I didn't have high expectations with Italy going into this final, early Desert War scenario. However, I did finish it after four days with this 30 turn long match and the campaign itself lasted almost three weeks.

The axis objectives were to take a hill and gain control of the road at the pass, neither of which were accomplished. The British surrounded the Northwest hill with a ring of 2-pdrs along with a 40mm AA gun, giving crossfire opportunities at every angle. So the panzers parked nearby at the main ridge while the Italians concentrated their 105mms on the A.T. guns and sent the foot units in to try to push back some of the dug-in defenders. Of course the British were ready for them and my British LC Lieutenant was able to earn his Military Cross by mowing down 10 steps of INF and HMG alone by scenarios end. This Lieutenant made it look easy having both the rifle combat and machine-gun specialist skills so it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Eventually, all the 2-pdrs on Northern hill were eliminated leaving just the 40mm for A.T. fire on the Northwest hill so the German armored cars, the Sdkfz 231(6)+(8)s began to harass some of the dug-in positions from a safe enough distance having a lot better results than the foot units who now, by 13:30/turn 15, were barely existant in any functionable capacity. In fact, at one point, all Italian foot units that were not eliminated were either disrupted or demoralized.

Soon the British Matildas moved from their dug-in positions at the road area, once the reinforcements had arrived, and drove off the armored cars who were becoming more than a nuissance. In their place, the pzIVEs soon rolled up to match the Matildas and a final tank battle ensued while Italy attempted to rally their foot units for one last attack on the Northwest hill. It was clear that this battle and campaign were lost for the axis but the DAK were going to at least roll up their sleeves and show up their Italian counterparts. At 16:00/turn 25, the pzIVEs are able to take out a step of Matildas with crossfire and the tank battle begins proper. At 16:15/turn 26, the Matildas return the favor by knocking out a step of panzers and it looked like it was going to be slugfest back and forth. The Matildas are still outnumbered but the last remaining 2-pdr had been safely transported from the road area and dug-in at the base of the Northwest hill to give crossfire assistance along with the 40mm already there. And it worked. By scenario's end a total of 4 steps of pzIVEs and a step of pzIIs that had moved too close were all eliminated, with 2 pzIVE units demoralized. No further step losses had been inflicted on the Matildas and the scenario ends with a landslide victory for Britain.

Of course one of the main factors contributing to this degree of victory were the British leader characters, two of which were all but omnipotent with their purchased battle skills whereas Italy had maybe one decent leader character with another LC sitting this scenario out from a serious wound received during Operation Brevity. The leader characters do provide a different feel and aspect to the game but the balance of play was deeply affected by British leader superiority, at least with my results. Italy however did win three of the scenarios but those victories were not too impressive and were down most of the campaign after suffering their first major loss during Operation Compass. I probably could of done better with the Italians in this last battle but even my morale playing the Italians was low at this point! I give the scenario overall a 4 rating still because it was a good play and with a better balance of opposing leader characters it could of very well have been won by the axis. So, that it is it for my first PG campaign experiance and will give 'The King's Officers' a break until I finish the remainder of the 'Desert Rats' scenarios. Then I will start afresh with the later Desert War campaign with new leader characters to attempt a better balance; making the German LCs actually earn their infantry assault badges rather than converting the Italian LCs into German ones. This scenario and campaign overall a great experiance, despite a few quirks.