AAR: Enter the Young (S51)

SITREP

By the end of November, Major General Clarence Huebner’s “Big Red One” had fought all the way through the Huertgen Forest and into the towns along the edge of the Roer river plane. Hopeful for the end of fighting in the Huertgen “Death Factory”, the 26^th Infantry Regiment coordinated an attack on the medieval town of Merode. A few tanks made it through the forest to support the attack, only to be knocked out by mines. Still, Lt. Col. Derrill Daniel’s 2^nd Battalion pressed forward against the fresh and motivated Fallschirmjager defending Merode.

The Players

Neal – Germans – Defenders:
Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 5

Scott – Americans – Attackers:
2^nd Battalion, 26^th Infantry Regiment

After Action Report

Location:
Merode, Germany

Date:
28 November 1944

ROAR Balance	Archive Balance
Americans 14	Americans 10
Japanese 16	Japanese 10

Neal (Germans)

Advantages:

• HMG power!
• Elite squads with 8 morale.
• Lots of leaders.
• Easy to control “fall back and turtle” VCs. (hah!)
• Soft American first-line squads. Break early, DM often!

Disadvantages:

• Pre-game bombardment (can easily be avoided though)

This scenario started with what I thought was going to be a cakewalk defense. Two buildings to hold, a pre-game bombardment that was supposed to soften up my positions, and a decent mix of units to delay Scott’s advance. Turns out, that bombardment (SSR 2) was hot garbage, so I was left with the old-school method of making life miserable for the enemy: choke points, fire lanes, and good positioning.

Right out of the gate, Scott went hard at the lower building (rP5), which was fine by me—it’s easier to funnel and slow an attack when you know exactly where it’s going. I scattered my squads enough to avoid getting deleted by early fire but kept my core forces positioned to cover key lanes. But I did have to shift my southern (left side) units since Scott didn’t come in that way. My big play was repositioning the HMG in rL2 with solid LOS. This thing was nasty, locking down movement routes and generally making Scott’s life difficult.

Then came my MVP squad, the unexpected legend in the middle of the board. A single 4-4-7 squad ended up in close combat, tying up Scott’s forces for multiple turns in sV1. This little bastard was supposed to be a speed bump, a blocking squad, not an unbreakable wall of defiance, but there he was, refusing to die. The longer he held, the more time I had to reposition, getting my reinforcements lined up just right.

Scott, however, wasn’t sitting around crying about it. He kept pushing hard on the lower building, throwing weight at my defenders and slowly grinding me down. It was a textbook case of fire and maneuver—forcing me into choices I didn’t want to make. Meanwhile, I kept an eye on the upper right building, making sure he wasn’t sneaking around for an easy grab.

Then my rL2 kill stack died, my HMG broke, and suddenly things weren’t so fun anymore. I don’t even remember what happened—bad roll, bad positioning, bad karma—but one second I had a fortress, the next second it was a pile of broken, panicked soldiers. Now Scott had an opening, and I had to scramble.

That’s when I made my biggest mistake—I left the upper building (sH4) completely unguarded. I was too focused on the main battle to notice Scott’s kill stack realigning itself like a shark smelling blood. By the time I realized he was going to ninja the unguarded objective, it was too late. All I could do was try to reposition and pray.

Thankfully, he ran out of time, coming up one hex short of jumping into sH4 and stealing the game. The final turns were a mess of last-minute desperation moves, but in the end, I held on—barely.

Remember to back cap(ture) and protect your victory locations!

Scott (Americans)

Advantages:

• My main force was big and beefy—plenty of firepower to work with.
• DCs for last-minute VC control.
• Only 2 locations to capture? Easy peasy (famous last words).

Disadvantages:

• Neal’s HMG. I hate those things.
• German leadership. 5 leaders and a 9-2?!

This scenario should have been mine. I had a solid plan: push for the lower building hard and fast, using weight of numbers and firepower to break Neal’s defenses before he could reposition. Then, depending on how things shook out, I’d either dig in or reposition for a second push. Simple, clean, effective.

Then came the damn squad in the center.

I cannot overstate how much I hate this one random 2nd line 4-4-7 squad that Neal left in the middle of the board. They were supposed to be nothing, just a token delay unit. Instead, they turned into an impenetrable melee nightmare. Two whole turns lost, grinding away at them while my main force kind of sat there twiddling their thumbs.

Meanwhile, Neal had fortified the lower building (rP5) like his life depended on it. His HMG in rL2 was an absolute menace, locking down movement lanes and punishing anything that got too bold. I had to get creative—maneuvering squads around the edges, probing for weak points, and taking the occasional lucky shot at his positions.

It eventually worked. I finally broke through, killed off the central unholy squad of doom, and started making serious progress. My kill stack, however, chose the worst moments to panic. They broke, rallied, broke again, then sat around doing nothing while I screamed internally. If they’d been more stable, I might have been able to press my attack earlier.

And then, out of nowhere, I saw the mistake—the upper building (sH4) was empty!!

Adapt or die. New plan formed.

Screw the lower building, go for the unguarded objective. I yanked my kill stack and beat feet (CX!) south toward the victory location, knowing Neal couldn’t stop me in time. It was a mad dash, every movement factor counted. By the final turn, my leader had made it in, but that didn’t matter since a SMC can’t control a victory hex/location. But Neal pinned my other squads 2 hexes short of the objective!! Curse you, weirdly worded victory conditions! Victory required I control a single hex in a building, not the building itself.

That one hex might as well have been a mile. I was out of time.

Neal had just enough troops left to keep me from pulling off a miracle. We called it—a German victory, but only just.

Debriefing

This was a clinic on why every MF (and/or MP if vehicles are involved) matters. Neal’s defense was annoyingly efficient, using smart positioning and delaying tactics (hello 4-4-7!) to make Scott’s advance as painful as possible. The Americans, despite struggling with one stubborn German squad, almost flipped the script at the last moment with a desperate charge. The Panzerfausts were utterly useless and unused, the pre-game bombardment was a scenario footnote at best (nothingburger), and the final turns were a sneaky scramble for survival.

At the end of the day, the Germans won not because they dominated, but because they slowed the Americans down just enough. It was a game of inches, bad dice rolls, and last-second panic moves—which is exactly how a good ASL scenario should be.

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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