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".

The Germans have too few units to try to cover both boards, so they set up on the eastern board, dug-in in the light woods in front of the town, despite the possibility of points for delaying the Nisei on the western board.

Since this was played solo, I decided to move the U.S. troops along the road until they made contact. Unfortunately for them, the variable visibility was one hex on the turn they ran into the Germans and they took heavy losses due to close-range Opportunity Fire.

The Americans managed to get a few platoons into assaults to tie up the Germans, while trying to bring up reinforcements. The Germans managed to completely clear one assault hex, causing more casualties to the Nisei.

Less than two hours in, the Americans have lost five steps without inflicting any casualties on the Germans. After that, however, it was all downhill for the Wehrmacht. Once the Nisei got organized they used their superior numbers and morale to methodically work their way through the defenders. The Americans took some more losses, but the casualty count was very lopsided from that point on.

At the end, the Germans still disputed one town hex only due to very poor assault rolls by the Americans on the last three turns. Casualties were 12 steps for the Americans and 17 for the Germans. The Americans had a 25 point edge in victory points, with only six required for a Major Victory.

This is a quick, interesting infantry scenario. I gave it a 2 because, despite the initial handicap I gave the Nisei, they easily achieved a lopsided victory.