Three turns into this scenario the SS had lost 10 steps a tank step and a leader while the Americans had lost only two steps and had only lost 2 hilltop hexes. A company with tank support had attacked an American platoon and had been terribly routed and in the counterattack had fled. It seemed like the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, except...

The SS stuck around and kept infiltrating and annoying the Americans, and their firepower was such that it pinned down a LOT of Americans. Continued, repeated artillery and mortar fire were wearing the Americans down. At the end of the game the SS had lost 16 steps plus 1 tank step and two leaders and the Americans had lost 11 steps and 2 leaders. The Americans still held half the hilltop and therefore "won" the game but both sides had been hammered.

My precise comment after turn 3 was "The Scenario is virtually over. The SS have lost 4 GREN platoons and 1 HMG platoon leaving them inferior to the Americans in troops and have also managed to lose 1 tank step. The men have primarily run away (failure on morale checks) rather than as casualties.

After turn 6 things started to look better for the SS as their artillery hit and killed the American major (see decapitation rules). The subsequent immobility of the Americans for the next half hour permitted the SS to gain a lot of territory.

At turn 9 the SS had captured a lead in victory points that only slipped away as detachments of Americans recaptured lost territory while the SS had lost too many steps to chase them effectively and still pin down the Americans in their positions

This is why they play the scenarios to the end (something I don't always do if the "winner" is already determined, I will have to rethink that in the future). A neat, tightly contained scenario.

This scenario gives the SS 10 grenadier platoons, 2 HMGs, an Engineer, 2 Mk IVs ande 3 mortars in town in the middle of board 24 (inverted) to attack and try to take as many hill hexes as possible in the northwestern hill. The US has 6 Infantry, 2 HMGs, a 57mm gun with halftrack and a 3in AT gun with a truck, supported by a single mortar. Both sides get a 30 column of OBA. The game starts with a visibility of 2 gradually going to 6 due to fog. The US troops not in the woods may start dug in. The US set up with the advantage of placing the major in the center, a captain to either side, with an LT on the outer flank, and on the eastern side, one stack with no leader, so basically the whole force can activate as one group. I placed the Major in the middle with an HMG and Infantry, a captain to the west with 2 Infantry, an LT on the eastern flank with 2 more infantry. To the major's left, the 3in AT gun with a captain, then to their left, the 57mm with the halftrack and an LT, and north of that, the last Infantry and HMG, with the US Mortar in the woods north of the 3incher. Germans were also able to activate the majority of their force for that first turn on one activation, but immediately split into two forces trying to flank the hill, with a panzer on each flank. The US were able to inflict quite a bit of damage early on as the SS stopped adjacent. Both sides were forced to risk friendly fire with their mortars and artillery as nearly everything was adjacent to an enemy stack. As the western side was flanked, it moved from dug-in to woods, refusing the flank effectively and forcing the Germans to risk an assault into woods. On the eastern flank, the same thing was happening. US fire on the west was having a tough time but the fire of the AT guns at adjacent hexes along with the fire from the halftrack and the infantry to their north stopped the German assault there cold. The SS took tremendous casualties and begin to flee, leaving panzers fighting in assault on their own on the western flank. At the end of turn 8, with only the single step of panzers engaged in assault and trading morale casualties to artillery fire, but with no chance for the Germans to gain any ground on the hill, I called the game. 22 steps lost to the SS with only 7 hill hexes taken and no way to hold them, to the US having lost only 3 steps and still holding the central 10 hexes. Major US victory. Great game.

Napoleon once asked what sort of general he wanted said "One who was lucky" If Vince Hughes had been around during those days he would have gained his Marshal's baton in short order. This is not to demean his skills but there are times when he seems able to roll just the number he wants at his command. This was one of those times The scenario is a fairly standard "take the high ground" scenario both sides evenly matched with poor visibility and short turn count making for a quick and bloody battle. The Germans can set up anywhere at least 3 hexes away from the hill to be defended, ie they can attack from any side or number of sides. I as the rather average US Commander (8-0-0) had failed to notice that and gone for a forward defence covering the road over the hill. Still my set up in my view did not hinder me too much as I swung my units around to face the SS. As the forces met initially I had the slight advantage taking a tank kill and even counterattacking on my left flank, however the counterattack failed to make the quick kill I had hoped and the German artillery were now zeroing on my units. The battle now moved to the other flank were overwhelming German force prevailed helped by some excellent shooting by the Infantry. The US perimeter shrank a lot faster than my waist line and units were failing to rally. I was soon pushed into the redoubt which I had named the "Alamo" which was then hit by the German on board mortars and German off board artillery causing more losses. There was no way back for the US troops and the survivors called it a day. This is a good solid scenario which I think on any normal day would be a well balanced affair. In most scenarios played over a reasonable amount of turns luck tends to balance out but not for me in this one.

This game played ftf with Wayne Baumber. This is a solid standard attacker / defender scenario where higher moraled Americans are required to hold onto more hill than their attacking, more numerous but lower moraled enemy. The reason for the lower morale on the SS being such is that they represent the 37 Grenadier Regt whom apparently had performed badly up to this point in the Normandy Campaign. For our game, the leader pick was kind to the Germans, giving them 4 out of 6 leaders with a '1' morale modifier whilst the Americans only had one '1' modifier out of 6 leaders. This kind of evened morale up some. The Americans also failed to cover one side of the hill on their initial set-up, meaning that their dug-in troops had to 'undig' themselves and miss out on oppurtunity fire on the first turn as some of them shifted position. Here's the battle report

The SS 37 Regt readied themselves for a third try. Their morale, though not as high as most SS units, would be augmented at least by some competent officers they had amongst their number. By 0600 hours the US defenders had dug themselves in on the south facing side of Hill 285. What they had not realized was that the Germans had kept men to the north face after the earlier night-attack. They had also placed a company of grenadiers and a platoon of engineers on the eastern slopes. This was an unfortunate set of events for the Americans because it meant that as the attack kicked-off, they would have to immediately start shuffling their troops about along the spacious crest.

The Germans drew first blood as the Americans lost some men to the German artillery, but by 0630 hours the Yankees had hit back as their 57’s took out a couple of PzIV’s and the GI’s managed to cut down some of the attacking infantry. By 0645 hours, the battle appeared to be totally in the balance as the Americans held onto their hill positions very well and on the east flank were actually counter-attacking the small German force on that side. However, their concentration of numbers there meant that the main force of Germans on the western side of the hill could now start to bring their numbers to bare. The German troops here edged up slowly but assuredly and finally started to bring down some awful fire on the defenders. By 0715, the Americans began to lose men in large quantity simply because there was nowhere to avoid the hail of MG and rifle fire coming in at them. Others were cut down in their dug-outs as the German grenadiers, with MG support sent in lethal close range assaults. Of course, hand-in-hand with these losses came the slow loss of ground to.

As the veritable carnage continued, OBA then rained down on a small pocket of defenders that the American Major had pulled together in a mini-redoubt. These too now took casualties and with the only prospect being utter wipe-out, the American leader surrendered the hill. Casualties had been quite high in a relatively small battle. The Germans losing 6 step equivalents (4 GREN, 1 PzIV) and the Americans taking 15 step-losses.(10 INF, 1 AT, 2 HMG, 1 ENG and MTR)

Whilst the first four turns were quite an even struggle, I think the fact that the Americans were ill-placed in error at the start finally started to count, though Wayne disgrees with this it did mean losing out on a host of first turn opp-fires and of course losing out on any dug-in benefits. The Germans, though considered lucky in Wayne's report, did well with just a '7' morale force to overcome the '8' morale defenders and such allegations of luck oft made by my main two opponents have yet to ever be reciprocated in any of my 'loss' reports. Shame on them :-)

Overall, this is a real-steady att/def battle easily playable in a sitting, and with the previous result by Matt an American victory, it is obviously one that either side can win. Good scenario.