Continuing on with Elsenborn Ridge, scenario 11 St. Vith: Help Arrives pits several battalions of German SS against a adhoc group of American troops. The strengths of the Germans are number of units, better armor, artillery, morale and mobility. The American get the victory conditions, just destroy 10 German steps without the Germans gaining control of the north-south road up to and including the crossroads on board 25. The German strategy was to just move down the road and kill anything in the way. There movement can be controlled as there is enough trucks/halftracks to keep up with the tanks. Even dismounted the Germans must resist the temptation to rush the tanks forward. Steady, constant movement and firepower. For the Americans, a straight up battle is out of the question with the German strengths. The Americans must hit and run, use the their tank mobility to find and hit weak units and get around the advancing Germans to threaten the road link to the north.

From the start the Americans had problems. The Germans were able to score impressive kills on a couple of advance M18's causing the Americans to lose an initiative point. This lead to the Americans losing most of the initiative rolls and the Germans to match their tanks against the Americans with the Germans taking more kills. 8 to 1 kill ratios we the norm for the Germans as the American weak armor shows why the Americans need numbers to destroy Germans tanks. The American platoon of infantry and HMG tried to digin but the German infantry was able to close and get 3 to 1 assaults on the platoons. The bright spot for the Americans was that a M4/76 dugin on the hill on board 25 was able to disrupt and demoralize the German infantry trying to capture the crossroads. As a final defense the M24 tried to kill the SS as it approached, but it was soon dispatched with a panzerfaust. The final score a German minor victory with the capture of the crossroads on board 25. In terms of step losses Americans 24, Germans 5.

This scenario is one I would play again as the German dice rolls were too good and the Americans we so bad, this seemed to make the difference. I feel a Americans need to be more choosy about the attacks and use the mobility to get around and spread out the German assault.