In a fit of insomnia, I played this at 2AM this morning. Actually, played it twice, the first time assuming the Germans rolled a 5 or 6 at set-up, the second time assuming a 1-4.

The Americans brought the three full platoons after the field gun, sending the half platoon to capture the towns. The German garrison started in 0604 and aggressively charged towards the gun position and German victory hexes. The half platoon of airborne grabbed the two towns, then made their way back to their brothers to shore up what had become a disaster. Even firing at a gun the Americans could not affect the Germans with direct fire, while German fire was unbelievable. Two sets of boxcars on the 16 column in four turns of fire closed the book on their victory conditions. The Americans decided to assault to try and take the last American victory hex. Could not even manage to affect the gun. German morale rolls were rock solid, and what devolved into two assault hexes became total death for the Americans. They lost all seven steps to one German step loss. Total victory for the Germans.

So I tried it with the gun position destroyed. The Americans cleaned up their hexes outside of 0604, the German starting position. The Germans decided since they had the advantage in assault combat they would defend the town and seek the two step loss condition for victory. Complete reversal of the assault rolls. The Americans had below average morale checks while German checks were rock solid, but tiny numbers on the assault dice left the Americans in position to pound the Germans. It took a while, but the Germans lost to a man with no American step losses. Definitely defied the odds.

The dice made a big difference in these plays. But my real problem with the scenario is the randomness of starting forces. 67% chance of two units, 33% of four units. That variation is HUGE in a scenario this size. What a ridiculous degree of variability! I reserve '1' for what I consider a broken scenario, and this wins that prize. Yes, I could home rule vary it and up my rating to a 2, but as published this scenario is crazy. I would never play a game where half my starting force arrived or died based on a single die roll. Unless that meant my starting forces were overwhelming either way... ;)