Hitdorf

Peter came over--haven't seen him in ages--and we played Combat Commander: Europe. He chose the Hitdorf scenario, and he got the Americans. Previously, we played that one twice. The first time, he had the Americans and foolishly advanced on the Monastery too early. He took it, and then I counterattacked with my German reinforcements and slammed him. In our second game, I played the Americans and avoided that mistake, concentrating on the center. In tonight's game, Peter did the same, executing a skillful advance in the center against my beleaguered defenders early in the fight.

My typical tactic is to concentrate my fires on squads that have poor leadership, and I managed to knock off a couple. When things got hot and heavy in the center, my main squad advanced out of their protective buildings and ambushed a key American unit, killing it. That felt good, but shortly thereafter, the Americans started to overwhelm me. I couldn't get my guys back to cover soon enough, and they were shot to pieces. The last squad made it into a pillbox but got close assaulted and killed. By the end of the fight, the Americans had captured the center completely. I still had a strong platoon on the hill near the monastery, but Peter's masterful use of artillery and smoke had depleted my ranks and limited my firepower. I advanced along the ridge to my right, but his artillery and fires killed my squad leader, dooming that advance.

In the end, the battle was a draw. A lot of little things contributed to that outcome. At one point, I routed his guys that were hung up in a wire obstacle near his side of the board, eliminating them. He did the same to two of my units near the monastery. Then, one of the units that Peter had eliminated reappeared as walking wounded...right on his side of the battlefield when it was my turn. I played a move card and claimed DOUBLE victory points, because one of the open objectives allowed me to do that. Then, when the battle ended and I thought I had won, Peter revealed his secret objective, which gave an extra VP for objective 2..making the game a draw. It was one hell of a fight. I actually feel that Peter out-fought me. His use of artillery and his relentless attack were punishing. The two things I did right: I fought an aggressive defense in the center, and my guys near the monastery killed a bunch of Americans and forced the enemy to attend to them with artillery.

Looking forward to the next one.