Beast at Bay - ASL KGP 11
I'm forwarding this with John's permission just to show that there is a god, and that every (unbalanced, three-legged) dog has it's day. One thing he did mention in a later post was that the US had the balance. (saving those six Shermans in the valley of death.)

In a nutshell, here is how we pulled off a Yank win.

Intangibles:

My buddy and opponent did a bang up job setting up the Germans in about an hour and one half. But ... he didn't have the benefit of your advice, which led me to study the map in detail. Additionally, two other buddies dropped by: newbies but very talented and bright! I gave each a task force and led them through my grand tactical plan. They killed anything they could get their hands on. While I oft repeat Napoleon's remarks "I'd rather fight a coalition then be part of one," these eager guys really came in handy, especially as we got into the third case of beer.

The attack:

Quite simple, everybody, and I mean almost everybody, including tanks, to the top of the hill. Not a shot was fired till about turn 4, excepting my dare devil 90LL AA which, with the benefit of rate, killed the Whirbelwind and two Panthers before the Kraut 120s evaporated him.

The Shermans plugged away in the woods, many bogging but only two immobilizing. They actually got into the game, from both Task Forces, around turn nine. These bogs were far less harmful than the Dec.23 out of gas roll. For instance, my buddy started with 6 tanks out of gas, and the 90 whacked three, so he had 14 fully tracked AFVs left. He has to move them twice to get up the hill, which at 16.6% means he'll lose 4. Bad day at the office, he loses 7. So, 16 of 23 of his AFVs, over two thirds, were immobile in some way by turn three. Add some great bazooka action by my buddies, and the Kruats have less than 20% of their AFVs by jump off time, turn nine (and all the Tigers and 150 gun carriages are gone!)

Of course, this meant he had lots of crews running around with LMGs, which could have been trouble if we had continued.

Tank problem solved ... but ... 8 Shermans got into play, all killed. At least they produced smoke. One Panther got four. Yeah, just try playing this game over open ground.

Arty didn't do too much, zapped an armoured car ... but ... just like you advised, it had sneaky hill top hexes with clear views to the game winning houses, and we had yet to use barely a whit of ammo. Though we quit in the face of the inevitable, every victory point would have been smoked off, for the rest of the game, with Yank killer stacks going into CC.

His 120s died where they sat on the hill. No time to move without getting zapped.

He defended that gimme farm in the south west corner with several SS squads and 251s. We sent a squad out there and avoided it totally for the rest of the game. Everybody went north (and it was slow at 10 COUNTERS an entry area per turn.)

The biggest German mistake was engaging us piecemeal. We just thumped anything that got in our way. On turn 10 we had 11 stacks, three squads high, with kit, waiting to storm off the hill to victory, and he had lost 10 squads! The match up was 3 to 1 at that point.

Victory points? Between the bazookas, arty and 90LL, we killed 11 vehicles, and coupled with the squads gave us a 100 VP lead! The only concern was the Tigers on the south-central heights, and the 155 was zeroing in on them! (They had no gas.)

Debrief:

We won because we had a well thought out and tricky plan that our orthodox opponent didn't expect ... but ... I'm sure he'd play very differently if there was a next game.

First, it is incumbent on the Germans to shut down any north-easterly movement by the yanks from the south west. I'd mine the upper entry point and defend it with up to a quarter of my forces. This forces the Yanks to either come in by the farmhouse, and get fried covering open ground, or lose lots of time trying to clear those SS from the entry area, losing lots of time! And ... with only TEN counters a turn, the Krauts could do serious damage.

Second, use the town and the south-central heights more than the hill. Put the 120s somewhere safe and use a spotter. And set tanks up with fields of fire so that if they run out of gas they are still useful. Fireteams in the city are useless if they all run dry in the street.

Finally, try to engage the 16 squads of the northern-eastern group before they link with the western group. This was are whole game plan "strength in numbers". If you can get an even amount of SS up there, while delaying the other guys, you can take advantage of the 8 to 6 morale difference. And get the crews out of the halftracks asap! An excellent self-rally team with an MMG (?). This is what we did with the US M3s, and those extra MMGs came in handy!

Well, that is all I can think of now ... any questions?

Again, thanks for the great advice, I hope you get to use your wise words and savour victory with this great game.

(Lets face it, 75 vehicles, SS, Yanks, OBA, no mist ... its a dream game!)

Oh ... random stats ... 8.5 hours, one jumbo pizza, 3 cases of beer, one bottle of scotch, several hours spent the next day putting away counters, loads of fun had by all!

John Mundie