The fourth in Daniel and my playthrough of Panzer Lehr has the British on the defensive. The Germans have three goals, capture a wooded ridge, cause British losses and get troops to cross the battlefield to the north. This is a challenge for the British, who, although the substantially outnumber the German infantry, have little answer for the Pz IVs brought to the party by Lehr. This one is of interest, however, because the British are on defense and, for once, get to hide their units.

My setup relied heavily on holding the ridge and was only lightly interested in keeping Lehr from passing to the north. In essence, I conceded the major victory by giving Daniel one victory condition right off the bat. I should have known that this was a mistake but I was a bit overconfident given the results of my previous solo play. My hidden units included every weapon and high level leader in the mix. I hid most of my strength (the WPN and Bren) just behind the ridge where they could reinforce the infantry that occupied the ridge. I left one lonely platoon in the town in the valley on the opposite side of the river and had AT support in the main town.

Daniel split his force in two with a sizable component running straight north through the clearer terrain. I was relatively successful against the force attempting to move me off the ridge but the force in the valley ran through my sacrificial platoon quickly and was able to enter the town with no real trouble.

In the end I continued to hold out on the ridge but had lost far more than the limit. Daniel had met his two victory conditions for a minor victory and there it ended. My solo play had left me with the impression that eliminating the "soft" support for the armor would lead to victory. It probably would have but I was not as capable in this play as I was in the previous play and that failure led to a continued strong presence of the armor in the battle.

In my solo play the Germans went for the major victory and put their force into a strong push to clear the ridge. Doing so led to losses for the infantry and subsequent morale failures followed by a desperate attack by the armor which took losses in the woods due to the lack of infantry. The remaining demoralized mess failed to recover in time to accomplish anything, so in going for all they attained nothing.

The key for the British is to find ways to cause step losses on as many of the PzIVs as they can, rendering them less useful in assault (the reduced unit morale is a 6) and depriving the attack of its bite (the column shifts for combined arms). Having said that it is highly difficult to accomplish. Daniel and I agree that this one leans heavily to a German minor victory, my previous play notwithstanding. I give it a "3" for this play.