Panzer Lehr makes massive use of hidden units. This scenario is a great example why. An overwhelming British force is advancing on Panzer Lehr, 1/2 of which is hidden. This is important as they are outnumbered 3-1. Without being hidden they could be seen, and attacked in detail in the wooded populated area. As it is, with clever hidden forces the Germans can extract a terrible toll before surrendering the territory under question. In the first two turns they had caused 11 step losses on the British and careful use of their StGs resulted in many more losses in assaults and a very cautious advance by the British.

The scenario opened up about turn 6 as the British got beyond the wooded entry to the east of the river and advanced on the bridge leading to the town on the western shore. At the same time a combined infantry and armor force advanced towards the town through the wooded hill on the west of the river. They "found" the last bit of hidden forces (1 ENG, 1 HMG and 2 GREN) in the town. They trashed the force coming from the east with artillery and DF from a StG in the town and the infantry/engineer/HMGs destroyed some Shermans and accompanying infantry completely repelling the attacks. The StGs were able to knock out some more Shermans but the British were able to run the table on the east of the river. Unfortunately for them their earlier losses and the short timeframe added up to a German victory 53-40 in points as the eastern shore of the river and the bridges remained in German hands.

Ultimately, it was the ambushes and the hidden units which made the win possible. Without that the British would have been able to avoid the fire and keep from losses which led to the loss. I rate this one a "3", without the hidden forces it would fall to a 2. If you can't play solo with "hidden" units, it will be hard to get much out of this one.

I'm really starting to get the hang of using the Western Allies armor and AT capabilities. British and American armor is more of an infantry support arm as opposed to the German "superior weapon system" approach. The Allies will lose tanks but their job is to help to keep the nasty German stuff in check and to help out the PBI to take the ground necessary. It helps that the Allies typically have plenty of armor so that the losses can be absorbed.

In this scenario nearly a whole brigade of British are trying to take ground quickly from a battalion of Lehr's finest. Lehr has a couple of StGs and will recive a couple of Panthers. The British counter with a bunch of Shermans and some Firefly support.

Daniel set up defense in depth. As a matter of fact, some of his hidden units didn't appear until nearly at the end of the game. As a result I could use the strength of the British force deliberately and was able to force my way into the first large town relatively straightforwardly.

In the mid-game Daniel had to roll four times before his Panthers arrived. I was able to station some Shermans on a wooded hill nearby their entry area. Right after they arrived I received a couple of initiative activations and rather than use them to get the Shermans out of sight I ran off a couple of assaults on town hexes that were teetering. Momentarily blinded by the success of those assaults I forgot that my Sherman crews were apparently taking tea. While they brewed up the Panthers made sure that the Shermans were similarly brewed up.

The loss of these two Sherman platoons was the primary reason that this one ended up as a minor rather than a major British victory (I missed the major victory by one victory point and the Shermans represented 8 VPs).

This one really needs to be played face to face. With such a large troop advantage the Germans need to edge of the hidden units to make a fight of it, even given the short timeframe (14 turns). Having said that, it is a very good and challenging fight for both sides. The British can, and will, take ground away from Lehr but the timeframe forces the British to be exposed to the strong German units which can extract a significant toll. I give it a "4".

Played face-to-face against Matt W in one 3.5 hour session.

You can see pictures of the setup in post #7 of this thread.

I felt that our last battle, scenario #6 of Panzer Lehr, that I had set up my hidden too far forward. Almost all were revealed in the first few activations and it allowed the British commander to press the attack quickly and force my troops in secondary defensive positions too early.

So I decided to set several hidden units farther back this time, too many in my opinion. The British commander advanced a few scouts forward and quickly overran my forward positions in no time. Five or six turns into the game and the British were already contesting the town located in the middle of the board.

The Germans did well defending the town but time was on the British side and it was inevitable the town would fall. While fighting for that town, the British send detachments to capture the bridges and to pin down the Germans defending the other town.

The British were already in major victory territory when the Panthers showed up. The British commander made a mistake and failed to put his Shermans out of harm’s way and the Panthers blew them up. I now had a chance at a minor defeat if I captured back the two bridges (they were defended by one INF unit each) and the British failed to contest an hex of the last town. The Panthers were able to take back the bridges with help from the artillery; the British advanced a few units but they were all disrupted just before the town.. The British had one last shot at a major victory but rolled very badly on their bombardment rolls.

British minor victory!

I rated this one a “4” because there was lots of tension trying to get out of a major defeat. I was also impressed how Matt isolated my troops, not allowing me to shift troops between the towns.

If you play this one as the Germans, do take a look at the pictures I posted and set up your troops differently; you will need to slow down the British attack if you want to have a chance at a win.

The setup for this scenario heavily favors the Brits. They heavily outnumber the Germans and have to cause step losses and control cities to get the victory points. The only question comes down to whether the Germans can damage the Brits and hold enough city hexes to win. The biggest advantage the Germans have is that they're hidden.

This advantage ceases to exist when playing solo. The Brits can never walk into a trap, and hence have little to fear when moving forward. The only problem the Brits had in this episode was to keep the formations together as they attacked. That said, the Germans were very spirited in their defense and getting them out of their holes was difficult.

I rated this a 3 because if the defense the Germans exhibited was coupled with surprise attacks from hidden units, the cohesion the Brits enjoyed would likely disappear. Jumble the British column and gaining victory conditions would improve dramatically.