Wow... let me say that again; wow!!!

This scenario play literally came down to the last of everything. The last die roll, on the last activation, by the last regular Ecuadorian platoon, following the last assault, to take the last town hex. Everything about this scenario came down to the very last.

In this scenario, a Peruvian motorized force must clear a series of villages and ensure the road stays open to facilitate a future advance, and to maintain supply lines. The Ecuadorians deployed forward, with the intention of falling back to successive defensive positions. Expecting reinforcements in the way of several platoons of local police, the Ecuadorians gambled on the forward defense against numerically and qualitatively superior Peruvian forces.

The Peruvians led with their 2x tank platoons, with 2x companies of infantry directly behind in support. They setup a defensive perimeter to allow the Peruvian artillery to come up, unlimber and prepare to fire directly at the first town they encountered (3 hex town on map 18). The combination of direct artillery fire and massed fire support from the tanks and HMG's caused enough disruption/demoralization among the Ecuadorians to allow the Peruvians to advance and prepare for close assault. In all, it took 4 turns to clear this village of resistance.

The second town, under the command of the Ecuadorian Major, proved to be a tougher nut to crack. Repeatedly ineffective Peruvian fire (dice got cold) caused the Peruvian Colonel to gamble on a frontal assault against the Ecuadorian defenders. These Ecuadorians proved to be particularly resilient (repeatedly made their morale rolls). It was a constant cycle of Peruvian assault, disrupted Ecuadorians, who immediately rallied and thwarted Peruvian plans.

The Peruvians then came to the realization that night would soon fall (not really, but it was getting late in the scenario) and they had to do something to ensure the road to the north was open and clear of those Ecuadorian reinforcements (who arrived on the first possible turn). The Colonel took one company on a clear and secure mission and worked his way through the forests in search of Ecuadorians. The flaw in the Ecuadorian plan was to spread themselves too thin. Peruvian platoons walked into many ambushes (hidden Ecuadorians) but with a firepower of 2 (Ecuadorian Cara units) each of the ambushes proved ineffective, (even with the +1 for triggering a hidden ambush). Ultimately, all but 2x of the Ecuadorian Caras were eliminated by the Colonel's 'Jungle Commando' company.

Back to the town... a careless deployment found both of the Peruvian tank platoons in a town hex with no infantry support; an opportunity soon exploited by the Ecuadorians under command of the Major. He quickly gathered up some troops and assaulted the tanks, resulting in the heart-warming (for the Ecuadorians) loss of a couple Peruvian tanks (one step loss). This event galvanized the now thunder-struck Peruvians. The embarrassment of losing even just one tank to a third rate army caused them to redouble their efforts and they quickly cleared half the town of Ecuadorian resistance (dice got hot again).

With the northern road clear and secure, and the southern approaches cleared as well, the Peruvians now focused all of their energy on clearing the last pocket of Ecuadorian resistance in the large town on map 17. Time was against them though, as they had but 90 minutes to clear the remaining enemy forces (6 turns). Again, luck had abandoned the Peruvians, as not only did they repeatedly fail to dislodge the dogged defenders, but they suffered from faltering morale. For the final assault, the Peruvians prepped the last pocket of defense with direct artillery fire, point blank from adjacent spaces, and an all out assault with tanks, HMG's and infantrymen. The assault left the Ecuadorian defenders shell-shocked and demoralized. On the final activation of the battle, a Demoralized Ecuadorian Major and his lone surviving platoon rolled their morale in an attempt to secure victory by holding the town, and the vital road that ran through it. The Major had seen enough bloodshed, and with thoughts of his wife and children, he abandoned his men to their fates (rolled a 12 on his rally roll). His crestfallen men watched as he disappeared into the forest, and followed suit, failing to rally (rolled an 11) and thought that there was safety to be found in the trees.

With that last rally attempt, the scenario ended. A scattered and disorganized Peruvian army was master of the battle field. Scores of Ecuadorian dead lay in heaps in the blasted doorways and alleys of the towns they defended. A heroic Mayor who had repeatedly stymied the Peruvian advance, now fled through the forest with thoughts of hearth and home. This was the closest run battle of the series and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The Ecuadorians have no hope of defeating the Peruvians due to their inferiority in both quality and material, but they can make this an exceedingly difficult task for a careless or cautious Peruvian commander. The gamble in splitting their forces proved to be the winning strategy for the Peruvians. Had they marshaled their forces, they may have cleared the towns earlier, but would have had a tough time containing the Caras hiding in the woods, and securing the vital road in the process.

All in all, this was a very exciting scenario. It was touch and go right to the very last activation. Even though the entire Ecuadorian force was routed or destroyed, the last man standing very nearly denied the Peruvians a victory.