This was my first play with Vince Hughes and it was quite enjoyable for me as a player. I presume it was less pleasant for my troops.

The initial American force was sent north of the castle and river to draw the attention of the German defenders, hopefully to engage them in action and permit the reinforcements who are substantially more effective to deal with the arriving Luftwaffe engineers. As in all cases, the best laid plans were dashed by reality.

Vince's defenders were able to hit the initial force with several step losses, most from X results rather than do ble demoralizations. As this force melted away the reinforcements failed to arrive. The first possible turn for their arrival was turn 2 but apparently they stopped for lunch along the way and had to clean up after themselves and therefore arrived on turn 9 instead. Meanwhile the German reinforcements arrived on turn 4, moved to the castle and were able to dig in before the Shermans ran up through the mud to fire at them.

Still the Americans felt that merely giving up was not appropriate so the supporting infantry and flamethrowers trudged forward. The flamethrowers were disrupted along the way and stopped for a while to recover and the infantry came into view. While the hope on turn 13 was pretty darn forlorn it was still hope as two infantry platoons came into view of the castle. After the opportunity fire (successive die rolls of 12, 3 and 2) eliminated three steps of the attackers it became clear that the castle would hold out quite nicely.

Total American losses 8 steps, total German losses 0, although there was a moment during which one of the units was demoralized. No doubt from having too little to do...

Vince constantly reminded me that this was probably not the expected flow of the scenario. 8 turns of an inability to roll a 5 or 6 on the reinforcement roll, while statistically possible is not something you would bet on. A less aggressive commander would have had his initial force wait until the reinforcements came into view and perhaps that would be a better approach overall for the Americans. Nevertheless, if the Luftwaffe reinforcements can make it to the castle before the Americans can come to grips with the initial defenders it will be very tough for the Americans to win this one. My rating is, of course, affected by the lack of arrival of the reinforcements and the inability to anticipate such a wait. I give it a "2" but can see that, with any normal result a race for the castle will result and a much more lively scenario could ensue. Thanks to Vince for soldiering on despite the foregone conclusion.