First off, this was my first shared play with PG -ever. The last year I had been struggling with 2nd edition rules before finding this site and even with the annotated rules here had still misunderstood more than a few of them. Thanks to my opponent I had a lot cleared up after this scenario.

The scenario is a tough one for the British and even my opponent confided this after giving me a good thrashing. The British force is charged with preventing superior German AND Italian battlegroups from exiting 10 steps off the east edge of the map before the course of 40 turns and is also required to eliminate at least 8 enemy steps -any other result is a an axis victory.

The axis, providing that the Italians show up (which they did on turn 5), outnumber British foot units alone by over 2-1 along with better firepower and morale. The axis also receive 2X16 OBA compared to the British 2 3-inch mortar units for indirect fire AND get to draw an aircraft every turn. The one thing the British do have is a lot of tanks but though they may outnumber German and Italian armored units their AT firepower is very weak, especially against the PzIIIJs and could only inflict a step-loss on them by rolling a 12 without being adjacent or having crossfire set-up. Oh, and the Germans also have two 88mm AA guns, two 50mms complimented by an Italian 90mm AA and two 47mms.

Anyway, I can only make so many excuses. I set my British forces up in a straight line attempting to cover as much area as possible. I covered the road with 3 2-pdrs; one on each flank and one in the center and stacked some HMGs there. I divided my armor up on each flank as well and waited to see where my adversary would move onto the map. His German units make straight for the northwestern hill and instead of digging in I decided that I would bring the battle to him. That was a huge error. I thought that since I got the higher ground in the hill with my Crusaders and Stuarts I would strike first, outnumbering his PzIIIJs 2-1 there that I would just get lucky and roll a 12 before he could fire back -it didn't happen. The panzer's return fire immediately inflicted step losses and then, soon after, felt the wrath of the long-ranged 88s. Some of his foot units started to make way for the other, southwestern hill and foolishly I opened fire with the other tank group there thinking more of the great direct fire values of the Stuarts grouped together and not paying attention to the fact that I had moved into the range of both the 88mms and the 50mm guns. Somehow I thought I wouldn't be spotted after firing but had moved too far west and did not have the cover of the upper hill across from me to block the line of sight. So, more armor step losses. Soon I was down to just one good order, reduced Crusader I unit for my functionable armored force.

On turn 5 the Italian Ariete Division arrives in timely fashion and I have no real effective force to deal with them on my left flank. I keep trying to keep German foot units contained in the hills but that is also a losing battle. I think I managed to send one unit fleeing from demoralization but other than that, not much damage done. Meanwhile, 10 steps of German infantry make a break for escaping off the east edge of the map and I have no way of stopping them without giving up my roadblock units. I did manage to eventually slow down some Bersaglieri units from Ariete Division from making their getaway but soon that small attack force sent to dispatch them was annihilated. The only step loss I was able to inflict on the Italians was destroying an empty truck with one of the 2-pdrs that had nothing else it could shoot at. Eventually my foot units in the northwestern hill were decimated but they did resist for quite a while and they did manage to inflict one German INF step loss but that would be my highwater mark. Everything else fizzled out. I couldn't even force a step loss from Italian armor with repeated shots from my remaining, good order Crusader tank unit or from the 2-pdr set-up at the roadblock. I needed to roll 10s and only got 9s, a lot of 9s!!! So eventually, a column of 10 German infantry units are able to escape off the map with no real threat after 15 turns and as the British player I was lucky to have had a few disrupted and demoralized units left and a lot of empty, good order trucks strung out on the road.

I rated this scenario a 3 because I really enjoyed it as my first shared play and learned a lot from my opponent. A lot of rules that I had problems understanding were clarified in this session. It was truly a challenge for the British and probably should merit closer to a 2 rating just for the sake of balance of play. I blundered a lot in this battle. I don't think my initial deployment was bad, just a lot of the choices I made thereafter. Of course I had a lot of doubts about winning this one weeks before I played it, it looks formidable enough on the scenario card an even more so once the axis units begin to roll onto the map. The most important thing is that I had a lot of fun playing it and was able to keep a good sense of humour while taking a thorough beating. I would play this again solo, at least once, if not twice before thinking of playing against the axis again in a shared play. I would try doing a lot of things differently and keep more calm instead of throwing everything I had into the axis woodchipper. I am also very much looking forward to my next shared play