A friend of mine (Jim), his son (Jeff), and I played a TLC game on
Friday night.  Unfortunately, they didn't get there until almost 9:00
and we didn't have enough decks ready so we didn't start until almost
9:30 (we had planned on starting at about 7).  We playing until just
before midnight or about 2 1/4 hours.  We referred to the rules only a
few times though it took a while to find one thing we looked up.  Jeff
is only 12 but is a born gamer and does well.

I was the Germans and they were the Americans.  We played a 3x6 board
using the team rules (two decks on eachside).  Other than aircraft there
wasn't much interaction between the halves of the same sides because of
the way we ordered who went when.  We alternated sides of the board but
I now think we should have done both halves of the same side together as
the rules imply.

Anyway, I was playing my two (almost) prepared German decks.  The one
was my "sieze the initiative" deck (#1) and the other was the "make 'em
pay" deck (#2) to which I added all my German aircraft at the last
minute.  Both worked well but the 2nd deck (~80 cards) was too big.  It
turned out that my first deck was opposed by Jim playing an "artillery
them to death and then walk in" deck and the other was opposite Jeff
playing an "armored assault" deck.

They won both the terrain rolls so got to place their terrain in the
middle on both sides.  The terrain was set up like this:
        Jim       AMERICANS      Jeff
hills  hills    clear    clear   clear  l-forest
clear  h-forest l-forest hills   clear  clear
                         ~~~~~~~river~~~~~~~~~~~
hills  l-forest clear    bridge  city   bocage
        Me #1      GERMANS       Me #2

On the left I deployed lots of armor (a mistake), 2 Green infantry, and
1 artillery piece.  On the right I deployed cheap infantry, AT guns, and
artillery given the high cost of the terrain.  Jim deployed some armor,
infantry, and several artillery pieces.  Jeff deployed some armor,
armored cars, and artillery.

The right was an unfortunate mix given the two decks involved.  His
armor couldn't assault across the river well and I was in armored
defense heaven on my side of the river.  I had AT mines on the riverbank
at both the main bridge and a minor one he found (opposite the bocage)
and had a pillbox with Veteran Infantry, an '88 AT gun, and a Marder on
the main bridge, infantry and artillery in the town, and infantry and a
PZ-IV in the bocage by the 2nd turn thanks to lucky draws and good
supply rolls.

The game went like this:

1st turn: Americans move and take the middle terrain all across the
board.  On the left side I assault and take the left and center
positions inflicting massive losses on the Americans (4 cards!) but
losing the only two infantry I had in play (both Green) and using up two
of my better Specials (covered approach and Smokescreen).  This revealed
the weakness in my initial deployment.  I would have been MUCH better
off taking some Rifle Platoons in armored cars and skipping 1 or 2 of
the tanks.  On the right I do some scouting across the river to try to
spot some artillery targets without success.

2nd through 4th turns:  On the left the battle for the central woods
rages on with it swapping places several times.  Not too many losses as
both sides withdraw damaged units for refitting.  It is revealed the
Americans have 3 big artillery pieces which are chew up the Germans
badly.  The only saving grace is that the Americans run out of supply
one turn allowing a devastating assault on the left flank hill.
Unfortunately, I am not able to follow up the attack because of the
damage to the attackers (even out of supply infantry is nasty on tanks
assaulting in hills).  On the right Jeff rolls no more than 7 supply on
the first 4 turns and twice rolls only 5!  He deploys a few units but is
complaining about his card mix [turns out he didn't shuffle very well
and drew no units for the first 8 turns!].  I deploy my 2
fighter/bombers on the right and pick off one of the pesky American
artillery on the left as well as an AA gun that, alas, shoots down one
of the planes with the help of a special [Ditched Aircraft, grrr!].

5th through 8th turns go very quickly.  The left turns into a stalemate:
I've killed all the American armor on the board and I haven't drawn any
infantry from my deck yet!  The Americans have infantry dug in at all
their positions.  The American artillery did pick off one of the heavily
damaged German armor units due to my mistake in not refitting it.  On
the right we are still stuck.  Jeff deploys a B-24 and makes a few
bombing runs before running into a carefully prepared AA trap and barely
making it home.  My air unit is still being refitted (it took 6 hits
earlier and only survived because it had an Air Ace).  All scouting
across the river has failed on all the first 8 turns (12 attempts
between the two sides)!

9th and 10th turns.  My luck turns for the better on the left and a few
carefully played specials spoil an American attack and let me pick off 4
units (2 Jeeps and 2 Airborne infantry) to the cost of 1 of my armor
plus I draw two infantry.  However, the 10th turn the American artillery
along with lucky spotting rolls catch both my infantry in the central
woods (perparing for an assault on the hill beyond) and blast them both
with an amazing set of rolls.  On the right Jeff finally gets some units
and moves them into position.  I spot one of his units across the river
and foolishly shell it.  His 7.2" rocket counterfire eliminates my only
good artillery piece on that side.

It was getting late so we decide to do one more turn.  Jim assaults the
central location from two sides and eliminates the armor there with no
loss on his side.  Ouch!  Jeff attacks across the river under a
smokescreen and with withering artillery fire and kills two of the 3
units there with the loss of only one on his side.  The pillbox is
unhurt however and so he must retreat.  I didn't have enough supply on
either side to do an effective assault.

Lessons learned:
 1) Prepare your decks in advance!
 2) Keep your deck size small (and shuffle well) and keep the number of
specials well under 50%.
 3) Take a good mix of initial deployment cards!
 4) The wider board made the air game a lot more fun given all the
possible flight paths.
 5) Specials can tip the balance in a close battle but raw strength is
needed to hang on.

- Bill Seurer    ID Tools and Compiler Development       IBM Rochester, MN