Rule Interpretation, Crossing the Rapido. Though a major river, the Rapido runs along a hexside like a minor one. After some conversation in the Panzergrenadier folder in CSW, I thought it not unreasonable to treat the Rapido as a hybrid hex; i.e. units need engineer to cross but do not need to stop before entering. It takes, therefore, only two turns to cross, not three.

The special rules call for all 40 mine units (not points) to deploy into the Gustav line hexes. Since the scenario was played solitaire, I distributed the mines randomly, two counters per hex, with three units on the most vulnerable crossing hex.

The US had only 1 engineer so this scenario is especially problematic for the USA side. On turn 1 the US sent a leader into hex 5825, preparatory to calling in smoke. According to the special rules, leader by themselves do not activate the German side. Unfortunately the first leader to enter tripped 3 points of mines (a dummy and a three-pointer) and was eliminated. A second leader fared little better suffering a demoralization.

Seeing that this tactic was pointless, the engineer entered the hex on turn 2, thus triggering a German response. The mine die roll (1 die) , unfortunately for the engineer, was a 6 – the unit lost a step and was demoralized. Now the German activated and quickly closed on the possible landing hexes. They were promptly sealed off, and with the Gustav line rule (2 hex visibility at night) the Germans could bring overwhelming direct fire on the hex. I decided to terminate the game at this point with not a shot fired and turn 1 not even completed.

I reset the game (including redistributing all mine counters) and tried it a second time. Though this time the leader survived the mine attack (somehow, even though he entered 3 points of mines again) and promptly called in smoke. This at least blocked sighting by the Germans and allowed the engineer to enter the hex unobserved. On turn 2 the engineer entered the crossing hex but again faced misfortune, rolling a five for a Demoralization.

Though the leader continued to call in smoke, the Engineer failed to recover and had to flee (what an unlucky unit!). The scenario was proving to be very frustrating, so I decided to again abort the game. After some posts to CSW about my possible rules interpretation (I had questions about whether I was playing correctly), the original designer of the game, Mr. Dave Murray, was generous enough to send me his original scenario booklet, which deviated in significant ways from the published version. In the unpublished version, the Gustav line has 2 points of intrinsic mines; no mine counters were used. Also, it cost a units 2 mps to cross a river, thus the infantry had an extra hex of movement.

So I reset a third time. Again, I tried to cross at 5825. The first leader I sent to call in smoke was eliminated by the mine roll, but the second survived. Smoke was called in and the following turn the engineer entered the hex. Hooray! No mine roll and the unit was unobserved.

At last, the hex was entered by a leader, two infantry and an HMG. One infantry step was lost on a mine roll, but the other units survived unscathed. More smoke continued to obscure the landing and the units crossed unopposed. This alerted the Germans, who immediately moved to contain the breach. That the infantry could move an additional hex after crossing the river proved significant and made it much more difficult for the Germans to threaten the bridgehead.

Reinforcements continued to cross (though at some cost, as a couple steps were lost by mine attacks). Some hard fighting pushed the Germans into the mountains and back towards the barracks. Their losses steadily mounted as the Americans became ever more aggressive. The fighting culminated in a decisive assault against the StuGIIIG AFV, supported by 2 infantry units. Fortune at last smiled on the US, as a lucky barrage caused a step loss and disruption against one infantry unit and a demoralization against the second. With an infantry, HMG, and FLM unit leading the assault, the German suffered a second step loss and a demoralization against the AFV. This result left the barracks practically defenseless. After turn 9 the German side conceded; a decisive US victory.

Conclusion: The scenario in the published version seems in need of revision. From my limited playtesting, the games were over barely before they had begun. For that reason, I rate scenario 3 a 1.

In contrast, the unpublished version was eminently more playable and fun. The mine rules alone restores much of the balance to the game. The crossing rules also provide flexibility to the crossing side. For that reason, I rate that version a 4 – for an average rating of 2.5. (3 on a generous scale).