Stand at Mortain
By Paul Rohrbaugh

Background: Following the defeat of the British and Canadian offensives of Operations Goodwood and Spring, in August 1944 the Germans redeployed several panzer divisions to shut down the American Operation Cobra offensive by attacking due west to the sea. The fiercest fighting occurred to the north and east of Mortain at Hill 314 (hex 1501 on the game map) where surrounded Americans of the 2nd Battalion of the 120th Regiment threw back repeated German attacks. Control of the high ground here would make the Mortain position nearly untenable, and with it the main Allied supply route from Normandy south would be severed.

Game Rules (as of 9/26/2006)

Setup: Place all US units (lt. green) except CCA/B/R units anywhere but the eastern hexrow. CCA/B/R units may enter play on Turn 2 or later along west mapedge when US player chooses to Activate them. Place all German units (black and dark green) along the east mapedge. These enter play on Turn 1 or later when the German chooses to Activate them. Up to 2 friendly ground units may stack in a hex. Tiger unit 102 stacks/ activates free with any other German units. German and US ground units cannot stack together.

Turn begins: players shuffle a card deck (include 1 joker card). German player draws a card. If black, he can "Pass" or Activate units (including previously Activated units) equal to 1/2 the number on the card (round up). Aces equal "1." Black "face" cards allow 1 unit, or 1 stack of units, to Activate. If a red card is drawn, US player can Pass or Activate the same way. Activated ground units can: a) Move 1 hex OR b) Not move, and instead Fire. Game has no Zones of Control. Turn end occurs when the Joker is drawn (in Activation or in Combat) or when all cards are drawn (whatever comes first, ignore a Joker if drawn before both players can Activate at least once).

Combat: Combat is voluntary. All ground units can fire up to 2 hexes, or if on a hill fire 3 hexes. Units may fire into but not through village, city, hills, and forests. Use the unit’s Anti-Tank (AT) number vs. Tanks, Anti-Infantry (AI) number vs. Guns and/or Infantry. Indicate any number of firing unit(s) and a single target unit. Firing player draws a card (any suit/color can be used by both players to resolve combat). -1 to card’s number if all firing units and target are adjacent and -1 if Tiger 102 unit is making an AT attack. Add the terrain modifier. If card drawn plus the total of all modifiers is less than or equal to sum of all firing unit’s printed AT or AI numbers, flip target unit over. Otherwise it’s a miss. Already flipped units are eliminated. Redraw face cards or treat as a miss (firing player’s option). After resolving a combat, return to drawing cards to Activate units.

US Air/Off Board Artillery (OBA) markers: One of these (either/or) US markers are available once per turn. Drawing a red odd number or Jack means the Air marker may be used instead of Activating ground units. Any other red card drawn means the OBA marker may be used instead of Activating ground units. Air and OBA markers can target any one enemy unit or stack. OBA marker can conduct an AT or AI attack with strength of 3. Air marker can either: a) make an AT or AI attack with a strength of 4 OR b) impose a +1 Combat modifier on all enemy units in the target hex, and all adjacent hexes, for rest of turn.

Game length: The game lasts 6 turns (card deck shuffles).

Who wins: German player wins if, by end of Turn 6, five of his units exit the west edge of the map, or no US units are left in the game. Otherwise the US player wins.

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Computer adaptation info:
	Also see the mrtG4.txt file, which is a compilation of notes regarding the logistics of implementing the game rules as a program; for further assumptions, alternatives and conventions considered.

Setup: American units are colored black on white and are located in the green western sideboard at start. Those 5 American units which are to be placed on the map initally are the 5 in the leftmost column of the sideboard. German units are colored white on black and are located in the blue eastern sideboard at start.

Turn begins: The computer program incorporates functions to simulate all random operations and acts as the "dealer" just as though a deck of cards was being used.
	Within a turn as defined above, the activation of units by one side or another is termed a round; so at any point it can be either the American side's round or the German side's round.

Combat: A unit’s Anti-Tank (AT) number is the lefthand digit on its counter, and its Anti-Infantry (AI) number is the righthand digit on its counter.
	Terrain combat modifiers are: +0 for a target in Open terrain, +1 for Forest, Hill or Village, and +2 for City, as published.
	Once any one unit fires at an enemy target, the program requires further activating units to be joining in the attack on that target until a card is drawn to resolve the attack, prior to continuing activations for the round.
	If an attack's strength is 0, or its modified strength is 0, the attack automatically results in a miss without drawing a card for resolution.

Who wins: The computer adds a supplementary victory condition (to thwart its own barracks lawyer illogical logic precise rules nitpicking) so that should the German player's units be reduced to less than five when no American units are on the map, the American player isn't allowed to win by simply not deploying any of his units still in reserve. This condition states that if at the conclusion of the German player's round there are no American units on the map and there's at least one German unit in the westernmost map column (1100) then the German player wins.

Options Incorporated: The freeware version of the program doesn't allow a player to configure the map terrain or the component orders of battle, or specify a choice of options to use during a course of play. It is intended only to reproduce as nearly as possible the capabilities of the original game as published. The exceptions and suppositions are as follows.
	The size of the gameboard can be enlarged or reduced as desired during play for the player's convenience, and to encourage running the game in an out of the way spot on the screen while engaging in other computer activities.
	In addition to player versus player gaming, the program provides an automated opponent to play either the American or German forces as desired. As an experimental tool for fostering a better understanding of the situation and getting the gist of the game, an autorun feature is also included by which the computer can play both sides, with the user just acting as an observer. The user can preset the autorunning program to pause at the beginning of each round or each turn; or at the end of each event (move or attack) or not until the end of the game.
	Judging by the rules as printed, it would seem that only one attack by ground units versus a single enemy unit may be made in a round, and the reading appears to indicate that the attack ends the round. However, realizing the indefiniteness of the necessarily condensed rules, and taking an attack as an instance of an activation, it is to be supposed that activations may be made in any order up to the activation limit for the round. Options for the ordering of actions ought to take under advisement that in regimental scale simulations such as this the actions performed in the time frame of a round are practically considered to be taking place simultaneously, rather than sequentially. The program takes a median view for noting the outcomes of randomly determined attacks, and it is assumed (and enforced) that a unit once made the target of an attack by any number of concerted enemy units may not be targeted again for the remainder of that round. This is a compromise between requiring all units to declare their actions prior to any attack resolution, or structuring a movements phase separately from an attacks phase, versus allowing an attack by some units which misses its target to be followed up by an attack on the same target by other units.
	The easternmost map column (1900) is presumed to be off limits to American forces throughout the game. They may not move to seal off the border from German entry.
	The Tiger unit's perplexing antiarmor stat is taken to mean that it cannot fire upon enemy armor independently; that it only confers a -1 bonus to the attacks of any others upon the same unit.
	When the Cover option (suppressing all German units in surrounding hexes) for American Air operations is chosen, the central target hex must be an enemy occupied hex as specified in the rules.
	Although roadways are depicted on the map, they don't affect the game in any way. There is no effect for units of either side when on a road hex or moving across a road hexside.
	When determining whether a firing unit's line of sight to a target enemy unit in range is blocked by intervening map terrain hexes, a question arises when a target hex at range 2 isn't along the grain of hexes from the origin hex (thus a "vertex joining" LOS that overlies a side dividing two hexes). In such a case, a median requirement is imposed which considers the path blocked if one or both hexes to either side of the overlaid hexside contain blocking terrain. This is a compromise between the theoretical insistence on a unique hex path LOS both to and from the observation and target hexes, versus the technical allowance for observation of "half a hex".
	For the entry of reserve units onto the map as a stack, a median permissiveness is allowed by the program which affects only the German Tiger unit. Since this unit may activate free in conjunction with a colocated unit anyway, it and another German unit may enter as though "stacked" off- map at a combined cost of 1 activation point, as long as both enter onto the same map hex. This is granted as well when a face card is drawn in activation. This is a compromise between thinking of all units in reserve as being dispersed prior to map entry, versus potentially paired in stacks (so that, for either side, if a face card were drawn for activation, two units could enter the map together).