For a while I balked at playing this one because of the many special rules and the potential 96 turn/24 hour length of it. However, before the conclusion of the 37th turn and without the aid of seaborne reinforcements the American paras had pretty much secured a win. At that point here were very few functionable German units left on the board which were scattered and in general disarray. The Germans had been pushed back by an American assault from out of the objective town hex 0412 and into the swamps. The other two hexes, 0516 and 1013 were also undisputed.

The initial drop was scheduled for 03:00 and went on time. Surprisingly only two para steps were lost and none of them drifted off-board. Two of the para units not only made it to the drop zone but also landed with leaders. The only real misfortune was that the best rated leader, a Captain with a 9-1-1 rating, landed in an enemy occupied hex and was captured. Also, one para that scattered away from the drop zone landed adjacent to an occupied strongpoint that was reinforced by other German foot units. Luckily that unit was able to recover from intial disruption and break away after two turns of adjacent DF fire without any losses. The only real problem with the drop was that two units were isolated without leaders and would be stranded until the glider units arrived. The 2nd drop, or glider landings, were 30 minutes late and those did not go as well. The jeep along with the 81mm were lost along with a whole platoon of paras and two steps of HMG units. However, since they were able to land in any hex they arrived right where the two stranded paras had fled to and they helped make up for the units lost in the landing.

The first real action took place on the embankment/road hex 0516 which changed hands a few times during the course of the battle; from American to German and back to American control. Hex 1013 was only guarded by a 20mm AA gun and was easy prey since it's strongpoint turned out to be unoccupied. The bulk of the airborne units had landed on the west side of the river and were able to quickly assemble and gather strength. With relative ease they were able to take the objective town/bridge hex 0412 in a bold assault with no losses. The first German reinforcements did not arrive until 07:00/turn 11. Their entry point was at hex 0106 and their way was blocked by American units left behind in the rearguard. An armored car and a motorcycle unit could not accomplish much on their own since they could not traverse hedgerows or swamp hexes so they remained static trading DF waiting for the next wave of reinforcements. Those reinforcements arrived at 8:00/turn 21, complete with the S.35 armored unit and it looked as if the Germans had a good shot at breaking through and re-taking the town. However, the American rearguard was very stubborn and they resisted for quite a while, delaying the German advance. Eventually the Germans pushed towards the town and triple-stacked but could not wear-down the town's defenders with DF. The Americans had plenty of units to relay in the town; as soon as one unit became disrupted it got traded out with another good order unit. After hex 0516 was secured and under American control again, the town and surrounding hexes were further reinforced. The main problem with the Germans were their motorized and mechanized units as they could only attack the town from the road hexes with swamp on either side so they were kind of bottlenecked. The Germans had taken a lot of losses from their foot units that were needed for taking the town. Eventually two very good bursts of American DF from the town forced an ENG step loss on the German stack and even the S.35 tank, along with the Sdkfz222 had failed their morale checks. This left the attacking stack in shambles and ripe for an American counterattack. The para units in the town made an assault into the adjacent, German occupied swamp hex while other units moved in and took their place within the town. The Germans got the first fire advantage and did manage to force a step-loss but even then the Americans were able to shake that off with just one reduced step disrupted and still managed to assault on the 9 column and cause further loss and demoralization. It was at this point, shortly after 12:00/turn 37, that the German cause was deemed hopeless as they were about to get attacked from behind by other American forces that manuevered around them from the other end of the map; the Germans were about to get sandwiched in. The Americans had 10 full, good order units at their disposal now and seaborne reinforcements due at any moment. The only good ordered German unit left was the 81mm mortar.

As die-hard as I am about completing scenarios until the last shot is fired I called it quits here. Maybe play could of gone on 10 more turns before all German units were wiped out but there was no chance of the Germans mounting any kind of attack that would breakthrough and take the town. They had been boxed in and bottled up. This scenario was a nice way to end 'Airborne' and no two plays will ever be the same with all the different variables; from the paradrops and randomly selected objectives to the entry time and randomly generated entry points of the German reinforcements. The special events table was used but didn't really have too much impact on play but could have. The one event that may have benefited the Germans was the one with General's staff car having to attempt to drive from one end of the board to the other, without getting eliminated or surrendering; then the germans may have recieved some OBA and/or additional units. This event did occur but the way was blocked by American units when it happened so the German General ended up surrendering since the road was occupied with only hedgerows and swamp adjacent. I think this one definitely has replay value with all the randomness about it but the pages of special rules and modifiers make it kind of cumbersome to get it rolling. A few special rules may be disputed or misinterpeted and that it borrows so much from 'Airborne' scenario 11 it leaves a lot of paper cluttered aroung the gaming area. It gets a "3" from me but a second time around, perhaps in shared match maybe better.