THE BATTLE

A long battle with no OBA begins with the American force in tatters spread out throughout the map demoralised and mostly reduced. The Germans begin with a single Grenadier and some strongpoints on the map with the rest of their force beginning to arrive on turn 5. (You must roll individually for each unit each turn until it arrives.)

There are special rules for the Americans to recover their reduced units to full strength.

The scenario begins at night, so no units are within spotting range of one another.

Turn 1 – Americans roll lots of dice to rally. 2 leaders see the futility of the exercise and desert!

Turn 2&3 – Lots more rolling…

Turn 4 – A full strength Paratroop platoon explores a nearby strongpoint which is unoccupied.

Turn 5 – Tons more rolling as the Germans can now play the game. They roll the dice about 20 times and get one reinforcement in the west.

Turn 6 – more rolling

Turn 7/8/9 – Germans begin to arrive on all sides. The Americans lose their first reduced platoon as the German reinforcements in the west overpower them.

Turn 10 – The sun begins to rise (visibility 2). A big assault in the west sees two Para platoons reduced and their 2nd Lt KIA.

Turn 11 – Another unoccupied strongpoint discovered as the sun increases visibility.

Turn 12 – The StuG IIIG and S.35 appear. In the assault in the west both sides lose a step. In the north, some paratroopers unable to get to full strength are ambushed and eliminated. Casualties stand at 6-3.

Turn 13 – Sun is fully up and visibility is 12 hexes (if you could see that far through the hedgerows). Most German reinforcements have now arrived and the Americans have moved toward the objective. The StuG joins the assault and the Americans take heavy losses. Casualties at 9-3.

Turn 14 - German advance behind the Americans who the bulk of are now between the forces at the river and the reinforcements. Another strongpoint is cleared.

Turn 15 – Last of the German northern and western reinforcements appear and it looks very bad for the Americans who are greatly outnumbered. Another paratroop platoon is eliminated moving toward the lock. German assault gun joins the S.35 and armoured car for a combined attack versus the American forces.

Turn 16 – Germans force the Americans off the embankment with their superior firepower and begin to surround them.

Turn 17 – Some Para Engineers land, but their AT Guns are lost!

Turn 18 &19 – Americans are getting surrounded on both the east and west sides of the river. Some platoons on the east side still haven’t recovered to full strength!

Turn 20 – The American Colonel is captured by the German Armoured cars. The StuG is reduced in an assault but the Germans have the Brigadier General and his last platoons of men surrounded!

Turn 21 – The Br General loses two demoralised platoons as they are unable to flee and surrender.

Turn 22/23/24 – The Br General loses his last men and surrenders. In the east the German Armoured Car is eliminated as it is assaulted by two paratroop platoons.

With only 5 paratroop platoons remaining versus 20 German platoons the Americans give up. The Germans have cleared the east side of the river and are flocking to the west. It appears impossible for the Americans to “rid the east side of the river of German units”.

German Victory.

Aftermath

This is a bizarre scenario. In some ways it is interesting how the Americans recover their strength and the Germans enter in dribs and drabs. But there is an insane amount of dice rolling. Rolling for every American demoralised unit, every American reduced unit, every German every turn to see if it enters, FOW constantly as “formations” are out the window. In the end it just didn’t feel worth it.

There were just too many Germans. The Americans just don’t have enough men even with their “recover” ability. The only hope they really have is if the Germans roll poor on their reinforcements and the can somehow capture the river crossing and hold it against the tide of German forces. This didn’t happen in this play and the Americans just consistently lost too many men.

The 55 turn limit is ridiculous and even if the last 5 platoons could somehow make it to the river crossing and take it over, they would have still had to hold out 30 more turns against the Germans.

I’ve been playing through Airborne to try to finish the module, but I am convinced that most of the scenarios are ill-conceived. Also, the hedgerows are annoying. I prefer bigger and larger battles. To me, Airborne is the worst of the PG modules and I’m now shelving it (although I may need the counters for other modules). I advise any new players to stay away from this “Introductory Edition” and get Fall of France or Road to Berlin instead. To those of you that finished Airborne, I salute you. But I'm giving up on finishing this one. Besides, there are too many other modules that need plays and AARs. Airborne has enough already.

Scenario Rating: 2/5 – The scenario itself is a 3, but the consistent dice rolling just made it too tedious.