Allies at start forces set up in the town on Board 20. Axis set up in Castle with the 81mm dug in in hex 0505 next to castle. On turn one the Axis advance out of the castle with a Gren platoon and a 8-0-1 Capt. to hex 0602 on Board 30 as a delaying force. At noon both reinforcement groups arrive as the lead companies make contact. By 12:30 the Allies finally get next to the castle and both sides trade shots until the Allies are fully committed as the Hmg and mortar units were lagging behind due to the muddy conditions. If not for the forced march rule (See Avalanche Web site) they would have been even further behind. In the mean time the Axis were having their own problems getting their reinforcements to come up. By 1:15 the Allied attack was bogging down. Two platoon on the U.S. right routed away from the castle wall and on the U.S. left the axis platoon in the woods was still holding on preventing the Allies from creating a multihex fire group adjacent to the castle. There was a further exchange of fire as the U.S. attempted to reorganize. The Axis platoon in the woods was finally eliminated by a combined arms assault with the M4, Hmg and Inf led by a 9-1-1 Captain. Now that the pesky gren platoon was gone the Americans could now conduct a coordinated assault on the castle proper which they did in short order taking the "courtyard" (entrenchment). The axis lost 3 steps in this action. It was not enough though for the Americans. The scenario ended with the castle proper contested in assault. AXIS VICTORY. This was a really neat scenario that went right down to the last die roll. Adding the forced march rule added a new dynamic that only added to the uncertainty, especially when combined with the mud rule. The variable reinforcement for both sides is also a nice feature.

This was a game played cross-Atlantic over Skype and my first against Matt.W. What a gentleman !! It was a one session game and is a small scenario that looked very interesting when picked by Matt. A force of GI's, that will be reinforced need to capture Schloss Frenzerburg. This is defended by a company of troops from the German 12th Wild Buffaloes Infantry Div (a Div I always put up a strong fight for). They also expect reinforcements, but merely a company of 2nd grade paratroopers (in name only, not quality). The table looks set for a fascinating encounter. However, things went against expectations. Leader selection by Alan Sawyer as the neutral between the two of us selected some real dross for the Americans but included a morale '2' for the Germans

At 1045 hours, Coy.K were north of the castle that was protected by a river. They had decided against approaching from the south side of the river and instead were determined to act out a feint to draw the company of German troops from the 12th Wild Buffaloes eastwards with them and away from the castle.. This was due to the expected arrival of promised US reinforcements between 1100-1130 hours. However, rather than buttoning themselves up in the castle, the Germans had posted a grenadier and HMG platoon on the banks of the river that was also blocking the road that the attack had been expected to come from. As company K headed east, fire from these German positions cut down a step of the inexperienced led GI’s. Now under serious and unexpected heavy fire, the Coy.K advance was beginning to chew on some horrible casualties. Half of the whole company had been cut down within an hour and there was not a sign of the reinforcements. Casualties continued to be absorbed as the uncannily accurate fire from the MG's, backed up by useful artillery support from a distant battery had demoralized the whole of the feint and effectively ended their part in the battle. Their lack of charismatic leaders had proved a decisive issue. The Americans returned fire via OBA, mortars and distant HMG’s but with very little effect. This was mainly due to the experienced officer commanding the Germans here who made sure their good order remained intact.

As this one-sided duel developed and the Germans continued to demonstrate the fact that Schloss Frenzerburg was being defended by sharpshooters, reinforcements of their own had arrived in the guise of the newly minted 2nd grade Luftwaffe Fallschirrmjager. These busied themselves in digging in around the edge of the schloss to effectively create a second tier of defence.

The US reinforcements arrived between 1245-1300 hours. This was over an hour or more late and almost a pointless exercise given the muddy conditions. But, if the schloss was to be taken, then these reinforcements would need to do it on their own. Advancing eastwards towards Frenzerburg south of the river, they used the main road. The commanding officer in the schloss spotted a whole company of the GI’s grouped together with some engineers priming flame-throwers. He wasted no time in calling down artillery at them. The Americans withstood this relatively light barrage well, with just one platoon disrupted, but their advance continued through the mud. A lone M4 platoon raced ahead to try and engage the defenders usefully, but his fire was proving pretty ineffective.

About 1345 hours, the US reinforcements had reached the foot of the hill of Schloss Frenzerburg. So the attack could get within assaulting range, the GI’s moved forward and met with fearful results. Two thirds of the men in the three platoons were sliced down by HMG fire from the castle and the dug-outs and the flame-throwers were stopped in their tracks also. That was the end of the battle as a total of 8 US infantry steps had been lost without any discernable casualties put onto the enemy. They were also two rows of defences away from the castle-keep and with only a short time remaining, the US troops gave up the ghost and pulled away from the area. Losses: US 8 INF steps, German 0 steps. German victory.

Now I try to make a point of never claiming my opponent was lucky and I will not begin here. However, my fire was frightening !! Whenever required, X results were turning up and mowing down the US 90-dayers in droves. I WAS lucky with fire today and even managed to 'call' correct numbers to assist Matt's troops fail morale checks.... eerie ! When the game started, Matt's dice roller was not working. I am SOOOooooo glad he logged into mine ! There is no way he would have believed the run of dice results had I merely called them to him without him viewing it for himself. Honour preserved :-) Also funny was the fact that had those results come against Alan, Wayne or I we would probably have been cursing. Matt just laughed heartily (in disbelief presumably). However, to defend my honour further, I guess you have to have your troops in the right place to take advantage. Thats my answer and I'm sticking to it :-)

I enjoyed the scenario (funnily enough) but it did NOT follow the expected flow I had imagined beforehand. I had expected an end of game last dice roll of the game tussle for the castle. My sharpshooters prevented anything like that. But I still give it a friendly '3'.

It would be nice but unfair to say that masterful German tactics and cunning won this game but that would be unfair. This scenario has a small German force defending a hilltop castle against a similar sized US force, both sides receive reinforcements on a roll of 5 or 6 during the game. These reinforcements are vital to the success of the mission for both sides. Tony, playing the assaulting American commander had to wait till game turn 15 of 16 before his reinforcements arrived, that meant he had no real chance of completing his mission. Shame because should both set of reinforcements arrive in reasonably time this promises to be a good little scenario. There is a good mix of units for a small scenario and its variable reinforcements make for lots of replay value. In our game US commander once he realised the reinforcements would arrive too late to swing the game used woods to outflank the excellent German defensive position however this move ran into the German paratrooper reinforcements and got bogged down some 40m from the objective. **And thats the issue with this scenario if the reinforcement rolls are unequal it will be a one sided contest however not a bad scenario for a quickie.*

I will preface the entire AAR by saying that this scenario looked an interesting one and despite the tardiness of my reinforcements and the lack of focus on the part of my artillery, this played as a good scenario. As Wayne mentioned, it provided a nice array of troops where being able to coordinate the initial attackers and reinforcements and sound tactical play could win the day. As it happened, the reinforcements got lost and the artillery was firing but obviously it was on a different battlefield.

The Germans were dug in on the western edge of the bailey (castle hill) with their supporting mortar behind the castle. The Americans had 3 INF, HMG and a LT 1011 in the fields behind the small woods on board 20 and an INF, ENG and SGT 901 in the town (0803) with the Mortar and CAPT 800 behind (0804). The US plan was to bring the larger portion of the company to the edge of the woods and keep the dug in units busy while the ENG, INF and SGT 901 raced down the road around the woods to flank the castle and get in position to be ready when the reinforcements arrived.

The key to the US winning this scenario is the arrival of the reinforcements in a reasonable amount of time in order to get into position in order to overwhelm the defenders. The plan started as expected, with the units in the fields moving into position in the woods with the mortar providing some support where it could from the town. As we both had minimal off-board artillery and only one mortar per side, we would need to be lucky to cause any significant damage. The INF and HMG with the LT did their jobs, absorbing mortar and artillery fire and recovering while the SGT with the ENG and INF moved north of the castle to wait for the additional reinforcements. As the turns passed by, Artillery fell aimlessly for the most part, with both US and German fire proving highly ineffective. The Luftwaffe finally answered the call about halfway through the battle and as the later turns arrived, I realized that the reinforcements were not coming. After pinning down the approaching Luftwaffe Engineers with withering direct fire, The ENG/INF/SGT moved back into the woods and the other INF units the HMG and LT made it around the north end with a few casualties (2 steps) as well to setup an assault where the defensive fire would not be as concentrated. After several turns of direct fire to soften up the castle, the assault went in and on the same turn (15, yes that is FIFTEEN) the reinforcements finally showed up! At that point, I was strictly concerned with evening up the casualty count and by the end of Turn 16, we had attacked but could not breach the Castle.

I was really hoping to rate this scenario higher as it looked like an interesting and quick scenario. Wayne and I finished it in just over 3 hours so for a one session game, I really had high hopes for it. However, having set a new record for the lack of reinforcements (turn 15 of a 16 turn scenario), it really was a lost cause. As there was no way to provide any real threat of attack, our casualties were somewhat low (2 US steps, 2 German steps) as I continually attempted to move in order to get into a favorable position. I think Wayne hit it on the head where should both reinforcements show up in mid game - say between turns 6 and 8, it sets up to be a great battle with some interesting tactical options. As it is, it provides replay value as I could have received reinforcements on turn 2 and could have been in a much better position. A good scenario, regardless and one that I would consider playing again.

This was my first play with Vince Hughes and it was quite enjoyable for me as a player. I presume it was less pleasant for my troops.

The initial American force was sent north of the castle and river to draw the attention of the German defenders, hopefully to engage them in action and permit the reinforcements who are substantially more effective to deal with the arriving Luftwaffe engineers. As in all cases, the best laid plans were dashed by reality.

Vince's defenders were able to hit the initial force with several step losses, most from X results rather than do ble demoralizations. As this force melted away the reinforcements failed to arrive. The first possible turn for their arrival was turn 2 but apparently they stopped for lunch along the way and had to clean up after themselves and therefore arrived on turn 9 instead. Meanwhile the German reinforcements arrived on turn 4, moved to the castle and were able to dig in before the Shermans ran up through the mud to fire at them.

Still the Americans felt that merely giving up was not appropriate so the supporting infantry and flamethrowers trudged forward. The flamethrowers were disrupted along the way and stopped for a while to recover and the infantry came into view. While the hope on turn 13 was pretty darn forlorn it was still hope as two infantry platoons came into view of the castle. After the opportunity fire (successive die rolls of 12, 3 and 2) eliminated three steps of the attackers it became clear that the castle would hold out quite nicely.

Total American losses 8 steps, total German losses 0, although there was a moment during which one of the units was demoralized. No doubt from having too little to do...

Vince constantly reminded me that this was probably not the expected flow of the scenario. 8 turns of an inability to roll a 5 or 6 on the reinforcement roll, while statistically possible is not something you would bet on. A less aggressive commander would have had his initial force wait until the reinforcements came into view and perhaps that would be a better approach overall for the Americans. Nevertheless, if the Luftwaffe reinforcements can make it to the castle before the Americans can come to grips with the initial defenders it will be very tough for the Americans to win this one. My rating is, of course, affected by the lack of arrival of the reinforcements and the inability to anticipate such a wait. I give it a "2" but can see that, with any normal result a race for the castle will result and a much more lively scenario could ensue. Thanks to Vince for soldiering on despite the foregone conclusion.