Played with Matt W face-to-face in less than 45 minutes.

A very small Bande force defends a village from a 150% larger Ethiopian Provincial Regular force.

I drew a 6-0-0 leader and a 9-1-0 which means my troops would have no help as to morale. Matt drew the 11-2-2 leader and another with a morale bonus. But Bad luck decided to come in a even larger package.

The Ethiopians rushed forward on turn 1 and I rolled "7" on my first 5 opportunity fire (I think a got a "9" on the sixth roll). With all Ethiopian units and leaders in good order, Matt assaults the village and takes it over in another 5 or 6 turns with all my units dead or demoralized fleeing the town.

Ethiopian victory!

I rated this scenario a "3" but it probably deserves a "4" from the perspective of a newcomer to the series. Very small, only two types of units, few options so you the focus is on the mechanics and the strategy. Its short playing time also makes it possible to play it several times in an evening, experimenting with different leaders to get a feel of their effects on morale and assault.

Hard to say what is the balance with the leader draw being so one-sided.

Highly recommended to newcomers to the series. Recommended to others who want to play a scenario but have less than 1 hour.

Conquest of Ethiopia, Scenario Thirty-Nine: Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway VII

This one was a lot closer. The Italian BAN unit begin in all the Village hexes to benefit from the Villages giving the dug-in modifier. That was pretty much the difference in the game, as without the Ethiopians would have won but as it was, the Italians still controlled two the village hexes for the victory, even with the Ethiopians controlling the other four villages. Granted a few dice rolls different and it could have gone the other way. Once the Ethiopians surrounded the large village, it became about the dice rolls. It still felt like the Ethiopians won, even if they didn’t on paper.