A small battlegroup of SS backed up by a single platoon of Panthers waits a combined arms assault from an American task force. The Ami's have 6 platoons of Shermans, nearly a battalion of infantry, and a fairly sizable amount of artillery. What could go wrong here? Well, for starters, the terrain isn't very user friendly, at least for the Americans. Their attack is funneled right at the town located directly over the only really useful bridge on the map. The Germans sit tight in the town, with their AT support on the south side of the river.

The Americans divided their tanks into two groups, looking for the crossfire bonus. Two platoons would be coming around the east hedgerow and four more coming from the west side. The infantry, supported by HMG's and an Engineer platoon would come south, straight at the town. The idea was for the tanks to surround the town and the Panther platoon within. After disposing of the big cats, the remaining Sherms would provide support for the assault on the town itself. The followup was to see the Ami's cross the bridge and exit the map to the south.

However, Untersharführer Barkmann had other ideas. More importantly, he had the means at hand to carry them out. His Panthers slipped into the hedgerow north of the town. At the next opportunity, his tanks pulverised the two easternmost Shermans. At the same time, one of the AT guns took out another platoon of M4's from the westernmost group. A covering force of two platoons of Grenadiers from the western bridge moved adjacent to two other M4 platoons, giving them the choice of death by Panther or Close Combat. Faced with that choice the Shermans moved, and the Panthers knocked out another platoon in the process.

After that, it was pretty much a done deal. Within an hour, the remaining M4's were shredded and the advancing groundpounders found that the Grenadiers knew very well how to shoot. Moreover, the promised air support failed to achieve even a single hit! When I finally called the game, the Americans had lost a third of their troops balanced against the German loss of half a platoon. Untersharführer Barkmann's fancy shooting had wrecked the American plan before it could be put into action.