I played this a LOOOONG time ago, in the original version of Airborne, but I still remember I had a blast playing it. I loved the "recover strength" mechanic for the initially disorganized (demoralized in PG-speak) paratroopers and the piecemeal arrival of the German reinforcements. Things went on for quite a while, but eventually enough of the latter arrived to trap the paratroopers in the vicinity of the bridge. They valiantly held out for as long as they could, but the key hexes fell.

When I first posted this, there was no entry for the original Airborne, so I put it in Airborne IE. Now there is an entry for original Airborne so I deleted the other one and put this one here.

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.

For the most part, the 82nd Airborne had some decent initial luck along the Merderet River. The demoralization recovery generally went well, and of the four strongpoints they encountered three were unoccupied and the fourth was quickly taken out by assault. (The fifth was never contacted.) The paratroopers quickly established a perimeter around the causeway, plus a couple of guard points along the road further north.

However, not all luck went their way. The westernmost group had difficulty recovering and was overrun by the early German arrivals, and the Germans got all of their AFV's early in the battle. Then, of the early-morning airdrop, only the leader, the jeep and the howitzer arrived.

The Americans settled down to a grinding series of assaults and fire attacks, taking a healthy chunk out of the attackers. But the presence of AFV's in the assaults greatly aided the German effort, as did the plethora of troops (if a unit fled out of an assault, another was usually ready to step in.) And the length of the scenario allowed AFV's that had fled to recover and come back.

By Turn 30 the Germans had technically won - they had causeway hex 0411 and had taken out more than 8 US steps - though the US could have suicidally ventured out of town 0412 to try and take the causeway. But I continued the fight to see how it played out. The parachutists stood tall under the relentless prEssure, but there were just too many Germans. By the end, only one PARA HMG, one PARA, the howitzer and three leaders were left, and both sides of the river were in German hands. Still, the Germans paid a stiff penalty: about 23 steps taken out.

A very interesting scenario - really evocative of the para drops on D-Day, what with the need to organize (Recover) and gather, then fend off increasing pressure. But given the length of the scenario, I'm not so sure about its balance, which is why I gave it a "3." Maybe the best plan is to dig in all along the causeway and at both ends, with 0411 in the center of the string - forcing the Germans to grind even more. However, that plan would at best secure a draw. Based on this one play, I can't see the US winning unless the German only rarely rolls above "8" for the reinforcements.

I had already played a better version of this scenario (Scenario 1 in Airborne Remastered), but needed this to complete my Airborne tour. It ended as I expected, with a German victory.

The Germans have too much time to build up forces and once they have all their units on board they are just too strong for the Americans. The dice definitely did not help the Paratroopers this time. The Germans got nearly all their units on the board by turn 14, and all were on by turn 20. The Americans were only able to build up four of their units to full strength by the time I called the scenario.

By the 0915 turn the Germans had eliminated all of the American units west of the river. They took some losses on the causeway, but had plenty of troops and time to grind down the Americans in the objective hexes for the win.

If you play this scenario, I strongly suggest balancing it by reducing the number of turns to 30, as it is in the Remastered version of the scenario.