This looked to be a tough nut to crack for the US. The Germans had plenty of units, two town hexes and units digging in next to the objective. The US had initially bypassed the forward German position, and got LOS to the objective, commencing to hit it with OBA. This is where the historical morale of Axis troops in the AO came in to play. After several rounds of shelling, the Germans surrendered after suffering a dreadful surrender roll. Even given the anticlimactic ending, this was a fun and challenging maneuver scenario.

Well this wasn't such a bad way to kill some time before setting up for tonight's shared match. As a solo play this one kept me interested enough for the short amount of time it took to set it up and finish it in just over an hour's time. I guess I went into this with a morbid sense of curiousity as to how long the Germans could hold out before having no other choice other then to surrender. In this case the white flags were waving at the beginning of turn 9 with just two turns left. Before that occured American OBA and direct fire sent German forces running away from their first line of defense, leaving the town in hex 0803 abandoned on turn 6. American forces were able to steamroll on through and soon it looked as if the town hex in 0604 would suffer a similar fate but even with all that going on in the American's favor it seemed very unlikely that with just a total of 11 turns that all German units would of been cleared from within 5 hexes of 0604 by conventional means. The German morale is deplorable with a 7/5 rating and they really didn't stand a chance of holding on to their posts for too long. However, the 81mm mortars did actually manage to eliminate a step of American infantry but as far as other German units were concerned, very few even had a chance to fire back before they were disrupted, demoralized or fleeing.

When Turn 9 came about I read and re-read the paragraph concerning the surrender rule and then realized that demoralized German units also counted toward the negative modifier on the dice roll, along with eliminated units (not just steps) and leaders. I quickly did the math. German initiative was reduced to zero; 2 German units eliminated, a Lieutenant eliminated and 2 units demoralized for a total of -5 on the dice roll. The highest ranking leader's morale was 9. So before even rolling it occured to me that that there was no chance of the Germans NOT surrendering as even a "12" roll would still be less than the German Captain's morale rating after the negative modifier. So that was it, battle over. I still think that this not such a bad scenario, for a solo play, I've experianced worse in 'Airborne' and this one still gets a "3" rating for me for what it's worth.

This one was very interesting, not from a play perspective, but rather from the perspective that sometimes men give up. The mechanic for this particular scenario (which is NOT the same as in another scenario in which surrender is an option) makes it easier for the "Germans" to surrender if they have better leaders. Initially I thought this was very weird and not at all appropriate, but the more I thought about it, the smarter it seemed.

The situation of the German troops is hopeless. They are sandwiched between the Americans on the beaches and the airborne troops that are attacking in this scenario. A good leader will understand that they are going to be destroyed and will seek to cause the maximum delay on the attackers while experiencing the least loss of life on their part. In essence, they will uphold their honor without killing their men to do so. This is actually beautifully simulated with the surrender rule.

As a "game" however, this scenario is stunningly one sided. The Germans will surrender, the only question is when. They are unlikely to cause sufficient losses to the Americans (6 steps) before they quit to win, and they are unlikely to hold out. I would suggest a staggered set of victory conditions for your play. For example, surrender before Turn 4 is a major US victory, surrender before turn 7 is a minor US victory, etc. The US losses could also be used to reduce the level of the victory (e.g. 2 losses drops the level of victory by 1, 5 losses by 2, etc.) This will result in some caution on each player's part.

The situation and the surrender rules deserve victory conditions that reward a careful play. I can see some definite improvements resulting in an improved rating to 3 or on a generous day a 4. The forces involved are too small and the terrain too fussy to generate much better.

Okay, as other AARs have more or less implied, I also believe that the Germans have basically no chance in this scenario. The surrender conditions make it fairly certain (especially with good leaders) that sooner or later they will surrender. That being said, my Germans gave it a pretty good run here. In part, its because their top leader was only morale 8, so he was too stupid/stubborn to give up easily. The US approached the town and decided to make it a rapid approach, given that there are only 11 turns in the scenario. On Turn 1, their OBA demoralized all of the units in 0803, however 1 of them recovered and the Germans sent reinforcements. They also disrupted an advancing American HMG.

The Americans closed on the town in turn 2, surviving the German opportunity fire due to good rolls and good leadership. The Major led the assault on 0803 on turn 3, but it was inconclusive...these guys in 0803 decided that 7 morale was plenty. Meanwhile, as the infantrymen closed in on some other Germans, friendly fire disrupted a 2nd Lieutenant.

The assault in 0803 was going poorly, as the Germans rolled better on assault rolls, and stubbornly refused to break. The US lost an step in the assault, so the Germans reinforced and actually now had more firepower in the town than the US. So, the US tried another assault in 0905 and German first fire disrupted everyone, leading to another inconclusive result.

On turn 4, the US OBA wiped out a German half platoon, and at the end of turn 4, the US had lost 2 steps, the Germans 1. So, on turn 5, the US called for German surrender. The modified roll was 8, and the German captain still thought he could win. Hearing the clock tick, the US tried again on turn 6 with the same result. However, things finally began to collapse for the Germans on turn 6. 2 assaults cleared out the German defenders either by melee or firing at fleeing troops. 0803 was still a stalemate, however the rest of the board was going to the Americans. OBA was also picking off demoralized Germans. Once they were flipped, having to roll less than a 6 (or less than a 4 for 1/2 strength units) meant they mostly stayed flipped. With the situation collapsing on turn 7, the Germans finally decided to surrender.

A better scenario than I expected, and still not a very good one.

This scenario contains the surrender rule similar to the scenario 9 Holding the Lock. This ended play only after 2 step losses by the Germans on turn 3. Not much action to describe and the rule probably needs to be refined for units and not the whole force.

Strange scenario. Highest ranking German leader was a 10-1-2 and on turn three the Americans asked for the surrender roll. As the Germans had lost one unit and their initiative was down to one there weren't any modifiers to the dice roll. The German rolled a 9 and the game was over. I can't see playing this one again unless that rule is changed somehow. It just seems odd the German player is penalized if his highest ranking leader has high morale. It appears to be one of those scenarios that leans more toward being a historical replay, but it's not a lot of fun as a game for the German player.

This game was played ftf with Wayne Baumber because our 'main feature' scenario ended with plenty of time to spare. This was drawn randomly out of our 'short scenario' bag.

I'll be quite frank here and simply state this scenario is absolute rubbish ! It is badly written, badly conceived, and a pointless waste of time. Why ? Because of the SSR surrender rule in this particular scenario. There is no rhyme or reason to it and it is BAD on the following 2 counts.

i) The Germans selected a '10' moraled Captain. This meant, that once set-up was completed, the US player could apparently call for a German surrender and the maths of it were, +2 to the dice roll for the current German initiative, deduct any casualties and if a 7 or less was rolled the Germans would surrender ..... Yes, 7 or less on 2 dice and the Germans surrender and you have just wasted your time setting up the game !

Now, there is one downer on that for the Allied player. Each time he asks for surrender and fails, the Germans get +1 to their initiative, so, as long as they don't lose casualties, it should get harder to get them to surrender ?

However, the surrender SSR and VC's then really make no sense either when read in conjunction.

The surrender SSR simply states that if the Germans do surrender through this way, then 'PLAY' ends. Nothing about the US winning, just 'play ends'. Now to point ii)

ii) The VC's state that the US player wins if "At the end of PLAY" they have cleared an area 5 hexes around hex 0604.

So get this : The Germans are forced to surrender via the loony SSR, but the US does NOT win because when PLAY ENDS they hadn't cleared the area designated.

This scenario is a farce and I hope the new version has remedied this nonsense.

Good luck to anybody that bothers any further with it, but for us, it was simply scored as draw, though a no result would have been a better headline.

This game was is unplayable without some clarification to the surrender rule in the special rules for this scenario. These state that the American player can call for the Germans to surrender at the start of any game turn. The German player rolls two die adds his initiative and then subtracts any losses or demoralized units if his morale is less than his highest leaders morale the game ends. Now what other players who have played this scenario have assumed and understandably is that must mean the US have won, however it says the game ends not that the US have won. So in our game Vince had a 10 morale leader, at game start I could have asked for his surrender, he would have rolled 2 die and added 2 for his initiative subtracted 0 for losses any roll of 7 or less would have meant the game was over. BEFORE A UNIT HAD EVEN FIRED OR MOVED. We called it a draw and played out a few turns, however it was obvious that this scenario was deeply flawed and Vince was a relieved as I was when I asked for his surrender and the game duly ended. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	United States
Play Date	2022-12-03
Language	English
Scenario	AirI016

Americans ask for surrender at the beginning of Turn 1 and the Germans surrendered. I'd think I'm missing something but the other AARs seem to show the same thing. There is no point to setting this one up, even solo, except for completionist sake.