The German squad cannot rout towards the Known Enemy Unit in yP5, and it cannot rout to yN5 because it is not allowed to move adjacent to the Known Enemy Unit in yN3 by entering yN4. The only legal rout destination for the German squad is yP1.
Played this ASL scenario last Saturday via VASL with Tycho. A Heavy Metal affair with 10 Panthers and assorted AA vehicles vs 3 M10s, Assorted Shermans (one with a 76L), a 57L AT gun, and 2 rocket armed Fighter Bombers (using the BFP rocket armed fighters rules).The situation at setup. The Germans enter from the right hand side and have to get 9+ VP to win. 10 CVP are worth 1vp and each of the Stared hexes at the intersections of the left hand map are worth 2 each. This is Normandy so the Bocage is a major obstacle.End of German turn 1. They have 9 turns in the game and have to get clear across this board (only about half of it shown here) to the other board for the VC locations.
The regular looking hedges are 'lite' bocage from BFP, basically a half level still with +2 but only 1/4mp to cross and a little less restrictive LOS rules. The Hedges with a brown outline are normal Bocage. LOS is a major pain in this one! The Germans have a tough time getting past the US line - the units up North would require 3 turns just to reach it when adding in Bocage movement penalties.End of German turn 2. The US moved their forces forward to make life more interesting for the Germans. The first couple attacks by the US were not productive, a Baz rolled 11 on a lovely side shot on a Panther, the radio has not made contact in three tries, and a MTR malfs on the first shot.
THEN the 9-1 leader and 50 cal in a steeple rain death on the German Radio and leader.End of US turn 2. The US AA halftrack had broken a German squad but the Panther in the hex killed the HT, multiple tries for Smoke mortars and smoke rounds to no avail (US vehicles had an SM8 in two instances and a 7 in two others, only one managed to put down smoke).The US MG keeps up the killing spree, any German trying to reach the radio is a dead man. In the south a Bazooka team takes out a Panther with an underbelly hit while a second Panther follows along and is missed by the M10 trying to hit it. The Panther then breaks the Baz armed squad that killed the other Panther, luckily the one smoke round is enough to allow (forced really) the Baz team to route to the 8-1 leader location in the building to the north.A Panther kills the second Priest up North but does not flame it - there is also a 60mm MTR that will cause problems.
Somewhere in all the shooting a US sniper is activated and Stuns the crew of an AA vehicle (top right). The US radio has not made contact in six attempts.End of German turn 4. The Panther won the duel with the M10 (M10 never scoring a hit). Up north another Panther tried rolling past (not overrunning, not enough MP) a concealed US stack and was killed by said stack in reaction fire. Most important is the US radio makes contact.End of US turn 4. The Arty is corrected and lands right where it is needed most, in addition I had to make another chit draw and it was black (units not in sight of observer).
The Panther that killed the previous M10 takes on a second M10 - which also forgot to load up some APCR rounds but does the next best thing and immobilizes the Panther. The Panther in the middle BOGs for the second time in the game, he is going nowhere slow. Finally the sound of American Fighter Bombers are heard overhead, by SSR they arrive on turn 4 and stay till turn 8 but there is a NASTY German AA vehicle with 20ift, which means it can kill a Fighter Bomber on a 7 or less, damage in on an 8, and drive it off on a 9 if the FB is in it's firing arc (otherwise add one for each covered arc change).Just after the German Movement phase the FBs attack.
The first one goes after the AA vehicle, the AA fires and misses (rolling an 8 I believe while needing a 7 or less to have an effect). The FB fires MGs to no effect and then drops the bomb, a direct hit that destroys the AA vehicle.With the nasty AA vehicle dealt with the other FB (with the more advanced rocket pods) attacks the lead Panther. Eight shots with a 5 or less chance of hitting, 2 of them hit and with top armor of only a 3 the Panther ends up a burning wreck.
Right after this the infantry just above the now destroyed Panther are Broken and then half of them lost for failing a second MC while broken from US MG and squad attacks (4 stacks attacked them and all would regain concealment). With that the Germans conceded the game, they had 4 movement phases left, 5 Panthers out of 10 destroyed or immobilized and the remaining ones either BOGGED or to the North and needing three turns just to reach the US line.When initially setting up the US defense I was wracking my brain, there was a LOVELY two rows of Bocage just beyond the US start area (the US could setup on the West side of one of those). I kept thinking it would be so much easier if that second Bocage row was in the US start zone since it would allow room for Broken units to rout in safety while not giving the Germans a spot where they could gain concealment at short range. Then it dawned on me that the Germans are not going to be able to reach the other bocage line and my troops could move there in safety during their first turn.(after looking at the setup for days mind you, I may be a a little slow but I eventually get there.). The other big item for this scenario is the Rockets, they are DEADLY. If there had been two Panthers in a line the rocket attack could have been split between them (4 at each) with most likely 2 Panthers being destroyed or forced to stay in Motion (if the Panther had been stopped the to-hit number would have been 7 instead of 5). A more concentrated attack might have helped but the US Arty might have destroyed a concentrated attack (as it was the Arty never came till turn 4 but had a major effect by killing off a Panther that tried to drive through it).
![Advanced squad leader online Advanced squad leader online](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125428873/385743202.jpeg)
![Advanced Advanced](http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/uploads/10.2010/SP7-VASLMap.png)
Perhaps the best German move is to attack in force in the South, there is the least Bocage there and this allows the Panthers to keep their fronts to the US units till the rest of the infantry can move up. Still, that Arty. (also in this game the German Arty was instantly shut down by the US 50cal in the steeple, I think he was expecting my Observer to be there and accidentally moved his observer out in the open of that spot.