My play of this scenario matched the historical outcome, it was an utter disaster for the Commonwealth forces. On paper and even after setting the map up it looked as if this was going to be a rollover for the predominantly South African forces as just about every counter from the SA mix save some vehicles were used along with a smattering of high-moraled Kiwi infantry and a good number of MkVIB tanks.

The combined axis forces were distributed between 20 entrenchments stretched out the north-south length of the map behind an unbroken line of AT ditches. The Italians were all consolidated in the center with Germans on the flanks. An interesting quirk about this deployment was that no matter where the Commonwealth forces set-up, west of the AT ditches and near the edge of the map, they could not deploy vehicles out of range from the German 37mm AT guns. This made tanks and carriers quite vulnerable until visibilty began to decrease. As a result of this 2 Bren carriers were easily picked off before they could move or hide under the cover of darkness.

Commonwealth forces split up into 5 groups; 4 South African, 1 New Zealand in hopes that at least one of those groups would easily overwhelm one of the entrenchments and then link up to take out the other 4 required for a South African victory. I think that alone was a huge mistake in splitting up. While daylight was available German OBA was extremely effective and the key target were the 3 New Zealand INF units which had the higher morale rating of 8/8 compared to the 7/6 rating of Soth African forces. Right away the first German artillery barrage vaporizes a whole platoon of N.Z. INF after "snake eyes" are rolled on the 30 column of the bombardment table. The Kiwi force pressed on and began to fill in one of the AT ditches so that vehicles could get through. Eventually they would succeed in clearing a ditch but by the time that they were finished doing that they had been reduced to a half platoon and by battle's end all N.Z INF were eliminated. This was crucial as they were the only units capable of mounting a decent trench assault with their higher morale.

After visibilty decreased Commonwealth forces moved in closer to attempt to weaken the axis defenders with direct fire and had awful luck in doing that. Even units adjacent to entrenched units could not get much done and as soon as axis units became demoralized they were quickly able to rally back to disrupted or good order. Because they were entrenched they did not have to flee if they failed to recover from demoralization. Both German and Italian units received decent leaders in their draw, many with morale modifiers that made recovery a breeze most of the time along with the recovery bonus of being entrenched. Turn after turn passed and Commonwealth casualties began to mount along with their initiative decreasing. No matter what was tried nothing seemed to phase the defenders. During the whole battle the Italians only lost one step of INF along with their Major while the Germans only lost a total of three steps; 2 INF and a 37mm AT gun. Commonwealth forces were able to just barely get 40 steps of units on the east side of the AT ditches but neither of the other two VCs were met; occupy 5 entrenchments or eliminate 14 axis steps. At the end of the battle not one axis entrenchment had fallen under Commonwealth control and on the west side of the At ditches was a sea of red and black markers covering withering S.A. units.

I think dividing the allied forces was a huge mistake and perhaps one large central attack on the Italian positions should of been made to start with. There forces were concentrated but if the front lines had been breached the rearguard trenches were only occupied by 65mm artillery batteries. In fact only a token force was sent to challenge the Italian lines and that one without HMG units. Also, dividing the attack force up into many smaller groups failed as a lot more activations were required. Most of this battle took place at night so fog of war rolls were increased by one. This was to the axis's advantage as they could get by with just 3-4 activations in the worst case as defenders. My only other thoughts on this one are that keeping the N.Z.INF units alive is crucial. They were targeted right away from German OBA but if it is possible for them to survive they will need to be reserved for actual assaults instead of ditch filling duty. There are plenty of S.A. units available for that thankless task. So I was tempted to give this one a lower rating but a "3" is in order because this one has quite a challenge to it though it looks deceptively easy for South Africa. If anything else it will be good practice for the scenario to follow "Assault on Bardia" where a stronger Commonwealth force returns two weeks later to attack these same postions again.

This scenario has a South African Infantry Brigade supported by New Zealand light tanks and INF attacking a mixed Axis force behind a A/T Ditch and in strong fortifications. Dusk is about to fall as the Commonwealth troops begin their attack in three separate waves the first at the Northern end of the enemy line the other two towards the centre after the first attack had drawn in enemy reserves. As night fell a part of the A/T ditch had been filled in and the New Zealand armour made its way to the front. Losses had been fairly low up to now but in the confusion of night fighting these soon mounted for both side. The Northern attack had now been repulsed freeing a German INF company to move southwards to deal with the threatened break through in the centre. Here Italian gunners firing over open sight had delayed the supporting South African INF/HMG units just long enough for the Axis units to be able to seal the breach in their lines. The VC are tough for the South African troops trying to amass 40 steps worth of undemoralized units East of the MLR is hard specially with the South Africans fairly brittle morale. However a solid scenario with a nice mix of nationalities and units to use.