Tactics in Panzer Grenadier: Airborne
By Doug McNair
June 2009

After exploring the wide-open sands of Desert Rats in a previous tactical analysis, our release of Airborne: Introductory Edition gives me the opportunity to deal with a much more intimate WWII tactical setting today. As in Guadalcanal (the subject of a previous article), the antagonists in Airborne have to fight the terrain as much as they do each other. But the Normandy countryside presents a very different set of challenges than the jungles of Tulagi. Attackers have a greater degree of tactical flexibility, while defenders have a variety of options for slowing the progress of the enemy and making them pay dearly for each hex taken.

The main factors that drive play in Airborne are:

Hedgerows

The Airborne board is dominated by an irregular network of hedgerows that run along the hexsides. Each hedgerow hexside has significant defensive benefits: It blocks line of sight (except for spotting or spotted units directly behind the hexside), forces a -2 column shift on the direct fire table for attackers firing through it, and lets defenders in an assault fire first at (and do damage to) attackers who enter their hex through the hedgerow. Add to that the fact that foot units pay +1 MP to cross a hedgerow, mechanized units pay +4 MP, and motorized units can’t cross a hedgerow at all, and any defender in Airborne has a ready-made lattice of natural defensive works which he can use to foul and slow even overwhelming attacks.

But attackers are not without options in hedgerow country. Unlike jungle hexes, which all block LOS, slow movement equally, and prevent leaders from activating units in adjacent hexes, hedgerows are more permeable. Leaders can activate and influence units normally through hedgerow hexsides, so they can set up long chains of command through subordinate leaders and direct their units to wrap around enemy flanks. Plus, hedgerows follow irregular paths down connecting hexsides, so not all sides of any given hex will have hedgerows. This means that units can take the time to move around the flanks of enemy units and hit them from hexsides that don’t have hedgerow protection. This is the best way to force defenders back while minimizing losses.

Hedgerow country.

Swamps

A river cuts through the Airborne board, surrounded by a five-hex-wide area of swampland. Swamp hexes provide excellent cover for units massing for an assault, while still allowing them to spot enemy units and call in artillery strikes. Units in a swamp hex that don’t fire (or which move after firing) can’t be spotted by non-adjacent enemy units. However, swamp hexes don’t block LOS, so units in the swamp can fire at enemy units within normal spotting range whenever they want to.

Swamp hexes also give excellent defensive benefits, because foot units pay 2 MP to enter them, and motorized and mechanized units can’t enter them at all. This means that tanks and armored cars can only shoot from a distance at units on the other side of a swamp, unless they or other units can force their way down the only road on the board that crosses it.

Roads and Towns

He who controls the roads controls the game. Tanks who try to off-road it through the hedgerows might as well be off at a barbecue for all the progress they’ll make, and trucks, jeeps, motorcycles and armored cars can do nothing but skirt the edges of the battlefield without road access. For this reason, Airborne is very much an infantry-driven game, at least until the infantry opens the roads enough for tanks to move through and provide the punching power necessary to breach enemy defenses. But the roads run through town hexes, and each town gives cover and column shifts to defenders, so opening the roads is a slow process.

Delaying Tactics

Because of the excellent defensive properties of the Normandy terrain, attackers need to keep enemy units under constant pressure from bombardment and close-range direct fire while moving units into position for assaults once enemy morale breaks.

Defenders must therefore position their leaders among clusters of units so that each leader can give morale bonuses to as many units as possible, plus positive column shifts when the assault comes. Defenders should also pay close attention to the progress of each enemy assault and pull units out of the assault hex once it becomes clear that the hex is untenable. But whenever defenders pull out they should leave one half-strength infantry unit behind to cover the retreat, so the attackers can’t fire at the retreaters, and to pin the attackers down. Even a lone half-strength unit in Normandy terrain can last a long time against multiple attackers.

Attackers can take advantage of this tactic as well. Advance units can assault defenders and tie them down while other attacking units advance up to and past the assault hex. Units in an assault hex can’t fire out of it, so other units moving past the hex don’t have to worry about opportunity fire from the hex.

Also a factor driving play.

Game Summary

A recent session of Airborne Scenario 8: "Second Try" illustrates the importance of the factors above. This scenario depicts the second U.S. attempt to take or destroy the German-held highway bridge across the Douve River at Carentan (in the southern section of the board).

The Americans have committed substantial forces to the effort (including two tank platoons). The Germans, on the other hand, have several grenadier platoons holding the bridge, towns and north-south road, with more grenadiers plus armored reinforcements scheduled to arrive from the south.

The Americans have small forces scattered about the map east of the road and bridge, including some platoons at the La Barquette Lock, six hexes east of the bridge in the swamp. But their main force of airborne platoons and tanks appears in the northeast section of the board on Turn 1, and must fight its way down the northeast road spur through two towns, then south on the north-south road through another town to the swamp, and finally down the swamp road to the bridge. The other American units must hit the north-south road from the east, or move through the swamp and attack the bridge from the east or south, tying down the German defenders there so they can’t move north to help against the main onslaught.

0830 Hours

The U.S. player gets the initiative (1 activation before the Germans). He rolls to see if he gets offboard artillery support this turn, and is successful. He starts by pouring his offboard artillery into the northernmost German-held town, which blocks the road at a chokepoint bracketed by hedgerows (hex 0803).

The bombardment fire (24 points worth) demoralizes all the German units in the town and disrupts their leader. Those units immediately activate and recover, since they’d be toast if assaulted by the airborne units while demoralized.

The lieutenant colonel commanding the main force of airborne platoons in the northeast board corner then activates all his officers and units in chain of command, and advances them adjacent to the town (the Germans there don’t get to use opportunity fire since they already activated to recover morale).

A second lieutenant advances to the hex north of the town (0802) where he can spot for the U.S. onboard artillery against German units in the next town down the road (0604). The artillery has no effect there.

Predicting the likely collapse of the town defenders at 0803, the German C.O. (a lieutenant colonel) in the town at 0509 (just north of the swamp) moves northward with units to reinforce the town at 0604. Then, the Germans stationed south of the La Barquette Lock in the swamp (1013) move west to block the U.S. units there from breaking out of the swamp and attacking the bridge from the southeast.

0845

The Americans beat the Germans on the initiative roll by 6. This gives them 3 activations before the Germans can activate anybody. However, they do not get any offboard artillery support this turn. The U.S. starts by pouring all its onboard artillery (18 points worth) again into the second town down the road at 0604. There is no effect. Then the U.S. lieutenant colonel leading the main attack force orders direct fire on the first town at 0803 in preparation for an assaulieutenant Two German units there are again demoralized, and their leader is once again disrupted.

Then the lieutenant colonel and three airborne platoons pile in and assault the town hex. Both sides roll a “1” result on the Assault Table, so both sides take one step loss and all surviving units and leaders must make an M2 morale check. One demoralized German grenadier unit suffers compound demoralization and is eliminated, while two airborne platoons are disrupted.

Then, the major who entered the northeast board edge on Turn 1 activates all his airborne platoons and moves them west along the north board edge through the hedgerows, with the objective of reaching the north-south road at hex 0601 and then moving to hit the town at 0604 from the north.

The U.S. C.O. (a full-bird colonel) commanding the airborne platoons at the swamp lock decides that the German defenders southeast of the bridge are too strong, so he starts marching his units slowly northwest through the swamp toward the bridge. They can’t be spotted in the swamp as long as they don’t fire and the Germans don’t go in after them, so they’re in no rush.

The German lieutenant colonel sends an extra grenadier unit into the town at 0604, and a lieutenant plus a heavy machine gun unit to the hex southeast of the town at 0705 (to protect against U.S. platoons moving overland from the east). This means there are three units in the town, which gives U.S. attackers a +1 column shift on the direct and bombardment fire tables (for dense defenders), but also makes the town hell to approach since it can spray 20 points of full-strength opportunity fire at anyone who breaks out from behind the hedgerows.

The lieutenant colonel positions himself and a half-strength grenadier unit in hex 0605 (south of the town on the road) so he can direct the units in the area without exposing himself to U.S. assaults from the north and east.

A U.S. captain and two platoons move westward to hex 0805, adjacent to the German lieutenant and heavy machine gun which are in hex 0705 east of the town. He hopes to activate before the German HMG next turn and assault it before it can fire at him. A half-strength German grenadier unit in 0706 does no damage to the captain’s units with opportunity fire (the hedgerow hexside between them protects him).

The Germans south of the swamp start moving northwest to counter the U.S. swamp march. They take up defensive positions in the town at 0613 and the hedgerow hex at 0513. Then one demoralized German HMG in the assaulted town up north at 0803 fails to recover and flees southwest down the road to 0704 (the lieutenant leading it flees too). The town at 0803 is now in U.S. hands.

0900

The Germans now get to roll to see if their reinforcements arrive. They roll a 10, and they do! The U.S. gets the initiative by 3 (2 activations), but no offboard artillery.

As planned, the U.S. captain and two platoons cross the hedgerow hexside from 0805 to 0705 and assault the German lieutenant and HMG there. Since the Americans crossed a hedgerow to get to the assault hex, the Germans get first fire, but they only disrupt one airborne platoon. The Americans do much better, demoralizing the Lieutenant and disrupting the HMG.

The German lieutenant cvolonel south of the town activates himself and the units in his area in chain of command. The demoralized German HMG on the road in 0704 (the one that fled from the town at 0803) rolls to recover, to avoid being assaulted by advancing U.S. forces while demoralized. It rolls a natural 2 on the recovery roll, and skips disruption to reach good order in one turn!

This annoys the U.S. lieutenant colonel leading the charge down the road, because he has only one good-order unit next to the German HMG, and if he assaulted it now he’d be at a disadvantage. So, he just fires at it — and demoralizes it again! The other U.S. units behind him advance southwest.

The German reinforcements now enter at the south board edge. The German PZ IVF2, armored car and motorcycle platoons all speed up the north-south road to reinforce the defenders around the town at 0604. The three grenadier and one engineer units move north as well to oppose the U.S. swamp march toward the bridge.

With the arrival of the German armored reinforcements, a frontal assault on the already well-defended town at 0604 is less appealing. So, the U.S. player sends units on a flank march around the town to the northwest, with the closest-in units entering the hex at 0504, whose hedgerow bordering the town helps protect them from opportunity fire. One U.S. unit there is nevertheless demoralized by opportunity fire from the town. There are no other hedgerow hexsides bordering the town, so the other U.S. units march even farther to the west, to approach the town and road defenders from that less-defended side on later turns.

The demoralized German lieutenant in the assault hex at 0705 fails to recover and flees south, while the HMG unit he was with recovers to good order. Then the swamp-marching U.S. units, seeing that the German reinforcements make a westward march to the bridge unfeasible, fire on German units to their south.

0915

With the arrival of the German reinforcements, American prospects aren’t looking much better than they did historically (the U.S. never got anywhere near the bridge). The German eastern flank has now been reinforced by armored units, so the captain in the hedge hex at 0504 decides to charge through the hedgerow and assault the town at 0604 from the northwest. This (he hopes) will tie down the defenders there and prevent them from hitting U.S. units with opportunity fire as they approach from the northeast. The Captain has only one good-order Airborne unit with which to assault the town, but no guts, no glory. . . .

The Germans get first fire due to the hedgerow, and roll a 4 on the 24 column, causing a step loss to the airborne platoon. The captain is disrupted and the platoon is demoralized, but they still tie up the defenders so other U.S. units can move adjacent to the town with no German opportunity fire.

The German major in the town counter-assaults and kills the airborne unit (the captain leaves). Then the armored car and motorcycle units pile into the assault hex to the southeast at 0705 to assist the HMG whose leader fled. The Germans fire on the 30+ column and inflict two step losses on the Americans, killing one airborne platoon and leaving the other disrupted.

The U.S. lieutenant colonel in the town at 0803 could send the HMG and under-strength airborne platoon in hex 0804 into the assault hex at 0705 to assist the newly desperate captain and his disrupted platoon there, but the hedgerow between those two hexes would give the Germans first fire, and the assaulting units would die. So he just leaves the captain to hold his own and tie down the three German units while other U.S. units advance. The lieutenant colonel moves southwest to hex 0704, assaulting the demoralized German HMG there. He rolls a “2” on the assault table and kills it (its leader flees southwest to the town at 0604). German offboard artillery hits the U.S. lieutenant colonel in 0704 and disrupts one of his units.

The swamp marchers have little effect firing at the Germans to their south. Then the German panzer platoon advances to hex 0706 (south of the assault hex at 0705) to prevent more flankers from coming in from the east. The U.S. captain in hex 0705 recovers morale, so he and his units can continue to pin down the three German units there.

0930

The Germans have now taken four step losses while the U.S. has taken five. Initiative goes down by one point for every three step losses taken in this scenario, so German initiative is now 2 while the U.S. initiative is 3. The Germans get the initiative this turn, while the U.S. gets offboard artillery support.

The major in the town at 0604 activates, and all units in the town fire at the U.S. major and his three units in the adjacent hex to the north (0603). They roll a 5 on the 45+ column, inflicting a step loss and demoralizing one U.S. unit.

The U.S. then puts its offboard artillery into the town at 0604, but only disrupts the major there. Then the German units in hex 0705 assault the U.S. captain and his unit there and demoralize both of them, inflicting a step loss in the process.

The U.S. lieutenant colonel now activates. His units are too dinged-up to assault the hugely stacked town at 0604, so he just goes for multiple point-blank fire attacks. One attack kills the 75mm infantry gun and demoralizes both the major and the lieutenant there. The second attack causes a step loss to a grenadier unit there and disrupts another.

German offboard artillery disrupts one unit adjacent to the town. Then the U.S. captain holding out against the German grenadier, motorcycle and armored car in 0705 recovers morale. The German lieutenant colonel sends a fresh grenadier platoon into the town at 0604 to replace eliminated units there.

Then the U.S. continues its wide right-flank march around the town at 0604, and puts units into position to assault it next turn. The German panzer platoon moves into the German lieutenant colonel’s hex to protect him (weakening the German east flank somewhat), and the U.S. tanks can finally move into the now-empty town hex at 0803.

0945

The Germans have now taken six step losses and the U.S. has taken seven. German/U.S. initiatives are 1 and 2 respectively. The Germans get the initiative, and the U.S. gets offboard artillery.

The German lieutenant colonel activates the units and leaders in the town at 0604. The leaders are both demoralized, but one recovers (the other flees south). The two grenadier units there fire at the U.S. lieutenant colonel and his three units. They roll a 12 on the 30 column, for a 2X result! That’s two step losses, plus a disrupted U.S. unit.

The German panzer platoon then moves to hex 0505 to put the town at 0604 between it and the U.S. tanks in 0803. It would love to shoot at the U.S. tanks, but can’t because of the German armored car which is currently pinned down in the assault hex at 0705. The U.S. tanks have no such restriction, so the German tank has to seek cover to keep from being a sitting duck. The German lieutenant colonel brings a half-strength grenadier unit into his hex from hex 0706, and now the German east flank has a hole in it.

The U.S. lieutenant colonel sends a captain plus platoons into the town at 0604 to assault it while other units around the town try to recover morale. The Germans withstand the assault with no ill effect, while one U.S. HMG unit is disrupted. Using chain of command, the lieutenant colonel also activates the other leaders north and west of the town and sends the wide-flank-march units southwest of the town, so that they’re now adjacent to the German panzer platoon in 0505.

The German HMG, motorcycle and armored car units assault the pesky captain with his one airborne unit. He withstands the assault and even disrupts the armored car! Three U.S. units then move south on the German east flank toward the hole. A grenadier unit with a German lieutenant move toward the hole to fill it. The U.S. tanks then move from the town at 0803 to the road hex at 0704, directly adjacent to the assault hex with the heroic captain.

German grenadier units start moving north from the bridge. The colonel in the swamp sees this and starts moving his units west again to prevent further movement north off the bridge. He makes the mistake of sending one unit directly northwest, adjacent to a German unit, and the opportunity fire from that unit destroys the moving U.S. unit (two step losses). The other units retreat north into the swamp to avoid more opportunity fire.

1000

The Germans have taken six step losses, and the U.S. has taken 11. Both sides have an initiative of 1 now. The Germans win the initiative roll, and the U.S. gets offboard artillery.

The panzer platoon and the reduced-strength grenadier unit in the hex with it fire at the U.S. flank-marching units adjacent to them, but there’s no effect. The captain in the town at 0604 assaults again, but he and his units get a huge bloody nose, with one unit taking a step loss and all of them ending up disrupted or demoralized.

Then, the three German units in the assault hex at 0705 finally kill the last U.S. unit there, but in the process the armored car is demoralized and the German HMG is disrupted. The heroic U.S. captain survives and joins his lieutenant colonel in the hex to the north (with the U.S. tanks). The tanks now have a clear target, so they open up on the three German units who had to work so hard to eject the captain. They fire on the 45+ table, disrupting or demoralizing all the units there. The lieutenant colonel, in the same hex with the tanks, still has chain of command all the way west to hex 0404, so the units there cross the hedgerow to assault the panzer platoon and reduced-strength grenadier in hex 0505. The Germans get first fire and do a step loss to the U.S. units. All the U.S. units make their morale check, but they do no damage to the Germans.

The German lieutenant colonel sees that both his flanks are crumbling now, so he decides to pull his units southward and out of the town at 0604. He activates all the units he can and moves south down the road to the town at 0509 (along with fleeing demoralized unit that failed to recover).

U.S. offboard artillery hits the three German units in hex 0705 but has no effect. Then the two full-strength grenadier units in the town at 0604 pull out of the assault there, leaving one half-strength grenadier behind to cover their retreat and pin down the badly-bloodied U.S. units there. They move to hex 0605. U.S. onboard artillery hits the retreating grenadiers but has no effect.

German mortars from the swamp hit the U.S. units marching toward the hole in the German east flank. They demoralize the U.S. engineer unit there, which is bad because he’s good in assaults. The engineer recovers and the other units fire, but with no effect.

The U.S. continues its march down the far German left flank, wrapping around the panzer platoon and the town at 0604, and then a U.S. sergeant with two half-strength units that have been moving in slowly on the German east flank move to the woods hex at 0707. This is just east of the road, and south of the retreating grenadiers. If the sergeant can take the road hex, he will have cut off the German retreat route south down the road. German grenadiers from around the bridge move up the swamp road to stop him.

Then the colonel and his Swamp Marchers move west toward the bridge (into hexes 0712 and 0812). The Germans move west to block him, and a German lieutenant and two units move into hex 0813. This puts them adjacent to the tail end of the swamp march, and nets them a bonus by killing a lone U.S. lieutenant who stayed in 0813 to recover morale.

1015

The Germans have taken six step losses, and the U.S. has taken 14. German/U.S. initiatives are now 1/0. The Germans get the initiative by 3 (2 activations before the U.S.). This is good, because the Germans around the town at 0604 need to fall back fast before the U.S. can close the net from the west, east and south, and destroy them with artillery, infantry and tanks.

The U.S. sergeant has the road hex south of the retreating grenadiers covered, so the grenadiers retreat offroad through the hedgerows, two hexes southwest to hex 0406. The German lieutenant commanding what’s left of the German east flank fires at the sergeant in the woods (no effect), while the disrupted German motorcycle moves to the road hex at 0605 and the HMG and armored car try to recover from being demoralized. The HMG recovers but the armored car doesn’t and flees down the road all the way to the south board edge.

U.S. infantry then piles into the hex with the panzer platoon and reduced-strength grenadier. They disrupt the tank and demoralize the grenadier. German offboard artillery is ineffective, and the U.S. sergeant moves to the road hex at 0606 to block the German retreat south. Weak German opportunity fire is ineffective against him.

The reduced-strength grenadier with the panzer recovers morale. This is good news, because it can stay behind to cover the panzer’s retreat. The disrupted panzer crashes south through the hedgerows to hex 0506.

U.S. offboard artillery is ineffective, but a German mortar once again demoralizes the U.S. engineer unit east of the retreating Germans. The U.S. tanks plus an airborne platoon in 0704 fire point-blank on the disrupted HMG in hex 0705. They roll on the 45+ table and score a “2X” result, killing it (two step losses).

The German lieutenant harassing the tail end of the swamp march fires at the U.S. colonel in hex 0812, but does no damage. The colonel fires back and calls in an artillery strike, but to no avail. The Germans reinforce the bridge defenses, while the U.S. engineer unit fails to recover from demoralization and flees northeast. The wide-flank marchers on the German left continue marching south to pursue the fleeing Germans.

1030

The Germans have taken eight step losses, and the U.S. has taken 14. German/U.S. initiative is 1/0. The U.S. gets no offboard artillery support, but the Germans now know that they must destroy the Swamp Marchers before the main U.S. force arrives from the north. If both forces hit the bridge simultaneously, the U.S. will take it.

The Germans win the initiative roll by 5, getting three activations before the U.S.. The disrupted panzer crashes through another hedgerow to reach the road at hex 0507. Then, the two full-strength grenadiers who retreated from the town to hex 0406 fire point-blank through the hedgerow at the southbound U.S. flank marchers in 0405. They demoralize both leaders in that hex plus one airborne platoon, and disrupt another. Outstanding example of a fighting withdrawal! Then the lieutenant commanding the remnants of the east German flank pulls back by moving into the blocked road hex at 0606 and assaulting the U.S. sergeant and his units there. The Germans do no damage but are disrupted.

The U.S. tanks now move to hex 0706, where they have a clear shot at the disrupted panzer platoon in 0507. The bloody-nosed U.S. captain up in the town at 0604 assaults again, but makes no headway against the lone reduced-strength grenadier there. German offboard artillery is ineffective, and the sergeant on the road counter-assaults the German lieutenant, demoralizing him and his grenadier. Then U.S. onboard artillery demoralizes the German motorcycle unit which is now trapped in hex 0605. The demoralized German lieutenant and grenadier fail to recover and flee from the sergeant's hex and into the woods.

Then, the lieutenant and his grenadier at the tail end of the swamp march pile into the hex with the U.S. colonel and two airborne platoons, assaulting him. The colonel disrupts one German unit and takes no damage. Then the colonel activates, brings in an adjacent unit, and counter-assaults the lieutenant. He does no damage, but on his defensive fire the lieutenant does one step loss and kills the colonel! This is decapitation (kill the C.O. and units around him can’t move for a turn), and the Swamp Marchers have no leader now.

A German grenadier moves toward the leaderless units, but one of them that’s not in the assault hex (an HMG) demoralizes it with opportunity fire. The HMG is spotted now, so the German units around the bridge go to work on it and demoralize it.

The two demoralized leaders of the far right U.S. flank march in 0405 fail to recover, and flee northward. The point of the flank march is now leaderless. The three platoons there stay put and recover morale. The demoralized German motorcycle in the road also fails to recover, and since the road south is blocked, it flees to the north board edge.

1045

The Germans have taken eight step losses, and the U.S. has taken 15. German/U.S. initiatives are now 1/-1 (effectively zero, since initiative can’t go into negative numbers). The U.S. gets offboard artillery, and the Germans get initiative by 5 (3 activations).

The grenadiers fire again at the leaderless flank marchers in 0405, disrupting the only good-order unit there. The disrupted panzer platoon then fires at the adjacent sergeant and his units in hex 0606 (before they can assault him) and demoralizes the sergeant. The German lieutenant in the swamp then assaults the dead colonel’s troops, but he himself is disrupted. Then, the rest of the German grenadiers south of the swamp rush the Swamp Marchers.

The U.S. tanks blast away at the demoralized panzer in 0507 but fail to damage it. Then, the lieutenant colonel with the tanks in 0706 tells the demoralized sergeant’s troops in 0606 to assault the panzer. They do, but do no damage (and a U.S. unit is disrupted).

German offboard artillery is ineffective. The U.S. town assault at 0604 gets another bloody nose, with two U.S. units demoralized. The Germans there will all get posthumous Iron Crosses . . .

The U.S. troops in the assault hex at 0505 finally kill the half-strength grenadier which the panzers left behind. Then, the leaderless flank-marchers in 0405 fire and disrupt the grenadiers in 0406. This is good, but since they’re leaderless and disrupted they can’t assault the grenadiers next turn. The U.S. engineer keeps running, and the demoralized U.S. HMG in the swamp flees northeast. The Swamp Marchers in the assault hex fight back, but to no avail.

1100

The Germans have taken nine step losses, and the U.S. has taken 15. Initiatives are 0/-1. The U.S. gets offboard artillery, and the Germans get the initiative. The panzer platoon assaults the infantry assaulting it, but has no effect. Then the U.S. tanks blow up all the panzers! This counts as four step losses! Then the Germans bring grenadiers who came up from the bridge into the ex-tank hex and assault the U.S. infantry there, disrupting both of them. German offboard artillery then fires at the leaderless U.S. flank marchers in 0406, and demoralizes one of them.

The Germans then pile in to assault the Swamp Marchers, who are largely demoralized now. They inflict four step losses. U.S. units in the town assault at 0604 recover morale, but German mortar fire demoralizes all the leaderless U.S. flank marchers in 0405. The U.S. lieutenant colonel then jumps into the road assault against the reinforcing grenadiers in the ex-tank hex, but he and his units are demoralized and disrupted. German demoralized units on the board edges begin to recover.

1115

The Germans have now taken 13 step losses, and the U.S. has taken 19. The U.S. advance down the road and the far right flank march have both ground to a halt, their units largely demoralized. German reinforcements are taking up positions around the town at 0509, the leaderless Swamp Marchers have all been killed or thrown north across the river. The U.S. has only 14 good-order combat steps on the board now, while the Germans have 24.

The U.S. tanks are still a potent force, but so is the 50mm German anti-tank gun on the bridge, which has cover for being in a town and can hit the tanks at a range of eight hexes (far beyond the tanks’ own gunnery range). German offboard artillery and mortar support are guaranteed, while U.S. offboard artillery support is iffy. And the U.S. engineer unit (the only one that can blow up the bridge) is still running away. So there’s no way the U.S. can win at this point.

THE GERMANS STOP THE U.S. ADVANCE AND WIN!