Excelente escenario en el que fuerzas del ejército de tierra y de la marina del Perú se enfrentan a unidades del ejército regular y paramilitares ("carabineros") del ejército ecuatoriano.

El campo de batalla es estrecho y largo y es atravesado de punta a punta por un río navegable. Precisamente el interés de este escenario se concentra en una cañonera peruana que, a causa de su potencia de fuego y su movilidad, puede navegar rápidamente a lo largo del río y debería teóricamente desequilibrar la batalla en favor de los peruanos.

Los ecuatorianos tiene una moral muy baja (6/5 y 6/4). La de los peruanos es algo más alta (7/6). Se obtienen puntos de victoria por causar bajas al enemigo y por conquistar hexes de ciudad.

Los peruanos entran por el este y rápidamente, gracias a su mejor moral y al apoyo de la cañonera, consiguen desalojar al enemigo de la primera ciudad junto al río. El problema para los peruanos está en que sus escasas fuerzas deben guarnecer el terreno conquistado y al mismo tiempo seguir avanzando para conquistar más. Y es aquí donde está el talón de Aquiles peruano. Las desmoralizadas unidades ecuatorianas que habían sido desalojadas de los primeros hexes de ciudad se reorganizan lentamente y reconquistan algunas posiciones perdidas.

Los ecuatorianos, además, lejos de mantenerse estáticos en sus posiciones defensivas, se desplieganen a orilla del río para tratar de interceptar a la cañonera. En el turno 14 los carabineros ecuatorianos consiguen desorganizar a la cañonera, que no consigue recuperarse en el resto de partida. Sin el apoyo táctico de la embarcación peruana, los atacantes ven mermada su capacidad de fuego y de movilidad. Esto, añadido a la tenaz defensa de la ciudad central por los ecuatorianos, conduce a un igualadísimo resultado (19 VP para los peruanos y 20 para los ecuatorianos).

En resumen, empate y un magnífico escenario al que no dudo en calificar con un 5.

This is my second scenario from War on the Equator.

The Ecuadorians have a larger force but are stretched out very thin per special rule at the setup: at least one unit must setup in each city hex. They also have more leaders and one Cavalry unit but a slightly lower morale.

The Peruvians have some of those stronger Marine Naval troops mixed with regular Infantry and the big Naval Gun Boat but they have very few leaders and I lot of town hexes to take without any support weapons to soften the targets before assaulting.

Into the battle, the Peruvians decide to attack on one side of the river first as both sides have the same amount of city hexes which count for victory points, besides enemy step losses. The gun boat will take units further down river to work on another town. The Ecuadorians decide not to play it historical by sitting around and waiting, and group for a major counter attack. They send a Cavalry unit and some Infantry reinforcements from the center towns, east to help the towns in this area and to tie up all the remaining Peruvian units which thought they would take that first large eastern town with just a little fight. This turned into a mini Stalingrad for them, especially without large support weapons or artillery to soften up town hexes. Even way out west, the remainder of the Peruvian attacking forces got locked up in battle. In the Center, the Ecuadorians were unchallenged.

I called the battle off at about turn 22, as the Peruvians were spent and without enough leaders to rally the troops. It pretty much stalemated in both the Eastern & Western sectors with the Ecuadorian controlling most of the battle field.

Conclusion:

Peruvians lost three INF steps and controlled two town hexes.

Ecuadorians lost one CAV step but controlled twelve town hexes.

Ecuadorians 27 points, Peruvians 7 points

• Major Ecuadorian Victory!

This is my second War on the Equator scenario, one victory for each side so far. Interesting scenario!

The fifth in Daniel and my efforts to refight the Peruvian/Ecuadorian conflict of 1941 ended in another close fought, tense draw. In this case, my Peruvians enter onto the western edge of the board along with their gunboat support with the intention of quickly overwhelming the garrison of the first town and then moving on to victory. The Ecuadorians are spread thinly through the area due to set up restrictions that force them to garrison every single town hex.

It took several turns to move into contact. As my mixed force of Marines and Peruvian regulars bore down on the first town a sortie from the second town down the river crossed and came into range of the gunboat. While the gunners didn't kill anyone they successfully forced the reinforcements to ground and ensured that they could not interfere with the combat then going on.

That, it turns out, was a good thing as the Peruvians once again demonstrated that, while they are better troops than the Ecuadorians, they do not qualify as elite. Slowly the Peruvians rooted the Ecuadorians out of the town but in the end were unable to destroy them all as some demoralized troops were able to run away and once the town was secured forced the Peruvians to maintain a garrison to hold it. Luckily my attackers were a little better at killing leaders than steps so they had no way to approach and gain a lodgement back in the town.

As the fighting wore down a quick look (belatedly) at the victory conditions indicated that assaults on the following town were a requirement if the Peruvians were to be able to pull a victory out of their hat. As befits a scenario with a watery theme, my forces seemed to ooze along the river and flow into the town. Unfortunately I was only able to enter one town hex coherently and could not dislodge the defenders. More time would have generated better results but a draw it is: 20-19 in favor of Ecuador. Currently Daniel leads the engagement record 2 wins to 1 with 2 draws.

One unabashed plug for the game itself. There is no other PG product that provides this variety of scenarios in such a small complete package. I strongly encourage fans of the system to get this set. The scenarios vary greatly from one to another. They are very carefully balanced and provide the Ecuadorian player with ways to win when standing up to the Peruvian can seem impossible. One caveat: Daniel has played the Ecuadorians throughout so I cannot speak to the experience from that side. Given the defensive nature of their fight it might seem somewhat less exciting.

As to the personal victory condition, we have now played 5 of the 6 scenarios in this packet and I, as the Peruvians have yet to lose a single unit. While I have had step losses (4 in this scenario) none have resulted in the complete elimination of a unit. It is even more surprising since I have not played to avoid such losses, they just haven't happened. Given the forces to be arrayed in the final scenario I have my doubts about maintaining this record.

Played ftf against Matt W. Our fifth War on Equator encounter; one more and we will have a ribbon!

Matt wrote a good AAR and as I don't repeat the same information, I will use this space to discuss the lesson learned.

I believe the Ecuadorians must contain the Peruvian riverboat and march their units set up in the eastern board's town if they want a shot at a major victory. One option may be to move two units from the central town onto the bridge and the have them dug in. This is a risky proposition - 8-8 direct fire is kind of scary when your best troops have 6/5 morale - but if they hold, it would free up two or three the four units set up in the east towns.

That's not what I did and the four units were never a threat to the Peruvians. My troops held off just long enough for a draw but 1 or 2 more turns and it might have been a Peruvian minor victory.

What I like best about commanding the Ecuadorians is I know I will lose lots of troops without inflicting much losses on the Peruvians. The goal is to find a way to survive long enough and delay the Peruvians to earn a victory. I enjoy the puzzles tremendously but it may not be your cup of tea if you prefer fair fights.

We played this scenario in two hours and I recommend it for both solo and ftf play.

In this scenario, the map is 3 boards long (which really stretched my table) with a a river running through it (no, its not in Montana) few towns on either side of river. There are no roads, although there are bridges across the river. Units can only cross at bridges or, in the case of the Peruvians, if their gunboat drops them off. This is a very small scenario. The Ecuadorans actually outnumber the Peruvians, however their units are spread across the 3 maps. The Peruvians have a few INF, an HMG and 3 MAR units in this one, along with the gunboat. I set up a weak defense in the town closest to where the Peruvians enter with stronger defense in the further towns. This may have been a mistake.

The Peruvians started with on MAR on the gunboat (with a leader) and the others advancing up the north bank, while the regular INF and HMG advanced up the south bank. By turn 4 they were ready to assault the 1st town, defended by 3 CARA and an INF. The MAR on the boat landed on the south bank to help them flank the town, and the gunboat went back to bring another one forward. In response, the Ecuadorans sent their lone CAV unit from the 2nd town to assist. Alas for the Ecuadorans, 1 hex fire from the MAR took a step off of the CAV and demoralized it on turn 5....IT NEVER RECOVERED FROM DEMORALIZATION! That's right, folks, 25 turns. Its morale was 5, down to 4 for DEM, back up to 5 for having a +1 morale leader with it. So, it had to roll a 4 or less to recover to DIS. Not easy, and still a 1 in 6 chance. And for 25 turns I could not do it! Needless to say, the CAV was a non-factor.

It took the Peruvians almost 3 hours to clear the 1st town and chase its lone survivors into the woods. Meanwhile, the Gunboat had landed more Marines near the 2nd town. I cleverly forgot to send a leader with them, so they weren't able to advance on the town, instead just hanging out on the riverbanks. Getting bold, the Ecuadorans sallied forth to wipe out this beachhead (river-head?). In retrospect, this, too was an error. The gunboat sailed back upriver and shot up one of the units and the Ecuadorans ran back to town with their tails between their legs...this lost unit would be important later.

By turn 17 (of 30), the 1st town was completely cleared, and the Peruvians were moving on the biggest town on the board. They had pretty much given up hope of getting the far towns. Meanwhile, some decent Ecuadoran troops were in these towns that could have been used in the front line fight. If I had stocked this town with CARA, they could have been defending the 1st town. Sure, the Peruvians could have sailed up river farther, and that's pretty slow.

The Marines were tasked with the initial assault on the big town. 2 of the 3 were disrupted on teh advance, and on turn 20, 1 was wiped out by Ecuadoran fire (snake-eyes) which caused the Peruvians to call off the pursuit of the survivors from the 1st town to send reinforcements to the attack on the 2nd town. If that Ecuadoran CAV had ever recovered, it could have run back and recaptured parts of the 1st town....but we all know how that turned out.

Over the next few turns the Peruvians moved on town #2 in force. Having the missing unit, lost in the earlier sally would have really helped the Ecuadorans. By turn 24, the Ecuadoran resistance in the town was collapsing and all of the Ecuadorans were fleeing...as was a 2nd unit of Peruvian Marines, who just didn't like the enemy having guns.

The game looked to be a lock for the Peruvians, however on turn 26, in the morale recovery phase, the Ecuadorans rolled 2 snake-eyes on DEM units, and suddenly had 3 platoons to try to retake the town. And in the woods near the 1st town, the CARA had finally rallied and (although reduced) were trying to cause trouble there. That adventure didn't go well, as the gunboat shot them up from long distance. On turn 28, the Ecuadorans reoccupied part of the 2nd town and on turn 29 more than 1/2 of it was under their control. However, they were unable to make more progress on turn 30, although they once again demoralized the Marines who had recovered and were trying to rejoin the fight.

In the final analysis, the Ecuadorans held 7 town hexes and had killed 2 steps of Peruvians for 16 points. The Peruvians held only 6 town hexes (12 points), but had killed 13 steps of Ecuadorans for a total of 25 points, a 9 point margin and an a Major Peruvian victory. That being said, a better Ecuadoran set-up, a recovery of the cavalry and no sallying forth could have made this much closer. This scenario moved fast, and although the Ecuadorans were fairly static, they did not feel helpless. A very enjoyable romp.

Now...on to Kursk!

Author	treadasaurusrex (Peru)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Peru
Participants	sagunto
Play Date	2021-12-08
Language	English
Scenario	WotE005

We played out this compact scenario in less that the specified 24 turns over 3 online sessions with another PG rookie. We did not use the FOW rule. A combined three map boards made for a long major river dotted by a series of small, garrisoned ports that the Peruvians needed to seize by amphibious attack using their very busy gunboat to land and relay troops up-and-down the river. The gunboat also provided direct fire shore bombardments in support of the landings. I played the, eventually victorious, Peruvian side in this somewhat tedious play-through.

Others have provided AARs that basically sum up the gist of our battle. The full company of Peruvian marines took the biggest town - perhaps Rocafuerte (?) - after 6 assault turns. Both sides had morale difficulties, but with the possibility of river-borne reinforcement, and with the capacity to make multiple troop landings to flank the defending Ecuadorian garrisons, the Peruvians slowly, but steadily, took and held 8 uncontested town hexes.

My hard-pressed opponent conceded the game on Turn 19. At that point, the Ecuadoran side still held 6 town hexes and had managed to eliminated 2 steps of Peruvian infantry and a single Teniente for a 14-point total. The Peruvians had taken 8 town hexes for 24 points, but had also eliminated 12 steps of Ecuadoran troops and 2 leaders for a grand total of 18 points. This 36-point margin resulted in a major Peruvian victory.

A relatively balanced, low-unit count scenario. I give it a 3, due primarily to the tiresome river transportation of units that the Peruvian side must endure to ensure victory. This could have been a much more entertaining scenario, with an additional boat to move troops on that very long stream.