First off, we designed our lists in secret, and when revealed it turned out that while the US Army had brought all infantry to the battle, the Germans had gone for anti-armour defence! This left the Germans in a pickle to start with.
Next we rolled for scenario, and got Delaying Action. Fortune smiled on the Germans as the main aim in this scenario is for the US to get troops off the German board edge... and with them not having taking a single transport, that wasnt gonna happen in the time limit! The Germans chuckled to themselves as the only hope for the US was to either break the German morale by turn 9 or take all the objectives. Of course that could never happen...
So the German commander (me) stepped up and arrogantly rolled for starting units, with a Tuetonic sneer at the rather dejected US players... Only needing a 4+ for each unit to be on the table at the start, the Germans felt confident of enough to allow them to hold on. It was at this point that Lady Luck shat on the Germans from a great height. I rolled virtually all 2s and 3s. By the end of it, we had one Hetzer (the officer) and an MG team and a Rifle team. Our only saving grace was the Fortified House defence we had got, which went on the brick building in the main line and into which all our infantry piled, and the single Pre-Registered Target point for our mortars which we placed in the outskirts of the little village.
It all went pretty horrid from the start. By turn three all the US forces were on table and advancing, while the Hetzer was already burning... The mortars bombed the village every turn, using harrassment barrages to pin as many troops as possible, and once in range of our troops in the house they too opened up with area fire to pin down the enemy advance. To add insult to injury, we didnt manage to roll 5+ for our reserves to come on until turn 5... and then only 1d6 worth!
But in that time, something amazing happened. The Rifle Team in the fortified building survived everything the US could throw at them - MG fire, rifle fire, mortars, 105s... The kitchen sink. They just made save, after save, after save... Even agaonst two direct artillery hits in one turn! With Gruppenfuhrer Skip in command they just held on, even wiping out a US unit that tried to assault them.
They held out till Turn 8, and in doing so allowed the German reinforcements to move up and cover all approaches to the objectives. But it wasnt all good... As Turn 9 dawned, the Germans were two points off their BR... In a last gasp to win the US did all they could to try and take out German units, but nothing worked till an errant 4.2" mortar bomb went in through one of the Hetzers hatches! The resultant boom forced the Germans to draw a chit and they pulled a 2 to sit firmly on their breakpoint... With the US turn over, the Germans still (just!) on the field, it went to a German win, and all of it was down to five soldiers, in a fortified house holding up the advance of two US infantry platoons... aided by some truly epic dice rolling from Skip.
Which was the biggest surprise of course.
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