davegin
Senior Member
Just finished up. Kev Killeen took the attacking Germans against my defending Americans. I started the defense by rubbling the two story steeple building and the school to eliminate any 1st or 2nd levels. I used only two squads with 4 dummies to defend the three VC locations on my left flank. I kept two 1/2 squads up front on the right to try to force the attack to come at my right and center. The HIP AT gun was in the rear on the right covering the open plowed field area with two foxholes with supporting mmg and baz. Two of the M18s were concealed in the woods adjacent to the back 4 VC locations while the third with the 9-1 was in the far rear looking up the road. I set up three foxholes in front of the back 4 VC with Bertoldo, a 9-1, squad and mmg to fire lane the roads in the center and on my left. The other two holes had the 60mm mtr and a baz with 1/2 squads. The 81mm mtr was emplaced on the road between two of the rear VC locations. The attack came off as expected with Kev barreling down his right side toward the lightly defended three VC buildings. This allowed me to reposition my right flank defenders more toward the center. By turn three he had the first three building with only a loss of two 1/2 squads, but I had successfully pulled back without any losses. No WP with the light mtr and the 81 broke down, later to be permanent. Kev continued to push my left flank but did veer troops to attack the center. He managed to knock out one of the M18s causing a blaze in the woods but it cost him one PV when a baz scored a crit. He was managing to worm some infantry around the rear to threaten the back two VCs so I gunned up the 9-1s M18 and moved it up the road and parked between all four rear buildings. I broke the other M18 out of the woods and drove it forward to DM a squad and threaten his reinforcement of the center. This could have been costly as his remaining panther had an LOS when I stopped albeit through three orchards and a hedge as well as being a small target. He missed the first fire and again on his prep which was costly as the M18 then spun its turret and scored a crit on the panthers hull. Kev tried to get his 12 FP 1/2 track behind two broken squads and the broken 8-1 who had failed their MCs in the center four buildings only to get acquired by the now unhip AT gun. The ami infantry was lost for failure to rout but his 1/2 track got flamed the following turn. One his second last turn, he tried to use the other 12 FP track to overrun the AT gun which missed when it spun, however the crew passed the ensuing 2 MC and IF'd with yet another crit to flame it in its own hex. He then ran a loaded 1/2 track past and unloaded next to the gun but advanced the squad toward the VCs. The gun then fired out of the smoked and scored a kill on that track. On my last turn I used infantry smoke to get the lt. mtr crew back across the street and retake one of the center VCs and then another in the Advance. Going into the last turn, Kev still needed 7 of the ten VCs (as I had a functioning MA vehicle and he did not). However, he did have enough manpower to do it with CCs. The biggest concern was the ever looming 9-2 with his three squads. Although the infantry failed to stop their advance next to the needed two VCs the 9-1s M18 spun from its position in the street two hexes away and fired. The 9-2 pinned but the squads broke. Kev was able to get his two demos placed and broke the one defending 2nd line squad but in the center the 6-6-6 survived and after pinning the squad that was to advance into CC. It wasn't necessary to play out the last CCs as the americans would still hold onto at least two VCs and prohibit the win.
This was a tight battle right down to the end. The rolls were fairly balanced for us both although Kev had the edge on active snipers. We both agree that the German may be slightly favored but a good American defense of defending only til untenable and limiting the german shots. can prevail as in this case. Any American defender who sets up forward will get destroyed and the german will run right by him. Challenging the panthers with the M18s will also end badly. This was the second Hatten scenario we layed as we are doing them in order. Scenario #1 (Bad Day In Hatten) was also equally as close with an American victory on the last turn. So far it looks as though Mr. Rogers scenarios are proving to both be exciting and balanced. On to #3.
This was a tight battle right down to the end. The rolls were fairly balanced for us both although Kev had the edge on active snipers. We both agree that the German may be slightly favored but a good American defense of defending only til untenable and limiting the german shots. can prevail as in this case. Any American defender who sets up forward will get destroyed and the german will run right by him. Challenging the panthers with the M18s will also end badly. This was the second Hatten scenario we layed as we are doing them in order. Scenario #1 (Bad Day In Hatten) was also equally as close with an American victory on the last turn. So far it looks as though Mr. Rogers scenarios are proving to both be exciting and balanced. On to #3.