This is the best Cassino scenario so far, I am trying to play them in order, so far they have impressed me as simulations of the battles for Cassino but not as games. Five plays Five German wins all up to now, so what makes this one better than the first four, it once again as the US forces crossing the Rapido and trying to force a route through to the barracks or the town of Cairo, this time is is a regimental attack with tank and good artillery and air support, also the attack starts at night so the initial crossings are concealed from the Germans on the mountains. The US also have to make more tactical decisions, do tanks or infantry cross first, do then ENG build the ford or carry on assisting units to cross the river and do you use artillery for smoke of bombardment. This is good stuff, making the US commander weigh up his tactile options and also offers some replay value. The Germans have less options but there is some fun to be had building the best defensive line possible. The US went for infantry crossing first with on board artillery firing smoke at first light. The initial thrust was towards Cairo and made some good headway against strong German resistance however the attack stalled and the Germans built a second line of defense on the the outskirts of town this was never breached. A secondary thrust towards the barracks was easily defeated by German machine gun and direct fire. One of the problems with smoke is to be effective the screen has to be maintained meaning that your first initiative will be artillery just to maintain cover and of course it also ties up 3 to 6 batteries of on board artillery. The US commander finally gave up on smoke and turned his on board artillery to hitting the A/T guns dug in on the slopes this was quite successful now to get the tanks over the river and launch a combined arms assault. However getting the tanks across was not easy and now the German artillery rained shells on the two crossing points causing disruption and slowing the process down to a crawl. By game turn end only one tank platoon had made it across. The one bright spot for the Americans was the Flamethrower unit making good progress in assaulting the German dugout's around Cairo, however once it was out of assault it was disrupted by accurate German fire from Point 213 and was pinned in place. The game ended with the US digging in to protect the crossing and regrouping for yet another push on Cairo. I have marked this as a strong 3. An excellent solitaire scenario poss two boring for the defense and one sided for FtF