the Americans were set up on the high ground south of the main road with two entrenchments. On the southern side of the main road I placed a leader and two HMG, and one hex south of that another entrenched grouping ( 2 plt and a leader) to give support and to cut off a southern movement of German troops. Both US groups were on the 40m height. I placed one platoon on the main road at the 20m height line (dug in) aon a INF plt and the AT gun just behhind that below the 20m ridge line. I placed a PLT and Ldr in the area of the north east 40m hill top to act as a delaying distraction.

The German plan was to run the majority straight down the main road and to run a south west supporting attack. The American delaying units failed early. The units in the 40m heights on the SW side of the map were made of sterner stuff and caused lots of damage. Both hexes were attacked with overwhelming German forces on two occasions and were repulsed with step losses and DM results. One two occasions German ARTY caused more damage to them than the Americans. On the other hand the Germans destroyed the Americans on the roads and cleared the route. At the end of the game the Germans had the road victory conditions, casualities ratio in their favor and the high ground VP for a decisive victory. The Germans had better leaders, better initiative rolls, a few fortunate rolls on combat and morale checks for them and not so much the Americans.

Points to consider:

American HMG in entrenchments are a real buzzsaw. German units need to close early and in mass if they are going to win. They must push on early and accept unit losses. Leader losses will stop the attack.