The New Zealand forces had the challenge of forcing their way past Italian troops dug in over high ground. 28 turns to accomplish the goal, but I found the battle was settled after turn 14.

The Italians were positioned on the hill hexes on the western side of the map. Dug in with one stack of units every other hex. 47mm AT guns placed towards center, stacked with infantry. 81mm mortars and 65mm infantry guns placed on the hill tops for max visibility.

New Zealand troops approached by truck and Bren carriers from the east. Deployed from trucks about 10 hexes from Italian defense and marched forward. Bren carriers with the troops.

Once the New Zealanders in range, open fired with 47mm AT guns and srtillery. Each of the three 47mm guns took out a Bren carrier. Artillery caused morale check on advaning troops. Troops continued to advance, but next turn, Italian 47mm AT guns took out more Brens. Italian troops dug in on high ground took hits on advancing infantry. By the foutrth turn of the assault, all the Brens were destroyed and the infantry had a tough time taking on the Italians dug in on high ground.

New Zealand concentrated artillery fire did disrupt some Italian hexes, but not enough. Close assaults did not provide enough effect.

By the end 12 New Zealand steps were eliminated versus four Italian.

For an infantry assault against enemy troops dug in on high ground to work, infantry needs armor support (Bren carriers are not successful if enemy has AT guns), and large artillery barrages to work.

By turn 18 it was all over. Many New Zealand units disrupted and in retreat. The could not force their way past the Italian line.

Author	Sonora (New Zealand)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2023-12-11
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa036

Played this scenario again with the Treadasaurus. This time he able led the Italian defenders in this 4-session match. We switched sides from our last play-through and I had the high morale Kiwis that almost got past the Italian lines of defense. We both drew decent sets of leaders and the Kiwis had the advantage in close assaults, while the Italians did very well in adjacent-hex firefights and AT fires. This see saw fight ended in a bloody draw, but the New Zealanders were very close to a win, having liberated more than half of the Italian hill positions. Both sides suffered leader decapitations, which hurt the Kiwis more than the italians. I pushed the troops in too fast and lost Bren Carriers left and right, uusllay they were loaded.

This was fun to play as the Allied players with an online, opponent and I give it a generous 4. It helped that we had already tried it once before, so I was more familiar with moving a large force to contact, deploying a reserve force, and sequencing their attacks.

New Zealand has had a bad time of it in these 'Desert Rats' scenarios so far, with my play; winning just one battle out of seven so far but here in this one they were able to force a draw.

The attack went much better than I expected it would and in the end, over half of the Italian upper hill positions were taken, though a few of the Italian positions were simply abandoned due to failed recovery rolls. There were a lot of posts for the New Zealand forces to take but 28 turns/7 hours seemed like enough time.

There was nothing unusual about the Italian deployment, 47mm AT guns were spread out in a ring to discourage the N.Z. bren carriers from getting too close and by luck the Italians received a decent selection of leaders, especially a Captain with a combat modier of 1 and morale modifier of 2 -this helped a lot with the units themselves having a morale rating of 7/6.

New Zealand units had a base morale of 8/8 and more capable leaders all around with plenty of morale modifiers. I probably waited too long in making my first assault against the Italians, trying to keep casualties down. The first hill post wasn't taken until 11:00/turn 17, but once that one fell other Italian positions began to break down. The Kiwis were gaining steam and making quick progress and after 4 step losses early on went on for quite a while just failing a few morale checks here and there. But soon, after so many successful assaults a few fell apart midway through Italian positions. Then, right when there still seemed to be a remote chance of pushing the Italians off the hill, tragedy struck by the loss of the N.Z Colonel which resulted in decapitation and catastrophic loss at 13:00/turn 25. After that there was a domino effect in failed morale and recovery checks along with units not being able to move for a whole turn. Soon after that there were only enough capable N.Z. units left to carry out one assault and that one fizzled out.

So the Kiwis fail to take the ridge but were lucky enough to only suffer 6 step losses after 28 turns resulting in a stalemate. This wasn't a bad scenario, just not great either so I give it a '3' but it was a first for me in the 'Desert Rats' scenarios as it was the first draw I've had out of 25 played out so far.

My advice for the N.Z. player would be to not worry about casualties if you want to win and send everything you got in right away, even the bren carriers unless of course you are playing for a draw. 28 turns will pass by very quickly and there is a lot ground to cover. Of course there will be casualties but once you get those higher morale units in assault hexes, the Italians will crumble. Oh, and don't let your Colonel get killed either.

My advice for the Italian player would be to keep a strong force in the back positions and not deploy all the HMGs up front. Do whatever it takes to slow the advance down as time is on your side. There are plenty of units to build an all-around solid defense over a lot of upper level hill areas. Unfortunately not much can be done for the low morale unless you get as lucky as I did on the leader draw but at least the surrender rule is not in play!