This was the first non-Airborne PG game I played (and I made one procedural mistake that may have affected things: I let the American initiative eventually drop all the way to -3, instead of bottoming at 0. oops...)

Naturally, the Americans set up in the towns, plus a couple dug in in the open, and the mortars back in the trees. The armor set up as close to the southern and easten board edges as possible, to limit the German approach, and thus most of the Germans were forced to dismount from their trucks right at the southern edge of the board or only a few hexes from the eastern edge. (Don't want loaded trucks blithely approaching within visual range of armor...)

The M18, in particular, played cat and mouse with the German TD's as the visibility slowly increased. But it then made a fatal error by making a DF attack on some approaching infantry, the subsequent half-move leaving it one hex shy of the light woods. The next turn the visibility increased to the foggy scenario's max, 6 hexes, and when the Germans won initiative their first act was to blast the M18 into oblivion with the Jadgpanther. Had the M18 gained the woods, which it would have if it had not fired at the infantry the previous turn, it could have played "shoot and hide" for a while, at least until the German armor got close enough to be able to spot it from 3 hexes. As it was, once the six-hex visibility took effect, the rest of the American armor didn't last too long, though they did manage to take out one step of PZ-IV.

In the meantime, the Germans systematically took the town hexes, although the Big Red One made a stubborn stand. After grinding away for most of the scenario, the germans finally came down to one last town hex to take. I wrote this one up for CSW and Web Grognards some time back:

"Which left Town 0908, the crossroads town. The 10-1-2 Obersturmbannfuhrer, 2 GREN and an ENG stormed into town at the beginning of Turn 13. Their first attack eliminated the reduced INF and demoralized the major and the HMG, who nonetheless rallied to Disrupted. The next turn saw the HMG lose a step, but the ENG did too (morale result.) At the end of Turn 15 the Major and half-HMG still held out, in good order, while one GREN was disrupted and the ENG demoralized. On Turn 16 the Germans first attempted to rally the ENG, who failed and fled. This allowed the leader to pull in a full-strength HMG (which had spent a couple turns adjacent and disrupted, but had rallied to normal in T15) for the final assault...which left the Major and half-HMG untouched! It was looking like an American win...

Over those last several turns the Major had been calling down artillery on units surrounding the town, causing much havoc (and risking friendly fire, which - thanks to the +1 for American artillery, as well as German, resulted in no FF.) So the German casualty level increased.

Finally, in a last-ditch effort to eradicate the town's defenders, the stud OBTSFR called down two artillery concentrations (2x16, 1x20 then 1x16) on his own position. The first (heavy concentration) also affected two adjacent hexes, doing a little morale reduction in them, and resulted in an M2 for all in town. One GREN was demoralized, the other (and both leaders) disrupted, and the HMG left untouched, while both American units were disrupted. The second shot (1-16) did no damage.

So, in a rank improbability, the Americans won!

It was a Phyrric victory, resulting in the loss of 20 INF, 5 HMG, 2 57mm ATG, 1 81mm mortar, 3 M4/76 and 2 M18 steps. Plus a bunch of leaders (1 Lt Col, 1 Capt, 3 Lieutenant.) And a truck. All that survived were a disrupted Captain, a good-order Looie, a truck and the town defenders.

But the attackers were far from unhurt. 11 GREN, 3 HMG, 4 ENG, and 2 PZ-IVH steps bit the dust, though all leaders survived this carnage. But the final town was as yet unconquered. Like elsewhere in the Bulge, the outnumbered, outgunned defenders fought desperately and threw the German timetable further in arrears."

Considering that the German casualties make no difference in the victory conditions, calling down OBA on units adjacent to the town was actually pretty much a bonehead move by that late in the game, and could have cost the Americans the victory. Another lesson learned was that, except in assault hexes, stacks of three combat units should be avoided, especially where "wrath of God" OBA is in the neighborhood.

This one gets a "5" due to the nice mix of units, and the tenseness of the game - this one came down to the last activation. It could have gone either way...it was played solo, and the date given is a wild guess.