Author	tlangston28 (Britain)
Method	Dual Table Setup + Voice Chat
Victor	Britain
Participants	Bangla (AAR)
Play Date	2020-10-23
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa029

This scenario has a combined DAK force attacking British contingents with Armor reinforcements along a Desert Road. The Germans have a large battery of Artillery and are tasked with clearing the Road and not losing 10 steps. The British have to prevent the German conditions.

First off, as in most of these Desert games released under the 3rd Edition rules or before, the scenarios have become severely affected by the 4th edition change in the rules of hills not being limiting terrain. In effect, the entire map are always clear hexes except for slopes, which makes artillery the king of the map.

But I digress, and so as the British player, my plan was to keep the infantry as far as possible from the German leaders that could spot them for as long as I could while I waited for the reinforcements to arrive so that sheer numbers could be used to setup necessary crossfires for the UK tanks. with 2 sets of 42 strength artillery batteries, the Germans made short work of the British infantry and carriers and the slow arrival of reinforcements and the limiting factor of the tank leaders lead to situations early on where the British were losing tanks at an alarming rate. However, numbers would soon prevail and after a few exchanges where the British shots were lucky or cross-fires were obtained, the firepower of the German armor slowly dwindled.

At about the halfway point, The British had to keep the remaining Stuarts and Crusaders at arms-length while the Valentine and Matildas rumbled (slowly) to provide speed bumps for advancing German armor. However, there were enough losses where the initiative difference was enough to cause the British to be extremely cautious. For most of the second half of the game, the British turn mostly consisted of "Pass, Pass, Pass, Pass, FOW, Pass, FOW..." while waiting for the German to commit his armor to either moving or firing, at which point, I could try to get into advantageous positions, IF fog of war did not hinder that. Ultimately, the cat and mouse game worked and the British were able to gain a foothold on the road at the east end of the map (where the Germans entered) with the Germans out of range to get any killing shots.

With all of this said, I still enjoyed the puzzle of trying to maintain the Armor advantage (!) that the British had in simple numbers and trying to setup a cross-fire and we had great fun with a mostly armored battle at the end but ultimately it did not feel like a victory - most likely due to the step loss differential: 94 UK Losses to 30 German.

I do think that Desert Rats and Afrika Korps, if played with 4th edition, should retain the 3rd Edition rules concerning hills (limiting terrain). It would make a closer game and a more believable result.