A US infantry battalion reinforced by a company each of M4's and M5's along with a heavy hitting M4/105 and an M10 attack across initially open ground towards a village on a hilltop held by elements of the Das Reich panzer division. I played this one solo.

{{disclaimer}} I completely failed to notice the PzIVH in the Das Reich OOB! So I played this without that unit -- amazing.

In any case, the Waffen SS commander set his 75mm AT guns along with a leader and Gren platoon each in limiting terrain (dug-in in a field to the east) and in a woods to the west. These units were well up front of the remainder of the force bunched up in the village on the northern ridge. I used a +1 combat bonus leader to combine the 120mm and 2x81mm mortars who were placed in a 40m woods allowing self-spotting bonus (spotting from 60-m effectively) for any non-LT hex on the board.

The US commander (who I tried to play as not knowing what exactly lay in those woods/fields), has no transport. So I sent one company along the east side of the board towards the fields, led by an M5 (its role after all) supported by an M4; ditto on the west side approaching those ominous woods (but couldn't spot the wood hex that the 75/41 was in). Then the middle company and other elements moved up the road in the center. When the leading M5 suddenly realized that a 75/41 gun was within 600-m it came to a halt and retreated back; the rest of the central force armor was committed to coming on board. So the armor supporting the E & W groups were within 4 or 5 hexes of the two 75's, having already moved, but now the US force knew of at least one units location.

The SS rolled well, killing two steps of M5's and one of an M4; the US commander, suddenly seeing his scouting tanks turned into scrap metal, orders a rapid advance - long distance shooting would not avail. By the end of turn four, the US had eliminated the woods group (ldr; gren; gun), and begun an assault against the dug-in regular 75/gren/leader group, but at the total cost of four M4 and three M5 steps (SS AT rolls were 9's, 10's, 11's the latter of which were full kills). Had the PzIVH been in play with armor efficiency, this might have been total carnage.

Play was almost anti-climatic after this: the assault vs. field hex mentioned above essentially just tied up both sides with disrupt/demoral (three US INF platoons and Ldr vs. dug-in ldr+ Gren+75mm gun). Rolling here was a bit soft (1's and 2's) and the SS ldr was a 10-0-1 and thus was a difficult task (particularly as first-fire for dug-in generally reduced the US strike power in its assault turn).

The German artillery wrecked havoc with US infantry trying to advance up the road to the town; the short scenario duration and lack of transport prevented the US from trying to use the cover afforded by the fields to the east of the board. With 16+8+8 = 32 + self-spot meant 42 col attacks at worst (or 55 vs. the US mortars or vs. a US hex loaded with three units).

The US combined up it remaining armor (now mostly immune) adjacent to the first down hex and DF'd the SS units there for a few turns trying to wear them down (difficult given the strong leaders). The SS rolled a '12' on a adjacent DF attack when the US attempted to move an INF unit and leader into a hex with armor preparatory for an assault; not only did this kill the INF unit entire (a 22 col attack), but then obtained a DEM on the accompanying armor.

At this point, the best the US could do was to hold the road to prevent a German major victory; a German minor victory condition had been assured from turn 2! The US needed to hold more town hexes than the German to attain its own minor victory and by turn 10 this was clearly not going to happen; the US went over to the defensive. AT fire killed off far too much armor support as it entered the board and the mortar fire (and some DF) simply worn down or eliminated the infantry support.

Net result: German minor victory. A German major victory might have been possible with a last minute counter attack from the town to get a unit onto the road to satisfy that VC; against a live opponent I might have tried it, but then that opens the possibility of the US swinging an armored unit around and driving through emptied town hexes (seemed too much of a meta-game situation).

What might have been different:

1. Poor SS AT rolling in those early turns. This would have been huge.
2. Actually having the PzIVH in the OOB ... of course, this would have been a target for US AT fire rather than the tanks having to use their DF values against a gun in a woods (net -1 col shift).
3. Had I played it such that not all US units had to enter the board on turn 1. The US might have just waited a few turns to get its infantry up to the LT to smoke out any AT trap then bring on the armor. This topic was a consimworld debate a few months ago.

A battalion of US infantry supported by a company of Shermans and a company of Stuarts and some tank destroyers and assault guns must try to take a road and a town from a battalion of Germans with ample AT gun support and a platoon of PzIVs. Unfortunately for the Americans they have to travel across some very open ground to accomplish this and avoid losses in doing so.

I tried to put myself in the mindset of a typical American commander. I would use firepower to overwhelm the SS defenses and then assault the demoralized remnants at my leisure. Unfortunately good defensive positions in the town combined with excellent leadership (most leaders had morale modifiers) led to the defenders being able to survive without excessive disruptions. Still I stood off and blasted away and slowly the front edge of the German defense came loose. (I should mention that the Stuarts and M10s had moved to the rear of the town and pinned the forces there to prohibit a quick loss of town hexes through a coup de main).

I rushed my troops forward and through use of the assault gun (M4/105) and good infantry support was able to, over the course of a couple turns, take my first town hex. Unfortunately the 75/41 AT gun had a clear shot at the hex durign the assault process and put a hole in some M4s. Actually a lot of holes. I figured that with an effective armor of 4 in the town I would be able to survive with at most a one step loss on the Shermans. That figuring did not include the AT gun roll of "12" which destroyed the entire platoon and caused the American losses to exceed the level for the German minor victory.

Despair and gloom encompassed the American command for a short period. A quick perusal of the victory conditions indicated that control of the road, which was guaranteed to the American in this situation was only important for a major victory. Control of more town hexes than the Germans was what was required for even a minor victory. With seven town hexes and the control count on turn ten totalling 6 German to 1 American and only 4 turns to go, this one seemed to be ready to finish with a German victory.

Rather than give up however, the Americans went berserk. They quickly closed on the town with their infantry force and assaulted several hexes causing the Germans to commit their PzIVs in an assault (causing significant losses to the Americans). A final stab by the Stuarts against the German 20mm installation came off beautifully and a final count was Americns holding 3 town hexes, Germans 1 and 3 contested. A major victory tempered by the losses into a minor victory for the Americans.

The rating of "4" comes from pulling a victory out of what seemed to be a hopeless situation for the Americans. Certainly the Germans would have caused a number of additional losses until the tank destroyers were able to reduce the PzIVs but a fun one to play in any event.