Curtis & I just finished off AP133 TWO THE HARD WAY from the last Action Pack. This I thought was an interesting scenario that really presented me, the Germans, an challenging puzzle of how to set up a respectable defense with few troops (half 2nd line), average to generally poor leadership and with two out of 4 PBs available, that although containing 105mm HOWs, are facing in the wrong direction (part of the VC & set up restrictions) against a strong well led American force. That force contains DC's, a FT, a Hero and plenty of firepower not to mention half of the units are Elite including AEs & sappers as well as containing an M4A1 Medium Tank. If that weren't enough, the Germans have no PFs available. I was able to purchase various other force multipliers such as mines, wire, fortified building locations, etc. but my other 2 PBs & 8 trenches were restricted to set up in a specified area. The battle-space is depicted by the use of 2 half boards, 66 & 3 (including the 3M2 building and the 2 major hills) with the Americans able to enter almost at your door step.
Some of the choices for the defense are almost no-brainers such as defending the 3M2 building to the last as it's a DIP (Die In Place) mission to delay the G.I.s and using your remaining 2 PBs & trenches to defend Hill 547, the challenge how to maximize the effect of every unit your given; it's no time to just let the crews of the 105s hunker down in their +7 NCA PBs as they must be an active part of your defense plan. The Americans as well must get the very best use of his units even though 7 turns initially seems adequate for the task(s) at hand (?). The hero with a morale of 9 is a natural choice to hump the FT but the you don't want to expose him to fire too soon with that weapon, so you may lose his all important -1 pip to multi-location FGs as 20+ FGs were not an uncommon occurrence for them; your choice has to be very well thought out. Use of the AE/sappers is also critical as they will be breaching or at least searching for minefields. In the end I was able to hold out but only because of a couple of lucky events: his tank running afoul of an A-T mine, a prolonged defense of 3M2, and his Hero dieing to a wound check. I sweated every DR we made for whatever reason. I give this a solid recommend though I feel Curtis probably less so.