This is an action on a hill in Italy. It is fairly small and as I set it up I thought there wouldn't be much replay value to it, but the variable setup options and the clever victory conditions make this a very good scenario.

The Germans start in possession of the hilltop and the town. The Nisei are allowed to setup anywhere on the lower hill levels. There are also German reinforcements who will start a counter-attack on turn one. Nominally this is an American assault on the hilltop or town, but with the German counter-attack it is really about keeping the Americans alive and in play. The American player can setup for a hill assault, deploy to infiltrate a few units up the hillside or setup to counter the arriving Germans. The open deployment leaves a lot of possible actions.

The Germans have to meet two of these three victory conditions (and get a major victory if they achieve all three): 1) Hold the hilltop and town; 2) No American units at level 40 or highter at game end; 3) Eliminate five American steps while loosing fewer steps than the Americans. I started the game by having a few American units slide up to 40 meters to hold ground and prevent that victory condition. As the American commander I calulated that I couldn't take a town or hilltop hex in the face of the German counter-attack, but I might be able to hold a 40 meter hex while taking fewer than five step losses.

The mid-game saw the Americans digging in and trying to keep the Germans at bay, while the Germans moved forward and pounded away with artillery and direct fire. The Germans also launched a company sized flank force out of the town towards the dug in American morters in an effort to either kill easy morter steps or draw some of the infantry down from the 40 meter level.

With four turns left it looked like a possible American victory: there were three American stacks at 40 meters and only three American casualties. The Germans assaulted an isolated morter position to bring them up to four steps killed and demoralized one of the stacks at 40 meters. The demoralized units fled rather than rally which seemed like a good thing because it put them further at range making another step loss less likely. With two turns left the American still held two 40 meter hill hexes and had four step losses. Then it all fell apart. The Germans who'd moved adjacent to one of the remaining dug in 40 meter stacks opened up on the 16 column and rolled a 2X! Then a lucky morter shot on the other 40 meter stack killed a morter unit and demoralized the remaining American left at 40 meters. It fled the hillside on it's rally attempt leaving the Germans with all three of their victory conditions.

Another reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I'm afraid. In the movie a black (well his armor is black anyway) knight resists King Arthur's progress and is serially delimbed, despite a continued resistance involving kicking (when both arms had been removed) and head butting, when only one leg remained. Upon removal of the last limb King Arthur made to leave the area and the black knight yelled in defiance the line above.

Throughout the scene the frustration of King Arthur with the continued resistance of the completely defanged adversary built up. I now know exactly how that felt. In this scenario, a somewhat battered Nisei battalion is charged with the task of attacking a German force of roughly similar size split between a hilltop and a town. The Germans are in superb defensive ground and have more artillery than the Nisei and to top it off they have another two companies of infantry and a platoon of StuGs arriving on turn one.

Since this is only a three hour (12 turn) scenario, there is nothing for it but to try to get into the victory locations as soon as possible. The Nisei move quickly to gain assault hexes on turn two on the town and the lower slopes of the hill. They experience hideous losses (4 steps) on turn one from Opportunity Fire. On turn two they press the attacks into the town and the hill losing another 4 steps but gaining a lodgement in the town and an adjacent hex to the hill. At this point the Germans have lost no troops and the Nisei have lost nearly 1/2 their force. Consider both arms off the black knight at this point.

Turn three is the removal of the first leg as the StuG and engineers push the Nisei back out of the town and the 60 m hill hexes are cleared from the turn 2 trouble. Another five steps are thrown into the loss column but in this case the Germans actually lost two.

The black knight, excuse me, the Nisei come back to head butt the Germans with a final assault in both locations on turn 4, entering the town again and gaining another 60 m hill hex.

Finally on turn 5 (of 12) the last leg is removed as the town is cleared and the hill relieved. With only three steps remaining of non-weapon units the Nisei, while screaming about kneecaps, are no longer capable of a coherent assault and the German masses, now outnumbering the Nisei about 7 to 1, are content to let them yell their defiance from safe locations.

The Nisei morale of 8/8 permits them to continue to fight well past the point that any rational force would run away (another oblique reference to MP and the Holy Grail) and well past the point at which continued attacks provide anything more than a butcher's bill. The complete lack of the mass necessary to carry the assault makes this remarkably accurate (Read the Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson for a stunningly clear presentation of the inadequate preparation of the Americans for the style of combat they would face in the early going in Italy and the battle for Sant Angelo d'Alife in particular). I give it a 4 for the historic appeal.