Author	treadasaurusrex (Australia, Britain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Italy
Participants	Chaco
Play Date	2022-02-13
Language	English
Scenario	AfKo025

Other reviewers and I have suggested that Afrika Korps scenario #25 is poorly designed and has at least 4 serious errata notes listed on the PG-HQ website. This is a siege of Tobruk scenario, in which the bulk of the Australian force is not able to move from its entrenchments or participate in the fight. Having a battalion-plus-sized Australian force as called for in the initial setup, which then must spend the entire scenario sitting in place – unless a foolhardy Italian unit advances to within 3 hexes – is a colossal waste of available resources and effort. Only the Aussie reinforced combined arms raiding force gets to move aggressively and participate. This may be what happened historically, though the game designers missed the fact that the Australian mission orders were actually to eliminate a besieging Italian artillery position.

As published, the victory conditions are badly flawed. The Australians have to eliminate 4 steps of Italian troops while avoiding the loss of 4 of their own to win. Same criteria stands for the Italian side. There are 4 Italian entrenchments on the board, and these are not mentioned. Without a specific geographical victory condition, this becomes a very dull play-through.

In this play-through, the raiding force attempted to get between two of the Italian entrenchments to create an opportunity to close assault and capture one of these. The Italian Commander had deployed a terrific setup that held out for the entire scenario, as the Australian raiders battered themselves to pieces trying to crack the formidable Italian defensive line, while under a considerable amount of accurate artillery fire. The Australian Commander conceded on game turn 9, after losing 12 steps worth of key elements of the raiding party. Italian step losses were limited to 5 steps. All in all, a fine performance by the brave Italian defenders in the siege lines!

Here are Suggested Scenario Instruction changes:

Italian Force - Add 1, HMG platoon

Australian/British Force - delete two 3-inch Mortar platoons from the immobile 18th Brigade setup, and - add these two 3-inch Mortar platoons to the initial raiding task force

Scenario Special Rules

ALL Australian/British units may move and attack the Defending Italians after the raiding party has inflicted at least 6 Italian step losses, or occupies at least one of the 4 Italian-held entrenchments.

The Australian/British side may use the smoke rule with 2 turns of smoke per individual mortar unit in the raiding force. The other Commonwealth mortars may not fire smoke.

The 4th Edition Panzer Grenadier Surrender Rule is in effect, but with two minor additions:

1) Undemoralized and undisrupted British tank units may request surrenders from Italian units in any terrain. However, they must spend one turn adjacent to the targeted Italian force, and must then activate to request a surrender on the following game turn.

2) If the surrender request is refused, the engaged tank platoon may immediately assault or direct fire on adjacent Italian units in the same hex.

Replacement Victory Condition language

The Australian/British player wins by eliminating 12 or more Italian steps, and occupying at least 1 entrenchment by the end of the scenario — while not losing more than 8 steps.

Any other result is a draw.