The Nisei have the task of clearing a road that leads to a significant town and then rooting a German force out of the town. The Germans have a force about a third less than the attacking Nisei but will receive small SS reinforcements during the scenario. The terrain is hilly with ample cover but the final assault will be close quarters and uphill. Adding to the fun is that the weather is very foggy and visibiity from turn to turn is low and variable.

The Germans decide to put a delaying force in the woods to slow and disrupt the Nisei advance. I have used this approach many times and lived to regret it but in this case I felt that the reinforcements would make up any losses I incurred (although at a lower morale and firepower) and enable me to hold the town.

The Nisei advanced along the road and quickly came into contact with the German outpost.

Then the wheels came off for the Americans.

It took nearly two hours (8 turns of a 20 turn scenario) to dispatch this small force, during which time the Americans took significant casualties. This was repeated at a second outpost to the northwest of the town as the Nisei attempted to shake off the delay and maneuver around the town to gain an advantage. The SS units had arrived in plenty of time to enter the town and bolster the defense. They stacked with normal Heer units so as to maintain the morale of the stack. Interestingly, although they frequently required morale checks they never failed them, despite the lower (7/6) morale.

Finally around the 14th turn of the scenario, the Americans were able to enter the town and begin assaulting. At this point, any semblence of the dice being "impartial" was removed. The American HMGs which were critical to the assault as most of the infantry had been reduced by now, all failed their morale checks and demoralized on the same turn.

Of the nine hex town, the Americans were only able to control one hex and contest two and experienced four more step losses than the Germans (12-8). The final score was 24-10 and very reflective of the historical result. The Germans just could not be moved even with column advantages on the assault table. There was a good deal of tension in the play since it seemed as though the American luck would change at any moment. It just never did.

This is a very balanced scenario. As I mention, the dice were quite unkind to the Nisei in this one leading to the final result but the play was even and the race between the attackers and the reinforcing SS is very interesting. I give it a "4".