In this scenario a large freshly dropped paratrooper unit must recover from the shock of landing, gather forces, grab territorial objectives, and hold for what seems like forever against a growing German force. Fifty five turns is a long time for a lightly armed infantry force to hold out against a large combined arms force.

The Americans start out demoralized and, in many cases, half stepped due to the rigors of landing. The mechanics for doing this add a lot to this, and only this, paratrooper scenario. I really liked the way it was handled. Within ten turns the Americans were all in good order, had gained back most half steps, took every objective, and began forming a defensive line. The Germans were only just building up force to deal with the American attack.

German forces finally began to increase, to include armor. The Americans had nothing with which to deal with the growing armor force. German forces began to move around the southern flank of the American defensive positions, and the Americans gradually withdrew. The Germans were willing to allow the withdrawal in exchange for time to further build up reinforcements. Time was on the German side, and by turn 20 they were ready to go in hot. American reinforcements mostly died in the landing, losing one ATG, the arty, half a step of engineers, and the jeep. The surviving ATG missed its one chance of glory, then died in a horrible assault. Only the Lt Col and the engineers survived, the engineers propping up defenses in 0412 as they collected stragglers.

By turn 25 the Americans were in crisis. Even the Brigadier General was killed during a stunningly successful assault on the town in hex 0509. This was a terrible blow to the Americans, as most engaged forces were within three hexes of the town and could not move to avoid German assaults. The Germans attacked with relish, and while the Americans gave as good as they got, the German numbers were overwhelming.

Next, the Germans paid a heavy toll approaching the American defensive position in 0411, but the following turn the German assault pulverized the defenders. After taking another turn to finish cleaning out 0411, the Germans closed in on hex 0412, the only coherent American position left on the board. The assault went in, and the Germans took a beating. Eventually they wore down the Americans, the German commander willing to take any casualties necessary to soften the position. Once it was softened, the heavy armor and engineers went in to crack the town. And crack it they did. Two turns later, on turn 38, it was all over. Only two American leaders survived. The Germans took a massive 26 steps in casualties, but the Americans had nothing left on the board.

I give this a scenario a 3, but mostly because I really liked the way the initial drop was handled. The German forces were way too powerful for the Americans to ever have a chance in a 55 turn scenario. There was no hope. I even modified the entry rules for the Germans, not allowing the southern edge units to arrive east of the river. This is an indefensible victory requirement for the Americans if the Germans can enter forces to the east of the river. Cutting this to a 25 or 30 turn scenario would make it a good game as the Germans would feel time pressure against the trickle of reinforcements. But by turn 30 the Germans had all but one gren on the board, and with plenty of armor, mortars, direct fire arty, and engineers in addition to hordes of grens and HMGs, taking time to build up forces and attack en masse against light units. The Germans accomplished more than their victory conditions required just because they could. An opportunity for a great scenario blown due to too many turns.