This one has it all: parachute landing, amphibious assault, sweeping movements across huuuuuuuge...tracts of land.

The Peruvians landed their paratroopers behind the Ecuadorian lines, got organized, and headed west to support the marines' landing. A reaction force of Ecuadorians failed to engage them decisively, stalled by air attacks, so the combined air/sea operation succeeded in eventually taking the two northern coastal towns.

Meanwhile the southern Peruvian motorized column got split by the Ecuadorians, with about one third of it destroyed or stalled well to the south of the developing action. The Peruvians who broke through linked up with the marines and paratroopers in the northwest, created a solid defensive perimeter, and began beating back the piecemeal Ecuadorian counterattacks.

Things were looking good for Peru, but attrition began to catch up with them and they just couldn't expand their perimeter farther south. Ended in a draw.

This monster was so much fun to play. It was great to see the different Peruvian arms come together, and agonizing to watch the operational tempo slowly fade.

Played this one with Mike Volpe at a con near Kansas City back in 2009 (date is approximate). I set up in the towns near the coast and positioned my other forces north of the road. His trucks entered on the southern edge, and I held position until it was clear that he was making for the northern road. At that point, I deployed my forces along the road in three layers, digging them in to set up roadblocks. Mike chose to assault each roadblock frontally, and that worked on the first two. But the third roadblock held and demoralized his elite attackers. That sealed the fate of the Peruvians, who were never able to regroup and take the coastal town so the marines could land. But it could have gone either way, and it was fun game.

Es el primer escenario que he jugado con más de cuatro mapas.

Los peruanos tienen un batallón motorizado de infantería, que entra por el sureste del mapa, y una compañía de paracaidistas, que aterriza en un lugar fijado antes de empezar la partida. Además los peruanos tienen un batallón de infantería de marina ("marines") que tiene que desembarcar en un punto preciso de la costa (en el noroeste del campo de batalla). Los peruanos tienen también fuego naval procedente de un crucero y apoyo aéreo. Los ecuatorianos disponen de tres batallones de infantería y uno de carabineros y se despliegan en y alrededor de las ciudades.

Los peruanos tienen mejor moral, pero menos fuerzas. La clave está en permitir la llegada de refuerzos desde el mar. Dado que estos refuerzos tienen que llegar en un punto preciso, los ecuatorianos deben impedirlo por todos los medios.

En esta partida la compañía paracaidista peruana aterriza en el turno uno cerca del lugar de desembarco, pero no suficientemente cerca, lo que permite la llegada de refuerzos ecuatorianos. Los paracaidistas quedan bloqueados. Mientras tanto la fuerza motorizada peruana intenta desbordar las posiciones ecuatorianas en el sur del campo de batalla, pero no lo consigue. Los camiones peruanos intentan pasar entre dos ciudades próximas y son blanco del fuego de oportunidad y de la artillería ligera ecuatoriana. Varios camiones son desorganizados o desmoralizados y la marcha se interrumpe.

Al final los ecuatorianos consiguen contener y aislar a las dos fuerzas peruanas lejos del lugar de desembarco. La infantería de marina peruana no consigue desembarcar. En el turno 16 los peruanos se retiran vencidos.

Este ha sido el mejor escenario que he jugado nunca. La situación inicial de los peruanos es muy difícil. Deben coordinar el avance de sus tropas de infantería motorizada con el desembarco aéreo, con el apoyo de los aviones y con el fuego naval. Si consiguen desembarcar, la infantería de marina podrán vencer con relativa facilidad la partida.

Este escenario es apasionante. Lo mejor de lo mejor.

Lo estoy jugando por segunda vez en estos momentos. Empleo con los peruanos una estrategia distinta.

Segunda partida.

Los peruanos desarrollan ahora una nueva estrategia. Los paracaidistas aterrizan en un hex adyacente a la costa, justo al lado de unidades enemigas. La infantería motorizada peruana entra a toda velocidad por el sureste y se dirige hacia la costa intentando evitar al enemigo. Los paracaidistas encuentran una fuerte resistencia y son detenidos. La infantería motorizada peruana es blanco del fuego de oportunidad de unidades ecuatorianas que intentan tapar los huecos. Sólo la mitad de las fuerzas peruanas consigue pasar las líneas ecuatorianas y se dirige a la costa.

La batalla principal está ahora junto a los puntos de desembarco. Los ecuatorianos acuden con todas las fuerzas disponibles. Los peruanos avanzan muy lentamente. Al final dos pelotones de paracaidistas asaltan uno de los puntos de desembarco, pero los ecuatorianos contraatacan. Este es el momento más intenso de la batalla. La emoción es máxima. Mi corazón late más deprisa. (¿Se puede pedir más a un juego?). El contraataque ecuatoriano es decisivo y los paracaidistas peruanos son desmoralizados y aniquilados. De nuevo los peruanos no han podido desembarcar y se retiran vencidos (turno 15).

Confirmo que es un escenario extraordinario. Sin embargo, reduzco el rating a 4 porque creo que está desnivelado a favor de los ecuatorianos. Estoy "enganchado" (hooked) a este escenario. Voy a estudiar una nueva estrategia para los peruanos y jugarlo una tercera vez.

Fun scenario with all the combined arms of the Peruvian: Marine/Navy, Parachute, Ground Army Forces against the large Ecuadorian force, spread out but imbedded in the town hexes with those addition plus 2 column modifiers. I had one major problem, I wasn't able to coordinate my Peruvian forces very well and in the end, they lost a bit too many steps and didn't control enough town hexes, so the Ecuadorians won a Minor Victory by a few points. I think if I played it again, I might be able to win as the Peruvians but I am not 100% sure. Fun scenario however!

Played as the third in Hugmenot's and my South American campaign. Up to this point the Ecuadorians have won both engagements. As the eventual winner of the war it is important for me to uphold the honor and ability of Peruvian arms!

One of the benefits of having played so many scenarios is the ability to learn from other situations and apply it to your current play. After the first two scenarios I became aware that the Peruvians were very similar to the Slovakian army of 1941; well endowed with advanced weaponry but woefully lacking in the troop discipline to be able to take advantage of that situation. Having made that connection helped me to temper my excitement at having such a armament quality advantage over the Ecuadorians and realize that this is a situation where my troops are still going to have to use numbers to overwhelm the Ecuadorians, not because the Ecuadorians won't run but because the Peruvians are almost as likely to run.

It is tempting to look at the fact that the Peruvians have motorized troops, paratroopers and airmobile troops, amphibious landings, naval gunnery and airstrikes against an undisciplined horde of Ecuadorians whose sole long range capability is a 65 mm gun which has a range of 14 and an attack factor of 4, and decide to try to do too much.

The Ecuadorians are well distributed in each of the front line towns and in both coastal towns. There is no obvious strong point to avoid. I decide to focus my entire motorized assault at the far eastern town, hpoing to quickly advance to assault and, using my better morale and leadership move through that town and provide support to my airlanding troops who will be landing in the center rear, well away from the Ecuadorians on turns 4 and 5. Prior to the aerial assault, I focus my artillery on the Ecuadorians defenders of the single hex coastal town (with the two potential landing hexes for my marines, who are currently fishing).

The motorized forces are able to quickly move into assault positions and enter the assault and promptly fail to gain any tractions. For the first 12 turns I focus on two hexes of the town with assaults on the 13 column and fail to roll anything useful.

Luckily, my paratroopers and "airmobile" troops are doing much better. After collecting themselves they are able to advance on the small town and through an undermanned assault on the defenders who had been softened significantly by the cruiser gunfire they are able to occupy a landing hex for the marines.

The Ecuadorian masses in the other two front line towns initially started sending reinforcements to the far eastern town that was under assault by my motorized column but then began assembling to provide reinforcements to the coastal town. It was not to be in time, however as the quickly arriving marines entered the town and were able to take control from the Ecuadorians after a series of bloody assaults.

Even before the town was completely taken, a column of paratroopers and marines set off to contest the larger coastal town which was heavily garrisoned by the Ecuadorians and two of their HMGs. A bold frontal move was stopped by accurate HMG fire so the "elite" Peruvians moved to contact through the fields east of town.

Meanwhile back with the motorized column the commander made the decision to invest the town without necessarily taking any of it, in order to avoid losses and tie down a large segment of the Ecuadorian provincial forces.

With that decision, and the progress of the Peruvian elite in the large coastal town the victory began to slip away from the Ecuadorian forces. Understanding the imperative to contest my progress in the large coastal town, the Ecuadorians sent a company to reinforce their troops. This company was harrassed by aerial strikes and mortar fire from the garrison of the small coastal town and on turn 24 of 28 they were demoralized and failed their recovery. At this point the Colonel of the marine force saw the opportunity for a coup and advanced to an assault position. On gaining the intiative (with a +3 it was highly likely) the colonel assaulted the two demoralized infantry platoons with a single infantry platoon and managed to, in the course of two turns destroy them providing a crucial 4 additional victory points to the Peruvians.

This led the Ecuadorian commander to try some last turn heroics in the far eastern front line town through assault which, expectedly, failed to either cause Peruvian losses or take back control of the town hexes. After the assaults were attempted the Ecuadorian commander conceded a Peruvian major victory.

The final score was 40 to 23, with only 9 points from the control of town hexes for the Peruvians vs. 16 for the Ecuadorians. The key was that the Peruvians contested 13 points worth of town hexes at the conclusion of the game. An interesting side note is that in three scenarios the Ecuadorians have yet to completely eliminate a single Peruvian unit. They did inflict 7 step losses on the Peruvians in this scenario but on 7 separate units.

This was a lot of fun to play, with the victory up in the air until quite late in the game. I give it a "4" and almost a 5.

Yes, I was the first person to lose as the Ecuadorian commander!

Played face-to-face against Matt W.

An interesting scenario as it provides many decision points for both sides.

My first decision was to deploy my Ecuadorians about evenly in each of to five towns which provide victory points. My plan was to be able to resist the initial Peruvian attack long enough for me to be able to reinforce the attacked town or maybe even counterattack.

Yes, counter-attacking with the 6/4 morale Ecuadorians. What was I thinking?

Well, the idea was I might be able to achieve local superiority in a sector and have the opportunity to counter-attack and if, not make it more difficult for the Ecuadorians to gain victory points quickly.

Matt’s AAR describes the action much better than I could ever do so I will go over some of my decision points.

I had to decide whether it was possible to prevent the Peruvians from receiving their marine reinforcements. Although I decided it was not possible to block the Peruvian from reaching the hex which triggers the reinforcements, I might have been better serve by setting up a defense in depth to delay their arrival. The problem with a defense in depth near that town is the cruiser gunfire will hurt any static defense.

I had to decide whether to evacuate the frontal town the Ecuadorians were attacking or to reinforce it. I decided to reinforce it because, well, I like assaults and counter-assaults. The troops I used to reinforce this town might have been better employed to reinforce the coastal towns.

I had to decide when to commit reserves to defend the coastal towns. Although I think I committed them a bit late, it was still reasonably early for them to have a strong impact on the final tally. The main problem is they never reached their objectives because one or two Ecuadorian units plus a mortar took care of them while they were in transit. Matt complained about his lack of luck in scenario 16 of Elsenborn Ridge but I don’t think he complained about his rolls in this one!

There were plenty of minor decisions I had to make but I just wanted to highlight three to help readers decide whether this is a scenario they want to play.

Of the ten or so scenario I played face-to-face against Matt, I would rate this one as one of the top two scenarios. The situation will become fluid and both sides have many major decisions to make. I rate it a strong “4”.

Highly recommended for ftf play and recommended for solo play.

Scenario 3 in the War on the Equator set... this is the big 6 mapper with much of the counter mix in use.

In this scenario, the Peruvians launch a combined arms assault across a geographically dispersed Ecuadorian defensive position. To win, the Peruvians must control several villages and/or cause significant losses among the Ecuadorians. For the Ecuadorians, they must hold their ground or make it very costly for their adversaries. In the end, the Peruvians prevailed, more through attrition than by successfully capturing land. The Peruvians were only able to secure two of the five villages on the board, while contesting a third. They captured the village on map 1, although it took them 8 turns to do so, and then for some inexplicable reason, they proceeded to chase the routed Ecuadorian defenders into the woods on board 14 just to complete the slaughter. This delay allowed the Ecuadorians to bring up reserves from other areas to bolster the defense of the village on map 19, which was only one quarter in Peruvian hands at the end of the battle (turn 28). Much time was lost in chasing down and destroying fleeing troops rather than regrouping for a fast strike on a lightly defended village. The Ecuadorians were even afforded enough time to recover enough to launch a limited counter-attack in an attempt to retake the village on map 1!!!

The Peruvian Para company landed in a clearing on map 8 and proceeded to move west to engage the defenders on map 20. This was necessary to secure the landing beaches for the Marines. Unfortunately for the Paras. their parachute platoon was disrupted upon landing and took 4 turns to recover, which served to bog down their advance. Once again the Ecuadorians were able to muster their forces and make it difficult for the Paras to secure the landing beach. It took the better part of 12 turns for the Paras to secure the village on map 20, and begin to allow the Marines to land, but with only one beach open, the Marines could only land 2x platoons per turn, and by the end of the battle, there were still 2x platoons left to land.

This game is actually three distinct actions. Here is the primary action of the Peruvian Motorized troops making their advance from the south. There is the Para drop and subsequent attack westwards to secure the landing beaches for the Marines, and then there is the Marine landing. In my battle, the Marines just didn't land in time to play much of a factor. In fact, 5x steps worth of Marines never even landed, resulting in 5x points for the Ecuadorians. For future players, the Paras need to drop closer to their objectives in order for the Marines to bring their firepower to bear. Also, the Motorized troops need to move quickly and invest each village quickly without allowing the Ecuadorians to prepare an effective defense. The abundance (well, it is abundant for 1941) of Peruvian artillery (2x 16 Howitzers, 2x 16 Naval gunfire) gives the Peruvian player a marked advantage as he can prepare and reduce targets in advance of an assault. In 5 more turns I would have had the Marines fully ashore and arrayed for a general advance against the southern village on map 20, thereby placing the Ecuadorians in a pincer from the northwest and the southeast. I allowed the Peruvians to become bogged down in costly, time consuming attacks that served no real purpose other than to rack up the body count. In the end, Peru outscored Ecuador 48-27 for a decisive victory. Approximately half of the Ecuadorian losses were combat losses while the other half disintegrated as a result of failed morale rolls.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Ecuador)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Ecuador
Participants	sagunto
Play Date	2021-12-01
Language	Español
Scenario	WotE003

I am going to try hand a writing this AAR in Spanish. Wish me luck . . . .

Dado que este escenario ocurrió en America del Sur, voy a intentar un AAR en Español. Por favor disculpe mi Español, que es bien quebrado, y al estilo fronterizo. Debido a que el escenario se desarrolló de manera muy similar al experimentado por otros, me tomo la libertad de incluir, o parafrasar, une buena cantidad de los comentarios de AAR que Enrique escribió hace algunos años. De la casualidad, que es mucho mejor escritor que yo!

Este es el primer escenario que he jugado con seis mapas. Jugamos "online" en dos sesiones y, lamentablemente, mi oponente concedió tras solo 9 turnos de juego. En este partido, el lado Peruano tuvo mala suerte con las tiradas de dado.

Los Peruanos tienen un batallón de infantería motorizado, que entra por el sureste del Mapa 1, y una compañía de paracaidistas, que aterriza en un lugar fijado antes de empezar la partida. Además los Peruanos tienen un batallón de infantería de marina que tiene que desembarcar en un punto de la costa. Los Peruanos tienen también fuego naval procedente de un crucero y también apoyo aéreo. Los Ecuatorianos disponen de 3 batallones de infantería y uno de policia militar (CARA) y se despliegan en y alrededor de las pueblos.

Los Peruanos tienen mejor moral, pero menos fuerzas. La clave está en permitir la llegada de refuerzos desde el mar. Dado que estos refuerzos tienen que llegar en un punto preciso. Los Ecuatorianos deben impedirlo por todos los medios.

En esta partida las paracaidistas Peruanas aterriza en el turno dos cerca del lugar de desembarco, pero no suficientemente cerca, lo que permite la llegada de refuerzos Ecuatorianos. Los paracaidistas quedan bloqueados. Mientras tanto la fuerza motorizada Peruana intenta desbordar las posiciones Ecuatorianas en el sur del campo de batalla, pero no lo consigue. Los camiones Peruanos intentan pasar entre dos ciudades próximas y son blanco del fuego de oportunidad y de la artillería a bordo Ecuatoriana. Varios camiones fueran desorganizados o desmoralizados y la marcha se interrumpe. Como sucede a veces, la parte Ecuatoriao tuvo considerable suerte en sus tiradas, tanto en combate y como en morale.

Como le pasó a otras jugadores, los Ecuatorianos consiguen contener y aislar a las dos fuerzas Peruanas lejos del lugar de desembarco. La infantería de marina Peruana no consigue desembarcar. En el turno 9 los peruanos se retiran vencidos, por la concesión de mi oponente.

La situación en esta escenario para los Peruanos es muy difícil. Deben coordinar el avance de sus tropas de infantería motorizada con el desembarco aéreo, con el apoyo de los aviones y con el fuego naval. Si consiguen desembarcar, la infantería de marina podrán vencer con relativa facilidad esta interesante partida. Este escenario estaba desequilibrado a favor de los Ecuatorianos, así que le doy un 2. Fue divertido jugar antes de la repentina concesión de mi más experienciado oponente en linea.