Attractions:
Desert scenario, easy SSRs (for KE especially), 6 turns, change-of-pace VC: both sides want exit points.
Rules refresh: Heat Haze, Vehicle dust, Hillocks, towing, (un)limbering, (un)hooking
You get to feel the frustration the Germans must have felt when they first encountered Grant tanks. NONE of their tanks can get a guaranteed frontal kill on a Grant. They have an 88, but it must come on towed.
The big question for the British is whether or not to make the 4 Grants HD behind the hillocks, or put them on top of the hillocks. I’ll assume keeping them out of LOS is not an option. In our game, JP put them all HD, two each behind the south and the middle hillocks. As he started breaking the 37L MA’s, he regretted this. The frontal armour of 8h/11t means to me that they should be on the hillock, so they can start with 8 guns firing against the German’s 7 tanks, 1 AC, 5 armoured HT and 2 soft HT towing ATGs.
Be careful of the German entry restrictions: only 5 or so hexes of board 26 and only half of printed MP. I had to do this twice because I missed it the first time, but caught it soon enough to restart.
I entered all the tanks first to make a wall of vehicle dust behind which to hide everyone else. The 88 entered last, well screened and unhooked on the second turn, even though the position wasn’t great. It could dominate its entire relatively unimportant board, threaten all the HD Grants, but would not have many targets as the Grants moved towards the exit area, except for a portion of the exit edge (about 8 hexes) visible between the two hillocks.
On the first Brit DFPh, 2 37Ls broke (ammo shortage in effect). On the next Brit PFPh, one 37 got a CH to kill a Pz3, but the other one broke, leaving only 1 gun in play, since all the 75s were HD. My tanks head for the south and middle hillocks. The AC goes HD on the south hillock against a Grant, and dies on the Grant’s first shot. The Pz4 with armour leader also goes there and stays there on a failed ESB attempt to stop. It would last the game there, shooting to little effect, except when using smoke. Note that HEAT ammo is in effect for this scenario. JP withdraws 1 Grant from the south and both Grants from the middle hillocks. He tries to carry some tankless tankers as riders, but MG fire from my tanks gets them all to bail out and JP had bad luck with his MC. One broken crew was on the exit edge for 3 turns trying unsuccessfully to rally..it ended the game there. As he is withdrawing he gave my 88 a shot between the hillocks at a Grant; I scored my only CH of the game through several wreck hindrances and Heat Haze.
I sent 4 Pz3 after the one Grant at the south hillock. I also sent in infantry when the tanks started dying. Eventually one tank immobilized it, the Pz4 smoked it, then the infantry CC’d it to death, but I lost 2 Pz3. The other Grant that had left the south hillock had helped the one left behind, but then it malfd its 37L about mid-game. At this point I started sending people north. The 50 ATG had spent the game loaded, moving and wondering where to go. Mid-game it decided to head north for an exit. I had lost one armoured HT, loaded with a squad to a long range CH, but another had went north early to try to chase down exiting crews. It had left an MMG team on the north hillock then went for the Brit crew with the MMG. It died from the Brit MMG at a range of 6 hexes! The German MMG team did squat shooting, but exited on the last turn. The HT from the 88 also headed north to exit later. Mid-game the 2 surviving Pz3 went north to wait for the Stuart reinforcements. They managed to kill one on the entry turn and the second on the next turn. Another Grant was caught in LOS between the hillocks by the 88, but was only immobilized. The crew would eventually march off the board. The Grant from the south tried to harass the Pz3’s when they went for the Stuarts, but broke its SA. Repair attempts led to recall.
When we tallied the VP, I had 38 to the brit’s 14. The Germans need double the Brits.
One thing JP did that I would try different; he loaded the tankless tankers to carry them to the exit edge. The brit scores double VP for rescued crews exited as riders, however, I think they are safer to run for the edge early when they’ll be behind the hillocks, out of LOS of German tank MG. Load them near the edge when the Grants can get out to exit as riders.
Playing time: 6 hrs (including the restart) Recommended.
Michael R.
Believe it or not, I was trying to keep this short!!