This scenario was played as a team event by my gaming group. I act as moderator and facilitator for each game, and I do not participate directly as a player. My listing of “winning” is based on the PG HQ site cannot support a neutral role in AARs.

I had set up a larger scenario, but some last minute bail-outs forced me to restructure to this scenario. The German player showed up on time, and had plenty of time to set up as the Australian ran close to an hour late. That's a lot of time to set up your defenses. Except one small difference, he set it up as I would have, and it was pretty rock solid. The Aussie showed up finally, set up his attack, and that was the last enjoyable moment of the scenario.

The Aussie engineers, trying to create the path that would let the Brit tanks come on board, jumped into the minefield. The Germans rolled, and the engineers vaporized. Scenario effectively over. The Aussies kept trying though, and the German kept rolling out of his backside for mines, not to mention point blank fire. In three turns the Aussies had suffered over 8 step losses and the Germans victorious. There weren't enough Aussies left to have a chance. Game over, tear it down. Much unhappiness and lack of satisfaction for everyone.

Yes, the Germans had rolled well, but even if they hadn't, I cannot see much chance of the Aussies ever winning this. A good German defense makes it near impossible for a small Australian force to take TWO positions from the Germans, especially with only one Aussie engineer unit. The historical description indicated the engineers attempted to break the line at each defensive point. Can't do that with just one unit. This is an 11 turn scenario. No way you're gonna split the forces in half, get through the minefields with one engineer, and have enough left to take the positions. What a joke! And hey, thank goodness for that Aussie 2-pdr. Not one target on the board it can engage, unless they shoot the Brits. The Germans considered running out and killing it, but I pointed out that would take more time.

This scenario added another scenario selection rule in addition to the "no more surrendering Italians" rule. Now, no more night assaults in the desert. It almost caused us to drop Afrika Korps from our playlist. The only saving grace to the evening was it played so quick we were able to break out a game of Starfire and have some fun for the night!