I had only played Chance Encounter once before, so I was still a little apprehensive about how the enemy would attack.  I knew the ground pretty well though and I knew the forces that were involved.  I decided this was enough information to win convincingly, despite the fact that my opponent had played it, as he said, countless times.

 

 I started the battle by rushing 4 of my Shermans to my right flank in front of the woods.  They carried one Platoon of Infantry and it's HQ unit.  I figured that by doing this I would have good visibility over the entire battlefield (IOW I could see the enemies deployment).  I also wanted to be able to engage the enemy armor on my terms, one at a time, with massed fire.  He lost his first Stug on turn 2 when my deploying armor saw him and got a quick shot in.  On turn 3 his second Stug came under fire, again from the combined fires of 3 Shermans.  He either got spooked, or my opponent got nervous, because this Stug reversed out of his hull down position.  That was the end of him.  The 3rd Stug also died this turn when the same Sherman that killed the first two, started to reverse down the road to drop off it's load of Infantry and saw the German tank.  He was dispatched quickly.  Give that gunner and TC a medal, three kills in two minutes.  At this point I knew the battle was over.

 

There was at least one German Platoon in the church.  Over the next several turns, they ceased to be as I bombarded the church with the combined fire of 3 Shermans.

 

 My 5th Sherman I sent to my left flank to sit on the road between the wood building and the patch of scattered trees that line the road.  In my previous PBEM game my opponent had attempted a flank attack on my left.  This looked like an obvious pace to attempt this so I decided to set up a two Platoon ambush in this area, the tank, an HMG and a Mortar were in support.  I rushed two Platoons forward to these scattered trees and set up one Platoon facing forward, and the second at right angles, where the treeline turns down flanking the field.  When they got there they were all tired so I got them into position quickly, hid them, and setup numerous ambush markers.  They did not have long to wait as a German Platoon was soon seen at the edge of the map rushing towards the small patch of trees above the road.  The Sherman immediately took them under fire, and they hit the dirt.  In my next orders phase I ordered one Platoon, the heavy weapons and the Sherman to fire at them while the second Platoon rushed them and close assaulted.  They must have been pinned because I received very little return fire and they were wiped out in seconds.  At this point another German Platoon, two squads and an HQ unit started rushing across the open space towards the wooden building near the left most VL.  The Sherman and my heavy weapons took them under fire.  Also some of my armor from across the map joined in, my battlefield visibility showed it's value here.  The two squads panicked and ran back towards the trees, while the HQ unit (obviously of higher quality) made it to the house.  Next order phase I ordered the Platoon that had wiped out the other German Platoon, to run towards this German Platoon's flank, while the second platoon (to this point has only been a base of fire), to rush it from the front.  My Shermans and heavy weapons would provide suppression fire.  I chose to ignore the HQ unit, as it was no danger at this point.  The assault went as well as the first had, and three German Platoons had been wiped out, to no loss to my troops.

 

The German player got off a PS shot or two at my left most Sherman, but these were at extreme range and that unit was quickly silenced.

 

My 2 Platoons now met up and started to bound towards the German VL on the ridge.  My Sherman took care of the HQ unit in the wooden building, and it ceased to exist.

 

It was at this point that I saw two German Platoons break cover from the treelines they had hidden in, on the right flank, and bolt for the edge of the map.  Although I surely caused some casualties, they made it off the map in pretty good shape.  It didn't matter.  Once I knew the German player had started to bolt I carefully made my way to the ridgeline objective.  I expected to come up against an ambush or two in the woods, as I had no fire support, and it's what I would have done.  However I only ran into a few badly mauled squads and PS teams.  The Germans were really on the run.

 

By the end of turn 15, he had gotten off what he could and surrendered.

 

I applied the simplest tactics to this battle: concentration of firepower, suppression fire and assault, speed of maneuver, battlefield visibility, and luck (although in some situations I think you make your own luck, i.e. 3 Shermans against one Stug, I got these odds on my first two kills).  These were the keys to my victory.  The fact that I had zero casualties was very satisfying to me.  Also my opponent helped tremendously.  He piecemealed his attacks.  He had three Platoons attacking, none of which were able to support another with fire (each were out of LOS of the others).  I however, was able to support every assault with overwhelming fire.