After looking through my old notes, I noticed I did not play this one. After looking at the setup I see why, the odd setup rule for the Germans. After a quick email to Doug, I was ready to go. (See errata for clarification). This is an interesting one for the Americans as they have an infantry force that needs to push through and capture a 17 hex area of the board without losing 7 steps. They do not have tanks, but do have high morale, OBA, and a greater number of troops. The Germans have some artillery, naming two mortars that were the bain of the Americans, as well as quite a few HMG's and half platoons that put up a fight.

The Americans enter the board from the south east while the Germans are setup around 0508. The Germans will try to move up and occupy as many hexes around 0406 as possible, dig in and let the Americans try to push them out. The Americans will need to run down the road and take as much ground before this happens. One other factor makes this interesting, the FoW is increased by two, so 14+ ends the turn. With only 18 turns, this could have an effect.

Turn 1 to 3 have the Americans moving onto the board. The Germans run up and take the town at 0605 as well as some of the hedgerow country to the north. The Germans also move up the half platoons to take the woods and some of the hedges in the middle of the board. The Americans take the town at 0803 and use this as a base to attack 0605 and the woods to the west. American OBA starts up on the town while German OBA disrupts units trying to get into the hedgerows. Eventually the German GRENs and Lieutenant in 0605 are demoralize and run. American paratroops move in to take the town. Meanwhile, flanking movements head west to try to get around the woods in the middle of the board, but German Op fire from a half GREN scores a kill on a airborne platoon, slowing the advance. The second flanking movement toward the north is slow as the hedges make it hard to get the HMGs moving more than one hex at a time. German Op fire is very accurate and disruptions and demoralization start to popup on the Americans. Returned fire is weak and the American are forced to burn valuable activations rallying troops. American assaults are weak as well, low rolls force longer than usual assaults, burning more time. Eventually the Americans break clear of the hedges in the south and are able to get into the woods. But to the north, the attack slows as the Germans move rallied half platoons back into hexes forcing the Americans to retake them again.

Several 2x kills from the American OBA quickly clears some stubborn Germans and they have half of the hexes occupied. German fire has taken a toll, 5 steps killed. But the Americans have inflicted 15 steps lost on the Germans. It comes down to the last two turns with the American pushing for the last few hexes, but the Germans have infantry, AA and AT guns dug in there. American OBA destroys some of the artillery but not before it demoralizes several of the advancing Americans. At this point and American victory is out of the question. The Germans have a chance if they can destroy two more units they will win. But unfortunately they cannot muster the firepower to do it. So the game ends with a German win. (Modified from a draw as I reread the VC and the Germans either deny the American VC or kill American steps.)

Generally a good scenario, forces are well balanced and tactics and dice rolls will decide the victor. Better American dice would have won the day, while clumsy American tactics can give the Germans a victory.

Author	KirkH (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	unknown
Play Date	2010-03-05
Language	English
Scenario	AirI020

Played this one against someone online using VASSAL. It took us a number of sessions, playing roughly 2-3 turns per session. I was the Germans and set up my forces to defend the town in 0803 and various other areas between the northeast corner and the objective hex, 0406. The Americans entered and within a couple turns surrounded my units in the town and just north of it. They initiated a pair of assaults but suffered from great rolling on my part and poor rolling on his part. The two assaults continued for eight turns by which time the Americans had lost enough men to guarantee a German victory so we called the scenario over.

Most of the latter scenarios of Airborne work this way. A large mixed force of American has to root out a moderately sized German force of equal morale from tough terrain. And they have to do it with light losses.

In summary the Americans lose. They will lose exceptionally fast if the sighting rules developed in the articles are used. A couple of strong infantry/HMG sections will devastate the unsuspecting Americans as they blunder into the hedgerow terrain.

While the game is useful in showing the mechanics it is difficult to see how to "win" many of the scenarios. It would seem some work on the victory conditions would be a huge help to these later scenarios. Again the use of a road control victory condition with higher potential losses for the Americans (I lost four of the limit of 7 steps within the first two turns...). So, control the road between the town at 0803 and at the north end of the causeway and lose no more than twice the number of steps lost by the Germans by the end of the scenario and you win, otherwise the Germans win.

As it is written the scenario only gets a 2. It would come higher with a more acheivable result.

This one was very much like the two "VII Corps" scenarios before it objective-wise but with the map turned around to make it look like a new scenario. Actually, this time, the combined force of para and glider units were even closer to driving the Germans away from the objective hex (406 this time) but there wasn't enough time in the course of 18 turns to finish the job. 4 turns more and they would of had it, maybe. At the conclusion of turn 18 the Americans had only suffered 5 step losses, one of which was from friendly mortar fire. The first problem the airborne troops had was getting all of their forces on to the map from the allowed entry points and the glider units were delayed by a few turns. The next issue was having very few airborne leaders to keep a lot of paras in order; the para group had 4 leaders assigned to a mass of 17 units. Just a few leader disruptions and demoralizations easily scattered the main attack along with a +2 modifier to the fog of war rolls which quickly ended American activations. Luckily by the time the main para attack had become completely disorganized the glider units were able to make a push from another direction. Even more disappointing for the airborne effort was the inefficiency of the OBA provided for support. With 1x24 and 2x16 increments available it would seem gaping holes would of been blasted through German lines but there was many a 6 or 7 rolled on the 45 column; I think only one German loss resulted from all the bombarding going on. Instead, German losses were extracted mostly the the hard way, through assaults. That was one of the few bright spots for the paras and glider units, not one step was lost in the many assaults that took place. There wasn't enough time to wait until enemy units were weakened by direct fire or OBA before going in. By the end of the battle the Germans had lost a total of 13 GREN and 5 HMG steps, almost all from close-quarter fighting but it was not enough; 6 German units still remained within 2 hexes of 0406. Like the three scenarios before this one there is no chance of a draw; either the Americans meet their VCs 100% or they lose.

This wraps up the 20 printed 'Airborne' scenarios from the IE set and hoping that the "D-Day Behind the Beaches" delivers a little more as this one, for being the last scenario of the boxed game, was kind of a let-down but still gets a "2" rating from me. It was close one but still no further for the beleagured paras overall. As it sits Germany has won this series from a campaign perspective with: 9 victories, 9 draws and just 2 losses; both of those from a surrender SSR which was more of a giveaway for the Americans.