Played face to face against Matt W in 3 ½ hours.

The last Indian Unity scenario left for the ribbon. A bit of a strange scenario because I felt it would be next to impossible for Matt to stop me from achieving a minor victory if I played just to win. But such is not my style my attacking; I go for the whole enchilada until it’s evident I will have to content myself with bite-sized morsels.

The first task for my Indian troops was to capture the town. My initial assaults were probes (because we do not inspect stacks) and then I committed my engineers and armor assets as soon as I knew where they were needed. It took longer than anticipated, those Razakars are resilient as long they are full strength, but the town was mine and I did not suffer any losses.

Next, I had to decide whether to force my way through the road and then aim for a major victory only after exiting 10 steps off the far edge. I decided against it for two reasons. The Indians are the attackers and the much stronger side in this scenario, and I felt they should dictate the flow of the game, not the Hyderabadis. The second reason is I was behind my timetable and wanted to gain time by using all my units in the attack for as long as possible.

I kept a small reserve in town and send all the remaining troops in the three wooden areas to find the hidden Razakars. My concept of fairness may have saved me here. When asked whether it was possible to hide Razakars into a specific area, I thought Matt’s answer indicated he did not. But as it allowed to do it and I would have sent troops there if I had checked the scenario special rule, I sent a few platoons there to check it out anyway. Lo and behold, there were four platoons hidden there! I was never able to get the upper hand in that wood, and one of my platoons even failed a dozen recovery rolls. I guess a hundred hour war was just too much for some gentle souls.

The battle for the large wood in the middle was proceeding well but then Matt brought in the cavalry. It’s not their charge that I worry about but rather their ability to quickly move behind my lines and threaten the town.

I made a strategic mistake here. I should have pushed stronger on the road to ensure I had enough steps in position to exit if need be instead of diverting assets to deal with the cavalry. Matt seized the opportunity to dig in some units on the road.

Maybe I could have forced my way through but I thought it would be more interesting to try to contain his imminent move towards the town. Excellent decision because both sides had to set up and resolve tactical small puzzles for the reminder of the game.

Matt played this phase a little better than I did but fortunately I had kept enough of a force in town to prevent his last charge from reaching town.

Minor Indian victory!

I rated this one a “4” but there are two caveats: (1) it’s best played against an opponent because the hidden units play are critical for the defender, and (2) the Indian player should not be in the mindset of just attaining the 8 steps losses or less and 10 steps exited victory conditions. If the Indian commander goes for these two victory conditions, I think you will find much enjoyment from this scenario.