Things didn't go well for the 2nd Black Watch Regiment to begin with. Their advance was immediately stalled by well landed artillery rounds which began to disrupt and demoralize units as soon as they appeared in sight. With the King's Own Regiment things went a little better and they were able to reach the base of their hill objective sooner than the Scots and from a further distance.

It was assumed, due to British intelligence reports, that not much resistance could be anticipated from the German occupied hill while Italian intelligence reported that a lot could be expected from the Black Watch assault, so almost all fire support was concentrated on them.

The Germans did not immediately give up and stood their ground for quite some time while the 7th Royal Tank Regiment's Matildas seemed reluctant to provide assistance, perhaps over worries from the 37mm anti-tank units dug-in behind the trenches though they ultimately could not(and would not)do much or any damage even at point-blank range, even with the benefit of crossfire.

At about 08:15/turn 12 the tide seemed to turn in favor of the British as (thanks to random events)the Italians suffered from an ammunition shortage and lost their heavy artillery fire support. This was maybe the only reprieve the Black Watch would get until.... 10:30/turn 21 -the Scots were recovered enough for their first(and only)attempt of taking the Italian-held hill. Against orders from higher command the pipes began to sound and with the initiative gained the assault began.

A whole platoon of infanty perished right away charging the Western-most machine gun nest -no increase in morale could prevent that. But the second assaulting force were unscathed and remained so for quite some time.

On the other side of the battlefield, the King's Own had their own setbacks, that even with the aid of Matildas, the last of the German defenders refused to give up -perhaps they procured a crate of schnapps left behind by the senior officers and units which surrendered before them -who knows?

At about 12:30/turn 29 the English began to head West to support the Scottish effort but not as quickly as hoped or needed. At 13:30/turn 33 a few platoons of English infantry were in direct fire range of the Italians but the advance was halted from disruption results generated from opportunity fire.

The German occupied hill was finally secured at 13:45/turn 34 when the last infantry units surrendered but much, much later than anticipated. By 14:15 the attack was called off with the 25th "Bologna" Division retaining control of all their entrenchments. The end result -a staggering British loss.

In conclusion I rated this scenario a 5 because it was a great challenge for the British player but not impossible. It required a lot of coordination skills which I failed to utilize but also had very few boring moments, at least with my play. The bagpipes were an interesting novelty and I believe I chose to use them at the right time. However, my mistakes were with the Matildas: In the English camp I used them too late and relied on their presence alone to get results when I should of made INF combined assaults with them; in the Scottish camp I made the mistake of using them without infantry in assaults and lost a whole platoon's worth that way along with demoralized steps resulting afterwards. So, there may be a greater advantage for the axis player in this one but I believe also, with more coordination, I could have a better go second-time around and that a British victory, or at least a draw can be achieved. I suppose the key to a British victory would be to ignore step losses and keep rolling forward with everything that the fog of war will allow. There are no step-loss conditions for victory here, just hill control, pure and simple, at all costs.

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	Britain
Play Date	2022-12-22
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa018

This is another one where patience rules the day. Germans and Italians are set up on 2 separate hills with entrenchments that must be cleared by the Brits, who have 2 groups entering opposite of the two hills. The temptation is to just march on the hills with the 2 groups separately, but the turn count gives you other options.

Germans have lower morale, and can surrender, so this is the priority for the Brits. The Brits opposite the Germans advance forward, while those opposite the Italians move between the two hills in support. The tanks are able to bring about surrenders and the artillery and infantry combine to grind down those who dont.

The two forces then move onto the Italian hill. Brits get a fun choice of having +1 morale for one of their formations for one turn. They choose to use it once they have closed with and assaulted the Italians and break their backs with the assault modifier for higher morale. After that its just mopping up.

Patience, OBA, and surrender to tanks. Nothing new, but the meta choices are interesting. If the Brits hit both hills at the same time I think the Italians hold out for a win or at least a draw.

An Italian Victory In The Desert !

Not a full AAR, but just a brief summary as per the entry in my home scenario records of my latest ftf game.

The basic objective was for 2 x British battalions with some tank support to capture two defended hills (one with dubious morale'd DAK). Thanks to the Italians holding all their entrenchments on their peak, they brought me an unexpected victory.

Here is the brief :

Desert Rats Scenario No.18

Tobruk : 21st November 1941

While the British 8th Army struggled to break in to relieve the besieged fortress of Tobruk, its garrison cooperated by breaking out on its own. A strong force from 70th Division supported by 32nd Army Tank Brigade, struck at the juncture between the German Afrika Division and the Italian 25th Bologna Infantry Division, feeling this to be a weak point…… They were half right.

The British forces were made up of two battalions. The 2nd Black Watch Regiment and the 2nd King’s Own. The English battalion were assigned to attack the by now low morale besieging German forces (155th Regt) and the Scots to attack the Italians. The advance began at 0530 hours. Over a period of 90 minutes, the English troops fought their way south nearer the German occupied entrenched positions. Sending in their Matilda tanks, they found that the Afrika Korps troops began to surrender en masse. For the loss of around 140 troops, the English forced the surrender of no less than 720+ Germans! With the 155th’s positions taken, these English soldiers were now able to turn west and support their Scottish comrades attack against the Italian positions.

The Italian positions were to prove a whole different ballgame. The 40th Infantry regiment was there and there to fight! On top of their hill, the Italians had a well developed entrenched position supported on the lower reaches of the hill by well positioned dug-in infantrymen. Around 0800 hours, having maneuvered into a position to make the assault, the Scots Pipers began to play their skirl as the rest advanced. Meeting a torrent of bullets and artillery shells, the Scots were unable to make any headway as they tried to advance up the slopes and suffered casualties as a result. Before too many casualties were absorbed, the attack was called off to arrange a regroup.

It was now a case of awaiting the tanks that had assisted the English infantry so well, as well as the English infantry themselves to make for a two pronged assault. This time, the hill would be attacked in the following manner. The tanks were to advance, unmolested from the east toward the entrenchments. The 2nd King’s Own were also to attack from the east and the Black Watch from the north and west face. In the first hour good headway was being made. The tanks were able to pour machine gun fire on the entrenched troops, meanwhile, the British infantry were slowly clearing the outer defences before an assault at the peak of the hill and the entrenched troops up there.

Casualties had been high though. By 1130am, 455 British soldiers had become casualties. The Italians had lost around 210 men. There was the whole surrendered German battalion to take into account as well which amounted to around 750 DAK troops!

Strangely, although the Matildas had advanced up to the entrenched machine gun platoons and continually tried to suppress them with MG fire, there was no attempt to enter the trenches by the tanks until 1145am. Entering these positions would most certainly have nullified the Italian MG’s fire and possibly/probably allowed the Empire infantry to advance in far more safety? Suddenly, with the tanks in amongst the enemy MG’s, the English and Scots infantry were able to clamber nearer to the enemy and ultimately support their own AFV’s. This was not without losses of course. There were still some 200 enemy riflemen up there as well and despite plenty of artillery shelling on the Italian positions, they were still able to take toll on the British advance.

The grapple for the entrenched MG positions proved the key in the end. Losing a couple of tanks plus more infantry, the British finally called the attack off at 1.30pm. A series of 3 un-coordinated attacks was probably the cause of the failure on the Italian hill. Over 600 losses for the British was too much to ask for this location. Italian casualties had sped up towards the end of the day too! Just about 350 of them were added to the final butcher’s bill. So Italian determination finally brought unexpected victory to the Axis, though the DAK would need to prove themselves elsewhere?

A good fun scenario. Although I lost this one I enjoyed lots of things about it. I really enjoyed watching Vince's face as the Afrika Korps surrended to my Matilda as it trundled up and down thier lines. We played the rules wrongly at the time but it was fun whle it lasted. I has also got bagpipe music on to my phone so when the "Jocks" advanced to the sound of the skirl of bagpipes I hit the button on the phone and away we went.I wish I could have co-ordinated the attack as well because I could not shift those stubbon Italians off that hill.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany, Italy)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	OldPueblo
Play Date	2022-11-29
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa018

This was a very long, 7-session play-through with a highly motivated rookie, ably leading the attacking British (Scottish & English) side in a very challenging scenario. I played the defending Italo-German side and had a new experience getting to witness panicky surrenders of a fair number of Germans troops in the course of this costly encounter. We used the FOW, smoke, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules in this overlong scenario. Foolishly, we also used the random events table, which seriously impacted the flow of the play-through - at all the wrong times!

In the first few turns, the 2nd Black Watch Regiment took some very hard knocks from accurate Axis OBA bombardments resulting in multiple disruptions and demoralizations - some of which]h lasted for more than 8 turns. This delayed the Scots while the lagging King's Own Regiment gradually moved to the margin of the German-occupied portion of hill mass objective. The volume of fire directed at the advancing Tommies increased as they drew closer, which allowed some respite for the -- by now, much abused -- Jocks. This changed when the 4th & 7th Royal Tanks went into combined arms action, causing an entire German company to surrender in-place while 37mm AT rounds bounced off the tough armored hides of the Matildas. This process was also helped by some accursed random events beginning in turn 15 that caused havoc in the ranks of the Axis leadership (Snipers and New Leader). The Scots were then able to mount their bagpipe-inspired assault and made unexpectedly fast progress against the Italian-Held hill in starting game turns 18-19. However, heavy & accurate return fire resulted in the near-collapse of this attack in turns 20-22. The Tommies had slightly better luck and the infantry/Matilda combinations proved deadly against the German HMG positions, to the point that the Tommies now began shifting their strength to support the Black Watch's inroads against the Italians after turns 27-28. Fatefully, they suffered an English leader decapitation in combat that threw their attack into chaos during turn 29.

An Axis revival after a counter attack was successful on the Italian side of things, but the exhausted Germans lost control of their hilltop positions in turn 33. The final result of this exhausting and challenging scenario was a hard fought draw. The British side has a very difficult set of victory conditions, and just barely enough troops to manage a victory in this relatively-balanced -- but darn hard to win scenario. It takes a great deal of coordination and a fair amount of luck in sequencing close assaults for the Brits. This was complicated by repeated leader losses and the complexity of timing the use of the accompanying armored assets. The Matildas efforts must be well-timed for the hill top positions to be taken & held successfully by the infantry.

The dreaded fog of war rule played strongly in favor of the Axis in this battle, having prematurely ended 9 of 36 turns mostly at critical moments for the Scots, and to a lesser extent against the English. This was another "all or nothing" engagement entirely dependent on hill control, that basically required repeated combined arms attacks from the British side, with no regard to the resulting mass casualties. I give this one a 3, as it was exciting to play, but was also very frustrating to deal with the chaos & confusion that the FOW and random events inflicted on both sides. Only experienced PG players should attempt this scenario. It is not a good introductory engagement for players new to the game.