The US with a battalion of infantry and around a battalion of armor plus towed 105s, 90mm AA, and a mix of SP guns on halftracks defend dug in west of the road on boards 77 and 79. Terrain on their side of the board is flat, and the Germans and Italians enter masked behind lots of hills to the east. Germans enter with 2 battalions of foot infantry plus 2 companies of motorcycle toops, and an Italian battalion of bersaglieri with their support weapons. Germans also get a towed 88, a towed 75 AT, 50mm AT, and about a battalion of mixed tank support of Mk IIIs and IVs. Germans need to eliminate as many US units as possible while working to exit a number of units off the west edge. I layed out the US in a line of dug-in posts, with 3 containing an Infantry and an HMG while more dug-in infantry in between the HMG outposts meant that there were few places that Axis infantry could approach without being in range of 2 outposts. US tanks were placed on both flanks with the lighter Stuarts behind the US line where they would not be such easy targets while standing by to catch anything that got through the line of outposts. Germans entered with their infantry and HMGs in one large group on their left and center and the Italian infantry on the right, with the Mk IVs moving on the north flank, Mk IIIs on the south, motorcycles up the middle, with the towed guns coming along to set up where the 88 could do the most harm while staying masked from half of the US forces. Immediately, the Motorcycles coming up the middle hoping to get at least 2/3rds of their numbers into place to assault one of the central outposts and call some OBA strikes, but they suffered the first US OBA strikes instead, losing the 2 platoons in the center of their column and one platoon in the lead stack. The 3 German trucks were hit at range by the US 90mm gun and one truck with it's LT towed 50mm gun disappeared in the dust. Good for the Germans that the random selection of which truck died didnt kill the 75mm gun instead, and that I had opted to have the 88 come up behind the lead trucks so it suffered only a temporary setback in the loss of the AT leader. Germans moved over the hills and steadily towards the US line, with the Mk IVs not stopping to engage but instead trying to head for the US rear. As the US armor and AT weapons found the range, the Germans lost all but 1 step of Mk IIIs, and part of the Mk IVs but managed to get 12 points for exiting 3 platoons. With the attrition to the German and Italian infantry, this success meant little. Stacks of Germans and Italians were pinned down between the hills behind them and the US outposts ahead of them, and the few stacks that did make it into contact found themselves on the losing side more often than not. In 7 of 15 turns the Germans and Italians had lost 55 points of men and tanks, giving back only 7 points of losses. Having lost all but one step of tanks to either exit or AT fire, the surviving force decided to call it a day. I just didnt see how prolonging the game would change the exchange rate of Axis troops for Americans. Great game, US win.