This scenario is set in late 1944, a ruined town somewhere in Eastern France.

Late Germans versus Americans.

Table used was our usual 6' by 8'. Call the longer sides North and South.

The central part was relatively clear with two low hills towards the North East and South West, a few small copses spread around. Both of the long ends of the table are fairly close terrain with a number of houses, rubble and warehouse buildings.

T = house; r=Ridge; f=forest

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There are roads between the buildings and central table running East West. There are various bits of low hedges left, mainly along this central road which will provide light cover to infantry within an inch.

Last night, your forces counter attacked and over-ran the Amis in the park area of the city. The original plan was that this would be the first stage in breaking out through the surrounding forces. Both sides took heavy losses in the engagement, yours were lower since your men hold the field.

Morning finds your company victorious but in tatters and necessarily on the defensive.

You should draw a sketch map and map deploy your forces.

The bad news is that you don't know whether the Amis will attack from North or South.

You can expect little chance of artillery support and have long since grown used to the only aircraft in the sky being Allied.

You may deploy anywhere on table, bearing in mind that avoiding the edges is probably a good idea.

As squads are placed on table you may decide whether they are "in position" or not.

All Germans start confident:

In essence this force is three short squads and an HQ group, 3 SP guns and a half track.

These are all average 1 or 2. It’s a significant advantage that the SP guns are netted in to the 251, although having the CO inside this vehicle potentially makes him rather vulnerable.

Vehicles:

1 SdKfz 251

If CO is in here, he may re-activate the bean tins Marders.

3 Marder 2

SP Gun, open topped, d4/d4 armour; d10 AP, belt fed pintle mg34 on shield

Wehrmacht

Remember that your marders must be deployed within 8" of one another to be in command, but you may detach one. As with all detachments this would get a "free" action to fire at obvious enemy but will require use of the troop's actions and an order in order to move.

American Forces

In a night action the Germans infiltrated into the park area and there was a very confused action fought.

Stragglers report various numbers of Germans which just can't be true.

Your CO has ordered you to retake this area and clear it of any Germans.

Rumours are circulating amongst your men of just how many Tigers and SS are holding this area and you know both they and the tanks you've been allocated are unenthusiastic. You know this is just fear of the unknown, but it's a good idea to get ready to gee them up a bit, nonetheless.

Just before your merry band sets off, the XO draws you aside and points out that one slaughter is enough in a day and he reckons you should "get the hell out of dodge" if you encounter heavy opposition.

You pick either the North or South edge of the table to deploy onto and you may deploy up to 6 inches on the table. You may not deploy with a foot of the West or East edges.

If you wish, part of the force can be deployed on turn 1, but it must be clear where the rest will arrive and when.

All Americans start Steady.

Vehicles:

Jeep (for FOO) with radio set

4 half tracks ( .5 cal browning mg d4-1 AP at short range)

Each is allocated to one of the infantry squads which may detach one soldier to man the .5 cal. Drivers are provided, but these just drive the vehicles unless close assaulted - when they fight using m1 carbine.

3 m4 sherman d8/d4 armour. 75mil d8 AP, 30cal on top may be manned by a detached infantry man.

HQ Average 2

CO, SNCO, 30cal tripod mg, 60mil mortar

5 short squads

each: nco with smg + BAR + 7 men with rifles. 2 squads have bazooka

FOO + assistant - armed with m1 carbines firing at q-1

Shermans have a telephone on the rear of the tank which infantry can use to talk to the crew, although re-activating the tanks in this way would prove difficult. Similarly, each half track has a radio in it which can be used to communicate between these, although they are not netted in to the tanks and hence communication to them will be difficult.

Only one detachment may be made from each squad, although the snco could be split off with some men to form another squad.

The US FOO has light artillery allocated, but may attempt to call in heavier guns up to 155. The more experienced player should be given the Germans since the lightly armoured Marders will need very careful handling. The FOO is not in the command structure and hence you should be vague about what guns he definitely has available. You may use this to balance out the scenario. If the Germans deploy well and the Americans badly, give more artillery and suggest maybe some smoke is an idea.

All things being equal, the Germans are likely to be holed up in cover and the FOO will have difficulty in spotting for correction.

I recommend a burst area of 6" diameter. Open topped Marders provide some protection against artillery, but not as much as a fully enclosed tank.

Guns may not be used for a pre-game bombardment as there could still be some Americans out there.

The German player should be allowed a little more latitude in placement than is usual.

If the Americans end up deploying almost right behind a Marder - the German player should be informed that the crew see the Americans forming up and can make a free move.

Once US are deployed, the referee should consult the German players map and or instruct him to place any units in the open and in LoS, any vehicles within LoS.

For a longer game, the referee could map deploy wounded men of one or both sides.

For interest, or in order to balance up any huge problems occur from initial placement, the referee could include the odd extra squad for either side on table.

Maybe the Germans didn't realise the artillery or supply guys following them on the "breakout" and they suddenly get a whole load of extra combat ineffective troops to look after.

Those German squads might already have wounded people they're looking after and hence very brittle morale.

Maybe there's a couple of squads of disarmed Ami prisoners being guarded by one of the squads… and a whole wadge of abandoned small arms in the old US positions.

Either side could have had time to dig in. Germans could be in foxholes or there might be abandoned foxholes the US forces had here which the referee places on table as forces get to within short range.

The German player deployed his meagre forces on the West side of the table and correctly guessed that the US would deploy on the North side of the table. The player was stood on that side, of course he didn't know that the German didn't know where he was coming from.

The German CO was in the 251 next to a Marder guarding a road running North-South with another Marder slightly to it's East. The other Marder was detached and placed behind the South-West ridge.

The US players were both inexperienced and chose to detach one person from each squad into their half track and have the rest on foot. The squads were spread out across the table with the tanks about middle, the FOO to the East and the CO on the East end.

This deployment turned out to be almost ideal for the Germans.

From turn 1 the two Marders started slaughtering the two squads of infantry they could see and there was some confusion on the Americans part. Eventually, the FOO got across to find out what was going on and called down some fire whilst the Shermans drove towards the built up area the two Marders were lurking in. One sherman fell to a Marder, another to the 60mil mortar.

In return the Marders had slaughtered a fair number of US infantry, one of the shermans and most half tracks were burning.

The artillery spotting round landed on the road in front of the Shermans as they drove into the town. The player controlling the shermans seemed to ignore this and the FOO could see neither.

The next turn, in something of a climax of destruction, the detached Marder opened up on one of the shermans from it's side ( and out of automatic sighting ) whilst the front sherman found itself attacked by two panzerfausts, the pz shreck, and it's own artillery landed on the rear decking.

Meanwhile things were not going well for the remaining US infantry who were now outnumbered by the Germans with their CO pinned down and under heavy fire…

The result was a clear German victory.

One regular player reckons that these rules favour the defender - ie "it's hard to attack".

I find no undue problems myself.

The way the rules work does mean that leaving squads "hanging" out in the open with no support tends to mean they get pinned, slaughtered and they eventually rout. This happened in our game, but more central deployment of the US CO and or tanks or FOO could have turned this around. Smoke was available for the 60mil and could have at least forced the Marders out into the open to resume the carnage.