Author	goosebrown
Method	Solo
Victor	United States
Play Date	2022-09-30
Language	English
Scenario	IN44006

The Germans have an embarrassingly small force here although they have an 88 which somewhat makes up for it all. The commander, a brilliant tactician, realized that his honor hung on holding St. Pierre du Mont more than anything else. In the difficult bocage, the Americans would have to get close to assault the town even though they had light artillery and on demand airstrikes.

The grenadiers set up in the town holding the eastern most hex with two grenadier platoons and the 88 hidden among the houses and walled gardens against the light wood on the other side of the hedgerow. To support them was a platoon to the south guarding the road. On the north side of town, the Flak battery set up hidden and the remaining infantry and the mortar platoon set up dug in just north of the edge of St. Pierre du Mont.

While the commander would like to have added troops to the flank, there just were not any to place so the defence of St. Pierre du Mont would be in the town itself.

The Americans believed that they could take the town for the major portions of the victory conditions then worrying about exiting forces once the town was under control.

The units from the 29th division aligned along the road leading to town intending to move avoiding the bocage for a quick advance to combat. The Americans sent one platoon of M4s and an infantry company to wend through the bocage on the American left flank to take the crossroads to the south of St. Pierre.

With the M4s moving to the head of the column, the Marylanders proceeded along the road unmolested. As the column moved forward, one platoon of tanks turned left into the bocage with a company of infantry to enter the eastern hex of the town with support from the flanking company on the left flank.

At the same time all hell broke loose on the Americans and the M4s hit the edge of St. Pierre du Mont and right into the hidden 88 lodged in a lovely walled garden on the outskirts of town. At the same moment the German grenadiers on their far left pinned the Americans on the road at a mere 200 yards.

The Shermans were well suited to some things, but not head on confrontations with well trained Luftwaffe gunners with stacks of ammunition and a good initiative roll. The first Shermans arrived from the woods at the end of their turn and stopped adjacent to the gun position in preparation to assault the infantry company in the town. The second platoon of M4s crashed out of the bocage onto the road to the south of the town and moved to assault the same hex from a different direction.

The Luftwaffe gunners kept their cool and used their first shots to dispatch the entire platoon coming out of the woods in the last action segment of the turn. The next turn, cool as cucumbers, they rolled an initiative roll giving them one action segment before the American's could respond. They turned their guns on the Americans as the Americans took aim at them and in the split second afforded them the Luftwaffe gunners fired efficiently into the Shermans at point blank range peeling them open like sardine cans, secondary explosions and smoke effectively masking the entire German right.

With the Americans engaged to the east of the town in the woods and to the north, but with two platoons of armor burning on the edge of the city, the Americans, engaged in the north, left their assault, enduring exiting fire from the disorganized American infantry there and then moved off to the north to meet the road to exit 10 steps off the board where the road led North.

Overall fun. I had to think about where to place the 88 and of course playing solo I could have avoided it, but I think the placement was spot on to hold the town. The only reason it survived though was because of an initiative roll that allowed the Germans to fight two platoons of M4s in consecutive action segments across two turns. The Germans, at a deficit of one initiative point, really rolled right.

Now my regular esteemed opponent does not favor the efficiency rules for ATGs but we use them from time to time. I did in this game and I think that also turned the tide.

The Americans had lots of air power, but that didn't have that much effect on the outcome with two AA guns in play, they just never got the rolls they needed to zap the units in the town.

Enjoyable game but so few Germans that they can't do much but form a concentration and hold it. No forces to guard flanks or to create a defense in depth.