This one got interesting in that there were a number of things the Americans could do to insure victory. Having a run around raider onboard 9 is one. Playing for a delay on the Southern [art pf the playing field is another. I'll revisit this one in the future.

Played solo in 3 sessions.

The Americans on board 9 were doomed from the start and were despatched in quick succession within a few hours. All was going according to plan for the Germans but they already had lost 2 steps doing so. To avoid an American 'Truck Trick' (driving all remaining American trucks around on board 9 playing hide and seek in order to deny the Germans their win), the Germans had to seal of board 9, shoo-ing off a few Ami trucks while doing so. They luckily succeeded before dawn and preparations were made for the grand finale. The Germans set up their forces and waited till 20:00 to make a night attack on the town. Oh, the tank? Well I'm afraid it made no impression at all on the Germans, hiding in the woods. It made a feeble attack on the southern reinforcement group, but that was it. It lost control to the Germans only once, 1 turn after its only attack en 2 turns before it had to go. Now how to assault a town without loosing too much troops, during the night. It can't be done, well at least not in my scenario. You always have to have troops adjacent to the enemy in order to land the artillery shells. I think sending a forward observer and a lot of patience could've done the trick for the Germans, after all Leaders don't count towards the VC's, you can lose a lot. I did not have the patience and assaulted from all sides. By then the Americans already had lost half their troops, so the idea was to reduce their troops as quickly as possible, so no harm could be done. The Germans almost succeeded.. Loosing the sixth step freed up the troops from board 9. In despair the Americans started to bombard assault hexes. It would be a close call indeed, 2 hours before the end, the Germans lost their 10th step. After that an eery silence hung over the town, no Americans to defend, nor any of their leaders to guide the artillery..

Despite the win/loss stats, this scenario is pretty balanced. One step extra and the Americans would've won. Worth playing for sure.

This scenario is pretty much a straight up town assault. The Germans have a much larger force than the Americans, and they don't have much to do except hole up in the town and hope to inflict casualties. They do get one M4 unit that meanders around the board for 9 turns (or counts as eliminated) and a small forward speed bump for the Germans to eliminate. As mentioned, the Germans have many more troops than the Americans, including a Southern force which is restricted to within 4 hexes of the southern map edge and doesn't do much except eat up German impulses.

Both sides have decent OBA. 2x18 for the Americans, 2x16 and 1x24 for the Germans, although for each German battery there is a 1/3 chance each turn that it will be unavailable for the turn.

The Americans win by keeping the town and inflicting more than 10 step losses. The Germans win by keeping their step losses under 7. If both or neither win, its a draw.

The Germans advanced quickly and surrounded and eliminated the small roadblock on Board 9. I suppose it could have tried to flee towards the town, and by the time it loaded up its guns it would have been caught. The Lieutenant with the troops did escape to tell the tale. After that, the Germans closed on their main objective, slowly surrounding it, being hidden by limiting terrain (the hill and woods). The Americans pulled back into town and waited.

Next the Germans sent a forward observer to help artillery shell the town, however small arms fire from the town eliminated him quickly. The American armor entered and harassed a mortar and GREN in the German rear. These were commanded by a 7-0-0 Lt who became demoralized and did not recover (even to disrupted) for the rest of the scenario.

The Germans spent another hour or so moving into position to attack the town. They worked through the southern light woods, which protected them as well as the town protected the Americans to begin a probing attack. Instead of moving in for the assault, which could cause high casualties, they parked outside of town to see if small arms fire could wear down the US. By turn 18, though, the Germans had lost 4 steps while the Americans had only lost the 2 from the forward roadblock.

Things changed on turn 19 when massed German fire finally got a casualty in town. On turn 20, another US step was eliminated as was a German one, putting their totals at 5. However, the Germans had disrupted a US stack and were ready to assault. This would be their 2nd assault, one was going on in the southern part of town, which mostly consisted of the 2 sides yelling insults at each other (I rolled a lot of 1s and 2s). However, on turn 21 the US received a 2 impulse lead on initiative and got the troops back to good order and the assault had to wait.

The Americans lost another step on turn 22 and had a machine gun platoon flee from the town and the Germans moved in to the assault where there superior numbers took their toll. It climaxed on turn 24 when the Americans lost control of 2 town hexes and lost 3 steps. They had also lost on on turn 22, so they were now at 9 step losses and running out of warm bodies. The Germans were still at 5 step losses.

On turn 25, the Germans finally cleared out the last resistance in the far south of the town. Ultimately, though, this was their undoing. They now had a hex stacked 3 high, and the remaining good order Americans used this to deadly effect. While they didn't kill any steps outright, one of the GREN platoons was demoralized from the assault, lost a step to compound demoralization from the 1st American fire into the hex, and then lost its other step to compound demoralization from the 2nd American fire into the hex. This put them at 7 step losses, and gave them no chance of victory.

I called the scenario at this point. The Americans had only 5 units left, one of which was a mortar, with which to defend 6 town hexes. They needed 4 step losses to defeat the Germans. The Germans, for their part, could just pull back into the woods as visibility dropped to 1 and rush the town on the very last 2 turns. It would be impossible for the Americans to cover every hex and very unlikely that they could eliminate 4 steps in 1 turn. I called this one a draw.

Not a bad scenario, although really suited more for solitaire, as there aren't enough American forces to give them a lot to do. I rated it a 3, although as a solitaire exercise its probably closer to a 4 and as a 2 player, probably closer to a 2.

Attempt # 2 for the Germans to take the town, this time they have more men... Same basic plan as last time, approach the town, sit on the hillside in cover, pound the Americans with their OBA and then rush in. The Americans set up a defensive line in the town, but kept their AT gun and supporting MG in their trucks so they could run away from the board 9 crossroads on turn 1 and rearguard the town.

The German OBA did its job and covered the German advance, who entered the town and had their MGs involved in the assualts for high table rolls. The Americans recovered their morale rather quickly though, but they were outnumbered. The end result was 3 hexes of town assault trading blows on the 18 column. Nasty stuff, but the Germans got the worst of it, and hit their casualty limit, while the Americans rolled fairly well.

I really felt this scenario was dinged on the score for the burdensome reinforcement rules. The Germans have 2 large groups of reinforcements. One they roll per unit for entry (this is fine, they come in on the east side of 9, and the time limit easily allows the Germans assault force to wait for them to link up), the other enters 3 units per turn... and derps along the southern edge of the board? Why are these included? They cannot move farther north than 4 hexes, meaning that not only do they not get to be involved in the fighting... they cant even SEE the fighting. They just walk through the woods and have to exist the west edge. The Americans get a tank unit, that they roll for... but it might be a German unit for the first few turns, and it must exit the southern board edge after 9 turns. It arrived, took out a German Gren straggler, and then left... Felt like at least the second German reinforcement group should have been cut.. unless im missing something.. .which i probably am.

Anyways, American victory.