Afrika Korps finishes their desert campaign with a stunning victory though it is not enough to win the campaign itself. The German defense was formidiable with 20 randomly drawn minefields covering almost half of the front lines along with a stream of AT ditches to deter assaults on six entrenchements spread out across the whole map at six spaces apart. A corridor was left open for axis reinforcements to run through and make a counterattack by the western edge.

The British approach was with a two pronged attack at the mid-western area from the cover of twilight and a hill. Once units left the hill areas to contuniue the advance all hell broke loose upon them in the form of combined machinegun fire and formidible OBA at the strength of 3x24 to get 70+ results on the bombardment table. British OBA was powerful as well with a 3x16 availabilty. The carnage began at 07:00/turn 5 when the first volley of German OBA easliy wiped out 2 3-inch mortars and disrupted a third then, right on time, German reinforcements appear right away and make their way through the western corridor to attack the British left flank before they can get closer to an objective entrenchment. In the following few turns the British do manage to take out a 37mm AT gun and disrupt an 88mm to attempt to clear the way for expected armored reinforcements but have already sustained incredible losses at a rate of 2-3 step losses per turn, mostly infantry.

At 08:00/turn 9 British armored reinforcements arrive on the south edge but by this time the German reinforcements have made it to British lines with INF and HMG units pouring fire into the flank and the panzers waiting for British armor in the cover of hills behind the rearguard. The Stuarts and Grants do manage to make it to the lower hill areas and survive a volley from the panzers on their approach. Meanwhile, British foot units struggle to keep their lines together and quite a few units have fled for hill cover after being demoralized and in most cases reduced in strength. At 08:45/turn 12, the British attempt to take their first entrenchment and have initial success eliminating 2 steps of German INF. Here also there are two opposing leader characters going head-to-head in the assault, both with the rural assault skill. This one assault would last for 11 turns until finally the attackers were repulsed after the entrenchment was reinforced twice. As a result, the defending, German, leader character Lieutenant would qualify for his infantry assault badge while the British, leader character Captain would be eliminated through compound demoralization, spending the rest of the war imprisoned after being court-martialed for cowardice.

British armored units fared a lot better with their tank battle in the hills, escpecially since they outnumbered the panzers almost 3 to 1. The PzIIIGs failed to even eliminate even a lowly Stuart step and lost 2 steps by returned AT fire and even had one full strength unit disrupted after some plucky bren carriers rolled snake eyes. After this round of armored combat only one, reduced PzIIIG was left in good order to face 4 Grants and 4 Stuarts. At 09:30/turn 15, nothing remained of the 8th Panzer Regiment's detachment but they had succeeded in delaying the advance of British armor by engaging them in their own territory.

While the one trench assault ensued some British units attempted to bypass the area and brave the minefields with disasterous results, traversing two of them with a 3-point ratings resulting in even ENG units becoming demoralized or taking step losses. Some units did make it through and attempted to storm enemy mortar positons but were stopped by the 81mms themselves as soon as they made it close enough to attempt an assault.

The second half of the battle continued to result in horrific British losses, especially the infantry. It really resembled one of those futile trench battles from the first world war with units getting so close only to get ripped apart by close range fire but they kept at it, rallying and charging again from the hills. The British start off with a total of 18 INF units; by the battles end only two reduced INF units remained. The closing British moves were left to the Stuarts and Grants but they were not successful in weakening enemy fortified postions fast enough and ran out of time before they could mount a successful assault.

So the battle ends in a humiliating loss for the Brits but they still manage to win the campaign overall. Not one trench was taken. The final tally of the butcher's bill sat at:

German losses: Col(9-1-1),Maj(9-0-0),Lt(9-1-0), 13 steps of INF, 4 steps of HMG, 1 81mm, 1 20mm, 2 37mm, 2 50mm, 2 88mm, 6 steps of PzIIIG and 7 trucks.

British losses: Col(10-1-1),Lt-Col(10-1-1), Maj(10-1-0),Cap(9-1-1),Lt(8-0-1), 34 steps of INF, 3 steps of ENG, 6 steps of HMG, 3 3-inch, 3 bren carriers and 1 step of Stuart tanks.

With 3 VPs for each entrenchment under German control at the end of the scenario combined with 1 VP for each British step loss the Germans end with 69 VPs compared to the British 37 VPS. The final campaign ended with Britain having earned 305 CPs to Germany's 259 CPs.

So ends my 'Campaigns and Commanders' experiance for now and it was a nice run though keeping up with utilizing different leader character's skills and LPs does slow play down quite a bit. I definitely got my money's worth out of this book as I was able to complete 17 out of 18 battles with the ownership of the 'Afrika Korps' and 'Desert Rats' boxed sets. Also I really like the possibilties for the randomly determined scenarios and campaigns along with being able to custom design armies for future desert war games. I found most of the scenarios to be above average in rating them and they were quite enjoyable. I would rate the book itself a 4 overall.