I think Mircea's replays must be stimulating - here are some recent ones. I got to play all the Basic (i.e., armor only) scenarios of WEG's Desert Steel with John Nebauer over a couple of evenings recently. It's been several years since I played _Desert Steel_, and I really enjoy being back into it. (I note the victory point details are from memory - hope I haven't gotten any of them wrong.) Beda Fomm Since the British and their reinforcements come in from the East, the Italians took the western road, staying close together, racing south as quickly as possible. The British (with their very slow cruiser tanks) did not advance all the way to the crossroads on the southern map, but stopped a turn short to start firing at the Italians. In a mid-range gun duel over two turns, several Italian platoons were suppressed, but when the Italians, due to weight of numbers, started scoring in exchange, the British rolled two 12's in morale checks and their pressure slackened. The Semoventes (always dangerous) had swerved out to form the Italian left flank, and one of them was uprated to Veteran while dueling with the Stuarts(?) there. When the British reinforcements arrived, they started dueling with the Semoventes at a distance but lost a platoon and then another. In the meantime the Italian reinforcements swarmed around the British left flank (with the MG-armed tankettes remaining carefully in the rear) and after a couple more losses that flank crumbled at the price of two or three effectively eliminated Italian companies, allowing most of the other the Italians to run on the road and reach safety. (I believe the veteran Semovente platoon was killed while acting as rearguard for the others though). 9 Italians escaped for 18 VP, and 5 British units were eliminated for 10, against 13 Italians killed for 13 VP. Clear lesson: Make sure the Brits hold that crossroads physically - the Italians had had to swerve around it they'd have had a hard time making the time limit with any of the escapees. John soloed the scenario twice later, gaining another narrow Italian victory and a massive CW one - as we suspected, once the Italians do start to crumble, they go quickly. Battleaxe This is fought along the long side of one of the maps, with variable terrain. In this case, we got "Wadi" which meant the center of the map was a wide depression. The Germans are on the defense. The British, almost all Matildas, are charged with causing losses or exiting the other side of the map. They advanced on one side of the map (the wider "bank" of the wadi) against the Germans. A long-range gun duel developed that initially saw no side with an advantage. The Matildas theoretically were favored in causing damage to the other side, but due to their slow speed it took some time for all to reach good firing positions. The PzII's were sent into the Wadi to move around the British flank, but one British company was posted on the brink and kept them at bay. Only one of the Pz II platoons managed to get into the British rear but its one shot at the wimpy Mk VI trailing the Matildas was ineffective. In the meantime, the Matildas had taken some losses through successive disruptions, but had also started to dish out direct kill results due to the much weaker German armor. The Germans fell back out of range (having a range of 9 vs the Matilda's 8) but did not achieve any serious hits in opportunity fire when the Matildas followed up, and when they again tried to shoot it out, the Matildas took out several more, reaching the point where the scenario was won even without the British exiting the map (which they probably wouldn't have achieved at this time). If the Germans had fallen back more judiciously things would have looked better for them. Gazala This scenarios has the British awaiting the Germans on map B, with the Germans (entering on the other side of map A) trying to kill more units than they lose and having 8 units on map B at the end. The British decided (probably wisely) to meet the Germans early on and advanced onto map A, the large Stuart company in the center, the seasoned Grants of C/12 company (all the M3's are labeled Grants in the game) on the left flank, and the veteran Grant company (B/12) on the right. The Germans shifted companies B and C over against the British right flank, with company D pinning the Stuarts in a long-range fire fight and company A falling slowly back before the slowly advancing C/12 Grants that swung over to the center. B and C company initially achieved little against the B/12 Grants (always better to look at the enemy troop quality - it would have been easier to swing against the right than against the veterans), but with C company acting as the angle, B company slid along the map edge past the British flank. The B/12 Grants fell back towards the British center, hurting C company, but faster speed and weight of numbers told and eventually two of three platoons were killed and the third suppressed. By this time the lines had turned about 90 degrees, with the Stuarts pressing against D and C company, and the Pz II's of A company slipping towards map B behind the others (the lone Pz III platoon of A company was playing rearguard and actually survived as the C/12 Grants were slower and couldn't catch up effectively). B company eliminated the last veteran Grant platoon and moved towards the Stuarts' flank, and although they had time to meet this threat the combined weight of fire caused high losses. C and D company were weakened but fell back towards map B and the Germans reached both parts of their victory conditions. Operation Supercharge Interesting to play a game where Shermans are the coolest piece of equipment. Two companies each of Shermans, Grants, and Crusaders meet two companies of Pz III's, one of Pz II's, and one of Pz IV's (kurz) in a dust storm (visibility 5 hexes). Both sides are trying to kill the other and/or exit the other side of the map. The Brits have a clear numerical advantage (counteracted by the requirement to reach a +10 VP edge for a victory), and the existence of a command card for each of the British battalions involved vs one for the German battalion facing them means that two German companies will have top priority, then three British, then the remaining Germans and then the remaining British. Made for some hard decisions. Also, although the British have more units, most companies had lost some tanks in their initial breakthrough fighting, giving all formations a very tenuous morale - a kill and they could almost be relied on to become shaken. In the game, both sides had their formations evolve into a wide line as they approached each other (don't know how they knew that but it's the best formation to advance into the unknown anyway :-). The British had the seasoned Crusaders (A/9 company) in the center, the B/12 and C/12 Grants on the left flank, and the C/15 and B/15 Shermans on the right (B/15 is seasoned and hung out on the flank, while C/15 is green). The veteran Crusaders of B/9 were a reserve in the rear. The Germans had the PzIII's of C company facing the Grants, those of B company facing the Shermans, and the Pz II's of A company in the center. When the lines met, the center settled on a duel at the margins of visibility (both sides having their weakest armor there), and the veteran Pz II's held the Crusaders at bay, even achieving the occasionaly suppression (but thereby eventually turning one of the Crusader platoons into veterans). As both lines approached each other slightly out of symmetry, the British threw the A/9 Crusaders to the right flank, trying to envelop B company, but D company (PzIVe's) moved to counter this and A/9 fell back. refusing that flank. C/15 was firing and achieving the occasional hit, but B/15, on the angle between C/15 and A/9, caught the attention of both B/1 and D/1. On turn 4, one platoon was eliminated and the other two the next. Half the Shermans gone! B/1 focused its attention on C/15, but the green Shermans held extremely well, firing back despite being increasingly often suppressed. The Germans were becoming irritated when one even advanced to Seasoned level. However, that apparently made the Sherman crews cocky as that unit was eliminated on the next turn. C/15 became shaken and suffered another loss as a result after which the battle moved on. D/1 had moved so as to keep in touch with A/9, but when A/9 decided to make a stand, a number of awful spotting dierolls and weak shooting results meant they were unhurt for a long time, simply trading shots with D/1. On the left wing, C/12 and B/12 took C/1 under fire, and its commander delayed the retreat too long. One platoon was eliminated by B/12's veterans, and as C/1 belatedly fell back, another one and the last one was suppressed and killed. C/12 company had suffered one suppression but no losses and was now advancing on the flank of A/1, taking a long time to get them into view, but a flank shot finally took out a PzII platoon, and in the next two turns, C/12, B/12, and B/9 advanced, forming a quarter circle around A/1, and all of its platoons were eliminated before they could flee. The flank threat forced B/1 away from its position to fall in behind D/1, and both companies were in danger of being pushed against the (non-exit) map edge by the superior British numbers. By that time 6 British units had been lost vs 9 German. With A/9 finally hurt, the Germans by now had the way free to their exit map edge, but with kill ratio and overall numbers in their favor (and it being just barely early enough in the scenario for enough of the slower British tanks able to reach their exit edge), the British could achieve the required margin for victory. Sidi Bou Zid No German veterans here, but two companies of PzIV's accompanied by a lone Tiger platoon, facing three companies of Grants (two of them green) and a lot of AT and mortar armed halftracks. The Americans have a command card that makes one Grant company more flexible than the Pz IV's but the Tiger is better than everybody. The German side (me) didn't read the victory conditions carefully enough (the Germans only get points for exiting - we came to the conclusion the best strategy is to use the Tiger for sniping at the Americans and just keep the PzIV's racing towards the map edge, taking potshots when convenient), but in the event it didn't make a difference as I decided, at very long range, that it was better to let the green Grants fire at me (and mostly fail their spotting rolls) and then, with easy targets, pick them off. Instead they spotted well and killed two of the long-barrelled PzIV platoons on the second turn, and a short-barrelled one two turns after when it was closing the range. At this time the Germans couldn't have equated their losses by exiting all units that still could (the Tiger was too slow). I've never played EFTL or WFTL with the "fire on the move" rule yet, but it adds an interesting capability. Usually it's the numerically inferior side that uses it, trying to keep moving and offer a harder target. Virtually no cover on the maps but due to the high number of veterans on both sides (which are good in hiding in nooks and crannies), the spotting rolls became as important as the fire rolls.v Some of these scenarios are shouting for a rematch, but it's the Advanced scenarios first. Markus Last 3 games played: Merchant of Venus, Desert Steel, Up Front ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tanks...show why a handful of Israelis have managed to defeat a horde of enemies. Israeli tanks have several advantages, like superior attack factors, defense factors and range, and doubled attacks out to six hexes" -- "The Pieces of AIW", GENERAL 24(3)