Twelve turns; night-morning scenario. SS combined arms group (a weakened two battalions of GRENs/HMGs and one each of Marder III; StuGIIIG; PzIVH; PzV) against a reinforced British batallion and a half (with an additional RIF company as roll-on Turn 3 reinforcements). The reinforcing elements are five platoons of Churchill VIIs and 3 batteries of 17-lbr AT guns. With the two other 17-lbrs with the regular infantry, this AT muscle is sufficient to keep the SS armor from being too aggressive.

British set-up is highly constrained; but essentially held a line using the hedge-row 1619-1918 and 2017-2318. German set up with an axis (feint) to the NE, but swung to target hexes 1818-1918-1919 area. Unfortunately, the British held their line rather than be lured out to the south for a flanking attack vs. the German west. The battle then turned into a series of adjacent DF softening up attempts by both sides. Early turns were at night and we used Doug's updated 3rd-ed rules on the BN boards (e.g. all "clear" hexes are treated as hills). Thus, until the British armor fired, they were effectively invisible until about turn 0600 (turn 8 of 12).

Given the defensive bonuses of hill terrain (see above); hedges; night fire; dug-in status for the British; and a couple of +2 Morale leaders; the Germans had little luck in making much significant headway. Assaults followed. The SS did make some headway along the main axis of attack (see above) and an end-run group actually reached the trail crossing to the NE of Eterville (hex 2515). The 2nd Glasgow Highlanders arrived in time to block this force. The British for their part launched a counterattack along the main road SW out of Eterville; hexes 2217-2218-2119, but the German armor plugged this (although preventing them from supporting the assaults to the west.

Other notes: the Germans held their four 81mm mortars in Maltot, but given the defensive bonuses noted above, even 32 points of bombardment fire seldom could achieve much unless an X result attained.

End result was a win-win draw by virtue of both sides inflicting sufficient step-losses (well over the 9/10 required by the British/German sides). Likewise, the Germans did have units within two hexes of 2216 (foiling another British victory condition), but the British held 2217 (foiling a VC for the Germans).

Good points: forces were well matched and combined arms; and the battle space layout and terrain was intriguing.

Bad points: I have a difficult time envisioning how the territorial VCs can possibly be attained without a draw by virtue of the step-loss conditions, particularly given the visibility limits of a night/dawn scenario and/or the interpretation of all hexes being "hills" and thereby limiting terrain. That is, this scenario is close-up and severe and, thus, losses are high. Unless die rolling is extremely one sided (something my son appears uncannily adept at) I find it difficult to imagine that the SS can make its territorial gains without suffering more than nine step losses. But ... maybe the next AAR on this scenario will portray a different story?

So, I'd give this a 4 rating for the scenario in itself as a contest; perhaps a 3 for the perspective of drama as our game was effectively (or clearly was going to be) a draw fairly early on. That being said, it was still exciting to play out the attack to see where the final dispositions were to be after turn 12.