There's a Dutch saying: The devil always shits on the same heap (pardon my French..), in other words, once you've become unlucky you always will be. Exactly this happened to the Germans. To cover all possible entrances the American forces were spread out north-south with the howitzer in the northwestern town. I decided to go for the northern road with the Germans and quickly occupying the eastern town on bd 23, together with the town hexes attached to the northern road that would secure the minimum number of town hexes the Germans needed. And then the American off board arty started with a vengeance.. On top of that the 1-11-2 Lt. Colonel put up a very stiff fight in the hamlet on the woods edge of bd 22. At 10.15 that resistance nest was taken and a breakthrough was attained. However, the off- and on board American artillery in the mean time had done its thorough job, the German force was a strung out mass of demoralized and disrupted misery, running east- west along the northern boards. The punch was almost gone from the German attack, and by then more than 17 steps were already lost. With the help of a 1-10-1 Lt and a 0-9-2 Captain however enough units were recovered to setup a last, all out, attempt to take the last northwestern town and get a draw. In a tense fight in which the American Lt. Colonel again took an heroic role, the American struggled until the last turn(!) to keep a foothold on the road. Only one step of infantry plus three officers were left (among them our hero Lt. Colonel) in an assault with a StUG unit, a Grenadier and a HMG unit (all in good order). The German assault dr was a 5 on the 24 column.. End of battle. The Americans ended with an occupying force of 2 units in the southeastern town. They lost 6 officers, 1 deserted, 2 killed and three captured (our hero was allowed to keep is pistols :-)). The Germans lost 22 steps and one officer. The battle ended in a hard fought draw. My first 5 ever and deservedly so! The above attempt to a chronology is only a part of what happened.. Some noteworthies (in no particular order.. :)): - First AT shot at a German StUG at point blank was a 12.. one armor step down ;-) - I didn't keep a tally, but the majority of Ami offboard artillery rolls were 5 or lower. Oh and of course the occasional 11 or 12.. ;-) - German recovery was dismal, but due to the high number of + morale officers, the damage could be mitigated a bit.. - I used the fog of war optional and that became a real issue for the Germans as the game reached its end stage. But hey, the tension was there till the last turn, so the rule played its part brilliantly! :-) - I played this scenario over 3 sessions and during these sessions my mood swung from sulking chagrin at another bad German recovery roll to sheer amazement at another low American artillery roll.. I was almost sure there was a devine being playing bad smelling tricks with this game :-) I had a blast!

Bart