Looking to get some of the Elsenborn scenarios done, I looked to replay this first scenario again. I had played it a while back but did not write an AAR for it. In this play the Germans get a marginal victory after there leadership rescues the troops on a couple of key turns.

First the Germans were lucky on the leader draw, the Lt. Col. was a 10-1-2 and so was a Lt. with plenty of other leaders with 1's for firepower and morale. This was key as American fire was brutal the first few turns. Americans rolled 2's and 12's on several artillery attacks reducing or demoralizing many of the VG's. But the German leaders recovered the troops and shifted there attack to the wooded 40m hill. American OP was accurate and more units fell back on disruptions and demoralizations. The Germans shifted units to the north as well as bringing the reinforcements across the northern part of the board to try to move down the north-south road. The Americans had to shift troops to cover this advance and successfully held of the German assaults. On several occasions the Germans had a 3-1 advantage and the Americans disrupted or demoralized them before they could attack.

But slowly the Germans began to gain ground and demoralize American units. On one activation a German Captain was able to shift units so that he had a fire lane on the Americans holding the top of the wooded 40m hill. This allowed his 16fp to hit the Americans and demoralize them. Subsequently the Americans fled after failing to recover. German GREN's were able to advance into the hex and continue their attack. In a second instance a German LT was key in demoralizing an American INF that had been holding off a German assault. The LT. moved in when the assaulting LT fled. He was able to stabilize the remaining Germans and demoralized the American unit. It fled and was killed by OP fire.

In the end, the Germans were able to capture enough road to deny the Americans a Major victory as well as keep their casualties down while inflicting the required number on the Americans. A victory but not on that would make the offensive a success. If the battle continued it would still be heavy fighting and not much ground taken by the Germans.