BBoB005 
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The Nastiest Little Battle: Bure, Belgium Britain's Bulge #6 |
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| (Attacker) Britain | vs | Germany (Attacker) |
| Formations Involved |
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| Total | |
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| Side 1 | 0 |
| Draw | 1 |
| Side 2 | 2 |
| Overall Rating, 4 votes |
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3.75
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| Scenario Rank: --- of 913 |
| Parent Game | Britain's Bulge |
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| Historicity | Historical |
| Date | 1945-01-04 |
| Start Time | 08:30 |
| Turn Count | 24 |
| Visibility | Day |
| Counters | 37 |
| Net Morale | 0 |
| Net Initiative | 0 |
| Maps | 1: 24 |
| Layout Dimensions | 43 x 28 cm 17 x 11 in |
| Play Bounty | 162 |
| AAR Bounty | 165 |
| Total Plays | 3 |
| Total AARs | 2 |
| Battle Types |
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| Inflict Enemy Casualties |
| Urban Assault |
| Conditions |
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| Off-board Artillery |
| Severe Weather |
| Scenario Requirements & Playability | |
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| Britain's Bulge | Base Game |
| Elsenborn Ridge | Maps + Counters |
| Liberation 1944 | Counters |
| Introduction |
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During the cold night of 3/4 January, the paratroopers of 13th Parachute Battalion succeeded, with great difficulty, in holding on to half of the village of Bure. Reinforced by the battalion’s C Company, the depleted British turned all of the buildings they occupied into strongpoints. At dawn on the following day, the village of Bure and Chapel Hill were subjected to a continuous artillery barrage before the 2nd Panzer Division counter-attacked with Panther tanks (which the British mistook for Tiger tanks). It was snowing hard and visibility was reduced to nothing. |
| Conclusion |
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Well-directed enemy fire knocked out all three Sherman tanks which had been left in Bure to support the Paras. When C Squadron, now in position to the south-west of the village along with a troop of Achilles tank destroyers from 198th Anti-Tank Battery, pushed forward to outflank the village, they lost another tank. In Bure, as the terrible weather continued, the Paras fought off five German counterattacks, knocking out tanks and self-propelled guns with their PIAT spring-loaded anti-tank grenade launchers. At one point the Paras drove off a German assault only by calling down artillery fire on their own positions. In the closeness of the fighting, the paratroopers used their fighting knives to avoid giving away their locations and casualties could not be evacuated nor could supplies be brought forward. There, for hours, the situation remained deadlocked. Each side resorted to heavy shelling and the village was simply plastered. At nightfall C Squadron was down to nine tanks out of an original nineteen so it withdrew to Tellin. By 2030 the paratroopers reported that they had cleared Bure but during the night German infantry and at least one self-propelled gun infiltrated again into the village adding more confusion to the battle. “Bure was, in fact, one of the nastiest spots the Squadron had ever been in,” A Squadron’s report reads. “The Germans clung to the houses and ruins, hid in cellars and catacombs, fighting and sniping grimly to the end. It wasn’t a place for a depleted battalion and half a troop of tanks.” |
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| AFV Rules Pertaining to this Scenario's Order of Battle |
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| Army |
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| Heer |
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| 2 Errata Items | |
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The "Optional Values" for the Achilles---and by extension the Archer---given in an Avalanche Press Daily Content piece on the 17-Pdr Anti-Tank gun (and printed on a replacement counter sheet Download) are now the Official Ratings, published in games like Cassino '44, Grossdeutschland 1946, and Indian Unity. These are: 8-5 / 8-8 Full Strength and 4-5 / 8-8 Reduced Strength. (caryn
on 2012 May 03)
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The reduced direct fire value of the Heer HMG became 5-5 starting with Fall of France. (plloyd1010
on 2015 Jul 31)
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| Another Bloody Slugfest |
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The situation started off fairly close to the historical account with the Shermans left in the town to support the paratroopers knocked out by Panthers. American artillery was largely ineffective while the German artillery wreaked havoc around the city. While the paratroopers held out for a while, German direct fire eventually began to grind them down. With most of the paratroopers disrupted and demoralized, the mechanized assault with the StuG started pounding the hapless defenders. The British Major was lost on a casualty check due to step losses in his hex, while another leader in the northern part of town was taken out by a German sniper. The British weren’t able to get another leader safely into the northern part of town and the isolated, leaderless Brits were easily overwhelmed. The Germans were able to score a Major victory. The British need to plan carefully and may need a little luck but this scenario is tense, fast-playing, fun, and it could go either way. |
| 0 Comments |
| Slugfest in the Snowy Ardennes | ||||||||||||||
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This was a costly, 4-session play-through that ended in fiercely contested draw. I played the British side and Reconquista led the stubborn Germans in what was a real slugfest in the snow. Others have detailed this one, so this report will only hit the highlights. We played with the FOW, smoke/illum, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules, in what was surprisingly close to the historical account. There were 11 FOW-shortened turns in our play that proved frustrating to both opponents. Both sides drew middling leaders, with the German perhaps have a slightly better set. We stopped play at the 18th game turn, by mutual agreement, when it became clear that neither side had sufficient units remaining to achieve and outright victory. This was one of those scenarios where both sides are exchanging fire immediately on either side of the north-south road through the contested town of Bure. The British paratroopers took a tremendous beating in the urban setting and both sides scored repeatedly with both, their OBA, and with adjacent-hex direct fire. Luckily, the random events were not triggered in our play-through. The urban-area fighting was truly intense, and the close assault die rolling contest continued for turn after turn from the very beginning. Territorial gains in the town were costly propositions and were quickly lost or regained in subsequent turns in this seesaw battle. All the armored assets in this scenario, save a single step of Sherman tanks, were lost in the urban fighting. When we quite, either side had control of two hexes of Bure, and the other town were still bitterly contested. Step losses were roughly the same. I give this one a solid 3, as it could have gone either way based mostly on luck and the PG fates. We look forward to switching sides and trying this relatively, balanced scenario in another go around. |
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