I decided to get back to some PG after a couple of months of by playing a Bulge game on the day it was fought. I picked this one as it is a straightforward attack/defend scenario with low density counters and turns.

The SS set up mostly in the town with two dug-in Grenadier platoons on the high ground just to the west to cover that approach. The ATG was set up in the northwest town hex with a grenadier platoon and a grenadier platoon and HMG on its right flank. The anther was set up in the light woods to the east to set for crossfire when the enemy tanks approached.

The US plan was to send the infantry and light tanks around the west flank and come across that high ground, sweeping the delaying force there and then attack the town. Then the Shermans would race down the road and swarm the town and hope for the best.

Once the Germans detected the light tanks and halftracks coming with the infantry, the Panther raced across the board to get to the high ground to fight the M5s. The US saw this as an opportunity to swarm the panther and get cross fires with the M4/76 and Hellcat. It didn't work. The Germans got the next turn initiative, and the panther took out the M-18s and m4/76s while the ATG reduced one of the M4 platoons. The US infantry attack pushed back one Grenadier platoon but soon came under mortar and MG fire. Calculating the point deficit and seeing that the panther was going to go a have a M5 Stuart feast, the US commander withdrew and conceded defeat.

What is interesting about this one, if the US got the initiative after swarming the panther platoon, the battle might have gone the other way dramatically. Sometimes you have to take the risk and roll the dice.