Played the German side this afternoon.
The 250/9 was killed in the very first American Fire Segment by the bazooka team, which was subsequently vaporized by German return fire. German infantry entered the wood, taking heavy casualties and a Panther moved on the right flank to provide fire support.
As the fight in the wood progressed, at the start of Turn 3, I was wondering where have the reinforcements gone: I opened the OOB menu and saw that the human player receives no reinforcements [X(]. The game turned into a massive brawl in the southern woods. One of the Panthers suffered MA malfunction and the other went forward to replace it, but was killed by a bazooka with a side hit.
At the end of turn 4, most American squads were broken and eliminated due to failure to route. A German HS discovered a stack of Americans in the wooden building east of the wood and - by sheer luck - survived the defensive fire. In the meantime, a B* leader and a MMG-armed squad dashed north to take the VP Hex, together with the remaining Panther (still with no MA).
At this time, the Germans have earned enough VP to get a Major victory, but I don't know when both sides qualify for the same Victory level, so I decided to take the VP hex and to set up an ambush for the remaining Americans in the south, should they attempt to retake the VP hex.
The Panther and its accompanying infantry took the VP on turn 5; the Americans moved forward and fell into the ambush as planned. The game ended with a German Major Victory, no surviving US units and - to my surprise - far fewer German casualties than I expected.
In my opinion, IA-controlled Americans should also have some extra forces to make thing more exciting for a German human player
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), but it has been a very tough affair. The US HS on the bridge is the sole unbroken US infantry unit; there is also a 76mm Sherman, but it seemed quite happy to remain sheltered from the 88 fire [:D].
and only managed a draw on "Devil's Hill" so far.