Author	Isra3lite (Britain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex (AAR)
Play Date	2026-01-16
Language	English
Scenario	PaLe003

The Brits with decent combined arms strength executed a forked movement to combat action, moving south against German stronghold in the south. The venerable JagdPanzer platoon, was largely avoided in the Northern central kill zone area, due to a road that served no other purpose than to present a parade route for the reasonably mobile Cromwells. Even following an OpPlan that specified the eastern edge thrust moving south the western edge thrust made reasonable progress south behind the bocage and hillside. Both thrusts were stalled each by a single gren platoon and its leader, which provided artillery spotting.

Given this, let's be frank about the severe limitations of the British position and the PG 4th edition game. This is a scenario that, although it marginally favors the Germans who are well supplied with armed SPW250 (incorrect?) which are both highly mobile and transport to supplement a reasonably strong garrision force. The issue comes down to the balance of weak british artillery strength (13 strength batteries are not strong enough to fall on bombardment columns with reasonable odds, compared with German 16 strength batteries, nor will the additions of batteries overcome this wasteful strength value to a maximum of 3 per activation). So that's the broken artillery rules, then is the lack of air and recon support forcing the British to use valuable infantry platoons rated 5-3 (also ill-suited to Direct fire column ratings, which bleed direct fire strength when doubled falls short of 11, while two German grenadiers surpass 11). Then, there are many situations where the already broken opfire rules give the defending Germans an inordinate ability to disrupt the only strength the British have: mobility. So, even with the best OpPlan and careful movement and expolitation of the plateau edges at eastern and western edges of the map, it does not take much to find a trail of disrupted and demoralized units, pinned in the open hexes of the upper terrain. What PG 4th edition seems to do best is reward a demoralized unit with the ability to relocate, while depriving the disrupted unit ANY agency to repair and move on for multiple turns. This scenario just proves how little investment Benninghoff has made to create a fun and expressive game system, preferring to waste effort on chrome than to fix assumptions and overhaul unrealistic rules which prevent player agency and rewarding luck instead.

Perhaps the most flagrant example of this came about turn 3 when a 39 strength artillery strike rolled a pair of sixes on infantry and leader in the open, causing a failed morale check, and no other casualties at maximum 3-battery deployment.

As a result, I cannot recommend this scenario nor this 4th edition game system until Benninghoff invests in an overhaul of these painful game system oversights.