This is an interesting scenario. A bunch of Australian infantry, with a couple of 2 pounders and a couple of increments of OBA, plus a few Matildas, come across some Italians mostly encamped behind a hill (why behind? I have no clue) and need to create havoc before Ariete division, with lots of Italian tanks and infantry, and a few German tanks, too, comes to the rescue. The Aussies win by inflicting 12 step losses (doable) or chasing the Italians away from the environs of the hill (probably not doable, what with all that armor coming...assuming it shows up, which may not happen). So, as happened historically, the best plan for the Aussies is to come in, get the Matildas to scare a bunch of Italians into surrendering, and then run away before the armor can hurt them.

That's the plan, anyway.

And that's what I tried as the Aussies. Yet the Italians were stubborn, refusing to surrender, and rallying from demoralization consistently, when they needed a 5 or less to do that. The Matildas wandered too close, and got caught in an assault. In my defense, the Brits had a 4 initiative at the time, the Italians had a 1, so the odds of the Italians going first were only 1 in 11 that it would happen), and got demoralized. They recovered, but never got out of the assault, and even with infantry reinforcements, they eventually fell to a crossfire between 20mm guns (the set-up) and 47mm guns (the kill on a boxcars). That was 2 step losses for the Aussies, and Italian artillery and accurate MG fire took care of the other 2. Meanwhile, the Italians doggedly held on, outrolling or equal rolling the British in an assault.

The armored reinforcements showed up on turn 12, the 2nd possible turn they could enter. It's only a 1 in 6 chance, so that was good luck for the Axis. As they drove to the front, the Aussiestook aim on them with with OBA, and finally got a couple of Italians to surrender. This put the Axis at 8 step losses (there were others from fire and assault) and put a draw in reach. The armor rolled up to the Aussies and blasted away, however the Aussies mostly hung tough. I thought to myself "Hey, let's bring up some infantry to get combined arms with the PZIIIs in assault and dissuade the Aussies from any further battle." This turned out to be a mistake, and a lucky HMG shot demoralized a stack of adjacent Italian infantry and they failed their surrender roll, taking the Axis to 12 step losses and a draw. So, bad judgment on my part.

This was a fun scenario. A little luck by the Italians and it's easy enough for them to win, and, as I found out, they should rest on their laurels. Getting Italians to surrender is generally easier than it was for me in this scenario. At the same time, if the Matildas don't get toasted and get a few Italians to surrender, the Axis have to be much more aggressive to take out 4 steps of Australians before they run back to cover.

Oh, player's tip. I rushed the Bren carriers into an assault to help sway the odds to the Aussies. One of them promptly got ripped apart by AT fire, and the other was demoralized and ran for the hills...well, not hills, it's the desert. The rear. Yes, they ran for the rear. This also left the 2 lbers without transport. They can move 1 hex per turn on their own if limbered, and that's not going to be enough to escape any infantry that comes after them. In this scenario, the Brens should not function as MG platforms, they should probably hold back.

Still, good fun and I'd play it again.

The game was called a draw at Turn 13 due to both sides reaching their respective "enemy step loss" victory conditions. This was in no small measure due to the efforts of an Australian infantry/engineer stack commanded by a 10 Morale 1-2 Lieutenant, a stack which became a death-crazed killing machine, wiping out two Italian stacks and damaging a third. The game also featured an insane number of leader casualties on both sides, due to multi-demoralization results and a lot of 2-3 results when checking due to step losses. It was a bloodbath for both sides, and lots of good, clean fun.

En este escenario, dos compañías de "bersaglieri", varias baterías de artillería de pequeño calibre, un pelotón de morteros y un pelotón de tanquetas debe defenderse del ataque de dos companías de infantería australiana, apoyados por cañones antitanque y medio pelotón de tanques británicos "Matilda". La moral de los australianos es superior. A partir de turno 11 pueden entrar aleatoriamente refuerzos consistentes en tanques alemanes e italianos y dos compañías de infantería italiana.

Los italianos se fortifican en las proximidades de una colina. Los australianos avanzan directamente hacia el enemigo y comienzan a hacerlo retroceder. Una batería de artillería y un pelotón de "bersaglieri" se rinden, pero el resto de los italianos presentan una decidida defensa de sus posiciones. Al final el ataque australiano pierde fuerza y se estanca, ya que es blanco repetidamente de la artillería italiana y del tiro de oportunidad de los "bersaglieri".

Los refuerzos del Eje no llegaron a entrar en el campo de batalla, aunque no fueron necesarios. Al final los italianos producen 7 "steps" de bajas entre los australianos y consiguen mantenerse bastante sólidamente en algunas posiciones iniciales.

Dos causas, a mi juicio, han provocado la derrota australiana: 1) La baja calidad de los líderes australianos (ninguno tenía modificador de moral); y 2) el hecho de que haya aplicado las reglas de "rendición" especiales contenidas en esta web, mucho más rigurosas que las originales del módulo "Afrika Korps".