Author	treadasaurusrex (Peru)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Peru
Participants	sagunto
Play Date	2021-12-11
Language	English
Scenario	WotE006

Played this rather long, final scenario in the War on the Equator online with a fellow rookie PG player in 3 sessions. It is the largest of this game’s 6 scenarios and I played as the Peruvian side. As others have reported, the Peruvians need to control all north-south road hexes on each map of the 4 boards and also eliminate as many Ecuadorian steps as possible in the allotted 36 turns. My opponent’s Ecuadorian defenders needed to finish the game with undemoralized units on road hexes on each of the 4 map boards, as well as eliminating as many Peruvian steps as practicable.

In our play-through, even with the very gamey, Fog of War (FOW) rule in use, more the mobile Peruvian combined arms force was able to rapidly move north across Maps 8, 4 an 18, before the south-moving Ecuadorian side could cover Maps 19 and half of 18. The Peruvians simply have more cavalry, better artillery, motorized transportation, light armor and air support. IMHO, these factors combine to make this an unwinnable scenario for Ecuador. My honorable opponent quit long before we completed 36 turns, resulting in a surprising Peruvian victory. Peru controlled all the road hexes on three out of the four map boards.

This scenario is probably historically accurate as far as order of battle, but it is quite unbalanced in favor of the Peruvians. My inept troop handling was in contrast to my aggressive opponent, who was able to slow and stymie the Peruvian advance far better than I expected. By the end, in spite of many bad combat and morale die rolls by both sides, the actual steps lost were: 20 for Ecuador and only 6 for Peru. Both sides lost 2 leaders. The FOW rule cut 8 turns short, and hurt the Peruvians – by discombobulating their movements, probes and attack sequencing – far more it hurt the defending Ecuadorians. In all, we played 22 turns – 14 short of the required 36.

I give this longish – but fun for the Peruvians – scenario a 3, though it probably deserves a 2 for its remarkable lack of play balance. I don’t think that this one is winnable for the Ecuadorian side, and am surprised that it survived play testing in its current form. It should probably include the use of a version of the surrender rule, as a mercy for the Ecuadorian player, since it is otherwise an almost “too-tedious-to-play” bludgeoning.