Street fighting ala Stalingrad! This is a very good scenario, but not for the faint of hart. What we have here are two fairly well equiped forces sporting 150mm OBA. Having a decent knowledge of how OBA functions is a must in this scenario if the Germans are going to have to dig the Americans out of the celler locations. And the OBA rules are not really to hard. as the Amrican player In this scenario, don't let those flamepanzers scare you, with a dirth of AT weapons at your disposal those two early war relics will be relegated to nuisance status. Two choices the the American player must make concerning the placement of his observer, the Americans can place him/ or her in an uper level location and hope the Germans dont blow your observer out of the building or being the crafty Americans we are, we can place are observer on the ground level 20Z7, call in an SR and just keep it roving around as a threat or have it go FFE whan the Germans have to start approaching deeper into the victory condition area, this is expecially true when crunch time (i,e its the 2 turns) puts pressure on the German player to attain his VC. This is a nice nasty trick to pull on the Germans, but if your drawing red cards and not making your OBA rolls, you better hope those fortifications put a little dent into the German players timetable. One word to remember with fortification: Channaling, the Americans want to Channal the German player towards his ATG, BAZ teams and M10 GMC's, note; you can not set those AFV's up in a building or Woods locations becouse they are opened topped, so make sure your opponent is aware of this. My opponent placed his Wire with 1 A-T factor in hex 20U9, another in hex 20T8, 20Q6 and 20Y10. The Roadblocks in hexes 20V8 with an M10 HD behind it and 20S5 with an M10 HD. The ATG in 20X1 with a CA of W2/X2. Thus the ATG can cover the crossroads and nearby buildings. Place the AP Mines in Gully hexes 20S8 6 factors and 20Q5 with the other 6 factors. Theres a good 75% chance the Germans might stumble across the minefields trying to get around the wire /A-T mines on the Bridges. Use the 81mm MTR to guard the southeastern approach's into the Victory condition area.
Now for the Germans; the Americans are not the only problem that the Germans must deal with, its also a lack of time. You only have 5 1/2 turns to overcome numerous fortifications, the possibility of OBA comming down on your heads and a compacted battle field. There is only a few suggestions I can offer the German, avoid prep fire other then smoke placement by your Pz IV's to hinder any upper level LOS to avoid getting cut down. If you get the OBA, try to clear any fortifications in your path, keep moving and deploy 30% of your OB, one thing players hate and thats fireing at HS's. Use the Flampanzers as recon.
This scenario can be tough on the Germans due to the time factor, the compacted battle field, the American OBA, but the key to German victory is not in massive fire groups or tank battles in the streets, but to move quickly towards the victory area get into the cellers , blow holes into rowhouse's with your D.C's so as to get to the other side and claim it towards the victory conditions. Use your Pz IVs to generate Smoke so as to cover your approach during the Game, (Hopefully you still have smoke by then,)
I would have to say Rate this Scenario as 55% pro-American. Next time I'll do another analysis / AAR type note on The Slaughter at Krutik.
Mistress Tabitha of Greyhawk