Battle of the Bulge 2: Elsenborn Ridge, scenario # 5: Collision

I haven’t played this game set for a while now but really like the subject, and this scenario looks like fun. This was a head on collision, as both sides engage at close range with visibility starting at only 2 hexes and increasing as the scenario progresses. Both sides have a good amount of infantry and a bit of armor as well. In fact both sides lead with their armor with their infantry close behind. The problem is both sides have a ton of off board artillery that plaster each side’s Infantry.

I used the Sherman Tanks counters with the stronger armor value, this helped against the German StugIIIGs but not so much against the JgPz IV/70s. After an armor clash the one surviving Sherman units pulled back into a town hex and the Infantry continued to plaster each other when they weren’t getting pounded by Artillery. When the German Panther tank reinforcements arrived, 5 platoons of them, the Battlefield was a mess, with reduced steps, demoralized steps and disrupted steps and very disorganized. The Panther tanks pretty much drove down the road, sweeping up victory points, eliminating the last Sherman Platoon and securing a German Victory.

The Germans in the end achieved a Major Victory by about one point, with a score of something like 58 to 41 points. The upgrade Sherman Tank counters were fun to play with and I recommend them for this game, even if they didn’t help me that much with this scenario. I thought AP would have had the new Ardennes game out by now, but something to look forward to.