the merits of the unique situation, but needed eratta to the setup knocked it down one.