Panzer Grenadier Battles on March 29th:
Spearhead Division #16 - Final Accounting
Battle of the Bulge, Scenario #12, Fuller's Counterattack
Author JayTownsend
Method Solo
Victor United States
Play Date 2010-01-01
Language English
Scenario BaBu012

After setting it up, I decided that there was no way the Americans could control all the town hexes on the other side of the board with one large German force already there and another one coming on turn two. So I decided to get one of the other two victory conditions. I could win either by eliminating 6 German steps or blocking all there reinforcement from exiting the western edge of play. As the German, I new I could control the town but I also had to exit all the reinforcements that entered on turn two off the board with only 2 step losses. So I attacked the Americans hard, with my Initial or first group of Germans, as they could loss any number of steps, hopefully less then 6 however! The Second group of Germans gathered in the town over the next 3 or 4 turns while the first group tried to soften up the Americans. As the Americans, I knew that the Germans didn’t have time to get all there reinforcements off the west edge through the forest and hills in 9 turns. So I put most of my forces in the center, where the road runs through and blocking forces on the North & South edge of the forest, to contain any flanking moves. I could risk as many step losses as I wanted, as long as I either contained all the reinforcement from exiting or get 6 total step losses on any of the German forces. I committed my German reinforces too late to break out. I started using my Armor from that second group with about four turns left, thinking the first group could do it with out help and I could just sail through to the other side with out risking the two step thing from my reinforcement group. Wrong, I should have committed that armor right away as the Americans only have one Sherman platoon. I kept it busy with the Stug IIIG and the PzIVF2 from the first group. I usually lose my Sherman Tanks in scenarios with only one platoon, but not this time! The Sherman counter #1508 must be one of the luckiest ones around! It survived 5 AT dice rolls and two assaults with only a disruption but he pulled back a little farther into the forest road hexes before the Panthers and more PzIVH’s came around. The Sherman also took out 1 step of Stug IIIG. The Americans did loss all of their Artillery after only one turn because of special rule number 3, I rolled a one after one turn but at least I got to disrupt one German Infantry unit with it. By turn 9, I had one more assault going on that would have freed up the whole road hex leading out of the West edge of the board. If I had just committed that second group of armor sooner, I would have opened up that whole bottleneck and poured my German reinforcements off the west edge for a victory but I was denied by that stubborn American Infantry. Good dice rolls might have helped also. The Americans won by steps and not allowing the German reinforcement group off the board! The casualty list included 9 American step and 3 Lieutenants, the Germans had 10 step losses, all from the initial German set up group. The Americans paid a price to get the victory and the German were too careful with their second force of reinforcements and didn’t help the first Elements of the 2nd Panzer Division until it was too late in the game to bust through. One thing I noticed about this scenario, towards the end of the game, you must keep track of which group of German is the first group and which is the second group, as they start to get mixed and you can only loss 2 steps from the second group. I think by the way I played the scenario, it should have been called, Fuller's delaying action!

0 Comments
You must be a registered member and logged-in to post a comment.
Page generated in 0.081 seconds.