As others have reported " . . . Bardia breakin scenarios are fun, but a real mess." This 5-session play through was indeed fun to play, especially with sufficient beer and a high-morale, entertaining, face-to-face opponent. Unfortunately, we played with the defense-favoring fog of war optional rule which was partially responsible for the eventual Italian, near-victory. We also used the excess initiative, smoke & consolidation rules.

The brave Australian attackers were able to tear a gaping hole in the Axis-held trenches, but at a substantial cost, thereby contributing to this rather unsatisfactory drawn game. It was very difficult to properly-sequence either side's attacks, or counter attacks in this scenario. In part, this was due to the dispersed nature of the initial set up, and the difficulty of moving troops in the open with the amount of OBA available to both sides. Units that were disrupted or demoralized often stayed that way for turn-after-turn due, in part, to the sets of very poor leaders drawn by both sides.

In the end, the very high casualty rate & the brutal victory conditions proved too much for either side to cope with. This scenario gets a very generous 2 from me.