Played with Hugmenot.

This was a day when having great morale (8/8) proved to be anything but. We played two scenarios today and in both my Americans seemed unwilling to roll a decent morale check or recovery. In this scenario I had a demoralized INF platoon attempt to recover with a morale modifier for 6 straight turns until another failed attempt caused it to run away from the leader.

Illumination rounds were effective as the Germans took a trip to the south of the fields and the American artillery hit well but usually for morale checks. The American infantry were based in a hedgehog in the central town with a detached platoon holding the far western town. For the first four turns this really was an artillery fest.

The Hitler Youth, however, were able to recover and continue to move forward. They took the central one hex town when my HMG managed to become demoralized and then fail its recovery attempt, after the supporting INF had done the same thing the turn before.

Despite all of this, however, a bold assault by two INF platoons caught some tank destroyers in the open, wiping out an entire platoon and tying down several platoons of Grenadiers for several turns.

As time progressed the Germans became aware of the need to take another town hex to ward off an American victory. The large central town was well garrisoned so an understrength company of Grenadiers took off towards the isolated western town. The assault went in with the Colonel of the battalion leading. It was at this precise moment when the luck in the day began to even out. The assault was stopped cold and the Colonel was granted a quick trip to Valhalla, decapitating the German force, immobilizing their only true reserves and forcing a much more desperate endgame since the Americans, at that point, were heading towards a minor victory.

Another thrust was stopped by opportunity fire and the game seemed destined to end as an American minor victory. One last artillery strike, however, changed all that. The strike needed to get a 2 or 12 in order to eliminate enough steps to give the Americans a major victory and a "2" it was.

A straightforward small night scenario. I give it a "3".