Played with Hugmenot.

For the scenario of the month I suggested that Daniel and I switch roles from our recent War on the Equator games where Daniel has been on the defensive almost exclusively. I took the Americans and the task of holding onto the town hexes in the scenario of the month.

I placed roadblocks on both roads and hoped for the Germans to get hung up on them and give my artillery a chance to cause some losses, disruptions and demoralizations. The force coming from the east did get hung up on the roadblock for several turns and did get its advance thrown into some confusion. The southern force, however, entered far to the west and aimed directly at the far western town. Fine by me as I expected a decent amount of delay to occur as the force there (one platoon and a leader) could be counted on to hold out for a while if supported by the OBA.

Unfortunately, my Americans decided that this was the day that they would not pass morale checks or recover from demoralization. This was, however, still in the future as I planned my defense. Given the numbers of attacking Germans it was only a matter of time before they were able to enter the central town hexes. My main worry was how to make these assaults difficult for the Germans to sustain. Therefore I needed reserves which I developed by digging a company of infantry in between the town hexes.

This appeared to work perfectly as the Germans moved into the towns with a combined force in order to get the column adjustment. I counterattacked with the reserve infantry to get the AT shots, etc. I even got one, although the shot itself missed. Somewhere along the line, however, I must have watched too many John Wayne movies. Those brave infantrymen were slaughtered as they assaulted 3 steps vaporized in an instant.

After the abortive assault, my only hope was that the German assault rolls would be lousy, so of course they were great and the final straw was when the last town hex was lost by the Americans, not through a successful German assault, or even by the Americans running away, but rather by a failed recovery roll while surrounded. My guys simply gave up!

I was crushed. I had planned and conducted exactly the defense I wanted to and yet it had all fallen apart. I now wish I had decided to merely defend and not attack but that isn't much help at this point, hindsight is 20-20.

Still this one was a lot of fun to try. I give it a "4".