The Germans finally close in

Continuing the T3 Rangers Stronghold scenario, it became clear that the Germans would have to simply rush the hill in an almost suicidal attempt to overwhelm the slowly dwindling Americans with their quite large advantage of numbers. The problem is that there's no smoke available from mortars or OBA so the Germans attack can only go so far before it really does become a matter of throwing a few units forward as a blatant sacrifice in a desperate bid to engage the enemy at close hand. It didn't help that the infantry utilising their individual smoke grenades kept managing to fail their smoke rolls anyway, several times in a row if truth be told.

So this is the situation.

The Americans decide to pull back as the Germans rush the hill

As you can see, the Americans can see the way the wind is blowing and decide they're better off just pulling right back and letting the Germans rush right into their gunsights. And for a while it looked like it might work, but unfortunately a few lucky shots from German machine guns that had managed to flank them and fire at point blank range meant they lost a couple more units, one a veteran, the other a commander which in itself allowed the Germans to take too much ground. While this was happening in the south, in the north more Germans were beginning to make progress along the road in a clear attempt to flank the slowly retreating Americans.

Here's how things shaped up after the Germans managed to flank the Americans in both the south and the north.

The Germans outflank the dwindling Americans

Even though the Germans have lost a good number of troops, the Americans are clearly surrounded with nowhere to go. Had there been a few less Germans still in the fight it might have been worthwhile fighting on for while longer, but in reality at this point it really did seem like a forgone conclusion. 

A few things to note. 

I realised far too late that I'd labelled the MGs incorrectly. I had LMG at 2d6, MMG at 3d6. This should have been 3d6 and 4d6 respectively. Oh well, next time. Another thing was the lack of options for the Bazookas after the tanks had been dispatched. They did a great job disposing of those quite early on but afterwards I found there was very little I could use them for. They could have been used on units in buildings apparently, but this was a battle that revolved almost entirely around that hill. Very few buildings in play at all. Not much I could do there really.

So, once again I've found that these rules are really at their best when units are on the move. The minute units are stationary and trading shots it becomes too easy to slip into slugging back and forth and hoping for good rolls. There were a couple of moments where I had to force myself to throw troops forward, often against all common sense just to get things moving again. The lack of smoke from mortars and OBA was an issue here and would have made a big difference I think.

In the end it was an enjoyable battle but one that highlighted the odd issue, not outright problem as such, but definitely something that might need a bit of thought to make sure future battles don't get bogged down in trading gunfire at the expense of movement and manoeuvre.

See you on the next battlefield.