After an uneasy night, all hell broke lose when German Hitler Jugend troops found themselves in assault range of the American 99th Infantry Division.

With dawn breaking, the Germans immediately neutralized all American vehicles. However, while this was happening, the Americans made a strong bid for the Northern town. Defending SS troops suffered great losses and building by building, they lost control of the northern town. Two platoons of Panthers that came to the rescue of the Hitler Jugend couldn’t even slow the Americans down and were demolished within minutes.

Meanwhile, threatening units of the 12th Volksgrenadier took up positions on the eastern wooded hills but they were wiped out when a tremendous artillery barrage kept pounding them for more than an hour. Not one German unit or leader survived this rain of hell.

At 9.30, firing ceased and a stand-off ensued. The Americans had a tight hold on the northern village, whilst a few rugged SS and 2 platoons of PzIV held the southern town. Both sides had not the means nor the intentions of attacking the other because of the other side’s artillery threat. And so VP were counted and the Americans took it 45-39. All could have been very different were it not for the murderous american artillery support. Or as my opponent pointed out after the battle : «Es hat Hölle geregnet ! »

Wanting to play a Bulge game on this anniversary of the Bulge, and wanting to play something fitting to the date, I selected this scenario. The set-up includes both sides placing a total of 10 wreck counters in the two towns, and then the I-go-u-go thing as each side places a unit and then a leader until they are all placed. Germans won the initiative and pretty much kept it as far as I could manage to play, and it was sort of sad what Panthers and Mk IVs could do to tanks in adjacent hexes, as right from the start, they took out all 3 Shermans and both M-18s in turn 1 and lost a step of Panthers to a bazooka in turn 2. Otherwise, the US losses at the start of turn 6 was 30 to only 5 for the Germans, with US units stuck in assaults, cut off and surrounded so that any fleeing troops would be an immediate loss. With only a handful of US units left, their Colonel passed the word to only surrender to the German regulars, avoid the SS if possible, and with that, the twin villages fell into German hands.

Esta batalla comienza de una manera caótica, ya que ambos contendientes despliegan sus unidades una por una y alternativamente. Inicialmente tiene lugar una batalla de tanques en la que los "Sherman" y M18 americanos son completamente barridos por los "Panther" y PzIVH alemanes (aunque estos pierden una sección y media de de PzIVH).

Los combates se centran en torno a las dos ciudades, una al norte y otra al sur. Los americanos concentran la mayoría de sus fuerzas en la ciudad del norte, más grande. En la ciudad del sur, de apenas tres hexes, los alemanes controlan dos tercios. Aquí los germanos expulsan rápidamente a los americanos y se hacen con el control total de la población. Pero la verdadera batalla tiene lugar por el dominio de la otra población. Los alemanes hacen uso de dos secciones de "Panther" para ir desgastando (andanadas en la columna 22 de la tabla de fuego directo) a los defensores protegidos en las casas. Los americanos replican con el fuego demoledor de su artillería fuera del mapa (3x24, 6x18). Poco a poco los alemanes se van haciendo con el control de la población y anuquilando a la mayor parte de los defensores. Al final los alemanes consiguen controlar cuatro hexes de las dos poblaciones y neutralizar el resto, salvo un hex controlado por los americanos.

Los alemanes obtienen 49 VP y una victoria mayor. Los americanos obtienen 23 VP.

This scenario has each side placing wrecks then units alternating US then German. This adds to the overall time to play. We ended up setting up mostly in the town hexes. At most 25% of the units were outside the town hexes. All of the tanks are in clear terrain. I won the the initiative with two activation s. Read the game rules. All inf type units have the special anti-tank capability. The US army Hellcats setup hidden. Did not read that. Would it have helped? Who knows.

With Bulge season upon us, and having recently acquired the Winter maps for Elsenborn Ridge, it was time to break them in. First up was Twin Villages: Finale

The opening "alternating" setup ended with the Americans holding three hexes of the large town (opposed by Army units in the other two) and one of the smaller town (opposed by SS units,) Allied M4's were split among the town hexes while the Germans started their panzers outside, to move where needed, and also to confront the roaming M18s (which both set up under cover of light woods,) The balance of German forces set up in the cover of woods near the towns, while one American INF and a leader set up on the hill to act as a reserve and spot for artillery.

Early on, the Hellcats played "shoot and scoot," managing to take out a step of Panthers. While the rest of the Panthers did what they could to stalk the M18's (after disposing of the M4 unit in the three-hex town), eventually taking them out with no further loss, the PZ-IV's helped the SS clear the three-hex town, then moved up to the 5-hex town to aid the faltering German army units, which were shoved out amidst multiple morale failures - then suffered worse from the "wrath of God" US artillery after being ejected. One step of PZ-IV fell victim to Shermans in the northern town but, after removing the M18 threat, the Panthers erased the rest of the US M4's. This complicated the town assault, as several hexes of the five-hex town accumulated three wrecks, denying the German tanks entry.

By the end of Turn 6 the US had no vehicles left - but then the artillery took charge. SS attempts to move infantry to the northern town were fractured by the American guns, as was the Army contingent trying to recover and get back in the fight. With no infantry readily available the PZ-IV's entered a town hex alone, but were sent packing with the loss of another step in the assault combat (one half-strength PZ-IV was demoralized, fled to a light woods haven, and spent almost the entire rest of the scenario recovering.) As the Panthers blasted away at town hexes from point-blank range, accomplishing a little but not much, SS infantry occasionally made it to the town (and even briefly in the town) but was eliminated or sent packing. The town combats were not without loss for the Amis, and one platoon that fled into the open was destroyed by German artillery, but in the end - as the scenario "conclusion" notes - the Germans were doubtlessly relieved to see the Americans pull out.

At game's end, the Germans had three town hexes, the US four, with one in dispute (a reduced SS PZ-IV plus a reduced Army HMG and one leader.) So that was a 12-8 VP lead - but losses negated that. German losses were staggering - only 3 tank steps (2 PZ-IV, one Panther) but a whopping 15 Army GREN, 1 Army HMG, one SS HMG and 8 SS GREN. The Americans lost all 10 AFV steps, plus 7 INF and 3 HMG. (The Germans also lost 6 (!) leaders - 3 SS, 3 Army - to the USs 1, but no VP for any of those.) When the smoke cleared, it was a draw at 34 VP apiece.

This screnario is very interesting and possibly a bit unbalanced for the Americans. The situation is the final attack on the twin villages. Germans have inflitrated the US lines and both towns are occupied by both German and American troops. An SSR allows for alternating setup of units and setup of units next to each other to simulate the German inflitration. The fight sets up to be a mixture of assualts, close direct fire as well as massive OBA raining over both sides. The victory conditions are points for town control and step losses, so its going to be a blood bath.

The Americans have an edge with OBA, Germans with armor and firepower, number of troops is about the same with a slight advantage to the Germans. As for leaders the Germans received a 1-1 and a 1-2 leader with the Americans just getting a 1-1 Captain and several 1-0 lieutenants.

The battle started with the American tanks getting nearly wiped out. With the Germans able to setup next to the tanks their firepower is overwhelming. So the Americans get in a big VP hole quickly. The Germans have to take the towns too, if the Americans dislodge Germans from a town it is a turnaround of 6 vp (4 for the German loss and 2 for the American gain). The Americans will be tough on the assualts with a morale of 8/7. Most of the first 2 hours of the scenario was OBA and positioning for assualts with step losses coming from OBA, assualts and direct fire from an adjacent hex. The Germans held strong until the SS in one town started to demoralize from OBA and dirct fire. Eventually, the broke and ran and slowly the Americans positioned more troops to assualt the remaining units. American bazooka teams proved themselves taking on PzIVh and Panthers to retake the town. German losses were too heavy with alot of the regular army troops breaking and running from the fight. The Americans finally won 42-35 with the capture of all but two town hexes and some heavy German losses.

I rated this a 3 because the setup rule with tanks puts the American in the hole quickly and it is hard to recover. In my scenario they did but I have to use all PG tricks that I could think of to do it. I would look to play this one with some one just learning particularly with assualts and town morale bonuses. I will say I did miss one rule with wrecks, I thought wrecks applied to stacking of all units in a hex, but reading the rules they only apply stacking limitations to armor in a town or bridge hex.