Play: solo Time: ~25min

my third scenario in a day! damn does it feel great to be playing again!

Initial Deployment

Setup is pretty much fixed, though as I was playing solo I flipped all the strongpoints to their unknown side, shuffled them, then diced for which to use. That made my approach as the Americans somewhat tense.

Opening Moves

The Americans won the first turn initiative and marched straight down the road towards the first strongpoint.

The lone German platoon took up position in the town adjacent to the strongpoint to await the Americans.

On Turn 2 the Americans came in sight of the strongpoint, which turned out to be empty! Lucky Break #1! With only the lone German GREN platoon in the town, the Americans decided to bypass it completely and head for the objective town at the other end of the bridge.

As they marched past the town the GREN took some op-fire potshots and managed to steploss the American PARA, a costly loss in firepower for the Americans that would come back to haunt them.

Nevertheless, the Americans were soon on the bridge and - what's this? - the second strongpoint was also empty! (Shad's note - what amazing luck!)

With no one to stop them, they walked unopposed into the victory point town and set up camp on Turn 6.

The German GREN platoon, outgunned and outmanned, decided to wait in the first town until the 2 x GREN reinforcements showed up on Turn 10.

Slugging Match

With the arrival of German reinforcements on Turn 10, the Americans quickly found 3 x GREN platoons staring them in the face on the swamp bridge. A long series of brutal firing, disruptions, demoralizations, and rallies commenced until Turn 15 rolled around and neither side had yet given an inch.

On paper, the Americans were in bad shape with only a reduced PARA HMG and reduced PARA, but their officers (including a 2-10-1 !!!) and the cover of the town were keeping things from getting out of hand.

Realizing that a victory was going to be impossible, the German commander (Herr Shad) ordered his men to assault the town and try and contest the hex to force a draw. One GREN platoon had to stay behind because it was disrupted, but the other two rushed in.

The Americans cut them to pieces, but were unable to finish the job on Turn 16 because the Germans - having entered the town - now got the -2 column modifier for assault defense. The reduced-state of both American platoons just wasn't enough firepower to clear out the town.

Final Result

• Draw
• At the end of the scenario the town is still contested.
• 2 German steplosses
• 1 American steploss

Shad's Thoughts

This was a quick playing scenario, but was interesting despite the paucity of pieces. Watching the Americans try and bypass the German platoon in the forward town and getting hammered for it (opfire snake-eyes!) was pretty exciting.

Both strongpoints being unoccupied was a tremendous stroke of luck for the Americans, and no doubt had a large influence on the outcome of the battle. I think if either of those strongpoints is occupied the Americans are in big trouble. If they both are, heaven help you.

I'm not going to play this again. But it's another good solo scenario if you want something small to run through quickly.

Enjoyable! 3 / 5