US units of 7 Stuarts, 4 Lees, 2 M-3/75s, a T-30, an M-3/81 and an M6 attempt to take 3 hills and eliminate 5 points of Germans. Germans defend with 3 infantry, a 75mm AT with truck to tow, a Pz IIIH, a Pz IVF2 and a Pz IVH with 3 leaders for the German infantry. I deployed the German infantry on the southwestern hill, dug in with 2 units toward the center of the hill preventing them from being targetted from a lower elevation, and the last with the 75mm AT and truck in the southeastern hex where the AT gun could come into action fairly early but be supported by a German leader. I placed the Mk-IIIH on the eastern interior hex (0303) and the Mk IVH on the western hex (0503) of the southeastern hill, and placed the Mk IVF2 on the ridge north of the road at 0412 where it could block anything coming in that direction pretty well. The US comes in from the East, except for the Lees that come from the south. I attacked directly the southeast hill with 4 Stuarts while moving the Lees into a blocking position to the southwest of the hill. The rest of the Stuarts went straight for the ridge line, supported by the T-30, while the 2 M-3/75s supported the Stuarts on the southeastern hill and the M-3/81 found a good place to fire from in the rocky ground just south of the road at 0208. The initial rush on the southern hill caused the German armor to pull back to the northwest to avoid being surrounded, which gave the Americans a false sense of superiority. Right away, the 75mm AT got a good shot off and took a step of Lees. Lees, Stuarts and M-3/75 tank destroyers took a turn to shoot at the withdrawing panzers to no effect but felt good in having taken the one hill. To the north, the Panzer traded ground for time, falling back to the west, while the Stuarts and tank destroyers moved west and tried to get a crossfire. The US troops managed a crossfire and took one step of Pz IIIs just in time to see the Pz IVF2 join the fray, and quickly lost a step from 2 of the 3 tank units. Trading fire, they managed to get a step from the Mk IVF2 and kill the Mk III but lost 2 more steps and the last element flee off the east side of the board. It's tough on fleeing units when there are no woods or towns. The Germans in the north traded shots with the remaining tank destroyers, eliminating the M-6 by turn 10. Meanwhile in the southwestern hill, the mortar fire and fire from an M-3/75 killed the 75mm gun and truck but failed to cause any damage to the dug in infantry. The other German Mk IV had moved to hex 0906 to support the infantry just in time as Stuarts and an M-3/75 moved to assault the 0905 hex. The dug in troops took a few turns to die, but die they did, while the Stuarts were worn down and replaced by Lees. The German armor and infantry from the 1005 hex joined in and two steps of Lees died quickly to the step loss for the Mk-IVs. Fleeing tanks lost another step but made it off the south side of the board and the remaining M3 tank destroyer was killed in the last round of assault combat, leaving the M-3/81 to make a hasty retreat off the east edge, the sole undemoralized survivor. German minor as the US succeeded in the one goal of 5 or more steps of Germans eliminated. Good game.

An Army At Dawn, scenario #7: Not Ready for Prime Time

The Americans have three victory objectives and must achieve at least two to have a minor, with 12 turns and against some dug-in German armor and other assorted units. The American also come on the map in two groups, and the Germans happened to setup on one southern hill and one north hill to try and block the Americans from achieving any type of victory.

The Americans made the critical mistake of trying to go for both enemy held hills instead of grouping their forces together. They got pretty well slaughtered and only managed to kill four German steps and take neither the southern or northern hills. The Germans will a major victory in this one.

Next time, I’ll regroup both American forces and attack one German held hill and probably take out more than four enemy steps and might have a better chance to get two objects or a minor victory.

At 1130 on December 2nd, 1942 the 10th Panzer Division engaged units from Combat Command B of the USA 1st Armored Division west of Tebourba. The Germans were dug in on hills both north (Pz.IIIH and Pz.IVH) and south ( 75mm and Pz.IVF2) of the road with the USA forces approaching from both the east and south. The American armored forces did a feint on the north hill while concentrating on attacking the German units on the south hill. However, the German firepower was too powerful and concentrated; by 1245, the American forces were down to 3 Lee, 1 Stuart, 1 M6 and 1 M3/75 platoons. These latter units retreated to attempt to rally for a final attempt to break the German defenses. Only a single Lee platoon rallied to sufficient strength to displace the Germans, but it was eliminated at 1415 hours. The remaining American units were still compromised and left the battle.

The German placement, dug in on the hills, was as follows: Pz.IIIH (hex 0614), Pz.IVH (0811), Pz.IVF2 (1006), 75mm (0906). Based on the range, location and firepower advantage of the Germans, it was extremely difficult for the Americans to either eliminate 5 German steps or gain hill control on either side of the road. By the time an American unit can get a German one in range, the German receives a negative 1-2 column shift based on the dug-in status and hill advantage. This substantially reduces any chance for a hit by the weak firing strength of the US units, who are under fire all the way as they close. Similarly, it is difficult to get in position for a crossfire before the Germans can destroy the American unit(s). In this case, the USA lost 39 steps, and the Germans were untouched. The only real use for this scenario, other than to experience the historical frustration of the Americans going up against a superior German force in the actual skirmish, would be to balance an experienced American player competing against a novice, who would have some fun lighting up the former player’s tanks.

Author	goosebrown (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex (AAR)
Play Date	2022-05-14
Language	English
Scenario	AAAD007

As German commander faced with a wily and expert armor commander, I took quite some time setting up. The board is small on this scenario and the germans can begin dug in anywhere over three hexes from the Western and Southern edges. My force contained a couple PzKw IVs, a PzKw IIIj special with the long 50mm gun. I also had one PAK 40 and two platoons of infantry to be the wood ticks dug into the hills that the Americans needed to pry out.

The American's victory conditions are to take all the hill hexes north and south of the transaxial road across the board. Also to preserve as much force as they can during this attack.

In reality the attack was launched on the prepared German positions before General Robinette arrived on the scene so this was, as my opponent noted, much like the charge at Balaclava a century before but with much more flamable mounts in the M3 Stuarts of Blade Force than the horses of the Hussars and Lancers of the earlier age.

It was a disaster as American wrecks littered the valley before the German positions and after losing too many lives, the American's withdrew.

I set up on the hill with the PzKw IVs on my right covering the south and east edges of the board. The PAK 40 covered the center of the field, able to respond to advances on either the center or the right. The PzKw IIIj covered my left flank in case of a rush by the batallion level force of the Blade Force with the Stuarts and various tracks mounting a dizzyiing variety of random guns and mortars.

The Americans entered the battlefield from south and east with both armor prongs aimed at the southern hill mass as a start. Knowing he was at a dire disadvantage with his M3 Lee and M3 Stuarts, The American player chose to cover the ground as quickly as he could to limit the damage the Germans would be able to inflict.

It turned out not to be fast enough. The Lee's moved to the base of the hill in the first two turns and started to recieve, calm, well aimed fire from the PzKw IVs that started to inflict step losses and more severly in this case moral losses that proved very difficult to come back from.

Along the east, the Stuarts charged across the valley directly toward the southern hill. In turn two and three as the Stuarts set up an overwatch position to force German armor to take cross fire shots on the PzKw IVs, my PAK 40 was able to relocate to a better covering position on the northern hill mass to cover the southern hill's left flank and to pour enfilade fire into the Blade Force's right, their overwatch. At the same time the PzKw IIIj moved from behind the northern hill and attacked the American right and rear inflicting significant damage and step losses to the overwatch position.

By turn 5, the step losses were piling up on the American right and that position was failing. The Americans to keep the pressure up and do something other than provide targets charged to assault the DAK infantry and started a bitter fight on the edge of the southern hill while the German armor poured fire into the Assault and the Lees on the southern flank of the hill.

Having taken a step loss one of the PzKw IV withdrew back to the north but remained on the crest of the hill inviting the Lees to crest the hill to close for an attack at point blank range where the low velocity 75mm might have some chance of penetrating.

At turn 7, the wheels fell off the bus for the Americans as the last of the Stuarts engaged, blew up and the Lees had lost several steps which combined with the ongoing morale problems on his left made the attack clearly futile.

My opponent did everything he could but the fact is that German armor of 1942/3 just outclasses anything the Americans could bring to bear until the Shermans arrived from Morocco.

I gave this game a 2. I liked winning and it was fun to light a bunch of stuff on fire, but really it was not much challange. I think that the oversight in the rules of not giving the Americans any leaders forced them to utilize their mortar track in a dangerous manner, having to get into visible range to fire. I am confident that they would have had a spotter with them in some capacity. I would suggest that players allow a single armor leader for the American non-tank force to allow them to rally and spot for artillery.

Enjoyable overall and demonstrative of the superiority of German armor at this time of the war.

I'm not a big fan of this scenario. The American tanks stand no chance against the German tanks and AT battery. I called the game after turn two when all the Grants were smoking and half the Stuarts were, too.

Author	treadasaurusrex (United States)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	goosebrown (AAR)
Play Date	2022-05-14
Language	English
Scenario	AAAD007

This was a cruel 4-session bashing for US Combat Command B by opposing elements of the German 10th Panzer Division in the wilds of Northern Tunisia. The Germans were ably-led by the resolute goose brown in this -- historically-accurate, hopelessly unbalanced -- simulation. Mercifuly, this sad excuse of a scenario ended by mutual agreement at the end of game turn 8, when the American Commander conceded defeat, after losing 31 steps of mostly armored units, compared with a total Axis loss of only 7 steps.

This scenario could be significantly improved by modifying the victory conditions to require the German side to do more that fire AT shots from dug-in positions. As a conflict simulation, this one clearly mirrored what happened historically, and presents the US player with the opportunity to try and setup AT crossfires over relatively open terrain, with inadequate & ill-suited tanks (Stuarts and Lees). This scenario is far-better suited to solo play.

Reluctantly, I give this one a rating of 2. It would have been a 1, but I enjoyed the shared play with a playful and quick-thinking opponent.