Staying home today to help out after my wife had surgery on her hand, I had this scenario ready to run with impartial leader selection and scenario worksheet. The US has a battalion of armored infantry supported by an OBA of 18, a battery (2 platoons) of M-3/105s, an M-6 tank destroyer, a T-30 2 platoons of M-3/75s, spread out over the hills and wadis of 2 boards. A company of M-3 Lees and a platoon of Shermans will come at some point by random die result of 6, or 5 or 6 after the 6th turn. The Germans have 2 comanies of motorcycles, a battalion of panzer grenadiers, with trucks towing a 50mm and 28mm at guns and carrying the HMGs, and mortars, plus a good assortment of tanks, a Grille, a Marder, and have double the OBA plus may have air support. The Germans need to take the high ground on the western board, exit some troops and hold the east-west trail open at the end of 20 turns in addition to killing US units to win. The sneaky Fallschirmjaegers come in with a company from the north edge of the western board to tie down the rear troops and do as much damage as possible. The US started with 5 outposts on the eastern board, with 2 infantry and a good LT at north, south and center positions and 2 more with an infantry, HMG and a good Cpt in between and just a few hexes further west. The M-6 deployed on the soutwestern hill of the eastern board, two of the 3 mortars in the rocky ground 2 hexes northwest of that hill, and the M-3/75s on the crest of the southeastern hill on the western board, the M-3/105s on the crest of the large hill nmass north of the trail on the western board, and the rest of the US infantry with the Major on the eastern slope of the large hill mass with the 37mm AT gun and engineer platoon in an adjacent hex. The T-30 protected the northeast corner of the large hill mass, and the 37mm AA gun was stationed on the northeastern corner of the southeast hill overlooking the road. The Germans entered in 3 groups, with 6 platoons of panzer grenadiers accompanied by tanks and 1 truck loaded HMG platoon in the northeast, the motorcycle troops heading west as fast as possible on the trail, and the rest of the panzer grenadiers and the loaded trucks on the southeast flank. The company of fallschirmjaegers with their own mortars and PMGs moved in at the closest point to the hill mass, with the Major in the middle leading the mortars, a cpt with an FJ platoon and the PMG on the German right and the LT with the last 2 para platoons on the left. Things started well enough as the Germans got mulitple activations, enough to see the whole main force enter from the east. US fire had no effect until the FJs entered, when the M-3/105s crippled the German left stack, which remained in place the rest of the game failing to rally. The motorcyles moved west and then turned north to cut off the US troops in the center while 2 stacks of panzer grenadiers and tanks struck the northern outposts. The German LTC let his Prussian ancestry get the best of him and broke away from the northern group to try to push the central defenders back into the motorcycle troops. The report of his death did little to help as the assault force in the north froze in place trying to sort things out as the rest of the German force moved on with no loss of effectiveness, the Major taking charge right away. In a few more turns, the German north-east force was totally bogged down in assault with the majority of their tanks moving around the assault to try to get at the large hill mass just beyond. The motorcylcle troops lost nearly half their numbers in assault in the middle and the Germans succeeded in taking the southern flank. The fallschirmjaegers had gotten into assault with the M-3/105s, which bogged down, the gunners beating off attack after attack with their rifles and pistols as the FJs chased one platoon out of the dug-in position but just couldnt dislodge the other one. German tanks met up with the FJ major in the rocky ground on the hill mass, destroying the T-30 just in time to see the US armor arrive. The tank duel saw German armor failing to hit while losing a step of Mk IVs, the FJs continued to fight the gun crews, the German assaults in the north and in the central wadi continued to be bogged down as both sides first demoralized each other and then slowly rallied. The German southern group stalled on the southwestern hill of the east board when long range fire from the M-3/75s destroyed the two trucks towing the AT guns. Running out of time to continue the game and being unable to see an obvious advantage, both sides having run down their initiative and casualties at 21 German to 16 US, I had to call it a draw. German airpower was disappointing in it's response, only making an appearance a few times, but when it did arrive, it demoralized US stacks for a turn before they rallied with little or no problem. Great game and one I hope to play to completion with face-to-face play soon.