This was a fun play with Hugmenot. Lots of drama, clinging on a die roll and the, by now, personal victory condition to avoid having a single Peruvian platoon eliinated during the entire war. On my personal victory condition I did great as the Peruvians took absolutely no losses in this one. On the scenario conditions... a draw.

War of the Equator seems focused on providing the greatest possible variety of scenarios and situations possible in a small package. For entertainment value it is one of the best supplements I have played. The Ecuadorian player has a tougher time in that much of their defense is static (except for the first scenario) and the troops will run at the drop of a hat, but the victory conditions are skewed well to make it quite possible for them to win each scenario. Our record through four is two Ecuadorian wins, one Peruvian win and one draw.

As Daniel points out in his AAR, the hidden unit rules make this one a must for a shared play. The inability of the Ecuadorians to actually start hidden or to stay hidden once they become hidden is maddening for the Ecuadorian. The ability of the Peruvian to direct artillery and small arms fire at any hex on the board regardless of whether the units can be spotted or not leads to a kind of "whack-a-mole" approach to artillery fire by the Peruvian and occasional muttering by the Ecuadorian player.

Since the Educadorians did not contest any of the first board towns (through placement of troops in the small woods near those towns) I was able to quickly control all the towns. I believe that this was the result of Daniel not realizing the victory conditions for the Peruvian force.

Unfortunately I then returned the favor by not screening his forces in the two large wooded areas around the large town on the second board and pushing on to flush the road but entered into a search and destroy mission focusing on the area around the large town. This took a ton of time. While it ensured that I would have no security issues when it came to meeting the Peruvian victory conditions it did little to give me a chance to win outright as it became nearly impossible to control the road as it twists and turns through board 6. Playing the Peruvian in this one requires boldness and I found my mojo about two turns too late.

If I had to do it all over again, I would merely have kept the screen in place on the west woods and pushed on with all force to the road on board 6 upon completing my sweep of the east woods. The forces I used to screen the west woods were more than enough to accomplish the destruction of the Ecuadorian force that was hidden there should it have decided to show itself and the availability of ample transport (one of the few times I have ever used transport again after its original movement) meant that all of the towns could be controlled centrally.

The major thread through all of the War on the Equator scenarios so far is that both players are fighting the Ecuadorian troops. The Peruvian has to destroy and/or push them out of the way, often with technologically advanced forces, but they have to be bold as their victory conditions are ambitious. Paradoxically the Ecuadorian player is also fighting his own troops as they steadfastly fail to respond to direction (e.g. stay hidden, don't go to ground just because you were shot at, stay in place, etc.).

The balance of the scenarios and the massive difference in capabilities and available strategies would argue for a 12 scenario match play where each player plays all 6 scenarios as each nationality. I can't wait for the gunboats but Daniel and I will be playing the scenario of the month next (a chance for Daniel to do something other than hope to roll 6's or less on morale checks...).