Cassino ’44 Gateway to Rome, scenario #1: Bloody Rapido

*This one had a lot of great reviews over on the PG-HQ and I wanted to play on the beautiful Cassino maps again but nothing too large so this is the one. The special rules, night action and the Gustav Line with the Rapido River, peaked my interest.

*I set the Germans up spread out to cover all the possible crossing the Americans might choose and will shift my defensive forces once contact is made. Being night with fog, you never know but I have a small defensive force but 40 mine counters, Strongpoints and a river to help. The Americans get to clear out four of the mines before play begins and this will be my attack and crossing point of the Rapido River. The Germans are spaced out just right, so if the Americans do cross, they will end up adjacent to a German unit and will be fired on.

*The Americans make their crossing where the mines have been cleared out and where they think the Germans are weakest but this area created a bottle neck and allowed the Germans to shift forces quicker then I thought they could plus one of my Engineers got Disrupted in the crossing stack and had to spend three turns trying to recover. The Strongpoint right in front of the crossing area turned out to be a monster with a 9-4 Direct Fire Value and soon had friends in the form of German Infantry & HMGs. The Americans did manage to get some units across on the Germans right flank of the hole punched through the minefield and they in turn got involve in combat with some of the relocating German defensives.

*With only twelve turns the battle was fast paced and both sides lost steps, with the Americans receiving a few more losses then the Germans. Both sides had three ways to attain victory points but in the end the Germans defenses were a little too tough in the area the Americans choose to cross and the Germans won a minor victory on this day.