I played another scenario outside the box of the normal PG realm and headed to East Africa 1941 this time. This scenario uses 4 standard maps plus 1 large desert map, which don’t line up exactly but you can make them work without too my difficulty. The Allies include: South African, Indian, New Zealand & British units against the defending Italians. The Allies have 5 victory objectives and must obtain 4 out of five for a major victory and 3 out of five for a minor victory, below this and Italians start receiving victory levels. The Italians have a force of mainly Infantry and some 47mm AT-Guns, 20mm AA-Guns & 65mm Guns but the entrenchments and the one Fort with a -3 modifier is the real asset. The Allies have Infantry with Indian APCs: (ACW) India Pattern Carriers, British Brens and two types of South African Armored Cars: MHII & MHIII. They also have three levels of morale by nationalities and some off board artillery. Both sides have some random air-support. But most important for the Allies, the Surrender Rule is in effect.

The Allies come on the map from three directions and the Italians were only defending on two maps, so instead of making my typical mistake of trying to go after too many victory objectives at the same time, I let my forces cover the distances of the maps and concentrated on one objective at a time in force as I had 60 turns, so no time pressure. In the beginning, the Allies decided to tackle the easier airfield hexes and targets on map 19 before hitting the more difficult entrenchments, town hexes and Fort on map 18. The only highlight of this selection of the battle for the Italians, was that they took out a loaded Bren Carrier, which had a full step Indian infantry unit and a British Leader. Those Italian 47mm AT guns are very dangerous in 1941 especially against APC unit types with 0 Armor factors and ACs. The Allies cleared the Airfield North, thanks mostly to the Surrender Rule.

The next phase was for the Allies to regroup and hit all the difficult targets in the south. They hit the town hexes without too much difficulty but then came the Entrenchments and that Fort with the -3 modifier, all manned with Italian leaders with higher morale and morale modifiers. Not to mention another 47mm AT-Gun. This was murderess for the Allies, that 47mm AT-Gun took out step after step of Armored Cars & APC’s that tried to request a surrender and these Fortifications took out many steps of Infantry with Fire-first in assaults. This quickly eliminated one of the Allies victory conditions of not losing more than 10 steps. At first I thought about just giving up the idea of a major Allied victory and settling for a minor victory of just three conditions achieved, as I didn’t know if I would have enough Allied strength left but I pushed forward and thanks to the surrender ruler finally overcame the Fort and entrenchments, but at a much higher price then historically I am sure. The Allies had a Major Victory but not an easy one!

Another fun scenario but without the Surrender Rule, this would have been a much closer match.