The Germans enter the map from the east, along the road on the lower part of the hill which runs east-west across the entire map. The objective was the clear and maintain the road for the whole of the map, without losing too many steps. We played this scenario with the 4th Edition rules, which meant that the hill terrain was not limiting. As the German player, I just had to get my officers forward to turn my off board artillery onto the British infantry and Bren carriers. That part of the plan worked a treat. The Germans chased the enemy all the way to the western edge of the map, where they died a slow death.

In the early turns the Pz III's and IV's also had a lot of good fortune racking up Stuart kills, and the German infantry even managed to assault a group of three Crusaders and eliminated them too. However, all was not what it seemed. I had been careless with the 50mm guns. Two were destroyed whilst limbered, and the third was lost after it had fired but 2 or 3 shells at the enemy. And whilst the Germans were rushing to kill the Stuarts, Crusaders and infantry, the slow build up of Crusaders, Stuarts, Valentines and Matildas to the north of the map would spell trouble. The Matildas, with their 6-rated armour, proved particularly difficult as I needed cross-fire opportunities to stand a chance to eliminate them. Every Pz III and PzIV lost step meant that was becoming progressively more difficult.

The British reinforcing force was able to cross the hill and occupy the road along from the eastern edge, and there simply wasn't the time to come back to clear them. My poor German infantry ran the length of the map and back halfway. German combined arms numbers might have told were there another 10 turns or more, but after the early turkey shoot the battle became one of cat and mouse with the British always able to threaten any probe or, more often, just withdraw to a safer position as time was on their side.

If I were to play this scenario again I would make two changes:

1. The hill terrain should revert to being limiting terrain, as per the 3rd edition. This probably applies to all of the Desert Rats scenarios, but it's a must for those with OBA.
2. As the German, I would protect the eastern end of the road from the start, probably using the 50mm guns to set up a screen of the road supported by a group of infantry and one of the PzIII's to enable cross-fire opportunities.