I posted this a while back on CSW and didn't get any reply so I thought I'd try here. I've moved beyond the Starter Kit scenarios, but I'm still curious:
I set up SK5 "Clearing Colleville" for some solitaire study. Several play-throughs later I confess I still don't have a clue what the US is supposed to be doing in this scenario.
The Germans set up in the stone buildings in the center of the board y town. They're outnumbered, and have second string leadership. But they've also got a HMG and clear fields of fire. The Americans start from west of town, and along the northern board edge. They don't get any cover beyond grain and a few woods hexes. There's a wooden building along the north edge, which the German player has the option of occupying with a speed bump squad. So what's the GI to do? Take advantage of the superior US firepower and form into kill stacks? Maybe, but any half-way competent German player will be skulking, and the grain will prove as much a hinderance to the US player's shots as to the German's. These are 1st line US squads, so they've got 6 morale and an ELR of 3--even a NMC on a kill stack has the potential to wreak havoc. Did I mention the game is five turns long? So the US can't afford much Prep fire. Smoke you say? Nice for crossing streets, but less useful when there are three or four open hexes that need to be traversed under fire. Even assuming good die rolls to place the Smoke, the 2 MF penalty to place and the +1 cost to enter will slow the US advance to a crawl even as it shelters it--not viable under such a strict time table.
Sure the US kill stacks could get lucky dice, force the German forward defenders to break early, and then storm their way into town. Sure the German could malf the HMG. But that's not what I call a repeatable strategy. ROAR has this at 6-4 US, so someone must be doing something right. Enlighten me?
