Another solo effort for Elsenborn leaves me wondering about the scenario victory conditions. The Americans get one more VP than the Germans for each town hex they occupy and with the setup each side has eight town hexes under their control, giving the Americans a 24 to 16 lead on turn 1 and a minor victory. This forces the Germans to attack and the Americans to defend and attack at will. So this left me a little puzzled but I still played.

The forces are general even, Germans have more troops, but the Americans have more armor, including a lost platoon of M4/76. The Americans have an edge with OBA, which was a big influence on the game. Leaders were average for both sides, for the Germans a good HPSTFR and OSTFR, for the Americans a good CAPT and LT's.

The setup has the American on the western boards of 23 and 25 and the Germans on 24. The Americans position a company of infantry in the crossroads on board 25 and the rest are defensively setup around the towns on board 23. The hidden tanks on 24 are marked with several blank counters. The German on board 24 setup on the road to force the crossroads on board 25 with the Panthers and PZIVH. Once that is taken they will look at the best approaches to the towns on 23.

Turn 1 starts with a dash up the road by the Germans. They reach the dug in Americans and are hit by devastating OBA, three step losses plus disruptions and demoralization's to their GREN's. The Panthers immediately single out the leader hexes with direct fire and disrupt some INF's. The Americans begin to fall back from the crossroads into the woods and call in more OBA keeping the Germans at bay. Recovery are in order for the SS and soon the GREN's are back on their feet.

Continuing their advance the Panthers move over the ridge with the GREN's go after the Americans company. Close quarters action in the woods leaves both sides bloodied with step losses. Again the SS leader need to recover their GREN's before moving out. Meanwhile the Panthers move slowly toward the towns but a pair of M4/76 cover the area of advance and with a hidden 3in AT lurking they wait for GREN's. But time is ticking away and nearly half the time has gone.

More American M4/76's appear and move to take advantage of the Panthers. The Panthers adjust there position and this stops the advance, but puts the Panthers out of support of any attack on the towns on board 23. The SS GRENs will have to do it on there own. The PZIVH moves to support the attack but is blindsided by the 3in AT gun that scores a hit. Demoralized the tanks retreat into the woods.

The German GREN's position as close as possible to the attack the first town, but American OBA is punishing and disrupt and demoralize the troops before they get started, leaving the SS leaders to rely on their own OBA. Several times the OBA is called in but the reduction for towns makes the 42 firepower shots ineffective. Finally a last desperate advance by the GREN's and one Panther makes it close to the the town, but leaves the flank open for the American M4/76's to dash by the attacking Germans and threaten the German rear. The Panthers give chase, but the speeder M4's make it through the woods before the Panthers. The stream runs out of the German assault as FoW rolls end the turns early. In the end the Germans reduce the American lead put it is too much for them to overcome.

This probably would have gone the other way if the VP's for the towns were the same, forcing the Americans to attack earlier in the game, but who knows another play can yield other results.

Kind of an odd scenario, as both sides should be engaging each other and the Americans start controlling 8 town hexes worth three points each to them on map 23 but the Germans start controlling 8 town hexes worth 2 points each to them on map 24, so if the Germans don’t engage they will lose. But map 25 is between them and the Americans can use most of it to setup and on a forested hill to boot. Artillery is a killer to both sides but especially to the Germans who must move through is. The hidden Sherman tank on map 24 makes no since with special scenario rule #3, as it will never come into play, as all the action will be on maps 23 & 25! Also, there is only 12 German Trucks in this scenario but they need 15, so I played it as is and just assumed three infantry units were on foot.

The Germans must attack and move forward on the map 25 where they are ambushed by Sherman tanks and some Infantry and then blasted with some off board artillery. Both sides also get points for eliminated units besides control of town hexes. On map 25 both sides take some step losses but by the time the Germans arrive on map 23 where the main battle will play out, they are much weaker and the Americans might receive reinforcements in a few turns, so the Germans try harder to take some town hexes on map 23 but the Artillery is raining down on the Infantry and the 76mm AT Gun puts a nice hit on one of the remaining Panther tank platoons.

American reinforcements arrives with more Sherman M4/76s and engages the left over German armor which is now pretty small after be ambushed on map 25 and then hit by AT Guns on map 23 and trying a bad assault. The German Infantry is about gone as fighting force so the Germans have to pull back. The Americans have 46 points to the Germans 40 point, an American Minor Victory.