When I initially agreed to play, decision at Kasserine, I had little idea of the nostalgia value it would generate.

People at the Game On! Con ohhh, and ahhh’d at the map.

Interestingly they did not have to try and discern which were Italian, versus German and French! Nor struggle with the poorly formatted and b&w setup charts. Trust me folks we live in a golden age today!! I’ll grant for sure that the map is a master work of austere beauty. But that is about it.

In any case the battle kicked off with modest gains by the Afrika Korps and by the end of Turn one we had made the following in roads:

 

This is one of those old games where if you end up adjacent and cant move or cant afford to move you must attack. So I made sure to leave meaty stacks adjacent and force the Yanks into sub par combats. Otherwise in Turn 2 and three the Germans rapidly advanced and isolated or overran most positions.

My goal was to eliminate anything I could no matter the cost.  The American player had challenges with taking advantage of the support rules for arty, and reserves. But in a weird twist this rule for arty or Final Protective fire meant you played your hand defensively. The attacker would know where the heaviest arty would be, so I just attacked elsewhere. This was a very mobile battle so lines broke easily and defense in depth is hard.

By turn 4 or 5 the Allies assessed reinforcements, and conceded. I think the man failed his personal morale roll! Unfortunately this ended very quickly and  because my opponent didn’t have his glasses we elected not to reset.  Counter #’s are very, very small, and rules font was also tiny. 

Interesting but flawed is how I’d label this one.