Played this one as the Germans against my local ftf opponent. Let me tell you if you like shooting Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks this is the scenario for you.
The Americans get a bunch of various halftracks and Shermans, plus some infantry to boot.
This is a fairly short scenario in game turns, but the Ami OB is not small, so it overall is a moderate length (but tournament length) scenario. Germans get an all infantry force of 467's/447's/436's and a bunch of MG's and one schreck, plus their generous PF capability as usual. In this scenario I came the closest I believe that I ever have in exhausting my full PF capability. Watch those Shermans burn!
VC's center around the Amis clearing a road path free of GO German MMC's in or ADJACENT to that road path through boards 6 and 3. The Germans can't move into board 6, so really the Amis need only clear a path through board three.
My opponent picked this scenario and the Amis, and so I had to come up with a German setup "cold" without too much thought to go into it. I set up a force of about 4 conscripts and a 447 with MMG and leader in the vicinity of hill 522 on board 3, and the rest of my OB were in the board three village.
The Ami split his forces up, with about one third of his forces attacking my hill 522 forces, and the rest pressing into the village. The fight in and around hill 522 went my way. I had set up those forces to prevent the Ami from easily flanking the board 3 village, and after fausting a Sherman, and a MG kill against a halftrack, he decided to shift the surviving forces of that flank to the fight for the board three village.
Truthfully, I think I set up too much to protect the hill 522 flank, as it is unlikely that the Amis will be able to clear the rubble in time and clear a road path free of Germans, so in retrospect I believe I would limit my forces in that area to only a couple of conscripts and a 447 with 8-0 and MMG. I overdid it and actually moved a conscript squad or two into the fight for the board three village.
So what about the main attraction, the fight for the board three village? Well for the first three turns it was going quite well for me. My faust shots had killed a couple of aggressive Shermans and MG shots had killed several halftracks, and his infantry was only now getting into position. I had taken few losses myself.
Turn four was the turning point, as two critical events happened. First I had taken enough losses to take my second BI ELR check, and I failed it by rolling very high, and my ELR dropped to ONE. My ftf opponent and I always play battlefield integrity, whether it is "fair" in the scenario or not. Second critical event was him successfully infiltrating some of his armor into the board three village and cutting off my best rout paths. The two events combined meant that my guys were getting reduced from fighting men to a rabble in no time flat. He ended up killing a lot of my Germans in the vicinity of building q7 for failure to rout or forcing them to rout to upper building levels where their days were certainly numbered.
I did however still have two squads, my best leader, and the PSK in a woods hex (r1) next to a road hex that he had to clear, and another squad with MMG in the infamous 3M2 building, who could move in one turn to get in the way of the road. And the Germans move last, so he had to break all of these guys or get into melee, etc. He moved up no fewer than three halftrack of various models adjacent to the PSK stack, getting desperate to take them out. I was concealed and survived three bounding first fire shots from the halftracks. In my defensive fire phase I killed two of the halftracks, one with a faust, the other with a schreck shot, and they burned quite nicely and set up some excellent smoke cover for this position. By this time my resistance in the village itself was finished, kaputt, and so this position was one of the last to save the win for me. He had I believe two shermans left in his OB, and perhaps two halftracks, but he also had a LOT of infantry in the village, and CC is what I was worried about. My 8-0/MMG/447 in the 3M2 building got hit by ordnance from a sherman and broke as they were walking down the stairwell, and the squad broke, so that was one less squad I had to work with. In my prep fire of turn four I flamed his last halftrack with a PF shot from range one, only bad news is that the PSK missed and the other squad stacked with him was forced to shoot a PF and I really wanted to move him to another position across the road. In his defensive fire he eliminated a squad or two in the village or captured them, causing another BI ELR check, and I promptly failed that one (should have passed on something like a nine or ten), and so my ELR dropped to ZERO, causing yet more headaches for me.
His last turn saw a scramble to get his last two shermans into position to shoot at my PSK squad and the 8-1/447 squad that was close by near r1, as well as getting as many of his infantry squads into position to fire at me. His advancing fire was totally ineffective due to the cover of the woods, his cx status, and the smoke hindrances from the burning halftracks all around this position. I am holding on with all of two GO squads and a broken squad near the 3M2 building. In my last turn, I attempted to rally the squad that had been in that building but did not. I had a 467 with the 8-1 and a PSK with a 447 and that was it. The PSK squad was in 3r1, and the 8-1 squad was in 3q1. He had about a platoon of infantry in p1. I deployed the 467 in my rally phase, giving me three MMC that he had to break. I took a prep fire shot with the PSK squad at some adjacent infantry (I think an 8-0 with squad) in s1 and broke them. The two 247 HS both moved using assault movement. One went to p0 on a suicide mission to draw fire, unfortunately it was casualty reduced and thus no counter was remaining on the board to prevent his SFF from my next move, which was to AM the other HS with the 8-1 into r0. Since he did in fact kill the suicide HS, I did not feel secure in moving the remaining 247 using AM into r0, and so I felt the better move was to move using AM into r1 with the PSK squad. The only thing I did not like about this move was the probability of eating some 75mm HE from his two remaining shermans, and letting him only half to shoot at one hex. At this point it is his last defensive fire phase and I am hanging on with a 447, 8-1, and 247 all in r1 woods and all with ELR zero, staring down two sherman turrets close by, but obscured by burning wrecks.
All of his infantry shots were with high drms due to his cx status and smoke hindrances, and I think he gave me no MC's. Then the shermans opened up with HE. He got a low odds ITT hit and gave me a NMC which everyone passes but the 447 was pinned but that essentially was inconsequential. He shot the other sherman ITT and got a multiple hit to boot. He rolled to high on BOTH DR's and so I don't think I took a MC from those shots but if I did I passed. Finally he IF'ed both shermans. One missed but the last one hit, and gave me a 1MC. Did I tell you that this was absolutely the last shot for him? Well my 8-1 passes his 1MC without pinning, the 247 breaks, and now it is up to the pinned 447 for the game. He passed but pinned again, and the Germans won on the last DR of the game on the last turn of the game.
Exciting scenario. Americans can be extremely aggressive as there is no CVP cap for them. Ditto for the Germans, but they need to perform sort of a fighting withdrawal. At game end my infantry had been really worked over, but all of his halftracks were wrecked, and all but two shermans were wrecked. His infantry force was largely intact, but had not moved forward fast enough to make real trouble. Had he been just a bit more aggressive with them he would have been able to get into CC with me on his last turn, and probably would have won the game. I ended up shooting 11 out of 18 possible PF's I think, which is about as heavy a percentage of PF shots as I have ever taken I believe. It obviously was a very close scenario and I won by the skin of my teeth.
One fun bit for me was my sniper stunning the inherent crew of a halftrack on the road going around the board three village during my prep fire phase. In the movement phase I moved up a 467 squad into an adjacent stone building, and they survived all defensive fire. My advancing fire with the lmg did nothing, so I passed my PAATC and went into CC. Rolled for and got a ATMM, and the final CC odds were: CCV 5, -1 drm immobile, -2 drm OT AFV, -1 drm no usable MG's, -3 drm ATMM for a final kill number of twelve (plus maybe another drm that I am forgetting now). I rolled low enough for a brew up. Nice things those german ATMM's if you are not on the receiving end! Despite not being new to ASL this is the first time I have ever gotten an ATMM to work and make a difference in CC.
All in all I would recommend this scenario, but it looks like a lot more fun for the Americans than the Germans. The only fun that the german is going to have is HEAT shots, and MG shots at halftracks, but his infantry force is going to take it in the neck eventually. Oh I suppose that the german might get into CC with some unsupported armor that is on the road in the board three village and take it out with an ATMM or maybe via street fighting.
The American on the other hand gets a nice infantry/armor force and can be extremely aggressive with his OB (and needs to do so) and play an entirely different game from most other scenarios. But I don't believe this scenario would have been my pick from the offerings in the annual, as I think there are more interesting choices (to me at least) from the annual. I think my opponent was just in the mood to play the Amis with some Ami armor. And he seems to like scenarios without a CVP cap a lot (and I gotta admit I do too).
Mike Clay