For several years I indulged myself in a study of the American Civil War. I read incessently and visited battlefields, learning about the use of terrain for the direct fire weapons of that era. It was a very enjoyable time.

Much of what has been written is relatively dry stuff (I find Sears to be one of the better writers of history, Foote is very entertaining but many indicate that he falls short on the history side of things), but one quote still sticks in my mind. I believe it had to do with the battlefield at Antietam after the battle. Losses were terrible and the dead covered the ground. One of the witnesses indicated that you could not walk without stepping on a body.

This scenario was kind of like that. A battalion of Germans is charged with defending two towns from two battalions of Americans. Both sides have significant artillery resources and a plethora of heavy weapons and engineers. The Americans even have some tanks. With the firepower wielded by the Americans you would expect that they could avoid losses and just stand off and hammer the Germans until they ran. Unfortunately the weather is extremely misty and visibility varies but is generally pretty bad, forcing the Americans to close in on the Germans in order to shoot at all. This gives the Germans (who also have some hidden units) the opportunity to cause significant losses to the Americans as they close in.

The key town is Laval which is the larger of the two. The Germans recognize that this is the prize and put very few units in the smaller town. The ambushes work perfectly and the Americans take horrendous losses but eventually their greater numbers overwhelm the Germans and an American win is secured. By turn 14 the score was 47-36 in favor of the Americans and the Germans had only one hex in Laval contested and very few troops at all remaining on the board.

The key for the Germans is to keep the Americans at arm's length as once they move into assaults they are doomed as they have lower morale and lower firepower in general. The play followed the historical pattern as the Americans didn't even try to move east after securing Laval, they were seriously disorganized and would have had to try a rush to assault. Better to lick your wounds and reorganize than to go off after 100 Germans who will probably leave on their own shortly.

The combination of the weather and the firepower made this one very interesting. I give it a "4".