SITUATION: Here’s a good-size scenario on a small board, with roughly a regiment’s worth of Hitler Youth making a night assault on an American infantry battalion holding some town hexes at a crossroads. It’s all or nothing for the Germans here; they must clear all the Americans out of all town hexes by the end of the game to win. That’s just as well for the Americans, because the Germans have a huge firepower advantage as well as superior mobility under cover of darkness, and they’ll be on top of the Americans within a couple of turns. This is also relatively long for a small-board scenario; it’s 20 turns rather than the usual 12. That’s because the Germans are going to need extra time to wear the Americans down since the Americans have a fanatical (for them) morale of 8/8, meaning they don’t start to waver when reduced. That will make it tough for the Germans to clear them out of the towns, so I gave them extra time to do it when developing this scenario. The wild card in this scenario is the American ability to fire illumination rounds, which will allow them to light up the battlefield wherever they choose and fire at Germans who would normally be way beyond the 2-hex nighttime spotting range for this scenario.

SETUP: The Americans get a good leader draw especially at the higher ranks, including an 11-1-2 LTC as commanding officer. On the other hand, the German leaders are just adequate with few standouts and many with no morale or combat bonus. Given that holding town hexes is the be-all-and-end-all here and the American 57mm AT guns have weak fire values, the Americans deploy their AT guns forward in hopes of getting a few early shots at incoming German armor, and they concentrate their infantry in and around the towns to maximize their defensive firepower in assault combat.

GAME PLAY Turn 1: The Americans win initiative by one and place an illumination marker so that it lights up the eastern road. The Germans who enter the east edge stay off the road, advancing to the north of it, except for the tank destroyers, which enter on the road but remain close to the east edge and out of illumination range. The Germans who enter the south edge advance on a broad front, and American bombardment and opportunity fire is effective, disrupting three units and a leader and demoralizing one unit. German bombardment fire is effective against the AT position blocking the southern road, disrupting an INF unit and demoralizing the AT gun, which recovers to disrupted status. German tank destroyers move up to fire-support positions on the southeastern town. The Americans roll a 1 and the illumination marker stays in place.

Turn 2: Germans win initiative and bombard the American AT position blocking the southern road, demoralizing all combat units there. The American LT there keeps his head and spots for OBA, but the fire is ineffective. Germans advance to an assault position on the roadblock while more American OBA is ineffective. American opportunity fire from the smaller central town kills a GREN step as Germans advance from the south, and then both combat units at the roadblock fail to recover from demoralization, with the AT gun being eliminated and the INF unit fleeing northward with the good-order LT. The Germans coming from the east then advance as one, sending one of their best leaders forward with a GREN to draw the fire of the units at the eastern roadblock. American opportunity fire is ineffective and the Germans move to an assault position on the roadblock. The illumination marker remains on the board but drifts onto the road.

Turn 3: Germans win initiative again and the eastern force advances as one, assaulting the roadblock and bypassing it on its way toward the larger town. First fire from the INF and AT gun at the roadblock demoralizes an attacking GREN, but the remaining GREN disrupts the entire roadblock force. The brave OSTFR advances again to draw fire from the town, but the Americans roll a 2X result on opportunity fire, obliterating the GREN unit with him and disrupting him but not killing him. The rest of the eastern force advances to a two-hex distance from the eastern town. American bombardment fire causes more morale failures among the southern force, but German direct fire disrupts the INF and the HMG holding the outlying southwestern town. That draws massive German bombardment fire down on the southwestern town, demoralizing the INF unit there. That INF fails its recovery roll and flees north, a Captain going with it to try to bring it back into the fight. The Germans advance from the south to form firing lines against the smaller central town, and an HMG that was already in firing position rolls an 11 and demoralizes both INF units in that town, which have already fired OF and thus cannot recover this turn (the dice gods are being vicious to both sides this turn, and the Americans can’t survive that kind of viciousness because they’re so badly outnumbered). That motivates the Germans to press their advantage and move a GREN to an assault position on the small central town, and it makes it through two point-blank op fires but finally gets disrupted by a third, desperate op fire from the larger central town. No Germans will be able to assault the small central town next turn, and the turn ends early on a FOW roll before disrupted and demoralized Germans near the small central town can recover or the eastern German force can bring up its armor support (a nice break for the USA).

Turn 4: The Germans win initiative and pour massive fire into the smaller central town, reducing a demoralized INF through compound demoralization. That INF flees the town but the other INF recovers, and then the German assault on the northeastern roadblock receives a bloody nose as German units get disrupted and demoralized. The Germans fire several times on the small southwestern town with no effect, and then a GREN moves into that town to assault the forces there and pin them down. Disrupted and demoralized German units on all fronts fail to recover, and the German attack begins to bog down.

Turn 5: The Americans win initiative, and American OBA rips into the massed German forces that were set to combine the fire of multiple stacks on the smaller central town. An X result reduces and demoralizes a GREN unit, and also demoralizes the best leader in the southern German force while disrupting two HMGs. The southern German force tries to recover the unfortunate stack but mostly fails (the leader recovers but the rest don’t and the reduced GREN flees), but German OBA starts taking a toll on the Americans in the larger town, reducing an INF and disrupting another. The turn ends early on a FOW roll.

Turn 6: The German initiative level drops by one due to step losses, and the Americans win initiative. The HMGs in the smaller central town fire point-blank while the other forces in the town recover successfully, and the sole good-order German unit in an assault position on the town is disrupted, so no assault can go in this turn. The Germans bring up forces to assault positions on the smaller central town, but German recovery is slow due to poor leader quality. They are able to bring up some armor support for the assault, but the turn ends early again on a FOW roll.

Turn 7: The Germans make little progress on the eastern and south-central fronts, but the assault on the outlying southwestern town scores a breakthrough as the sole American unit there is reduced and the Lieutenant there is killed.

Turns 8–12: German weight of fire begins to tell, with point-blank fire from Germans massed around the smaller central town reducing an INF and demoralizing it plus the American leader there. But the American Lieutenant who fled from the southern roadblock has been rallying other fled units out in the darkness northwest of the central towns, and his force begins harassing the German flanks, scoring an X result that reduces a GREN and demoralizes and disrupts others. The Germans, who were massing to assault the smaller central town, are now obliged to split off some forces to deal with the Lieutenant’s forces, and they spend a few turns chasing them around in the dark, with the Americans repeatedly failing morale checks but recovering (due to the LT’s +1 morale bonus) just in the nick of time to avoid annihilation. This bleeds enough German forces away from the main action at the smaller central town that the Germans there are unable to clear that town until Turn 12. Farther to the north, disaster strikes the Germans on Turn 11 as the highest-ranking German officer on the board is killed by an American artillery barrage just as he was preparing to lead an assault on the LTC’s position in the larger central town. The American LTC has been using his morale of 11 and morale bonus of +2 to help his forces hold firm against repeated German attacks, while the Germans in the area have been weakened and immobilized by disruption, and now the decapitation rule immobilizes the Germans around the town completely through Turn 12. The Germans therefore move in some of the southern force and assault the southern hex of the larger central town, disrupting an INF there. The assault on the outlying southwestern town continues to be bogged down, with a reduced HMG holding out against two German infantry units and a tank-destroyer unit.

Turn 13: The Germans win initiative and assault the southern hex of the larger central town again but do no damage. The American Captain now leading the previously fled forces that the LT rallied earlier tries to finish off a demoralized German GREN right next to the southwestern town so that he can jump back into that town next turn and save the reduced HMG there, but he’s unsuccessful. The Germans respond by finally wiping out the lone HMG and taking the southwestern town, meaning there’s just one town standing between the Germans and victory. But then the American LTC holding the northern hex of the larger central town spots for OBA on the Germans who just cleared out the smaller central town, scoring an M2 result that disrupts or demoralizes all the non-armored German units and both leaders there (doing a step loss due to compound demoralization). The turn then ends early on a FOW roll after each side gets only about four activations—a bad break for the Germans, who are badly spread out and disrupted and needed to get some recoveries in.

Turn 14: Initiative on both sides drops to zero due to heavy losses, but the Germans catch a lucky break and beat the Americans by two activations. A heavy OBA attack on the LTC’s hex disrupts an INF, but the German assault in the southern hex of the central town takes a bad bloody nose, losing a GREN step while another is demoralized. The LTC then uses his +2 morale bonus to bring the two disrupted units in his hex back to good order, and with time running short, the Germans decide to damn the torpedoes and mass what good-order forces they can muster and rush the LTC’s position for an assault. The results are disastrous—an X result from HMG op fire kills one GREN step and another X result from American OBA kills the other step, leaving the OSTFR who led the advance on the town alone next to the LTC’s position. More Hitler Youth rush into the breach, and the HMG scores a 2X result on them with its second op fire shot, obliterating them. Another GREN exits the now pointless roadblock assault two hexes away from the LTC’s position and moves next to the LTC, but mortar fire demoralizes it. The turn then ends on a FOW roll after a few failed recovery attempts, with the German force at the larger central town nearing collapse.

Turn 15: The LTC decides to go for glory, leading a countercharge against the demoralized GREN adjacent to his position while bringing in a disrupted LT to cover the town itself. Glory is his—he kills a GREN step, but the other survives and recovers. The turn runs its full course without FOW, and by the end of it, many demoralized GRENs are fleeing the scene and there is only one good-order GREN within two hexes of the central town which is not bogged down in an assault. Both sides have lost fully half their infantry steps, but the Germans have managed to rally all their armor and several GRENs farther away from town, so they go for one last push.

Turn 16: The Americans win initiative, and they throw massive OBA at the smaller central town where the sole nearby good-order GREN is (along with other units), and the fire disrupts the GREN and demoralizes another. Then the Germans bring down all the OBA they can muster on the assault hex where the LTC charged out of town, and they roll a 2X result that obliterates the LTC’s INF unit but fails to kill him. Unfortunately for the Germans, they also roll an X result against the reduced GREN in the assault hex, wiping it out and demoralizing its leader, leaving the LTC standing all alone like Rambo among the smoldering ruins, the sole survivor on the field. He takes the next activation to go back into the town, but a lucky OBA shot disrupts the HMG there, weakening the town’s defenses severely due to the loss of the INF in the glorious but ill-fated counterassault. The Germans bring up a GREN and a tank destroyer unit against the LTC’s position, but then the Americans catch a break when the turn ends early on a FOW roll.

Turns 17—20: The Americans catch a big break, beating the Germans by two segments on initiative, and they use OBA and point-blank fire to demoralize the GREN that advanced to the town in company with the tank destroyers. That leaves no full-strength, good-order GREN units within two hexes of the larger central town, except those that are bogged down in assaults. The Germans press those assaults even though the defenders are firing on higher columns now, but to no avail. The assaults peter out, the Germans have no chance of taking the last town, and the battered Americans and their godlike LTC hold the field for the win.

CONCLUSION: Despite the massive German firepower advantage, it was superior morale and leadership plus the defensive benefits of town terrain that allowed the Americans to hold the field. In particular, the dearth of German morale bonuses made it very difficult for the Germans to recover their units once they were disrupted or demoralized. On the other hand, the American LTC’s morale of 11 and +2 morale bonus allowed him to weather everything the Germans could throw at him without breaking morale, and allowed him to keep his units in good order or recover them quickly no matter how hard the Germans pounded them. Also, the fact that American units in this scenario have a morale of 8/8 was key because it prevented the Germans from getting the crucial extra column-shift bonus for assaulting a lower-morale enemy. That allowed single, reduced American units to hold out in the smaller towns for a long time, keeping German forces away from the final assault on the larger town until it was too late.

SCENARIO RATING: I’ll give this scenario a 3 because, while it offered an interesting situation in which superior morale trumped superior firepower, the Americans didn’t have much to do other than sit tight and hold.