In which I am once again a Mexican cowboy

On re-reading yesterday's post it has become apparent that I am guilty of the same thing of which I am accusing rules and scenario writers: lack of clarity. For the record I know perfectly well that the victory conditions in Scenario 3 of Stout Hearts must by default be that the British have to drive the Germans out of the village or that, far less likely to happen I think, the Germans have to rebuff the British attack. My point was really that the writers should just have said that instead of making one infer it from a load of guff about the conflagration of unspecified archives.

Anyway, while I am on the subject, let me record my thoughts so far on the rest of it:

• British formation. The Lardies are fond of showing off their knowledge and have used the scenario to describe 'artillery formation'. However from our extradiegetic perspective we know that there isn't going to be any German artillery falling. We shall therefore assume that just at the point that they enter the table the British have switched into the formation in which they will move to attack the village.
• Sentries: The German sentries will probably have chosen to stand somewhere sensible rather than out in the middle of a field. Furthermore, this is not a commando raid under cover of darkness, this is thirty odd squaddies walking across country during the day. We shall exclude the possibility of the British spotting the sentries before they themselves are spotted.
• Spotting: There needs to be two levels of spotting: the recognition that the British are coming in the first place and then the normal spotting to identify and be able to fire at individual groups. 

"Hmm, seems sensible stuff to me."

•  It doesn't seem very satisfactory for the Germans to be able to deploy anywhere they like when the alarm is raised. Taking literally the scenario's assertion that they believe the British to be an hour away and also making it winter, we will assume that the Germans are putting their feet up and having a smoke inside, and we shall further assume that each section is doing so in a separate house.

I shall return anon with the specific mechanics.