Yes, I was the first person to lose as the Ecuadorian commander!

Played face-to-face against Matt W.

An interesting scenario as it provides many decision points for both sides.

My first decision was to deploy my Ecuadorians about evenly in each of to five towns which provide victory points. My plan was to be able to resist the initial Peruvian attack long enough for me to be able to reinforce the attacked town or maybe even counterattack.

Yes, counter-attacking with the 6/4 morale Ecuadorians. What was I thinking?

Well, the idea was I might be able to achieve local superiority in a sector and have the opportunity to counter-attack and if, not make it more difficult for the Ecuadorians to gain victory points quickly.

Matt’s AAR describes the action much better than I could ever do so I will go over some of my decision points.

I had to decide whether it was possible to prevent the Peruvians from receiving their marine reinforcements. Although I decided it was not possible to block the Peruvian from reaching the hex which triggers the reinforcements, I might have been better serve by setting up a defense in depth to delay their arrival. The problem with a defense in depth near that town is the cruiser gunfire will hurt any static defense.

I had to decide whether to evacuate the frontal town the Ecuadorians were attacking or to reinforce it. I decided to reinforce it because, well, I like assaults and counter-assaults. The troops I used to reinforce this town might have been better employed to reinforce the coastal towns.

I had to decide when to commit reserves to defend the coastal towns. Although I think I committed them a bit late, it was still reasonably early for them to have a strong impact on the final tally. The main problem is they never reached their objectives because one or two Ecuadorian units plus a mortar took care of them while they were in transit. Matt complained about his lack of luck in scenario 16 of Elsenborn Ridge but I don’t think he complained about his rolls in this one!

There were plenty of minor decisions I had to make but I just wanted to highlight three to help readers decide whether this is a scenario they want to play.

Of the ten or so scenario I played face-to-face against Matt, I would rate this one as one of the top two scenarios. The situation will become fluid and both sides have many major decisions to make. I rate it a strong “4”.

Highly recommended for ftf play and recommended for solo play.