I started this game just before a Skype encounter with Vince Hughes in order to get a feel for the board after a long time away from airborne. In this half board size encounter outnumbered Germans have to fend off a mixed PARA and INF force with Sherman's in support. The US have to clear all German units away from Hex 0604 and a 4 hex radius and not lose 8 steps. The US attack was slow to get going but slowly started to inflict losses on the entrenched German units, however even in the early stage's of the battle PARA morale was proving to be surprisingly brittle and the need to rally DIS units slow and the assault even more. By GT 12 ( out of 19) the US forces had taken the town in 0803 but it was obvious that time was against the American's and a less methodical approach was going to be needed. In the next 30 minutes the US commander threw his forces into assault after assault. German losses mounted and their defensive fire faltered in the face of the Yankee juggernaut. As the US INF forces encircled hex Ste. Mere-Eglise it looked like victory may be snatched on the last turn, but it was not to be as German forces in the town itself stood firm (18 v 18 assault resulting in a step loss each and all the German units passing morale checks). Even in the countryside reduced GREN units were holding out after hastily digging in. Surrounded, battered but not beaten the Swastika still flew over this particular French town as night fell on the 7th June 44.Well, another good scenario from airborne one which I would play again with either side. Recommended.

Second scénario Airborne. J'ai utilisé la même technique en gros qu'Orpheas (les américains foncent le plus vite possible au contact), et comme lui, je n'arrive pas à passer. Peut-être qu'il vaut mieux au début essayer d'utiliser l'off-board artillery pour essayer d'avoir le canon anti-char avant d'ammener les tanks ? Au bout d'une dizaine de tours, j'ai perdu 12 pas pour les US contre 1 ou 2 pour les allemands ! L'avantage est clairement à la défense.

PS : en relisant les conditions données par Orphéas, je me rends compte que les allemands ont déjà gagné vu les pertes US. Je pense que je ne m'y prends pas comme il faut... COurir à l'assaut bille en tête ne doit pas être la bonne technique.

In this scenario a mixed force of US infantry and paras supported by two M4s have to clear an area of German units around the village of Ste.Mere-Eglise. The US appear to have sufficient forces to undertake the task; 6.5 Para platoons, 1.5 Para HMGs, 1 81mm mortar, and two M4’s plus plenty of good leaders. Also infantry support (who can’t activate for a couple of turns); 6 Infantry platoons, 2 infantry HMGs, lots of good leaders and some OBA. Quite a formidable force! The German’s have 9.5 grenadiers, 2.4 HMGs, a couple of 81mm mortars, a 75mm infantry gun, 75mm ATG and a little OBA. Also quite a significant defensive force.

The German commander considered his options; either set up a forwards defence based on the villages and immediate surrounding area, or spread out the defence over the entire area that needs to be cleared, realising the US troops have only 19 turns to clear a relatively area. The German commander choose to spread out his defence therefore making the US also spread out their attacking forces.

The battle started with the Paras, with tank support, quickly clearing the minimal German forces in and around the village in 0803. A second stronger German defensive line around the village in 0604 and hedgerow 0404 and 0504 held up the US advance for sometime, including a German direct fire roll of ‘2’ which blew a hole in the gathering US forces. The US sent a few forces towards the Germans defending the area around 0401 and 0302 but these failed to make much progress.

The US infantry forces skirted around the woods in 1105 and 1106 and began to engage the Germans defending beyond this area. Good German positioning made it difficult to make sufficiently large fire groups to allow progress, despite all the US artillery supporting this axis of attack. The German major with a combat modifier of ‘2’, HMG and grenadier made quite a mess of the US forces who tried to flank the Germans that were dug in in 0806 and 0906.

The US finally managed to punch a hole in the German defence line based around the Hedgerow 0404 and 0594, and with tanks support moved on to the village in 0604. The increasingly desperate US infantry attacking the area around the 0807 area were not making any progress and some desperate advancing caused quite a few casualties. The village in 0604 was just about the fall to a combined arms assault when the Germans focuses all their artillery and available firepower on a stack of demoralised units in 0808 and with some poor US morale rolls the US was forces over the 8 steps there were allowed to take.

An interesting scenario seems hard on the US but maybe the US player spread his forces to thin – rarely did the US HMGs, tanks and artillery work in conjunction with each other.

In playing this scenario, I got my first taste of the no Germans with x hexes of yyyy. These are always hard but this one is impossible, at least for me. As the Americans you need to control a 4 hex radius of 0604. The Americans tried but all it took was one unit to sneak bad in to lose it for the Americans. The German strategy is simple hold off the control of the hexes for nineteen turns. The Americans have a decent force but the German GREN/HMG combination is very hard to assault with little preparation and the Americans don't have much to soften the Germans up. The OBA is weak only 2x16 factors and 1 81mm mortar. There are 2 M4's but the German AT gun looms over the field and the M4's must be careful until it is destroyed. In the end the Germans got one unit into the radius and forced a draw.

Combined American forces, both airborne and seaborne attempted to either flush out or eliminate German defenders from within a 4 hex vicinity of 0604 and all the while sustain less than 8 steps of casualties. There were just 19 turns to complete this task and it was too much to ask of American forces but they did make a whole-hearted attempt.

By 18:00/turn 14, the 8th American step loss was generated for an automatic German win. However the push continued for about another hour with one of the two towns in American control and the other ready for an assault. M4 Sherman tanks were freed up to assist foot units after both German AT capable guns had been eliminated midway through the battle but despite all that the Germans continued to keep their presence within the 4 hex perimeter.

Not a bad scenario for solo play but realistically not much of a chance for an American win and no draw is possible due to the scenario VCs as if both or neither player wins, the German player wins. I kind of liked the way it seemed that paras and regular infantry seemed to be competing against each other, rather than working together to try to achieve the objective. Nothing else to write about this one that hasn't already been written but that it the forces going up against each other are about even, just that VCs sway in German favor. With more time, maybe 5 more turns the Germans would of been either all eliminated or driven out of the area but still it would be very hard to do then without losing that many steps. In my play the Americans lost 9 steps, the Germans 13.