I will preface the entire AAR by saying that this scenario looked an interesting one and despite the tardiness of my reinforcements and the lack of focus on the part of my artillery, this played as a good scenario. As Wayne mentioned, it provided a nice array of troops where being able to coordinate the initial attackers and reinforcements and sound tactical play could win the day. As it happened, the reinforcements got lost and the artillery was firing but obviously it was on a different battlefield.

The Germans were dug in on the western edge of the bailey (castle hill) with their supporting mortar behind the castle. The Americans had 3 INF, HMG and a LT 1011 in the fields behind the small woods on board 20 and an INF, ENG and SGT 901 in the town (0803) with the Mortar and CAPT 800 behind (0804). The US plan was to bring the larger portion of the company to the edge of the woods and keep the dug in units busy while the ENG, INF and SGT 901 raced down the road around the woods to flank the castle and get in position to be ready when the reinforcements arrived.

The key to the US winning this scenario is the arrival of the reinforcements in a reasonable amount of time in order to get into position in order to overwhelm the defenders. The plan started as expected, with the units in the fields moving into position in the woods with the mortar providing some support where it could from the town. As we both had minimal off-board artillery and only one mortar per side, we would need to be lucky to cause any significant damage. The INF and HMG with the LT did their jobs, absorbing mortar and artillery fire and recovering while the SGT with the ENG and INF moved north of the castle to wait for the additional reinforcements. As the turns passed by, Artillery fell aimlessly for the most part, with both US and German fire proving highly ineffective. The Luftwaffe finally answered the call about halfway through the battle and as the later turns arrived, I realized that the reinforcements were not coming. After pinning down the approaching Luftwaffe Engineers with withering direct fire, The ENG/INF/SGT moved back into the woods and the other INF units the HMG and LT made it around the north end with a few casualties (2 steps) as well to setup an assault where the defensive fire would not be as concentrated. After several turns of direct fire to soften up the castle, the assault went in and on the same turn (15, yes that is FIFTEEN) the reinforcements finally showed up! At that point, I was strictly concerned with evening up the casualty count and by the end of Turn 16, we had attacked but could not breach the Castle.

I was really hoping to rate this scenario higher as it looked like an interesting and quick scenario. Wayne and I finished it in just over 3 hours so for a one session game, I really had high hopes for it. However, having set a new record for the lack of reinforcements (turn 15 of a 16 turn scenario), it really was a lost cause. As there was no way to provide any real threat of attack, our casualties were somewhat low (2 US steps, 2 German steps) as I continually attempted to move in order to get into a favorable position. I think Wayne hit it on the head where should both reinforcements show up in mid game - say between turns 6 and 8, it sets up to be a great battle with some interesting tactical options. As it is, it provides replay value as I could have received reinforcements on turn 2 and could have been in a much better position. A good scenario, regardless and one that I would consider playing again.