My opponent and I went into this scenario expecting it to be completely unbalanced. A superior German force with a higher morale and significant airpower hitting a small Italian contingent trying to block a wide frontage. Still, in an attempt to reduce the number of unplayed scenarios my opponent agreed to take the seemingly hapless Italians. We wanted a short scenario so we could play C&C Napoleonics before I had to leave, and we expected this to be a quick play.

The Italians set up four positions across the board just shy of their setup limit. The arty unit set up on the back board with a small infantry support ready to shell the Germans. The Germans started slow, coming in a compact formation to concentrate on the northern end of the Italian line. For two turns the Germans seemed to move very little distance. That was the limit of Italian success.

The Germans planned on giving the Italians two points by not getting the mortars off the board. Instead the mortars shelled anything the Italians tried to move. German airstrikes quickly killed the Italian gun, and then concentrated on any Italians moving towards the German forces. Half the Italian force was destroyed or demoralized by turn 5. One Italian leader was caught in the open and gunned down by mobile German forces, leaving the mass of demoralized Italian infantry of no hope of becoming an offensive force. German troops were assaulting Italians at every chance since they couldn't actually inflict a step loss in return. Airstrikes killed six of 17 Italian steps lost (3 X, 3 compound demoralization). Ironically the leaderless Italians caused more problems to the Germans with opfire than any led force ever did. But even that merely slowed the Germans down a fraction before another stack blew them to bits.

In the end there was no challenge. With three turns (of 16) to spare every German non-mortar step exited, and 17 of 19 Italian steps were destroyed. We don't suspect any different Italian setup would have made any difference, it just would have changed the timeframe that the Italians died. With a final score of 45 to 2 (the Germans intentionally giving up the two points) it felt like the imbalance was even higher than the score showed. It was at least quick. If the Germans had no airpower it would have at least forced them to think about engagement vs running for the edge. If the airpower was cancelled and the Italians received OBA this MIGHT be some level of challenge. As written, it is a bigger mess than we even suspected. Not sure what the author was thinking when this one was designed. A score of 1 seems pretty generous for a scenario suffering this level of imbalance.