Let's face it. If the title of the scenario is "Dismal Failure" you have to wonder why you would play it. It is a fair question, and yet...

The situation is this. Two battalions of a VG division are attacking a heavily entrenched, well led American force. The Germans start with a wealth of artillery which rapidly dwindles while the American artillery is preregistered around their entrechments (+1 column shift and no friendly fire possibilities, even in the entrenchments). The goal of the Germans is to breach the entrenchments and take the town beyond.

If you are gaming for the "fun" of it you would never take the Germans. The victory is completely out of their reach. On the other hand, if you want to outdo history, this one is for you. Historically the Germans couldn't even take 1 entrenched position and fell back with terrible losses.

In my play the Americans set up in two entrenched lines. The first line was held by a platoon of riflemen each and the second line had HMG support in each. The large town to the rear contained a company of riflemen and their mortar support.

The Germans sent one battalion at the northern end of the first line, which buckled after an hour. The second battalion with engineer support and the better leaders went after the middle of the line which took two hours to fall.

The northern German group which was still vaguely cohesive moved to invest the second line and then infiltrate the town. The center group was, as noted above tied down and unable to support the northern group leading to a slaughter both in the town and around the entrenchments. By the time the central force had eliminated the front line of entrenchments there was no real cohesive northern force remaining.

While a failure as an assault the results were much better than the historical and somewhat gratifying from a force management perspective. The key to the assault was to run as many troops as possible into an adjacency so that something would be left over to assault with after the op fire and artillery hit.

All in all a nice small scenario with a simple goal and LOTS of casualties. While the assault is futile the play is not. Earning it a "3" for the "and yet" nature of the play.