As most plays will probably turn out with this one the German 75mm IG and GREN units were eliminated before the start leaving just two GREN units and some leaders to attempt to cover and hold a lot of ground. The German leader draw was disappointing as all three had only a morale rating of 8 and only the LT had a combat modifier; none of the leaders had a morale modifier so all German units and leaders were stuck with 8's for morale to start. The American leader draw wasn't too much better; all had morale ratings of 9 but the 1st LT had a combat modifier and 2nd LT a morale modifier which was enough to push odds further in American favor.

At first it seemed too much for either side to reach it's victory conditions as far as hex control went. The Americans start by occupying the German town hex objective and threatening the objective swamp hex nearby. Both sides engage each other right away and direct fire is traded back and forth through hedgerows. Both sides continue firing or recovering until the Germans get lucky enough to inflict an American step loss and leave a stack ripe for an assault the next turn. Meanwhile, Lt Col Cassidy leads some PARAs away to take the American objectives further west after the German units activate. The German assault does not have satisfactory results and American units recover. Soon, after American objective hexes are controlled the units head back to assist their besieged comrades. This happened timely enough before the LT-COL was removed from play at 08:30/turn 12 and by this time the Americans had taken another step loss from direct fire and also had the 2nd LT (the one with the morale modifier) eliminated as well. This just left the American 1st LT in charge of the remaining paratroopers.

From 08:45/turn 13 on, despite the two step loses, American units were able to prevent the Germans from taking control of any side's VC hexes and then consolidated to hammer the hun into submission. Soon, after a successful American assault, the Germans were down 2 steps with the remaining leaders and GRENs fleeing through the swamp. Before it was over both the German Captain and Lieutenant would also be captured. At first I thought it was an American victory because all VC hexes were under American control but the 2 PARA step losses still made the outcome a draw. The situation for both sides was to work with what they had, which wasn't much, and accomplish a lot in short order.

With the scenario set-up this one is usually likely going to favor the Americans as far as unit strength goes but having to cover a lot of ground with the probable loss of the LT-Col at some point still made it a little challenging. On the other hand, if the Germans do receive the extra units at the start of the scenario then the balance swings in their favor. Either way, the scenario is going to favor one side or the other from the start and both have to work fast and efficient with few units and leaders they have. I gave this one a '3' despite a lot of lower ratings because it was what it was and there was nothing broken about it. This was a very fast paced, 20 turn scenario with only a few counters and though it wasn't incredibly exciting it was interesting enough to me for it's brevity. Usually it takes me a day or two to finish a 20 turn scenario as opposed to a few hours. I also believe, contrary to other opinions, that this would be the best starter scenario in 'Airborne' for someone who has not played PG or like wargames before as possibly a warm-up; at least before strongpoints, indirect fire/bombardment and armor rules are incorparated into play. I suppose I also went into this one expecting a '1' rating out of it and found it not too be THAT bad at all for what it was.