The Governor MTO (id:#65400)
Medjaayoun, Syria 1941-06-19 ()
Designer: Andrew Rogers
Starter kit scenario?:    Deluxe scenario?:
 
Balance:
AustralianVichy French
34.408602150538%

Overview:

The initial phase of the Commonwealth campaign against the Vichy forces in Syria was proving tougher than expected. These French, former allies of the Commonwealth, were resilient opponents. Merdjayoun was symbolic of this as a town, located only a few miles south of the Syrian border, had already been captured and lost by the Australians. Unwilling to again lose this vital position, the Vichy stationed Legionnaires and tanks to defend the assault against Medjayoun. Two companies of Australians from the 2/25th Battalion moved to attack from the west, while Australian pioneers demonstrated from the south to tie the Vichy garrison down.
Attacker: Australian (A and B Companies, 2/25th Battalion, 25th Australian Brigade)
Defender: Vichy French (9ème and 10ème Compagnies, 6ème Régiment de Légion Étrangère, and 6ème Régiment du Chasseurs d'Afrique, Armée du Levant)  
5.5 turns
    Players: 2     OBA: None     Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:15.0 D:12.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:2
R35 x 2

Guns: A:0
Boys ATR x 2
D:0
Mortier de 60 mle 35

Victory Conditions:

Exit VP: Building Control VC: Area Control VC:
Unit Based VC: LOS Style VC: CVP Cap:
Misc Rules: All bldgs are ground level only. Rowhouse bars: N/A
Overlays: NONE
Errata (source)
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Scenario info

Last Played:
DateReporterOpponentBal.ResultTimeComments
2026-06-07(A) X von Marwitz vs Christian Herde Australian winAnother serving of Andy "H-t-H" Rodgers, so you know it's going to get close and personal...

The Australians want to take a hilltop village from defending Vichy French represented by Légion Étrangère and support by a pair of not-radioless (!) R-35 tanks.
All buildings are ground level and Rowhouse bars do not exist (but are not Open Ground). Deployment is limited and H-t-H allowed,
The scenario is 4.5 Turns short, the Aussies enter from offboard.

12 defending squads (50% each Elite and 1st Line), 9-1, 8-0, 7-0, MMG, 3x LMG, ltMTR, 6x "?" and the said R-35s.
The Aussies have 15 squads, 6x Elite, 9x 1st Line, 9-2, 9-1, 8-0, 7-0, 4x LMG, 2x ATR, 2x DC.

To win, the Aussies either need to control one particular building or otherwise roughly 75% of all mulithex buildings to win at game end.

The attacking Aussies face two main challenges:
The first is the terrain. They have to attack uphill vs. stone buildings.
The second is time. They have only 4.5 turns to pull it off.
There are no smoke making capabilities for the attacker besides the squads' smoke exponent. The 9-2 is certainly their main asset, H-t-H will surely "shorten" some of the CCs. And remember - the attacker is the Australians...

ROAR had this scenario 25 Aussies / 42 Vichy at the time of our playing. With this number of playings and the remarkable difference in victory, it may count as established, that the defending Vichy French have an edge. After having played the scenario, I do agree. Attacking uphill against stone buildings, the entry of which will cost 4MF or will make you CX if you advance into them, which will often go in hand with not being able to maintain or regain Concealment, is a tough call. You only have 3 squads advantage in numbers and that 9-2 Leader. The limiting of deployment is likely aimed at preventing an "army of halfsquads" seeking out H-t-H combat against unfavorable odds. As the Aussies are allowed to enter from two sides (short north side and long west side), the French will not be able to solidly cover all approaches. But until the Aussies gain the hill, their going will be slow and impeded by the terrain even without Vichy opposition.

In our playing, I had the attacking Aussies. Looking at my opponent's defense, I felt quite lucky that the vector of attack I had hoped to use was not strongly defended. Thus my initial charge went quite well. However, I made one grave mistake by overlooking a LOS which would have enabled a 4FP @ -1 shot, that could have proved utterly disasterous. Luckily, my opponente overlooked it as well until it was too late and my units had already passed. Besides that, I don't believe that I made any serious mistakes in excecution. Nevertheless, I felt pressured more than half a dozen times to take risks that I would not normally take in ASL - mainly exposing the 9-2 to dangerous shots and going into CC CX, declaring H-t-H and "hope for the best".

During the first two Turns, I was mainly struggling uphill against my opponent who was reluctantly and slowly falling back. During this time, my Aussies were whittled down losing a squad and two or three halfsquads with nothing really to show for it. This forced me to seek doubtful CCs. Luckily, three of those proved utterly disasterous for the defender, because Infiltration allowed me to re-DM a stack with three units after having eliminated a 9-1, 458+LMG. In the second one, my CX squad prevailed against his non-CX squad, again allowing Infiltration into his back and grabbing Control of a Building for good measure. This same squad then withstood some bashing and when it came to CC against unfavorable odds, it contrived to kill enemy infantry to infiltrate out into the most important building, of which it gained Control in doing so (relinquishing Control of the building it left). Now, the Vichy French would have to root me out of the "you have it - you win it"-building in his back, which was a catastrophe for him.

Although the Vichy French were able to decide three more H-t-H CCs in their favor, it came at a cost and for a brief time, kept the French occupied. Since I had gained the hill by that time, finally I was able to take advantage of that by being able to move faster than merely creeping range. I was able to place the two Aussie DCs, but they only had marginal effect. Because I had taken enough buildings but one (one of which was the "you have it - you win it" building and was in a strong position to withstand French fire in the last 4th French Turn and would have been afterwards able to do all sorts of "last turn shenanigans", my opponent conceded at the End of Aussie Turn 4. The tanks had only played a minor role in our game.

Although I somehow contrived to pull off a win, I felt that skill alone was not sufficient for that. The ROAR rating of 25 Aussies / 42 Vichy reflects the challenges the Aussies are facing pretty well. Time restraints forced me to take undue risks too many times, but I was lucky to get away with that more often than not. I was extremely lucky in some desicive CCs enabling some unforseen, devastating Infiltrations, which proved pivotal.

von Marwitz
2024-09-30(A) Jennifer Wright vs Stu Rubin Australian win
2023-01-18(D) Rich Weiley vs Dave Wilson Vichy French win
2021-09-16(D) Hennie van der Salm vs Roderick Moolenaars Vichy French win[Imported from ROAR]
2021-08-27(A) Tuomo Lukkari vs Matias Dahlbäck Vichy French win[Imported from ROAR]
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ActionDate
von Marwitz Uploaded a VASL file2026-06-07 23:05:55
von Marwitz Uploaded the Board image2026-06-07 23:05:28
von Marwitz Added a playing2026-06-07 23:00:44
von Marwitz Uploaded an Image2026-06-01 14:38:13
Hutch Modified the location2024-10-02 14:19:24
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Statistics:
Avg Rating: 6.10Votes: 29
Views: 0
To-Play list count: 4
Estimated Play time: 3.9 hours
Recorded Games: 25
Archive recorded plays:
Australian6
Vichy French19
Drawn:0

ROAR Data: (as of today)
The Governor [Confirmed]
[A] Australian 26
[D] Vichy 42
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