I will enter 4 squads, a PzIB and a PSW 222 on board 50, pushing down the lightly-defended road, and the rest will go to the H4 orchard hexes, with AFVs out in front to start attacking his units in building 17P4. Michael’s setup tells me that his stack in 50N7 has to be real. It’s a squad with the MMG, and it lays down some residual along the road. I’m able to avoid the residual in 50F7 by bypassing F8 but not his I10 residual. Luckily the 2FP attacks do not harm my motorcyclists or truck. (N.B. we grabbed the wrong HMG initially, but corrected it before it had any effect on play.)
The PSW 222 on board 50 overruns and breaks a HS in 50M10. The other PSW takes up a position behind the wall at 17H9. I am going to try very hard to stop Michael from getting his AFVs HD behind the 17Q6 wall. I try to push a HS on a motorcycle past his ? unit in 50P9. It gets a K/ to eliminate the HS. I get some smoke to shield 50J9 and K10 from his units in 17P4h1 and Q4h1. I drive one HS on a motorcycle up the 50M5 hill to try to stretch his defense.
Michael’s ATR in 17P8 eliminates a PzIB, and I eliminate his broken HS in the AFPh. I also discover his HMG in 17P4 when I get a PTC on it in the AFPh.
In 1b, Michael’s HMG breaks a squad and CRs two others before it malfunctions. He brings his tanks to 17S5-U6 but keeps them in Motion. In DFPh1b I break the squad manning the malfHMG, malf one of the PzIIA’s MA, and his sniper eliminates my sniper.
In 2a I want to take advantage of Michael leaving his tanks in Motion so I risk the repair dr on the PzIIA and repair it. I move one 222 behind the 17P7 wall and VBM freeze his squad in 50R9. Unfortunately that 222’s crew gets a 12 on a MC. His ATR then gets a CH on the first PzIIA I started. That ruins my plans to hit his tanks, so I overrun his ATR squad with a PzIIA, breaking it. I start assaulting building 17P4 by moving a PzIB adjacent to it and rushing infantry forward behind smoke. I advance in to the VBM frozen squad in 50R9 and get an ambush.
In 2b, Michael repairs the HMG and stuns a PzIB, which recalls it. He enters his TKS tanks on board 50. I hope using three tanks to protect two buildings is a mistake. From the hill he starts firing at my units behind the 17Q6 wall. He moves his Vickers tanks behind the 17R2 hedge, but my PzIIA in Q6 eliminates his Ejw in R2, and another PzIIA in 17N2 acquires a Edw in R1. I encircle and break the HMG squad in P4h1. I’ve decided his stack in 17O9 is all dummies. I was wrong, there was a HS in it.
In 3a, I encircle 17P4h1 again – Michael had moved the encircled squad out, dropping the HMG, then another squad and the 9-1 in. In the PFPh I break them and the squad in 17P4h0 and the PzIIA eliminates the Edw it was firing on. I fire the PSW 222 at his TKS in 50X5, hitting the wall twice, and the PzIIA fires at his CE crew. If I stun it, it’ll be recalled. I think the other ? units in building P4 are dummies. Michael committed two squads, the 9-1 and the HMG there, and he only has 2.5 squads left concealed. If he had put more units in P4, then the rest of the buildings would be too weakly held, so I confidently rush it. On the board 50 hill I recover the MMG. I don’t want it; I just don’t want Michael’s squad to self-rally and re-man it. By the end of 3a I feel that I’m behind in the armor game, having lost four and only eliminated two, but I feel I’m ahead in infantry, 8.5 to 5.5. Unless they rally, his 9-1 and squad will surrender in 3b and I’ll get the HMG in 4a. Luckily his TKS are mostly out of play around 50X4. He could use them to make a flank attack along the road, I’ve only got a PzIIA and an ATR, plus LMGs, guarding my left.
In 3b, Michael’s squad on board 50 self-rallies and eliminates my broken 8-1 and squad in the AFPh. Later it will eliminate the motorcycle HS that destroyed the Polish MMG. The PSW 222 fires more rounds into the wall and my PzIIA manages to stun the crew on the TKS in 50X5. That TKS has also malfunctioned its MA, so the stun may be redundant.
In 4a I Mop Up 17P4, capturing my second building. One PzIIA and the PSW 222 are dueling a TKS(L) at long range, with both sides HD. I hope the ATR and the last PzIIA can deal with Michael’s last Edw. In the PFPh, my 9-1, MMG/468 eliminates the HS guarding 17P9, the ATR misses the Edw, but the PSW 222 scores a CH on the TKS(L). I swarm his Edw with both PzIIA, losing one but eliminating the Edw.
In 4b, his recalled TKS(L) fails its MR roll and immobilizes. But the crew can’t abandon until turn 5b, and I’ve already decided not to try for 50X6 or Z6, so the crew shouldn’t affect things. The last PzIIA fires at the ADJACENT squad in 17W4h1, eliminating it with ROF. I find Michael’s last squad.
In the last two turns I have to run for buildings. I start 5a by deploying. I’ll have to use the tanks to deal with his units in building 17U7. Michael manages to rally the 457 in U8, giving him two squads and an 8-0 there. I also have to guard against his 50R9 squad taking 17P2 back. The PzIIA breaks the one in U7 with BFF, but the squad and leader in U8 destroy it with Street Fighting as I move it to VBM Freeze them. I use the PSW 222 – my last vehicle – to VBM Freeze them. It also places smoke in R4 to help cover my mad dashes for buildings. I manage to break the 8-0 in the AFPh and ambush the 457 in CC. My squad CRs it, then the PSW 222 CRs the remaining HS. At the end of 5a I control five buildings (17O6, P2, P4, P9, S4) and could gain another eight (R5, S6, U5, U7, W3, W7, Z7 and DD6). If his squad in U7h1 self-rallies it could do a lot of harm.
In 5b Michael repositions his board 50 squad. It passes two 1MC (from the Polish HMG!) as it runs toward 50U9.
In 6a we have Gusts. By now the 17N3 blaze has spread so widely that the direction 1 Gusts can’t spread it. I move my last vehicle, a PSW 222 into Michael’s 457’s hex so it won’t fire out. He fires at it with the Edw (keeping rate) but my crew passes the 1MC. The 457 pins the crew, who pin the 457 in return. I controlled 13 buildings after the APh, but I played it out through the CCPh just to see what would happen to my PSW 222. Michael’s 457 destroyed it, of course. He’d eliminated 3 squads and 5 AFVs, and recalled the other two. I’d eliminated 6 squads and 4 AFVs and recalled one.
It was a fun scenario. I got lucky in that Michael’s up-front defense worked against him. I was able to repeatedly encircle his units manning the HMG and break them. I was able to stop his counterattack with his Vickers tanks and then my AFVs ran free on board 17.
I'd like to play this as the Polish and try a defense that tries to hedgehog around the Final Five buildings so I'd face the German armor with all six tanks, the MGs and the ATR.