Battle Report: Rock The Casbah!

Seconds before they are mowed down by the British machine gun nest, the Fedayeen bundle out of their wrecked technical in a vain attempt to assault the British infantrymen.

Nick and I went back to the near future again last night as we took the Battlefield Evolution rules for their second spin round a not-too-quiet town in the Middle East (well, Nick's kitchen table, anyway!)

Having learnt not to be quite so gung-ho from our previous outing, we took a more cautious approach to this battle. Nick's British were seeking some payback for my audacious attack on their base last month and so had sent a patrol out into the heart of Middle Eastern Alliance (MEA) territory ... little realising that we had laid an ambush for them.

With a better grasp of what we could and couldn't do in the rules, this game certainly rocked the casbah as we blew up vehicles left, right and centre ... I even managed to take out Nick's seemingly invulnerable Warrior tank by "heroically sacrificing" one of my men to plant a bomb on the metal monster's underbelly.

Elsewhere, I loaded a technical with troops and whizzed round the streets, spreading chaos, until the advancing British troops were forced to take shelter in our own abandoned base camp.

Like an Arabian A-Team, we jumped our last remaining technical through the hedge back into the camp - but the British were too efficient and trashed the vehicle in a hail of bullets, as my men bundled out to engage them in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, the MEA troops were cut down in crossfire from a machine gun emplacement the British had set up across the road, before they could take a step closer to the infidels.

Working out the points score from the battle (like proper wargamers!), Nick only managed to secure a minor victory - my total being boosted by the incredible sight of his Warrior going up in smoke and flames. A sight that will be celebrated in song for years to come, round desert campfires throughout the country.