Panzer Lehr makes massive use of hidden units. This scenario is a great example why. An overwhelming British force is advancing on Panzer Lehr, 1/2 of which is hidden. This is important as they are outnumbered 3-1. Without being hidden they could be seen, and attacked in detail in the wooded populated area. As it is, with clever hidden forces the Germans can extract a terrible toll before surrendering the territory under question. In the first two turns they had caused 11 step losses on the British and careful use of their StGs resulted in many more losses in assaults and a very cautious advance by the British.

The scenario opened up about turn 6 as the British got beyond the wooded entry to the east of the river and advanced on the bridge leading to the town on the western shore. At the same time a combined infantry and armor force advanced towards the town through the wooded hill on the west of the river. They "found" the last bit of hidden forces (1 ENG, 1 HMG and 2 GREN) in the town. They trashed the force coming from the east with artillery and DF from a StG in the town and the infantry/engineer/HMGs destroyed some Shermans and accompanying infantry completely repelling the attacks. The StGs were able to knock out some more Shermans but the British were able to run the table on the east of the river. Unfortunately for them their earlier losses and the short timeframe added up to a German victory 53-40 in points as the eastern shore of the river and the bridges remained in German hands.

Ultimately, it was the ambushes and the hidden units which made the win possible. Without that the British would have been able to avoid the fire and keep from losses which led to the loss. I rate this one a "3", without the hidden forces it would fall to a 2. If you can't play solo with "hidden" units, it will be hard to get much out of this one.

I'm really starting to get the hang of using the Western Allies armor and AT capabilities. British and American armor is more of an infantry support arm as opposed to the German "superior weapon system" approach. The Allies will lose tanks but their job is to help to keep the nasty German stuff in check and to help out the PBI to take the ground necessary. It helps that the Allies typically have plenty of armor so that the losses can be absorbed.

In this scenario nearly a whole brigade of British are trying to take ground quickly from a battalion of Lehr's finest. Lehr has a couple of StGs and will recive a couple of Panthers. The British counter with a bunch of Shermans and some Firefly support.

Daniel set up defense in depth. As a matter of fact, some of his hidden units didn't appear until nearly at the end of the game. As a result I could use the strength of the British force deliberately and was able to force my way into the first large town relatively straightforwardly.

In the mid-game Daniel had to roll four times before his Panthers arrived. I was able to station some Shermans on a wooded hill nearby their entry area. Right after they arrived I received a couple of initiative activations and rather than use them to get the Shermans out of sight I ran off a couple of assaults on town hexes that were teetering. Momentarily blinded by the success of those assaults I forgot that my Sherman crews were apparently taking tea. While they brewed up the Panthers made sure that the Shermans were similarly brewed up.

The loss of these two Sherman platoons was the primary reason that this one ended up as a minor rather than a major British victory (I missed the major victory by one victory point and the Shermans represented 8 VPs).

This one really needs to be played face to face. With such a large troop advantage the Germans need to edge of the hidden units to make a fight of it, even given the short timeframe (14 turns). Having said that, it is a very good and challenging fight for both sides. The British can, and will, take ground away from Lehr but the timeframe forces the British to be exposed to the strong German units which can extract a significant toll. I give it a "4".

Played face-to-face against Matt W in one 3.5 hour session.

You can see pictures of the setup in post #7 of this thread.

I felt that our last battle, scenario #6 of Panzer Lehr, that I had set up my hidden too far forward. Almost all were revealed in the first few activations and it allowed the British commander to press the attack quickly and force my troops in secondary defensive positions too early.

So I decided to set several hidden units farther back this time, too many in my opinion. The British commander advanced a few scouts forward and quickly overran my forward positions in no time. Five or six turns into the game and the British were already contesting the town located in the middle of the board.

The Germans did well defending the town but time was on the British side and it was inevitable the town would fall. While fighting for that town, the British send detachments to capture the bridges and to pin down the Germans defending the other town.

The British were already in major victory territory when the Panthers showed up. The British commander made a mistake and failed to put his Shermans out of harm’s way and the Panthers blew them up. I now had a chance at a minor defeat if I captured back the two bridges (they were defended by one INF unit each) and the British failed to contest an hex of the last town. The Panthers were able to take back the bridges with help from the artillery; the British advanced a few units but they were all disrupted just before the town.. The British had one last shot at a major victory but rolled very badly on their bombardment rolls.

British minor victory!

I rated this one a “4” because there was lots of tension trying to get out of a major defeat. I was also impressed how Matt isolated my troops, not allowing me to shift troops between the towns.

If you play this one as the Germans, do take a look at the pictures I posted and set up your troops differently; you will need to slow down the British attack if you want to have a chance at a win.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Britain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Britain
Participants	Isra3lite (AAR)
Play Date	2025-08-26
Language	English
Scenario	PaLe007

This was another fun-filled, but slightly gamey, 3-session play through with tenacious & careful Israe3lite leading defending elements of the German Panzer Lehr Division, in a 14-turn battle. I led attacking elements from the British 50th Infantry Division (6th and 9th Durham Light Infantry & the 4th and 7th Dragoon Guards) in this 1-map fight. Both sides drew middling leaders.

We used the FOW, consolidation, excess initiative, smoke/illum, hidden units (Germans only) strategic movement and extended assault optional rules. We also used these FIVE house rules: 1) Standardized Movement for Mechanized Units — All mechanized units may move through clear hexes at a movement cost of only 1 movement point (MP) per hex, instead of 1 1/2. Add one to this cost if moving up, across, or down slopes hexes, 2) German Assault Gun Activation —German Army, turretless STGs and Jagdpanzer units were typically crewed by artillerymen. Like halftracks, these units may be activated by ALL leaders, as well as Tank Leaders, unless prohibited by scenario rules, 3) Towed Anti-Tank (AT) Hidden Emplacement — Unless prohibited by special scenario rules, ALL dug-in, entrenched, or town- occupying, towed AT gun units always begin scenarios in HIDDEN mode if allowed to dig-in per scenario special rules (please see Optional Rules for Hidden Units; Plotting Position; Revealing; and No Hidden Units Specified on Page 37). For example: dug-in, PaK 38 (50mm); Soviet 45mm, or British 2-pdr and/or 6-pdr towed AT gun platoons would all qualify under this house rule, 4) Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) Consolidation — Unless prohibited by special scenario rules, reduced 2-step units like tanks, and other AFV units of the same type, nationality, and morale condition may be combined to form a single, full-strength unit. Both reduced units must start their activation in the same hex and be activated by an adjacent – or same-hex – good order, Tank Leader. This action costs both units all their movement points. Remove one of the units, flip the other to its full-strength side and mark it activated, and 5) Voluntary Unit Reduction Rule — Unless prohibited by special scenario rules, players may voluntarily reduce 2-step personnel units to 1-step (halved) if they have at least one leader of Major or higher rank among their side’s assigned force. To do so, the unit to be halved must begin the player’s activation phase in the same hex or in an adjacent hex to the unit to be reduced. The full-strength unit to be halved must be in good order and this action costs all the reduced unit’s movement points. Remove the full-strength unit, and replace it with 2 reduced strength units, mark both as activated.

This rule set provided improved playability, tactical flexibility & simplicity during our play-through.

Our busy, first session (game turn 1-2) consisted of a well-executed British movement to contact on the left flank (northeast corner) of the battle map. This approach took advantage of the wooded hills in this quadrant and facilitated the bulk of the Tommies entering the map unseen. Brave English officers exposed themselves repeatedly to enemy opfire, while probing the Wehrmacht positions on both flanks. Accurate German OBA eliminated a British officer, and ambushing opfire inflicted the first step loss on an overeager RIF platoon on the outskirts of the 1-hex village at Hex 29-0412. The Brits continued probing forward south, and a small column broke off to create a weakside flank movement in the direction of another single-hex village at 29-0912. The victory point tally was now: 34 for the steadfast German defenders, and 0 for the scrambling Tommies.

The exciting second session (game turns 3-4) featured the Tommies drawing into decisive range on the large hill mass and surrounded the second village at Hex 29-0912. In both cases the British initial close assaults failed, and the Wehrmacht forces executed a swift tactical withdrawal to the southern margins of the large hill mass. Opportunistic British armor moving on the right flank, probed forward and began liberating town hexes in the rear of the still-substantial German force. Step losses this session included 5 steps of Tommies and one of their scouting leaders, while the Third Reich lost only a single step of AT guns, a prime mover and a leader. Consequently, the British initiative level fell one level. The victory point totals were now 23, for the defending Germans, and 13 for the surging British side.

Our stimulating third session (game turn 5) featured more circumscribed movement as the contending sides closed with each other and step losses mounted for the German defenders who were now trapped in the valley of La Guillette. The Brits were able to eliminate both STG-III platoons with volleys of AT shots by their tanks. There were three active close assaults in play as the game was called by the German commander when we both realized that there was no longer the possibility of an Axis wins. Final victory points were now 21, for the defending Germans, and 23 for the victorious British side.

There were only 2 FOW-shortened turns of the 5 played, in this truncated play-through.

This was a gamey, unbalanced, but fun-to-play scenario that barely merits a rating of 4, in shared play with a tenacious, yet flexible opponent. The more experienced player should lead the – much harder to play – German side. Nevertheless, I recommend this one for SHARED play only.

The setup for this scenario heavily favors the Brits. They heavily outnumber the Germans and have to cause step losses and control cities to get the victory points. The only question comes down to whether the Germans can damage the Brits and hold enough city hexes to win. The biggest advantage the Germans have is that they're hidden.

This advantage ceases to exist when playing solo. The Brits can never walk into a trap, and hence have little to fear when moving forward. The only problem the Brits had in this episode was to keep the formations together as they attacked. That said, the Germans were very spirited in their defense and getting them out of their holes was difficult.

I rated this a 3 because if the defense the Germans exhibited was coupled with surprise attacks from hidden units, the cohesion the Brits enjoyed would likely disappear. Jumble the British column and gaining victory conditions would improve dramatically.

Author	Isra3lite (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Britain
Participants	treadasaurusrex (AAR)
Play Date	2025-08-26
Language	English
Scenario	PaLe007

Played as the beleaguered Germans, who for some odd reason were given only two armored StugIII units but three mortars and only a handful of grenadier units. The OpPlan written accounted for a screening force defending the town on hill in the North with two companies of Grens and supporting units in the towns to the south and west. The opplan missions were defined as follows:

(British) Blue mission is to occupy towns and eliminate combat units, with priority on the AFVs (see diagram below).

(German) Red mission is to defend the towns and slow and prevent advance of the blue units, eliminating any armored units in particular the 4 Shermans, Firefly, and 2 Bren carriers.

The initial plan (see diagram below) for turns 5-7 is to screen units attempting to occupy the northern woods, hills and two towns, then retreat leaving a small holding force behind to set up a counterattack as Blue units breakthrough, keeping mobile moving south is key to being able to hold the two large towns to the south, rather than holding the positions north of the center. With only 14 turns, delaying action of 5-7 turns would prevent Blue progress from achieving its goals.

Red priorities are the following:

1. Maintain the majority of high ground (20 and 40-meter hill mass) locations around the town centered on 0612. If possible, dig in any units not involved in combat during the initial early turns before turn 3.
2. Create one, or more dug-in, mutually-supporting, defensive positions on the east-west hill within the forest west of the town.
3. Prevent enemy units occupying even any E-W road hex at the end of turn seven.
4. Establish firm contact & overwatch protection with the two armored units, on or around, game turns 9-10. Make use of as many feints and probing actions as possible throughout the multi-turn operation to draw enemy attention away from the two southern central towns.
5. Inflict as many step losses as possible on the enemy force

The first and second priorities enacted were successful, but timing and the limitations of digging in towns and forests prevented sufficient defensive terrain to hold back the nearly sixteen infantry platoons and 17 leaders who never once halted their assault. Most surprising was the overwhelming two Blue platoon assault hexes tying up one of my two companies while the rest of the units flowed around them to the far west and south. My defense was heavily augmented by some very good off map artillery rolls, and not due to the anemic firepower of the two batteries. The OBA really only slowed the advance while the prodigious number of leaders kept a steady pace of rallies. The third priority was impossible as the scenario allows the Blue player to deploy across the E-W road on turn 1, preventing any attempts to block. With the overwhelming number of fronts to defend, there were only 3-4 turns that the German armor had superiority on the battlefield before the Brits could send two Shermans to the southernmost town. The last priority was somewhat successful with several well planned kill zones available for the Germans to prosecute. Unfortunately, mediocre “combat 7s” prevented any consistent ability to reduce the overwhelming numbers of infantry. Losses on the German side mounted quickly once secondary defensive positions were penetrated from the North and Eastern edge. This scenario only rewards occupation of the towns, which could be achieved in the first 4-5 turns. Without versatile spotting and recon, the German player cannot see most of the map due to the terrain and the small numbers of available Lehr leaders means that a holding and using mobile defense, means that whatever artillery is available will get overwhelmed in assaults, preventing artillery strikes.

IMHO, this scenario is a waste of time for the German player without significant reworking of the setup and OOB to allow a better defensive advantage and encourage a mobile defense. For example, the E-W road at the northern edge provides SO much advantage while the roads on the southern half are non-contiguous and winding. This scenario would significantly benefit from a revised PG Edition making the spotting and assault hex rules less gamey.