I've got desert maps from Hot War from my friend Alex recently, and on the 8th of January played our first battle Art-of-Tactic battle in the North African Theater of WWII.
This time, we played 2x2: me and my nephew Vitya (11 y.o.) played for the Germans while my son Nick (15 y.o.) and my other nephew Max (9 y.o.) were the Brits.
Our armies were more than 20 land units plus 3 aircraft for each side. The British side had more tanks (Lee platoon, Matilda II platoon, 2 Stuart platoons) while the Germans had only three armored platoons one of which was Sd.Kfz222 armored car. As compensation, the Germans had more artillery, and even the diminished to 2 guns German howitzer battery was very effective.
It was a meeting engagement scenario. Here are the starting positions:
Two win the game, one should score more victory points. Each player had an oil depot in the rear, capturing it gave 15 VPs. Also, each opponent's village hex costs 5 VPS.
The map and the order of battle dictated the flow of the game: evry side strived to capture the high ground in the center as it would allow directing aircraft and howitzers to the enemy's rear.
Also, the road between the hills and the shrubbery became a real Schwerpunkt: Matilda and Pz IV clashed with one another there and had to fight 4 (!) rounds of close combat with no results, even though Germans helped its tanks with PaK-36 fire.
Another important factor was the use of aircraft. Both sides used it efficiently, and the German players made a mistake while anticipating air bombardment... The thing is, the British had Fairey Battle bomber that bombs two hexes at once. And the German player placed two armored units in line with a light anti-aircraft unit behind them hoping to shoot down the aircraft, BUT he forgot that the light AA gun can't shoot down heavy aircraft!.. As a result, Pz 38(t) and SdKfz222 were destroyed from the air in one turn. In its turn, Ju-87 destroyed the Lee platoon.
We played about 2.5 hours and managed to accomplish only 5 turns as much fighting and dice rolling accompanied each turn. The game was in a precarious balance. Each side had only one armored unit left after both Stuart platoons were destroyed—one by an anti-tank team+howitzers, second in close combat by German pioneers and Fallshirmjager (to much surprise of the British ;)
Having so few mobile units left with half of ammunition, it wasn't clear how the players could advance their attacks and gain victory points... But it was fun to play!
PS: I posted a short video from the start of this game on my YouTube channel.
