Having played this one ftf I decided to come back to it to try out some different tactics. Unfortunately the tactics I used will probably only be useful against a really bad infantry force like the Ecuadorans, but hey, they worked.

In this play I used the 4th Edition rules and the reduced effectiveness of assault combat. Clearly under the 3rd edition it is almost a given that the Peruvians will assault and assault again in order to take the towns. After watching Daniel pile up Soviets outside of Italian held towns for three scenarios I decided to try something different. In this play I decided to use heavy fire to discomfit the defenders and permit them to run away from the objectives. Given that the Ecuadoran troops carry a 6/5 morale this can be a very useful approach.

The Ecuadoran troops start out dug in on the bridge and heavily posted in the two objective towns. The Peruvians enter and immediately strike the bridge defenders with off board artillery and heavy MG fire from the tanks. This was so effective that the bridge defenders ran away before the Peruvian infantry even arrived. While the small town immediately behind the bridge fell quickly as well from the same attacking tactics the fight there was a bit longer given the increased ability to recover granted by the town itself.

While the Peruvians were reducing the small town the Ecuadoran CARA arrived and dug in, one to a hex in all the approaches to the larger town. Basically the CARA were designed to be speed bumps as the Ecuadorans rightly noted the ability of the Peruvians to shoot them out of a hex.

It was a grind but the Peruvians were able to shake the Ecuadorans out of the town by assaulting and waiting for the defenders to fail their recoveries and have to leave the hex, over and over. The final result indicated the Peruvians heavily posted within the town with a starburst of Ecuadorans, reduced and demoralized, surrounding the town. You could sense the shattered nature of the broken defenders.

Frankly the final result was closer than I would have expected as the town was only cleared one turn prior to the end of the scenario. The speed bumps did their job well but the regulars couldn't keep their cool and ran just a turn or two too soon. This was a quick play and one which justified replaying. Have fun with it.