The 7th Moroccan Tirailleur Regiment was tasked with penetrating the Axis front lines holding the high ground of Rebaa Oulad Yahia, Their units moved north on the morning of December 16, 1942, engaging elements of the Italian 1st “Superga” Infantry Division. The Italians had the town well-fortified with 3 infantry, 2 AT and an HMG platoon(s) in the town itself. A battery of two mortar units was situated on the central ridge and two other infantry platoons were nearby, one on rocky ground and the other on a 40-meter hill. At 0800 hours, the French advanced with two 75mm artillery units being hauled by wagon to the southeast hill, two mortar platoons and four infantry units on the west flank, and both infantry and HMG platoons along the center road. In the first half hour of their advance, the French lost a 75mm unit to mortar fire, and OBA disrupted multiple units on the road. The deadly fire of the Italian mortar crews continued to cause further disruption on the road, and the French advance was slowed, except for a sous-lieutenant and his infantry units. The latter group had used smoke and the cover of the hills in the southwest to advance toward Rebaa Oulad Yahia from the west. After an hour of attempts, the French OBA finally disrupted the Italian mortar position, and by 0945 hours French units had entered the town from both the south and west in close combat assaults. Seeing the assaults, a tenente and infantry unit left the rocky ground and moved toward town to provide support; however, they were disrupted by French OBA, which had also eliminated one of the Italian mortar platoons. The assaults in both the south and west town areas continued for the next two plus hours, with the French continually reinforcing their disrupted and demoralized units while the Italians held on to their ground. At 1130 hours, the French finally dislodged a tenente and his infantry platoon from the south town sector, but other Italian units remained in the east and west areas. At noon, the Capitano Verselli and his infantry moved from the west side of town to reinforce the tenente/HMG/INF on the east side. That group proved too formidable for the French to overcome, even though the French sous-lieutenant and infantry had cleared the Italian 47mm team from the west side. The French even gambled with both mortar and OBA bombardment on the east side of town despite having adjacent units ready to charge the area, but the stalwart Italian defenders could not be compromised. The battle ended at 1230 in a draw.

This is a nice short scenario with very few units and a fairly specific primary objective of controlling the town. Ancillary objectives are step elimination of French by the Italians and exit of steps off the north side of the board by the French. While these attributes would seem to make it a good introductory scenario, the low strength of the units and modest morale lead to extensive disruption and prolonged assaults, which in this case resulted in a protracted and repetitive experience, not exactly the environment to attract devotees to the game. It is difficult to get more than the 13 column of the Assault Table, so the -2 column modifier for the town, even when balanced with a leader and morale bonus (which were not common due to the placement of the Italian units giving some advantage back to the Italians) would max at 13. Most of the assaults that occurred in this game were on the 5 & 9 columns, and units did remarkably well on either morale or recovery, so the French had difficulty taking control of the town. In the end game, the Italians had consolidated 13 fire points and a leader in the remaining town hex, and the most the French could muster was 10 fire points (the 9 column), so there was no chance that they could dislodge the Italians. In fairness, the Italians benefitted from 6 fog-of-war rolls in the 18 turns, which moved the game along. Since neither side achieved an objective, it ended in a draw. The Italians had lost a total of 5 steps, and the French 3 steps.