NOTE: For a long time, I played the morale rules wrong, with units just needing to roll their morale or less to recover, not less than their morale. This is reflected in some of the commentaries.

Deployment and Turn 1

The strongpoint in 0509 turned out to be unoccupied, the one in 0803 was the strongest one in the game at 5-3 (the AT value is 2-3, however it wasn’t relevant for the scenario). The American plan was simple. Secure 0509, then make top speed to 0803 with one of the reinforcing platoons, leaving the reduced reinforcing platoon to hold 0509. Once 0803 was secure, send reinforcements to 0509, since its likely to be the focal point of fighting. The Americans have a 9-1-1 captain and a 9-1-1 1st Lieutenant with the initial forces.

Turns 2 -4

Arriving at 0509, the Americans find it unoccupied and head for 0803, On turn 3, they reach 0704 and the strongpoint is revealed and fires on the advancing paratroopers, rolling an 11 and getting an M2 on the captain and full strength platoon, but they survive the fire. The opportunity fire at the 1st lieutenant and reduced platoon misses. The Americans begin their assault on turn 4. They have 9 firepower points (counting the 2 from the leaders), with 1 column shift to the right for a leader and 2 to the left for a town, putting them on the 5 column. The Germans are also on the 5 column. The Americans miss and the Germans produce an M2, demoralizing the paratroopers. Meanwhile, the 1st batch of regular German troops arrive.

Turns 5 - 8

The Americans use their initiative to rally, and both units improve to disrupted status. The 1st lieutenant leaves to escort reinforcements into the assault. The other 1st Lieutenant takes the reduced platoon to 0509 to stop the advancing Germans. On turn 6, the assault is renewed, again with both sides on the 5 column. The Americans get an M result, the Germans an M1. The reduced paratrooper goes back to demoralized and the strongpoint is also demoralized, but uses its impulse to recover to disrupted status. The assault continues on turn 7, the Americans on the 5 column, the Germans on the 3 column. The Americans get an M1 but the strongpoint passes, while the Germans miss. However, German reinforcements are closing in on the town. The German mortar takes a pot-shot at 0509 and misses. On turn 8, the Americans recover, while the Germans reinforce the town and assault the Americans. They are on the 13 column (19 firepower puts them on the 18 column, +1 column for leader, -2 for town) while the Americans are also on the 13 column (12 firepower plus 1 shift for leader). The Germans roll a 6 for a “1” result and the Americans a 1 (miss)! A disaster for the Americans as the reduced paratroopers are eliminated and the other 2 platoons are disrupted. Over at 0509, the paratroopers fire at the advancing Germans and miss, and the Germans assault on the 3 column, while the paratroopers defend on the 5 column. The paratroopers manage to disrupt the German lieutenant.

Turns 9 – 12

The Americans in 0803 rally, and the Germans assault again. Once more, both sides are on the 13 column. The Americans roll a 6 (“1”) and the Germans a 3 (M1). The Germans eliminate the strongpoint and the HMG is demoralized, while the Americans hold fast. In 0509, the German lieutenant attempts to recover and fails. On turn 10, the Americans pass the first initiative until the Germans are forced to attempt a recovery in 0803. Its risky, but it pays off as the HMG does not recover and flees the assault. The Americans then assault to try to get a result on the Grenadier. They are only on the 5 column while the Germans are on the 9, and they are only able to disrupt the captain. On turn 11, the Americans do manage to disrupt the grenadier, but it recovers on its impulse, while the HMG continues to flee. At 0509, the Germans pull out of town, surviving the free shot, and the lieutenant goes to help the HMG recover and escort it into combat. On turn 12, the HMG rallies without the leader and recovers to disrupted, while neither side makes progress in the assault on 0803.

Turn 13

The HMG recovers to good status, while in 0803 the assault gets bloodier. Both the Americans and Germans roll a 6, however the Americans get an M2 while the Germans get a “1” result and destroy a paratrooper step. The American captain and the remaining full strength paratrooper are demoralized, while the 1st Lieutenant is killed. For the Germans, the captain is disrupted again. The Germans assault back, only on the 3 column (7 firepower (5 column), 1 shift to the right for the leader, 2 to the left for the town) while the Americans are also on the 3 column. The Germans roll a 6 for an M1, the Americans a 5 for an M. The demoralized paratrooper fails its morale check and loses a step. This is the 3rd American step loss and a German victory!

Final Thoughts

This was a tough scenario for the Americans. It was great that 0509 was unoccupied, and having the strongest strongpoint in 0803 really stalled things. The difficulty of assaulting a town was again shown. I think the turning point was the elimination of the reduced platoon in 0803. This reduced the Americans firepower from 14 to 12, which meant they were basing off the 9 column on the assault table, not the 13, and that limited the damage they could do to the Germans. The dice seemed to favor the Germans, also making it tougher. Had the Americans been able to clear 0803, and had a full strength and reduced strength platoon in each town, I think things would have been very tough for the Germans, even with numerical superiority, because of the 2 column shift for the town. In that case, I think things would have played out pretty historically. A pretty good scenario, and the lead-in to the first really big Airborne scenario.