A battalion of US infantry supported by a company of Shermans and a company of Stuarts and some tank destroyers and assault guns must try to take a road and a town from a battalion of Germans with ample AT gun support and a platoon of PzIVs. Unfortunately for the Americans they have to travel across some very open ground to accomplish this and avoid losses in doing so.

I tried to put myself in the mindset of a typical American commander. I would use firepower to overwhelm the SS defenses and then assault the demoralized remnants at my leisure. Unfortunately good defensive positions in the town combined with excellent leadership (most leaders had morale modifiers) led to the defenders being able to survive without excessive disruptions. Still I stood off and blasted away and slowly the front edge of the German defense came loose. (I should mention that the Stuarts and M10s had moved to the rear of the town and pinned the forces there to prohibit a quick loss of town hexes through a coup de main).

I rushed my troops forward and through use of the assault gun (M4/105) and good infantry support was able to, over the course of a couple turns, take my first town hex. Unfortunately the 75/41 AT gun had a clear shot at the hex durign the assault process and put a hole in some M4s. Actually a lot of holes. I figured that with an effective armor of 4 in the town I would be able to survive with at most a one step loss on the Shermans. That figuring did not include the AT gun roll of "12" which destroyed the entire platoon and caused the American losses to exceed the level for the German minor victory.

Despair and gloom encompassed the American command for a short period. A quick perusal of the victory conditions indicated that control of the road, which was guaranteed to the American in this situation was only important for a major victory. Control of more town hexes than the Germans was what was required for even a minor victory. With seven town hexes and the control count on turn ten totalling 6 German to 1 American and only 4 turns to go, this one seemed to be ready to finish with a German victory.

Rather than give up however, the Americans went berserk. They quickly closed on the town with their infantry force and assaulted several hexes causing the Germans to commit their PzIVs in an assault (causing significant losses to the Americans). A final stab by the Stuarts against the German 20mm installation came off beautifully and a final count was Americns holding 3 town hexes, Germans 1 and 3 contested. A major victory tempered by the losses into a minor victory for the Americans.

The rating of "4" comes from pulling a victory out of what seemed to be a hopeless situation for the Americans. Certainly the Germans would have caused a number of additional losses until the tank destroyers were able to reduce the PzIVs but a fun one to play in any event.