I found this to be a neat scenario, although my gut feeling is that it's going to be a draw much of the time. A large force of Volksgrenadiers supported by some AT guns and some decent OBA is trying to sweep away an American recon screen and take St. Vith. However, the Americans have help in the form of an Engineer Battalion coming...at some point. The Germans need to clear the Americans off the western board for a minor victory and additionally take the towns on the east-west road for a higher level of victory. For the Americans to win, they must inflict at least 12 steps on the Germans and hold the town or a hex on the east-west road, or put 15 steps on the Germans, hold the town road AND hold a hex of the north-south road on the western board for a major victory.

I set up a blocking force of Americans on the western board and a few units to hold the town, hoping that the reinforcements would come sooner rather than later. The Germans advanced with a pinning force in the center, and strong flanking forces north and south. The Americans held as long as they could in the center, however they were in great danger of being encircled and had to fall back after a couple of hours. Thankfully for them, the reinforcements showed up relatively early. Masses of Volksgrenadiers pushed through the light woods and a small detachment went to try to secure the town before the reinforcements arrived. However, the engineers arrived first, and put an end to that dream, although the US lost some light tanks before that happened. The Germans fell back to regroup, and put together some strong fire groups, and got their AT guns into a position where the light US armor had to try to escape to a town and not be seen. One platoon made it, the other did not.

Despite a number of turns of HMG, mortar and OBA fire, the Germans weren't able to do much damage to the US troops dug in around the town and in the town itself. And the Germans only had 2x16 OBA, while the US had 2x18 and 1x24. My general course was a 42 shot and an 18 shot against Germans who weren't dug in and weren't in defensive terrain. Between the OBA and some decent 3 hex range shots by the INF and ENG (the US had no heavy weapons) the Germans and their 7/6 morale were having a hard time putting together a cohesive attack. The battlefield was littered with demoralized and disrupted German troops.

Eventually the Germans forced the US to give up most of their positions outside of town, as some of the units in town started to get demoralized and flee. The Germans again tried a small attack on the town and paid the price for it. On turn 21, the Germans called it a day and pulled back towards the western board to go for the draw and to prevent the remaining American light tanks from doing an end run to the road and grabbing a cheap victory. This almost didn't happen when I combined all 3 increments of US OBA against the AT guns and rolled boxcars, taking out both 75mm guns. However, with a wall of Germans between them and the road in a position to assault, the Americans decided discretion was the better part of valor.

This was a pretty tense scenario. If the engineers arrive a turn or 2 later, the Germans might have been able to get a foothold in one of the towns and who knows what happens then. If the Germans had been better at making morale checks (tough with 7/6 morale) they might have been able to get a more powerful attack on the town. If the US just concedes the western map, they would have saved some casualties. Getting a minor victory for either side is fairly easy, and is what happened here, resulting in a draw. Getting a major victory is probably slightly easier for the Americans, especially if they can sneak light tanks through (if I play this again I would split the German AT guns north and south for better infiltration coverage) or if the Germans attack carelessly. I think this one would be very good opposed, with lots of choices for both sides.