[jivemi]

Belay my last. Finally got past the second battle after restarting the campaign from scratch.

--Spoiler Alert--

THIS time lots more support points were spent on artillery instead of tanks (had only 3 Shermans this time; IIRC had 9 or something the last go). Also loaded most of 3 rifle platoons on trucks and tanks at setup to speed things up. Took meticulous care on the pre-battle barrage and after, having most enemy units suppressed on discovery. Just missed taking the last objective at the end (turn 12).

It was no cakewalk though. Lost one Sherman to a clevery sited Pak 75 across the stream when the building the tank was "hiding" behind was on the lower part of a bluff so it didn't block LOS. Most objectives were cheap-charlies at only 10 to 40 points, with just a couple at 100. Plenty of low-budget German units--my guys were at full encyclopedia price while theirs were about one-third cost (9-man panzer grenadier squads at 6 points, 80mm mortar sections at 8 for example)--to bog down an already sluggish advance further impeded by mortar barrages. And the designer says the NEXT battle is the tough one. Sheesh.

Wish me luck folks. I'll sure need it!