December 16, 1944: It’s a cold, misty dawn in the Ardennes Forest, the first day of the Battle of the Bulge. This is scenario #2 from “Panzer Grenadier: Elsenborn Ridge.”

The Americans set up first, on either of two maps. There's a long east-west road running right through the map. The American objectives are to keep US combat troops on or near the roads on both maps, and to destroy German units. But the Americans have only a small force, and lots of acreage to protect. The Germans have 18 turns – from 6:00 til 10:30 – to seize the east-west road, and the roads on the eastern half of the map.

PG’s innovative command-and-control system gives one incentive to keep units together, in the chain of command. So I set up in three or four clumps. Infantry dig in forward, on the hills dominating the crossroads in the east. I put HMGs and infantry in a couple entrenchments to the west, with mortar and infantry in the village south of that. The commanding officer, an anti-tank Gun, and a couple infantry set up in the rear.

The Germans enter in an efficient line, with senior commanders in the middle, cascading their orders down to lower-rankings leaders on either side. One thing I’ve learned about this game: efficient lines don’t last long.

The Germans get lots of offboard artillery in the first hour of the game, but it’s too misty to use any of it. The only units in visibility range are the Americans dug in on the hill, but the US troops have chosen to set up on the “reverse slope,” out of LOS. So the Germans march forward.

By 6:30 a.m. (Turn 3), the Germans have made contact with the enemy. They pull up adjacent to the Americans on the hilltop, which I'm nicknaming Little Round Top. Already the German lines are splintering, as slower units fall behind and drop out of the chain of command. The idea behind the German initial assault is to pound the enemy with superior numbers at close-range, demoralize and disrupt them, and then move in for Assaults to finish the job. That’s the idea, anyway. The first round of direct-fire, though, is inconclusive at best.

By 7 a.m., a few Grenadiers and HMGs have pushed past the hill to the north, hoping to dash through the open ground to the western woods. At 7:15, a couple of the flanking units have made it safely to the woods, but the mist is starting to lift, making it more uncertain for the HMGs and infantry that are trying to follow. I probably should’ve just used the HMGs to support the assaults at the hill, which still haven’t started yet, as the Americans keep disrupting potential assaulters.

At 7:30, a big swath of German reinforcements arrive (thanks to a lucky reinforcement die roll). They are led by a couple of Hetzer tank destroyers. This is my first experience with armor in PG, so I make lots of tank noises as I move these guys around.

To the north, American OBA has caught Germans trying to sneak through to the western trees. Disruptions, demoralizations -- it's ugly.

German progress is slow, as Fog of War ends a couple turns early. Also, I keep forgetting that I can limber mortars and move them 2 hexes a turn instead of one. They are lagging far behind.

Still, by 8 a.m., the German reinforcements push forward into the trees on the western map. They will have to run a gauntlet of OBA once they emerge from the other side of the woods, at which point they'll charge the Americans defending in one of the two villages in the west. At 8:15, the reinforcements do indeed start emerging from the woods in the south, and immediately US artillery rains down on them, demoralizing and disrupting some.

Meanwhile, further west, lead elements from the initial German force are in the trees and hills overlooking the road. The wise thing to do would be to sit there and shoot at any Americans that try to move onto the road. But at some point – I don't remember when -- these guys couldn’t resist stepping forward to shoot, which in turn earned them a big shower of arty shells, and a step loss or two.

By 8:45 a.m., the reinforcements have charged and surrounded the southernmost town. The Hetzers are careful to stay in the fields, out of LOS of the anti-tank Gun in the western village. The armor is stacked three-high with a supporting infantry unit, but the American is reluctant to rain down OBA on that hex, as it might stray onto the defending American troops.

And it’s house-to-house fighting by 9:00 a.m. With no viable target in the village, the Hetzers move back east to pound the entrenched HMGs north of the field. Again, the tank destroyers try to keep the field between themselves and the Gun to the west.

Within an hour, the Germans have mostly won the house-to-house fighting, but the Americans put up a surprisingly good fight. They demoralized two German Grenadiers, which had to exit the assault hex in ignominy. But the Germans have enough units to reinforce the assault. Casualties are mounting on both sides.

Control over the road in the west is going to be a close thing! As is the casualty count. The Americans need 15 German steps, plus some form of road control, to earn a victory. By this point they were at 12-13 steps or so, which made my Germans more cautious.

9:45 a.m. (Turn 16): In the east, the Americans just need to be adjacent to a road to prevent a German minor victory, and the Germans have just been unable to get the Yanks out of their entrenched position adjoining the road. The Germans have OBA’d it, mortared it, direct-fired it, and assaulted it; no luck.

At ten o’clock, turn 17, with one turn to go, it’s looking like a draw. The Germans now have incentive to play it safe to ensure a draw, whereas the Americans have incentives to be reckless and hop onto the east-west road to try to get a minor victory. Even more oddly, the Germans actually have a better shot at a major victory (no US troops on east-west road) than a minor one (eastern roads and adjacent hexes clear). I’m really enjoying the scenario, but as the game approaches its end, I feel the tug of artificial end-of-scenario victory conditions. This sort of end-of-scenario "rush" is not unusual in tactical games, of course.

Consequently, on the final turn, the Americans jumped onto the road, in open terrain, when they never would’ve abandoned their safe positions in real life. They barely managed to survive withering OBA, OpFire, tank fire, and small-arms fire. The result is a draw – I think. I count 14 German step losses, one short of the 15 that would give the US a minor victory, and 4 fewer than needed for a major US victory. The Germans have not achieved either of their victory conditions, both involving control of roads.

In retrospect, I suppose I should have set up the American entrenchments directly on the road, maybe right by the westernmost village? That would’ve made the end of the game play out more “naturally,” with the US clinging stubbornly to its entrenchments instead of hopping out of them to ensure a draw!

Still and all, I had great fun with this scenario. The big swath of territory and relatively low counter density made it really interesting. The US setup is a real brain-twister: all that territory, so few units. And then, as the game developed, I had several stories unfolding at once: the assaults on Little Round Top in the east; the dash through the mist to avoid OBA; the Lost Brigades pushing through the woods in the northwest; the house-to-house fighting in the southern village; the gun duel between the tanks and the entrenched HMGs. Also, as in my first game, the majority of step losses seemed to come from OBA. I know it’s a cliché to say that arty was a top killer in WW2, but it’s still nice to see a game model that so well.

I'm rating the scenario as a 3, although I could move toward a 4 if I replay it and set up the Americans better. Mostly my concern is the victory conditions, which seemed to create distorted incentives toward the end of the scenario. That distortion might be eliminated by a different setup. Also, the victory conditions are asymmetrical and a bit hard to remember; I must have consulted them 30 times while playing. One thing I did like about the victory conditions was that it forced me to fight all over the map, which was very cool. I liked having several things going on at once, all of them relevant to ultimate victory.

This is a modified version of a photo AAR I posted over at the Geek. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/6312525#6312525 . Thanks for reading!